Biden: "Gird Your Loins, I'm About to Put My Foot in My Mouth Again"

At a recent fundraiser in San Francisco, Joe Biden dazzled his audience with his grasp of foreign policy: "Mark my words, " he said. "Within the next, first six months of this administration, if we win, they're going to -- 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."

Biden was essentially (albeit inadvertently) saying that if we elect Barack Obama, the chances of an international crisis will be increased because the world's bad guys will be tempted to test a President with little international experience. That's certainly an interesting way of trying to convince people to vote for your guy.

But lest anyone accuse Biden of learning from his mistakes, he went out and said the exact same thing the very next day--except this time with greater emphasis. At a fundraiser in Seattle, he said: "Mark my words. Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. 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.

"Gird your loins," Biden warned. "We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man."

What could possibly explain why Joe Biden would insist on inflicting such damage on his own campaign not once, but twice? Perhaps he was jealous of all the attention that Sarah Palin has been getting from those in the mainstream media who would question her fitness to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Perhaps, then, this was a cry for attention, with Biden essentially saying: "Hey, guys, I'm here, too. And if you think you ought to be worried about Palin's fitness for office, try this on for size. My judgment is so bad that it ought to make you forget about her and focus on me instead."

Or perhaps columnist Charles Krauthammer got it right when he said: "Obviously, Biden is a Republican plant." That theory certainly merits serious consideration, as it is more plausible than any other explanation for why Biden would say what he said.

Speaking of Sarah Palin, she perhaps said it best when she said that "the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden's next speaking engagement." I guess that's one thing on which Republicans and Democrats, even in the midst of this heated campaign, can find common ground: Joe Biden scares the hell out of us.

On Sarah Palin's (and Joe Biden's) Foreign Policy Experience

Much has been made of Sarah Palin's lack of foreign policy experience. What no one seems to have noticed is that over the last 30-plus years, we have only elected one President--George H.W. Bush--that had any previous foreign policy experience. Four of the five Presidents that we have elected since 1976--Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush (George W.)--were governors with no foreign policy experience. That didn't stop those Presidents from achieving such foreign policy accomplishments as winning the Cold War, brokering the Camp David accords and ousting Saddam Hussein and the Taliban from power.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, is often said to have the most foreign policy experience of the major party candidates for President and Vice President. He has served in the Senate since 1972 (!) and chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. All of that experience, however, hasn't stopped him from being wrong on almost every major foreign policy issue he has ever weighed in on.

He opposed the Reagan military buildup policies that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He opposed the first Gulf War to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Although he voted in favor of the current Iraq War, he opposed the surge and pushed instead for a policy--vigorously denounced by virtually everyone in Iraq--to split Iraq into three pieces. Had Joe Biden been our Commander in Chief, we might still be engaged in a Cold War with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Saddam Hussein might be still alive and well and occupying Kuwait (if not Saudi Arabia as well). Biden is the guy that, according to Barack Obama, has "stared down dictators." Yeah, right.

Biden aborted his first campaign for President after he was charged with plagiarizing Neil Kinnock, Britain's leftist Labour Party leader at the time. Perhaps Biden could have demonstrated sounder judgment on foreign policy by instead plagiarizing Margaret Thatcher.

On foreign policy, Senate experience is fine, but I would much rather have someone with toughness, sound judgment, common sense and strong convictions. I see much more of that in Sarah Palin than I do in Joe Biden (or Barack Obama, for that matter).

Perhaps much of the anxiety that some feel over Palin is the fact that she's uncharted territory. Put aside for a second the fact that she's a woman. Think of Palin's unique mix of characteristics, for better or worse: Under 45, put on the ticket with less than two years' experience as a governor, avid outdoors enthusiast, member of the National Rifle Association, large family, reputation as a reformer unafraid to take on fellow Republicans. There's never been a major party candidate for Vice President with all of these characteristics. Well, actually there has been. His name was Teddy Roosevelt. If we could put Teddy Roosevelt in a time machine and insert him into the current race, he would make a much better choice for Commander in Chief than Joe Biden. And so would Sarah Palin.