Cynical Nation

I have a feeling we are seeing the first indications of the worst Vice President in history.

And just for the record: My Hundred Day Honeymoon pledge does not extend to number 2.

Ditto. BTW, I remember actually defending the Biden pick earlier this year. Why? Why did I do that? (It was probably after a few bourbons.)

Come on!

This could be FUN!

As far as the worst VP ever goes, I don't know how we'd be able to accurately assess that historically.

I mean Andrew Johnson (a member of the National Union Party, previously the War Democrats - those few Democrats who supported the Union) and subsequently the first U.S. President to be impeached (he tried to institute an INCOME TAX "to pay for the Civil War"). There's also John Breckinridge (James Buchanan's VP) who was a heavy drinker (He died from cirrhosis of the liver), who fought as a General in the Confederacy AFTER serving as VP!

After the war he fled from Fl to Cuba and then to England, only returning after 1869, when he was granted amnesty when outgoing President Andrew Johnson extended unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day, December 25, 1868.

And there was Aaron Burr, who never left Albany after losing the 1800 election to Jefferson (at the time the losing candidate was given the VP slot) and was replaced by Jefferson on the 1804 ticket and later killed Alexander Hamilton in a dual.

So I think it'll take a few more gaffes, bloopers, maybe even some more plagiarism for Biden to eclipse some of the historical "worsts."

But in the mean time, Biden's tenure may provide some much needed amusement.

And then there's Spiro Agnew...

sigh

"And then there's Spiro Agnew..." (Fred)


Spiro Agnew WAS very bad, maybe not as bad as Burr or Breckinridge BUT he was bad.

Hell, he was part of a Keynesian administration that (thankfully) moved further Left than ANY administration has since then.

Nixon/Agnew supported "Wage and Price Controls" (see Zimbabwe for an example of how well they work), saw "government spending as GOOD for the economy," pushed for higher taxes and saw inflation as "priming the economic pump."

He was part of an administration that inanely said, "We are all Keynesians now," less than half a decade from when Supply Side policies swept Keynesianism off the map.

Allegiance to a political Party is for the hopelessly dumb....there is no Party (team) ONLY ideology.

>...not as bad as Burr or Breckinridge BUT he was bad.

I can always count on JMK for the historical perspective. ;-)

It always amazes me when people say (for example) that Bush or Clinton was the worst president ever. These folks should read more history.

We probably all should read more history, Barry.

When you look at it, it's really amazing how narrow a band we've dealt with over the past fifty years in terms of both ideology and temperment, politically.

It's kind of ironic that perhaps the most Left-wing administration post-WW II was the Nixon administration. He probably even outdid LBJ, who'd ratcheted up the war in Vietnam, while conducting an equally ill-fated domestic "war on poverty" at home.

Richard M Nixon found the fortitude to forge even FURTHER Left, in increasing regulation, adding the EPA, OSHA, the Consumer Products Safety Commission to an already bloated government bureaucracy), ushering in "affirmative action"/race-gender preferences and was the first and ONLY U.S. President to implement "Wage & Price Controls." For that, Richard Nixon deserves the moniker as "America's most Left-wing President, post-WW II."

Carter wasn't nearly as expansive in his outlook as either LBJ or R M Nixon, but suffered for, in effect, staying the Keynesian course and presiding over a worsening economy, far worse than anything we've seen since...at least YET.

Carter's last year in office had a staggering and record-breaking 21.9 Misery Index, with double digit interest rates, inflation and unemployment, compared to this past year's 9.6 Misery Index, completing 16 years of SINGLE-DIGIT Misery Indexes!

2008 ended with a 7.1% annual unemployment rate, a 2.5% inflation rate, and low interest rates (a 3.25% Prime Rate, with 30 year fixed mortgages under 6%).

That's why it's amazingly ahistoric (even ahistoric regarding recent history) for people to call Bush-41's economy "the worst economy since the Great Depression," or even the current economy "the worst since the Great Depression."

The current economy looks stellar compared to the Carter economy, although we're now facing a global credit crisis (caused by both government overspending and wrong-headed regulation) and trying to deal with it via MORE overspending and excessive regulation!

And that could lead to a momentously bad economy down the road...and by "momentously bad" we mean, massive public sector layoffs, States going into default and repaying Municipal pensions back in pennies on the dollar BAD.

I think we agree that today's political figures pale in terms of both passion and ideological vigor to those of the past.

And I completely agree with you that Joe Biden may turn out to be one of the most amusing political figures of the past fifty years at least.

Even Agnew's swipe at that era's MSM as "Nattering nabobs of negativity" couldn't touch Biden's You've got to know what you're talking about. One of the first things that FDR did when the stock market collapsed was to go on TV to assure the American people that they should remain calm."

You've got to enjoy such a treasure trove of absurdity while you have it around.

I am convinced now that Obama put Biden on the ticket for comedy relief. Given that Obama is on the dull side and no black comedian dares to touch him, well we got to laugh at somebody in the administration.

That's actually a very good strategy, letting another member of the administration be the lightening rod.

Obama is a very distinguished guy and he isn't prone to verbal gaffes nor factual inaccuracies.

Although I fundamentally disagree with much of Obama's economic plan - especially calling tax rebates, even to those who DON'T pay income taxes, via an increase in their EITC a "tax cut" instead of what it IS - a social spending plan. I'm also concerned about the potentially devastating effects of allowing different states to set different emmissions standards, a move that would cost the reeling auto industry BILLIONS and lead to tens of thousands more layoffs and after today, we don't need even MORE layoffs - I do think he's a basically good and decent fellow. Same way I felt about G W Bush, despite his Keynesian overspending spree and pro-illegal immigration amnesty stance.

Biden's drawing unwanted attention away from Obama and serving as this administration's court jester might not be such a bad thing.