Biden misspeaks, Romney and Ryan -- desperate and dishonest -- pounce

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Vice President Biden clearly misspoke, or rather spoke with a lack of clarity, when he said yesterday that the middle class has been "buried the last four years."

As he said later in the day, with a bit more clarity, if with a lack of elegance, "[t]he middle class was buried by the polices of Romney and that Ryan supported. What they're proposing is Bush economic policies on steroids -- that's what this is. But folks, the middle class is coming back. It's coming back like Americans always do."

Obviously, what he meant to say initially was that the middle class has been buried during the Obama presidency, just as it was buried long before that, because of Republican policies.

But of course one thing we know is that Romney and Ryan, who prefer blatant dishonesty to talking about what they actually stand for and would do in office, never pass up an opportunity to take a line out of context in order to score some cheap political points, screaming bloody "Gotcha!" and preying on the presumed ignorance of voters.

Yes, Biden served this one up for them, but their response was typically shameless:  

A tweet from Romney's account read: "Agree with @JoeBiden, the middle class has been buried the last 4 years, which is why we need a change in November."

A spokesman for his campaign went further.

"Vice President Biden made a stunning admission today and we couldn't agree more: the middle class has been 'buried' under the last four years of this President's policies," wrote Curt Cashour, the Virginia Communications Director for the Romney campaign.

"Under President Obama, the middle class has suffered from crushing unemployment, rising prices and falling incomes. They can't afford to be 'buried' for four more years. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will take our nation in a new direction and are offering exactly what hardworking families need – real reforms for a real recovery."

At a campaign event in Iowa, Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, also pounced on his counterpart's comments.

"Of course the middle class has been buried. They are being buried by regulations, they are being buried by taxes... they are being buried by borrowing, they are being buried by the Obama administration's economic failures," Ryan said. "You see the Obama economic agenda failed not because it was stopped, it failed because it was passed."

Basically, just the usual propaganda, easily dismissed:

-- Biden never said that the middle class was buried because of Obama's policies. In fact, quite the reverse. (So, no, there was no "stunning admission." What a pile of shit.)

-- Obama inherited a disastrous economy and launched the road to recovery. Jobs have been created, net jobs, and while many are still struggling, the situation is not nearly as dire as it would have been had Republican policies prevailed.

-- The Romney-Ryan plan for "real recovery" involves massive tax cuts for the rich, tax increases for the middle class, taking access to affordable health care away from tens of millions of Americans, and slashing the programs upon which so many Americans, including the middle class, depend.

-- Tax rates are currently at historically low levels.

-- Under-regulation, not over-regulation, was one of the main causes of the economic crisis that the president inherited from Bush.

-- And if Ryan wants to talk about "economic failures," maybe he should actually answer some fucking questions for a change instead of doing everything possible to avoid having to get into the ugly details of his extremist right-wing budget plan.

The fact that Romney and Ryan pounce so quickly on any and every gaffe, and even on anything that can possibly be taken out of context, shows not just how desperate they are at this point but just how vapid their campaign is, how unwilling they are to engage Obama and Biden, not to mention the voters generally, on anything of substance.

They're just hoping their lies stick, that voters are too stupid to see through their transparently stupid campaign.

Needless to say, their opponents hold the American electorate in much higher regard.