Joe Biden's Long History of Being Wrong

Before he was tapped as Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden was known for three things.

1. Plagiarism

2. Long winded speeches during Senate hearings.

3. Hair Plugs.

The conventional wisdom is that Sen. Obama picked Biden in order to help him in the foreign policy arena, where Obama is seen as lacking credibility and experience.

Yes, it's true that Biden has a long history of involvement on issues of foreign policy, but history shows that he has consistently been on the wrong side of almost every major foreign policy debate that has gone down since he arrived in Washington.

So if Obama wanted an elder statesmen with a history of sound judgement on the most important issues of our time, he only got it half right.

Joe Biden was a staunch opponent of the Reagan military buildup, now largely credited with bringing down the Soviet Empire. While Reagan was trying to reverse the devastating policies of the Carter years, Joe Biden was supporting a nuclear freeze.

Fast forward to the early nineties. Joe Biden had absolutely no problem with Saddam Hussein going into Kuwait and grabbing a big chunk of the world's oil supply. He voted against the first gulf war, which even the dovish Al Gore had the good sense to support.

He must have learned from his mistake, because a decade later, he was of the opinion that Saddam had to go and eyeing another White House bid, he voted for the second Iraq excursion.

Now, I believe that this was the right vote, but it puts him completely at odds with the fundamental principle of his running mate's campaign. This being, that Obama has the judgment and foresight to oppose ill-conceived wars. By default everything that Obama says about George Bush and John McCain regarding the Iraq issue, he is also saying about the guy who he picked to be his closest foreign policy advisor. It's all very confusing, I know.

After the Iraq vote Biden decided it was time to go back to being wrong, and voted against the surge strategy in order to try and save his faltering presidential campaign. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

My question is, where in Biden, does Obama see all of this foreign policy expertise? Based on his long voting record it would appear that I have more knowledge and more sound judgement on foreign policy issues than does the senior senator from Delaware.

Perhaps Biden did a bit too much talking and too little listening in all of those Senate hearings.

Gov. Palin should lay this all out on the table on Thursday night. It will likely get Biden flustered and angry and lead him to do another thing that he has long been famous for. Inserting his foot directly into his mouth.

- Dan Joseph

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