Article: Experience vs. Change: Biden Can't Sweep Away This Dustup

The dustups began with Barack Obama making a statement that Hillary Clinton took out of context, and it traveled through the pipeline all the way to Pakistan. Joe Biden to the rescue to sweep the dust out of the air, embarrassing Clinton and Chris Dodd, who pinch hit for Clinton, on two points and Obama on one.

Using the typical tactics of George Bush and the average six-year-old of blaming everyone but himself for his own mistakes, Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharref was on the verge of declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan.

According to the Associated Press, the Pakistani government said it "may impose a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats", and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.

It's not bad enough that Musharraf, our anointed puppet de jour who's been perched on a throne of quicksand for years, and can't handle his own country's internal affairs, but blaming our presidential candidates is shirking all responsibility for his problems.

Sending out his message through Tariq Azim, Pakistan's minister of state for information, he laid the blame at the sentiment coming for the U.S., and presidential candidate Barak Obama, in particular.

What Obama said was if the United States had intelligence as to where Osama bin Laden is hiding out, and all our efforts failed to get Musharraf to take action, we would go into Pakistan and get bin Laden.

Leaping before looking, Hillary jumped in calling Obama's statement irresponsible. The dust-up was accelerated at a debate refereed by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Dodd went to bat for Hillary, and Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to be the cutoff man and clarify the matter with no success due to time constraints and audience noise.

Nobody can get anything by Olbermann, the most perceptive, intelligent and articulate newsman on the air and the best debate moderator I've heard. The following day on "Countdown" Olbermann invited Biden on to sweep the air of the dust, which he couldn't do the night before.

In about two minutes Biden totally obliterated Clinton's and Dodds' stance and shamed them terribly for not knowing something that has been U.S. policy for years. For Obama, he cleared up one point where Obama has gone off course.

From the Countdown transcript, Aug. 8, 2007:

OLBERMANN: Let's do actionable intelligence. You are chairman, 34- year member of foreign relations. You wanted to address the dustup regarding the comments from Senator Obama about Musharraf, and not moving on actionable intelligence about al Qaeda if he didn't do it, he, Obama, would.

BIDEN: I thought all three of my colleagues were mistaken. The idea,
the thing that surprised me was that a, if there is actionable intelligence, it is U.S. policy now that the president has the authority to act, number one. That's already the policy. The president has failed to act when he should have, in my view, but that's not number one.

Number two, it surprised me that my two colleagues, Senator Clinton and Senator Dodd, believe that somehow we don't have a right to act on that intelligence. The truth of the matter is when a nation-state harbors or does not deal with terrorists hurting us, they forfeit their sovereignty.

The last point is you can't act on actionable intelligence unless you get help from within the country. By announcing you are going to disregard the leadership of that country, you make it difficult to actually act.

The second dustup: Experience vs. Change

Obama says he'll be an agent of change: Change in Washington, change in the direction of the war in Iraq, change in attitude. Who knows. It's an item for total speculation.

Biden can't help out here unless he becomes the front runner. He has the experience and I think could effect change.

His idea, even if he stole it from me, of dividing Iraq into three autonomous states with Baghdad as the sort of central government to co-ordinate things may be the only answer to solving the problem of Iraqis slaughtering each other and becoming a totally Shiite state.

Since Iraq is a wholly made up country to begin with, I'd go one step farther than Biden. I'd split it into four; the fourth being an area for the Marsh Arabs in the southwest. They get their own piece of the pie; they don't want anything do with any of the other "Iraqis" anyway. Then we blow up the dam Saddam erected that deprives them of their marsh land and obliterated their way of life and manner of making a living and surviving.

Hillary may have the experience, but I don't like the experience she has. I don't trust her and I think she doesn't realize how terrible it was to keep her health care plan a secret while formulating it.

What was it? A matter of national security? Like if another country's spy organization got a hold of it, it would mean the end of health care as we know it? They'll steal it and get well there, while we get sick here?

It was too big and too complicated, and speculation be known, the secrecy involved told me that it was not "her" plan, nor a plan that had our interests at heart, but rather a plan of, by and for the health insurance companies.

You know, the same people who wrote the MediCare prescription drug plan.

I don't trust her either to make well considered judgements. If I knew from 3,500 miles away from D.C., having only White House spin to the press to go on, that giving George W. a free hand to make war on anybody he want was the wrong thing to do...she certainly should have known it.

She was just another gutless wonder who didn't speak out on the truth I think she knew. Afghanistan was one thing; Iraq was in a different league, playing in a different ballpark.