Biden: If Elected, The World Will Test Obama With A Crisis
Joe Biden
SEATTLE, WA — Joe Biden says he’s certain that if Barack Obama is elected president, there will be an international crisis to test his strength within the first 6 months of his presidency.
“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.” he told a fundraising crowd in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday. “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
“He’s gonna have to make some really tough – I don’t know what the decision’s gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s gonna happen.”
The Delaware Senator made similar remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser the day before. “We’re going to face a major international challenge. Because they’re going to want to test him, just like they did young John Kennedy. They’re going to want to test him. And they’re going to find out this guy’s got steel in his spine,” Biden said. He told the crowd to continue to stand by Obama and know they made the right choice even when the going gets tough.
The Democratic VP nominee has talked about the difficult environment the next president, no matter who he is, will step into — calling it the toughest since the Great Depression — but never before suggested that Obama in particular would be tested because of who he is.
The RNC and the McCain campaign both jumped on the remarks – with the McCain campaign claiming Biden guaranteed an international crisis in the event of an Obama election. South Carolina Senator and top McCain adviser Lindsey Graham already used the remark against the Obama campaign while introducing the Arizona Senator this morning.
In response, Biden spokesman David Wade says “Sen. Biden was making it clear that history has shown Presidents face challenges starting on day one, and with our nation fighting two wars and 21st century threats abroad, we know that we need steady leadership in tumultuous times, not the erratic lurching and stubborn ideology of John McCain.”
Listen to the audio of Biden’s full Seattle remarks here — the comments in question are about 10 minutes in.
Doesn’t Biden know that his level of thinking is way over that of the common people? I can see that what he was doing was trying to build Obama up, but as you can see from Palin’s attacks using his quote, the common person will take this as Obama not being ready, and his own vice-president choice questioning his ability to lead. Shame on you Joe Biden!