Fact Check: Top Ten Worst Lies by Joe Biden in VP Debate
Once again, Joe Biden lied his way through a Vice Presidential debate--just as he did in his contest with Sarah Palin in 2008. This time, the media caught a few of Biden's worst "malarkey" moments--as did his opponent, Paul Ryan, when he could get a word in edgewise.
Here are the top ten worst lies told by Biden during the debate:10. "With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey....not a single thing he said is accurate." At the outset of the debate, Biden tried to paint Ryan as a liar--when Biden, in fact, was the one lying. Ryan had pointed out: 1) that the White House had distanced itself from the Cairo embassy's apologies on 9/11; 2) that Obama had failed to speak up for Iranian protestors in 2009; 3) that the Obama administration called Syria's dictator a "reformer"; 4) and that the Obama administration is imposing defense cuts and projecting weakness. All of that is true.
9. "The president has met with Bibi [Netanyahu] a dozen times....This is a bunch of stuff." While they have met several times--not a dozen--that includes a meeting at which Obama made the Israeli prime minister enter the White House through a back entrance, refused to take a picture with him, and left him on his own for dinner. Specifically, Ryan had criticized Obama's refusal to meet Netanyahu in New York last month, and to tape talk show interviews instead--a clear snub that sent the wrong signal, again, to Israel's enemies.
8. "Just let the taxes expire like they’re supposed to on those millionaires." Biden's "millionaires" are actually households earning more than $250,000 a year, which includes many middle-class families with two earners, and small business owners in particular who report business earnings as personal income. Biden and Obama have repeatedly labeled those earning over $250,000 as "millionaires and billionaires," distorting the actual impact of their tax plan on the non-millionaires it would hit hardest, who create a vast proportion of small business jobs.
7. "You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems that every vice presidential debate, I hear this kind of stuff about panels." Biden's cheap shot against Palin was an attempt to diminish both her and the man sitting across from him. But Palin never talked about "death panels" in her debate with Biden, for the simple reason that Obamacare had not yet been proposed. Nor did Ryan mention "death panels"--he had addressed the undeniable fact that Obamacare proposes a board to impose cost controls.
6. "The congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for." Biden's lie about Ryan's budget was an attempt to dodge responsibility for lax embassy security--and to cover up that the Obama called for new cuts to embassy security just days after the 9/11 attacks. Ryan's proposal, which called for a 19% overall decrease in non-defense discretionary spending, does not even mention embassy security--the Obama campaign merely made up that number by applying 19% across the board.
5. "No, they are not four years closer to a nuclear weapon." Biden's attempt to lie about the glaring reality of the Iranian nuclear program fell flat. Iran is indeed four years closer to a nuclear weapon, and the Obama administration--believing it knew better than its predecessors--tried to reinvent the wheel on talks with Iran, causing frustration to our allies in Europe and the Middle East. Meeting after meeting this year has failed to produce results, and the loophole-filled sanctions, while hurting Iran somewhat, are not stopping its nuclear program.
4. "No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise...has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact." No, it is not a fact--it is the opposite of a fact, and saying "that is a fact" does not make it any less a blatant lie. The Obama administration is forcing religious institutions to provide contraceptive and abortion drugs through their insurance policies. That is the reason several dozen religious institutions are suing the administration to defend their First Amendment freedom of religion.
3. "It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card...I was there. I voted against him." Biden voted for both the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war. He did not vote for George W. Bush's plan to extend coverage of Medicare to prescription drugs (though he voted for an earlier, similar proposal), nor did he vote for the Bush tax cuts. But he voted for both of the wars he derided last night. To quote Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention: "It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did."
2. "What we did is we saved $716 billion and put it back -- applied it to Medicare." Biden repeated the lie the Obama administration has been telling since before Obamacare passed in 2010: that cuts to Medicare today were savings that extend the life of the program. They would be--if the same $716 billion wasn't also being used to pay for Obamacare. As Ryan pointed out in 2010, and again last night, you can't double-count the same cuts. Taking $716 billion out of Medicare means exactly that--and hurts, not helps, the program's solvency.
1. "Well, we weren’t told they wanted more security again." Biden lied through his teeth about the fact that the administration--specifically, the State Department--had been told again and again that security on the ground in Libya, and in Benghazi in particular, was inadequate. The day before, in Congressional hearings on the Libya attacks, former regional security director Eric Nordstrom described his frustration with having those requests turned down by the government bureaucracy: "For me the Taliban is on the inside of the building."
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Damage Control: Obama Campaign Tries to Spin Biden's Bizarre Debate Behavior
The Obama campaign is struggling to respond to mounting criticism of Vice President Joe Biden's bizarre behavior during last night's debate with Rep. Paul Ryan.
Biden not only interrupted Ryan frequently--82 times, according to Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus--but frequently laughed, smirked, and snorted at serious moments, showing contempt for his opponent and disturbing even friendly observers.A CNN poll conducted after the debate, which handed Ryan a narrow 48%-44% victory, also showed that Ryan had beaten Biden by an even wider margin when it came to "likeability." Viewers in the poll--with an admittedly small sample-- also said Ryan "expressed his views more clearly," "was more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you," and "did a better job of defending his running mate."
The only category in which Biden defeated Ryan? "Spent more time attacking his opponent."
Amidst mounting criticism, the Obama campaign has tried to push back. Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, claimed that Biden was "a happy warrior." Biden may have been trying to compensate for Obama's perceived passivity in last week's debate. He may also have been trying to cover gaps in his own argument--he referred to Obama by name only once, and told several characteristic untruths when pressed on the Obama administration's record. But Biden's interjections and body language left a lasting impression with voters.
