Guest Author
If you follow Vice President Joe Biden, you know he has a reputation for being politically incorrect and too blunt.
Recently, he made a series of comments that earned him the title of “Having The Worst Week in Washington” from the Washington Post. In September, he referred to greedy military contractors as “Shylocks,” indicated that U.S. troops may be deployed to Iraq, and used the word “Orient” in a context that was deemed politically incorrect.
That’s not all. Last week, in remarks at Harvard University, Biden stated an undeclared truth: “Our allies in the region were our largest problem” in preventing the spread of al Qaeda in Syria.
Remember, this astute comment came from a seasoned politician with impressive foreign affairs credentials. As a senator in 2006, he correctly called for the partition of Iraq into three countries. He also has maintained a good understanding of the Middle East for decades.
“The Saudis, the Emiratis; what were they doing?” he said. “They were so determined to take down (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, they poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were (Jabhat) al Nusra and al Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”
Wow, as President Barack Obama, the 21st Century version of the Teflon president, continues to defend his administration’s decision to prematurely withdrawing troops from Iraq, someone in Washington finally stated the truth.
The harsh reality is that Muslim regimes, Sunni and Shia alike, are responsible for escalating the fighting in Syria and Iraq by arming and financially supporting various anti-American surrogates in the region.
The Obama Administration’s damage control apparatus was thrown into overdrive after the Biden’s remarks and he personally apologized to a number of Arab heads of state. On the surface, it looked like he really messed up this time.
Although he continued to get pummeled in most of the mainstream press for his “gaffes,” he was also saluted for his “honesty.”
The criticism of Biden appears to be an attempt to weaken his credentials as one of the only competent members of the Obama Administration’s foreign affairs inner circle. It also appears to be an effort to lessen his viability as a serious candidate for president in 2016.
No matter how politically incorrect Biden — the working class Joe from Scranton, Pa. — has been, his mouth, in fact, is his strongest tie to the average American, who can relate not only to what he says, but to how he says it.
It’s the in-your-face street talk that Americans have yearned for during the double-speak that characterized the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. That desire for straight talk has made Chris Christie and Ted Cruz strong contenders for the GOP presidential nomination for 2016.
So don’t think for a minute that Biden’s gaffes are hurting his credibility or political mojo. They are building blocks toward his run for the presidency in 2016.
Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly’s Kommentary (stevenkurlander.com) and writes for Context Florida and The Huffington Post and can be found on Twitter @Kurlykomments. He lives in Monticello, N.Y. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
