Repeated Biden gaffes shouldn't be overlooked

Biden can't get out of his own way when he opens his mouth. Over and over again during the past three-plus years, he has sent the White House press office scurrying to undo some of his oratorical damage. Just last week in Virginia, Biden criticized parts of the budget plan supported by Ryan and the GOP presidential candidate, Mitt Romney: “He said in the first hundred days, he is going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street. They are going to put y'all back in chains.”

Any suggestion that it was more than a slip of the tongue, Democrats said, was ridiculous. And perhaps too much was made of it for a few days. But the litany of misstatements and Biden's history of general daffiness should not be overlooked.

On Wednesday, Biden asked during a speech, “Folks, where's it written we cannot lead the world in the 20th century in making automobiles?” Note to Joe: We've been in the 21st century for more than a decade.

In the previous decade, C-SPAN captured Biden telling a supporter of Indian descent, “In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking.”

He also wasn't joking when, in 2007, he described Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Nor was he joking when, after being sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Biden said, “Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart.”