Women, in particular, seem to have reacted negatively. Writer Mollie Hemingway thought that Biden had done well but remarked: "Tonight, Joe Biden is embodying everything that women hate about talking with men."
She later added: "I'm even willing to give this debate to Biden, in the very short term. But in the long term, I bet he lost it. Think about what will stay with people after the debate. They'll remember a rude, interrupting man."
Peggy Noonan, a conservative who has not been shy about criticizing Romney and Ryan in the past, said that Biden lost the debate by "confusing strength with aggression."
She elaborated: "Did Mr. Biden look good? No, he looked mean and second-rate. He meant to undercut Mr. Ryan, but he undercut himself. His grimaces and laughter were reminiscent of Al Gore's sighs in 2000—theatrical, off-putting and in the end self-indicting."
It wasn't just conservatives who took offense. Piers Morgan of CNN repeatedly tweeted his alarm about Biden's smirk during the debate. Erik Wemple, the left-leaning media critic at the Washington Post, criticized Biden during the debate as well: "Biden really pushing it with his interruptions."
And the criticism continued to build the morning after, with NBC's Tom Brokaw telling Morning Joe that Biden "shouldn't be laughing" when discussing the prospect of thermonuclear war with Iran. "However amused you are, it's about tone," he said.
That is the impression that has lasted--and which Biden and Obama will likely regret in the days ahead.
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Pakistán: La historia de Malala contra los talibanes
Malala Yusafzai tenía 11 años cuando se convirtió sin quererlo en la voz de millones de niñas musulmanas de Pakistán y Afganistán que quieren acudir la escuela.
En un conmovedor vídeo aparecido en 2009 en el New York Times y mediante su blog sobre cómo es la vida bajo la ocupación talibán en el valle de Swat, en Pakistán, Malala se atrevió a compartir su más profunda aspiración: tener libertad para aprender.
Ahora, Malala, con 14 años, se está aferrando a la vida porque militantes talibanes le dispararon en la cabeza y en el cuello hace unos días al noroeste de Pakistán. Cuando ella y otras chicas de octavo curso volvían a casa en el autobús de la escuela, varios hombres detuvieron el autobús y preguntaron “¿Cuál es Malala?”. Sacaron un arma y le dispararon, así como a otras dos chicas.
Inconcebible. Una joven convertida en el objetivo de hombres adultos cuyo esquema religioso de algún modo se traduce en matar niños a tiros porque estos quieren estar en la escuela. Su único “crimen” fue defender abiertamente la educación de las niñas y querer ayudar a que otras chicas pakistaníes ejerciten su derecho a asistir a la escuela. Malala y su familia son devotos de la fe musulmana, pues existen imágenes con la cara de Malala enmarcada por el tradicional pañuelo para la cabeza y arrodillada sobre su alfombra rezándole a Alá. No es un caso de apostasía. Sino un simple deseo de recibir una educación.
Como madre de dos hijas, encuentro desgarrador el horror de este suceso. Y me resulta igualmente incomprensible. El mismo día que dispararon a Malala, mis hijas estaban remoloneando para no ir a la escuela, deseando que su fin de semana de tres días hubiese sido más largo. Pero la trágica historia de Malala seguía viva en mi cabeza; quería llamarles la atención por quejarse de tener que ir a la escuela. Sin embargo, seguramente lo oirían de la misma forma que nosotros escuchábamos a nuestros padres decirnos que “limpiáramos nuestros platos” porque muchos niños pasan hambre en el mundo. Simplemente, hace mucho tiempo que los niños de este país no tienen que vivir esas experiencias. Morir por la educación sencillamente no se entiende y estoy agradecida por eso.
Todo lo cual me lleva hasta la excepcionalidad de Estados Unidos. De alguna manera, muchos americanos se han empezado a sentir incómodos con la idea de que la sociedad americana es mejor que otras. Así que en cambio promocionamos la tolerancia americana. Pensando que estamos educados, que viajamos mucho y que tenemos una mente abierta, tenemos vagas nociones de que cada sociedad tiene sus propios valores, su religión y su cultura y que ningún modo de hacer las cosas es superior a otro.
Pero ahí tenemos a Malala. Ella cristaliza el debate y, de momento, estamos en silencio. Las conocidas ideas del “Si yo estoy bien, tú estás bien” y de que se han de respetar y apreciar todos los códigos morales y normas culturales en su vasta variedad ahora me parecen huecas.
Estados Unidos es muchas cosas. Y no siempre lo ha hecho todo bien. Pero, como explica el experto de la Fundación Heritage Matthew Spalding, “Estados Unidos es excepcional porque, a diferencia de cualquier otra nación, está dedicado a los principios de la libertad humana, basada en las verdades de que todos los hombres son creados iguales y están dotados de los mismos derechos”.
Tenemos esperanza y rezamos por Malala. Tenemos esperanza en los ideales que encarna su sencilla voz. Tenemos esperanza en que los líderes de Estados Unidos abandonen el enfoque de que “todas las naciones son socios en igualdad” y que, como observó la analista de la Fundación Heritage Lisa Curtis en el evento de ayer sobre Pakistán en la sede de la Fundación, “se comprometan a respaldar a los miembros de la sociedad civil pakistaní que están arriesgando sus vidas por abandonar las ideologías extremistas y por defender los derechos y libertades de todos los pakistaníes”.
Más allá de todo eso, nuestro deber como ciudadanos americanos es recordar que las libertades que disfrutan nuestras hijas y que disfrutamos todos nosotros son, de hecho, excepcionales. Decir eso no es fruto de un confuso egoísmo nacional. Es la realidad.
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