Althouse: "I am a gaffe machine, but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth."

December 5, 2018

"I am a gaffe machine, but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth."

Said Joe Biden, quoted in "Biden on Biden: 'I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president'" (Yahoo News).

I'm wondering whether "I am a gaffe machine, but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth" is itself a gaffe or whether, more interestingly, it is an untruth. It feels like an old brain teaser: 2 men stood in front of 2 doors. One man is a gaffe machine. The other man is incapable of telling the truth. Behind one door is a happy future for America. Behind the other are dark days. You may ask one man to ask one question....

60 comments:

rehajm said...: Don't spend your emotional energy on Joe Biden. He’s a service dog who had been with the president for eight years, not his lifelong companion.; 12/5/18, 6:17 AM
The Bergall said...: And people wonder why we detest the political class.......; 12/5/18, 6:31 AM
iowan2 said...: Creepy molester Biden the plagiarist lectures the masses on honor and honesty.

Check; 12/5/18, 6:33 AM
Hagar said...: Joe Biden is a Tammany brave, Delaware Div.; 12/5/18, 6:34 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Biden can't win the Democrats' nomination, because he is not a Colored woman.; 12/5/18, 6:37 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: How many people think "They're Going to Put Y'all Back in Chains" is true?; 12/5/18, 6:38 AM
David Begley said...: Go ahead and run, Joe. And lose again.; 12/5/18, 6:38 AM
tim in vermont said...: Joe hasn't got the message that the Democrats don't want his kind anymore. By the time the primaries are over, he will be a Trump supporter.; 12/5/18, 6:41 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Correction to my comment at 6:37

I inadvertently used the expression "Colored woman".

I meant to write "woman of Color".

Please make the mental correction.; 12/5/18, 6:43 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: "Biden"/(fact) "I went to (Syracuse) law school on a full academic scholarship" (partial needs-based); "ended up in the top half"/(76th out of 85);"I won the international moot-court"/(no); "I was the outstanding student in poli sci department"/(no);"I graduated with three degrees from college"/(no). Biden versus Trump could be fun; fact checkers will need to stock up on NoDoz.; 12/5/18, 6:46 AM
J. Farmer said...: Biden has habitually overestimated his talents and abilities for decades.; 12/5/18, 6:46 AM
Darrell said...: You may ask one man to ask one question....

That won't yield an answer.; 12/5/18, 6:47 AM
John henry said...: Does he consider himself the most qualified democrat?

I'd say perhaps.

Most qualified person? More qualified than Donald Trump?

Naaaah.

John Henry; 12/5/18, 6:49 AM
Darrell said...: Biden was asked if he was deaf from blowin' in sixth grade and he's still stuck pondering the answer.; 12/5/18, 6:49 AM
tim maguire said...: "I am a gaffe machine, but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth..."

It feels like an old brain teaser:...

Here's another: From which man's words is it easier to divine the truth--the one who must lie or the one who chooses to lie?; 12/5/18, 6:49 AM
tim in vermont said...: "Once air touches your brain, you're never the same."; 12/5/18, 6:53 AM
Robert Cook said...: Anybody who would actually say out loud, "I'm the most qualified person in the country to be the President of the United States" is an asshole who should not be in the office.

(Of course, all who run for the office--and many who don't--certainly think this in their private thoughts.); 12/5/18, 6:54 AM
Robert Cook said...: "More qualified than Donald Trump?"

Ha! That's a trick question. Trump isn't qualified.; 12/5/18, 6:57 AM
Danno said...: Blogger tim in vermont said...Joe hasn't got the message that the Democrats don't want his kind anymore. By the time the primaries are over, he will be a Trump supporter.

The first sentence is spot on, but poor old Joe couldn't figure this out if his life depended on it. Is there a tag for useful idiots?; 12/5/18, 6:59 AM
J. Farmer said...: Which raises an even trickier question. What does it even mean to be "qualified" to be President? Aside from what the framers thought, that is.; 12/5/18, 7:00 AM
Tank said...: Biden has checked all the right boxes to be a potential president, which tells you how worthless that metric is.; 12/5/18, 7:04 AM
rehajm said...: Qualifications for POTUS: Natural born citizen or citizen of the United States at the time the Constitution was adopted, attained thirty five years of age, not elected to the office twice already, or elected once and acted as President more than two years of someone else's term, been resident of US fourteen years. (did I mess any?)

Everything else is sniping.; 12/5/18, 7:05 AM
John henry said...: But I note, Robert Cook, that you make no claim to Biden being more qualified than President Trump.

John Henry; 12/5/18, 7:06 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: I'm just a Gaffe Machine
And I won't work for nobody but you, the American People.
Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo-yeah.

I am Laslo.; 12/5/18, 7:11 AM
AllenS said...: Go ahead, Mr Cook, tell us why Trump isn't qualified to be President.; 12/5/18, 7:12 AM
tim maguire said...: Robert Cook said...Anybody who would actually say out loud, "I'm the most qualified person in the country to be the President of the United States" is an asshole who should not be in the office.

Anybody who wants to be president is not the kind of person I want running my country. Unfortunately, that's where the pool of candidates comes from.; 12/5/18, 7:14 AM
Henry said...: "If I ask the other guy if he is a liar or a gaffe machine will he say yes?"; 12/5/18, 7:15 AM
tim maguire said...: AllenS said...
Go ahead, Mr Cook, tell us why Trump isn't qualified to be Preside

In the post-Obama era, nobody gets to brag about qualifications or complain about the lack of them.; 12/5/18, 7:16 AM
Henry said...: Nobody is qualified to be President until their second term, by which time they're too corrupted.; 12/5/18, 7:21 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: Have you seen Biden's face lately? Lots of work done. He is running in 2020.; 12/5/18, 7:21 AM
narciso said...: He lied about who was at fault in his wife's death.; 12/5/18, 7:27 AM
GRW3 said...: Remember by Truth, Biden means "Beliefs, Statements and Actions that Comport with the Democrat World View". Anything else is a lie.; 12/5/18, 7:28 AM
Henry said...: On a purely entertainment level, is a gaffe machine more wonderful than a fabulist?

