Vaudeville Joe

I love this ad! I mean it. It’s freakin’ hilarious and only makes me love Joe Biden even more. My god, his recovery from asking the wheelchair guy to stand up … I forgot how wonderful that moment was.

Here’s Biden’s secret. He is what he is and he always has been. He’s a liberal, intelligent, experienced Senator who talks too much and has made a habit more addictive than smoking out of tripping over his own tongue.

And it won’t touch him! At least not where it matters. This ad doesn’t make Biden seem dumb, it makes him endearing. The people who watch it and are appalled were already appalled by his views and were never going to vote for him period. Not only does Biden have a “just like us” feel (who hasn’t said just the wrong thing at just the wrong time?), we can feel he’s just like us while also being smarter, more accomplished, and more experienced. We all know that if any one of us reached the rarefied air of power, that we’d promptly make idiots of ourselves. And Biden’s been doing that for years! While still accomplishing a great deal for this country.

There’s no fear in electing a Joe Biden type. You might fear his positions, but you don’t fear being surprised by him. The fear of McCain/Palin is that I don’t what they will do in response to an unscripted situation. And the world is an unscripted place. Palin’s gaffes are of a very different variety than Biden’s. They are gaffes born of a broad and deep ignorance of the world and this nation. They are gaffes driven by covering up what she doesn’t know, rather than just tripping over her own tongue. They are gaffes continued by her inability to laugh at herself (I can think of a million ways I could have turned seeing Russia from my house into a Biden-style endearing quality rather than mockery). They are gaffes unforgiven because she just continues to make them over and over again. Whereas with Biden, you know exactly what he means, he just has some twisted version of Tourette’s. Biden’s gaffes are more akin to puking on the Japanese Prime Minister (the gold standard for presidential gaffes) than invading the wrong country (the gold standard for presidential mistakes). Even the vaudevillian tone of this ad negates any seriousness of Biden’s misspeaks.

God I’m looking forward to tonight! Thanks McCain! This ad is the perfect teaser. Though I doubt you meant it the way it will play.