All number of misleading headlines and tweets today about an incident involving Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade in New York yesterday.
First, the facts. The car in question was a "route" car driven by a police officer. In large motorcades, "route" precedes the "command" car and "lead" car by about five minutes. (In Washington, D.C., officers call it the "Five Minute Car.")
Inside the route car were two police officers and two members of Vice President Biden's political advance team. There were no United States Secret Service agents involved. And a cab driver is said to have caused the crash.
Earlier this week, a woman drove her car into a police car that was providing intersection control for a Biden motorcade in Albuquerque, NM. A deputy was injured.
A week ago, two Secret Service employees were driving the Biden
motorcade limo and the armored follow-up suburban back from Andrews Air
Force Base. One of the cars struck and killed a pedestrian. Biden had
already motorcaded back home. These employees were not agents; there
were not driving in a motorcade; they were simply rebasing the cars.
What do these three incidents have in common? Well, they are connected
through Joe Biden in name only. Motorcades are unusual and confusing
even in New York City, and accidents, usually involving police escorts,
can happen. Some of them have been fatal.
To blame Joe Biden for any of this -- to suggest that he is guilty of
"vehicular homicide" -- is transparently absurd. (The Weekly Standard's
Michael Goldfarb tweeted: "Glad Joe Biden has time to do the Daily Show
between managing the war in Iraq, the stimulus, and the vehicular
homicide.")
Criticism of the VP's schedule is fair game. But to imply that his
political campaigning is responsible for causing mayhem makes less
sense than an episode of FlashForward and is dubiously provocative simply
for the sake of being provocative.
It's also wrong to "blame" the Secret Service for somehow causing three
accidents in the space of a week and a half. The Service was involved
in precisely one accident -- a horrible accident -- but it had nothing
to do with the process by which Biden is afforded security.
The media might try to find a pattern here, but there is no pattern --
no single strand that links these incidents together, other than
unfortunate happenstance.
Bush's fault. He didn't make the roads safer while in office.
There seems to be a wreck every time Joe Biden speaks. Let's not pick on him for ones that he wasn't even there for.
Biden does much more damage with his mouth than with his car.
I welcome insane allegations like these from the right in that it probably helps the Obama administration politically. It helped Bush when the left made similarly ridiculous accusations and smears against him (e.g., he caused 9/11). It provided distraction from the things we really should have been angry about (e.g., torture). There's 3 levels of criticism: (1) smug, tabloid-style criticism, (2) criticism based on philosophical differences, (3) criticism based on competency. People can't seem to tell the difference. Category 1 might get most of the attention, but ultimately it backfires and takes away from the discourse we badly need in category 2 and category 3. So in that way, I am frustrated with the crazy stuff.
ilyanovich, most excellently said.
Mr. Ambinder: Don't you have better things to do with your time than to defend the driving habits of Joe Biden's motorcades.
How about some even-handed, non-DNC talking points discussion of these Rube-Goldberg-on-steroids health care bills?
Here's an example of mixing category 1 (using exaggeration: "Rube-Goldberg-on-steroids") with category 2 (basic point: "let's discuss health care bills and our philisophical differences"). And let's not forget another category 1 tactic--blaming someone for talking about a crazy thing someone ELSE said!
ilyanovich: Thanks for your comment. However I'm not exaggerating the mind-numbing complexity of these plans with all their unintended consequences and dishonest budget gimmickry. I do confess to great frustration with folks like Mr. Ambinder and Ezra Klein who uncritically accept the pro-Obamacare/Pelosicare/Reidcare health care "re-form."
Thus I'm really not worried whether the Vice President is a traffic accident waiting to happen.
What we need in this country is comprehensive health care reform that can fit on one side on an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper.
Point taken on exaggeration comment. I think my point is our discourse has gotten so toxic that it's almost impossible to have a true discussion on any policy or political viewpoint or politician without denigrading into category 1. There's plenty of blame to go around for this toxicity. (I was obviously snarky in my original reply to you.) But, what JOY whenever there is a political discussion that actual keeps category 1 to a minimum and recognizes the difference between categories 2 and 3 and can deftly handly both in the same discussion? Blissful, wishful thinking, but I can dream.
ilyanovich: Thanks.
......This is a measure of just how juvenile and completely stupid political discourse has become in this country.....I've actually seen some conservative bloggers blaming Biden for the fact his police escorts can't drive straight......we have a media and opposition in this country that has completely lost any sense of proportion whatever.
ottovbvs: Can you provide some links that "some conservative bloggers [are] blaming Biden"?
Elmer_Stoup, as badly as some of the most extreme commentators and broadcasters on the fringe right can irk me, I'm with you on this one -- because the fringe left has its equivalents, so if we're going to call out the "Rabid Right" we need to call out the "Loonie Left" at the same time. Fair's fair. [By the way, I get just as irked with the left as I do the right -- I'm an "Equal Opportunity Mr. Irked"!]