The wonderfulness of the gaffe man is the level to which his gaffes echo against his sober context in comic awfulness.

The wonderfulness of the fabulist is the level to which he can spin his lies into a fairy tale.

Given the talents of the average man, the gaffe man is probably a better bet, but the fabulist has more upside. Entertainment-wise.; 12/5/18, 7:28 AM
narciso said...: Minion of the subprime cartel, architect of the partition plan that turned Anbar over to Zarqawi, turned Karzai into our foe.; 12/5/18, 7:40 AM
roesch/voltaire said...: Did the traif man tweeter in chief just make a gaffe or was it just more Bullshit that caused the market sell off?; 12/5/18, 7:44 AM
alanc709 said...: Biden is a gaffe machine who can't tell the truth, so the was solely about him.....; 12/5/18, 7:47 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: SNL's "Child-Molesting Robot" cum gaffe machine = 'Pluggs' Biden; 12/5/18, 7:59 AM
AllenS said...: The market sell off was caused by the House of Representatives gaining Democratic party seats which they are now in the majority. Have you listened to the Dems talk about reversing the tax cuts and raising the corporate tax rate?; 12/5/18, 8:05 AM
Kevin said...: I hope he runs, and Hillary too.

We know they’re not the right people to run the country, yet Spartacus, Kamala, and Gillibrand will pale in comparison.; 12/5/18, 8:06 AM
Gahrie said...: Who gives a shit about his "gaffes"? Everyone makes them. It's the way he creeps on females that bugs me.; 12/5/18, 8:26 AM
Tom T. said...: Biden has already run for president twice and failed to generate any interest among Democrats.; 12/5/18, 8:38 AM
MadisonMan said...: Biden will be 78 in 2020. Not running.

Memo to Baby Boomers: You are OLD!!! Get out of the way right now.; 12/5/18, 8:39 AM
Unknown said...: > a guy who can’t tell the truth

I thought everyone had their own truth

these days

Biden travels the path of Ted Kennedy
Another Lyin' of the Senate

if Biden is the answer

what was the question?; 12/5/18, 8:49 AM
AlbertAnonymous said...: Run Joe, Run!; 12/5/18, 9:09 AM
TrespassersW said...: "I am also the most humble man you will ever meet." -- Joe Biden.; 12/5/18, 9:37 AM
TrespassersW said...: “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

--Douglas Adams; 12/5/18, 9:40 AM
TrespassersW said...: The two qualities at issue here--being a "gaffe machine," and being " a guy who can't tell the truth" are not mutually exclusive.

Biden is living proof of that.; 12/5/18, 9:46 AM
Big Mike said...: Joe Biden is both a gaffe machine and a liar who is both irredeemable and unrepentant. To make matters worse, he does not mind inappropriately touching underage females in full view of TV cameras. If he is the Democrat nominee in 2020 then I demand that Doug Jones resign in favor of Judge Moore.; 12/5/18, 9:49 AM
Big Mike said...: Joe gives lectures on Constitutional Law, yet in his public debate with Sarah Palin he mistakenly stated that Article I of the Constitution defined the Executive Branch. It doesn't (you can go and look, it defines the Legislative Branch). If he can't even get the first article of the Constitution right, were does he come off lecturing on Con Law?

If I hadn't become aware of you, Althouse, I would have assumed that Con Law is where the law schools put their second and third tier professors.; 12/5/18, 9:56 AM
Comanche Voter said...: Slow Joe; always the last to know. But he is living proof that Obama's narcissism is contagious.; 12/5/18, 9:58 AM
Mountain Maven said...: Biden is leading in the polls. Doesnt mean much other than name recog and that most Dems simply want the govt to take care of them. e.g. ponytail man.; 12/5/18, 10:12 AM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: Democrats live to tax rape. They don't care - they themselves don't have to pay.; 12/5/18, 10:22 AM
mikee said...: Sarah Palin cleaned Joe's clock in the VP debate back in the day. She crushed him like a soggy piece of bread under a steam roller. And now Creepy Uncle Joe says he's the best available to campaign against, compare policy against, and debate in public against, the guy who won over the Clinton Machine?

I, for one, will stock up on butter, salt and popcorn in advance.; 12/5/18, 10:51 AM
PM said...: I had a gaffe machine but then I switched to nespresso.; 12/5/18, 10:54 AM
Limited blogger said...: Joe can't handle the truth; 12/5/18, 11:32 AM
elkh1 said...: Yeah, a guy who can't tell the truth, a guy who appropriated someone else's life story, a guy who remembered his daddy was dog tired after working the whole day in a Welsh coalmine.; 12/5/18, 12:57 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: When you have to refer to yourself as Wonderful... you're probably not.; 12/5/18, 1:15 PM
roesch/voltaire said...: Allen S you might want to read what Wall Street says: Market participants have attributed that decisive drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) , the S&P 500 index (SPX)and the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)to worries about the long-term prospects for a tariff resolution between China and the U.S. and the so-called inversion of a portion of the Treasury yield curve, spelling economic gloom in the U.S.
Notice the reference to Tarifff Man?; 12/5/18, 6:39 PM
Charlie said...: "Anybody who would actually say out loud, "I'm the most qualified person in the country to be the President of the United States" is an asshole who should not be in the office."

Damn, beat me to it.; 12/5/18, 7:43 PM
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