Biden Unwraps '08 Bid With an Oops! - New York Times
The New York Times

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February 1, 2007
Biden Unwraps '08 Bid With an Oops!
By
ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 - In an era of meticulous political choreography, the
staging of the kickoff for this presidential candidacy could hardly have
gone
worse.

Senator
Joseph R. Biden
Jr. of Delaware, who announced his candidacy on Wednesday with the hope
that he could ride his foreign policy expertise into contention for the
Democratic nomination
, instead spent the day struggling to explain his description of
Senator Barack Obama
, the Illinois Democrat running for president, as "the first mainstream
African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking
guy."

The remark, published Wednesday in The New York Observer, left Mr. Biden's
campaign struggling to survive its first hours and injected race more
directly
into the presidential contest. The day ended, appropriately enough for the
way politics is practiced now, with Mr. Biden explaining himself to Jon
Stewart
on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."

Earlier, in a decidedly nonpresidential afternoon conference call with
reporters that had been intended to announce his candidacy, Mr. Biden,
speaking over
loud echoes and a blaring television set, said that he had been "quoted
accurately." He volunteered that he had called Mr. Obama to express regret
that
his remarks had been taken "out of context," and that Mr. Obama had assured
him he had nothing to explain.

"Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or
Republican party has produced at least since I've been around," he said,
adding:
"Call Senator Obama. He knew what I meant by it. The idea was very
straightforward and simple. This guy is something brand new that nobody has
seen before."

Asked about Mr. Biden's comments, Mr. Obama said in an interview, "I didn't
take it personally and I don't think he intended to offend." Mr. Obama, who
serves with Mr. Biden on the Foreign Relations Committee, added, "But the
way he constructed the statement was probably a little unfortunate."

But later in the day, with Mr. Biden coming under fire from some black
leaders, Mr. Obama issued a statement that approached a condemnation. "I
didn't take
Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they were historically
inaccurate," he said. "African-American presidential candidates like
Jesse Jackson
, Shirley Chisholm,
Carol Moseley Braun
and
Al Sharpton
gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one
would call them inarticulate."

For Mr. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it
was an inauspicious beginning to his first presidential campaign since 1988,
when
he dropped out after acknowledging using without attribution portions of a
speech from a British politician. By the end of the day on Wednesday,
Democrats
were asking only half-jokingly whether Mr. Biden might be remembered for
having the shortest-lived presidential campaign in the history of the
Republic.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Mr. Biden issued a written statement. "I deeply regret
any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone," he
said. "That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama."

Under questioning from reporters at his announcement conference call, Mr.
Biden was pressed on what he meant in his description of Mr. Obama,
particularly
in his use of the word clean.

"He understood exactly what I meant," Mr. Biden said. "And I have no doubt
that Jesse Jackson and every other black leader - Al Sharpton and the rest -
will know exactly what I meant."

When he was asked, again, what he meant, Mr. Biden - known in Washington for
his long-winded ways and his love of the microphone and the spotlight -
bristled
as he struggled over the squawk of feedback and echoes.

"I'm not going to repeat everything I just said," he said. "There is a vote
that starts at 2:30, it takes 11 minutes to get to the floor. I can take one
more question but not on the subject I have already spoken to."

And after taking one more question, Mr. Biden did something entirely out of
character: He announced he was done talking.

Mr. Biden's assurances notwithstanding, both Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton -
African-Americans who have run for president - said they had no idea what
Mr.
Biden meant. And both suggested they felt at least a little offended by the
remarks.

Mr. Jackson described Mr. Biden's remarks to the Observer, which also
included critical statements about the Iraq positions of two of his
Democratic opponents
- Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton
of New York and former Senator
John Edwards
of North Carolina - as "blabbering bluster."

A wounded note to his voice, Mr. Jackson pointed out that he had run against
Mr. Biden for the 1988 Democratic nomination, and had lasted far longer and
drawn more votes than did Mr. Biden. Mr. Biden was forced out in September
1987.

"I am not sure what he means - ask him to explain what he meant," Mr.
Jackson said. "I don't know whether it was an attempt to diminish what I had
done
in '88, or to say Barack is all style and no substance."

Mr. Sharpton said that when Mr. Biden called him to apologize, Mr. Sharpton
started off the conversation reassuring Mr. Biden about his hygienic
practices.
"I told him I take a bath every day," Mr. Sharpton said.

No stranger to electoral intrigue, Mr. Sharpton was quick to offer a
political motive: That Mr. Biden was drawing distinctions between Mr. Obama
and African-American
leaders like Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson, to "discredit Mr. Obama with his
base."

At the very least, Mr. Biden's remarks obscured a campaign roll-out in which
he said that Mr. Bush had "dug America into a very big hole" with the war in
Iraq and that the nation would need a leader experienced in foreign policy
to take over during dangerous times. More than that, it seemed sure to
harden
Mr. Biden's image in political circles as politically undisciplined, an
image he had been working scrupulously to change in what has emerged as a
long-term
political rehabilitation project for him.

In his conference call, Mr. Biden quoted his mother in trying to explain
what he meant about Mr. Obama. "My mother has an expression: Clean as a
whistle
and sharp as a tack," Mr. Biden said, showering more praise on one of his
biggest opponents for the nomination.

On Comedy Central, he told Mr. Stewart: "What got me in trouble was using
the word clean. I should have said fresh. What I meant was he's got new
ideas."

Mr. Biden's comments also focused new attention on remarks he made about
Indians last year, when he said, "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin'
Donuts
unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Before he went on television, Mr. Biden found himself sharing a stage with
Mr. Obama at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iraq, where he
was
noticeably solicitous to his new presidential rival as members of the
committee questioned
Henry Kissinger
, the former secretary of state. Mr. Biden chastised Senator
John Kerry
, the Massachusetts Democrat, to keep his comments short ("just one minute,
Senator, or we will have everybody else").

But he could not have been more accommodating to Mr. Obama as the senator
from Illinois began wrapping up: "I know I'm out of time."

Mr. Biden would have none of that. "That's O.K.," he told Mr. Obama. "You're
making a very salient point."

Jeff Zeleny and Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington, and
Conrad Mulcahy from New York.

Copyright 2007

Miriam's Comment: I know what he meant - he meant that Obama sounds white!
And that was politically incorrect, but that's why everyone thinks he's such
a promising candidate. That's why they all loved him at the Democratic
Convention in 2004.