Big drip Joe Biden fails to make a splash in Watertown

Texas for Sarah Palin ^ | Monday, November 2, 2009 at 5:01 PM | Josh Painter

[Josh Painter]

Joe Biden drew a pitifully small number of people to an Owens rally on th eve of a special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District Monday, prompting the Weekly Standard's John McCormack to title his first blog post from the Watertown event "Biden Packs 'Em In":

"There are maybe 250 people gathered (50 of them are with the media); Watertown has a population of 30,000. The event is open to the public--no one needed a ticket to get in--but the room is only about 65 percent full. The turnout suggests that Joe the Vice President might not connect with working class voters (the kind who populate Watertown) as much as the White House believes he does."

In contrast, Sarah Palin attracted a warm and enthusiastic crowd of 20,000 to Auburn, New York (a town with a population of 27,317) last June.

In a subsequent posting, McCormack reports:

There are signs that Biden may be a toothless attack dog. He was only able to fill a small venue to about 60 percent of its capacity, and a new poll released by Siena college this morning shows that Biden is not popular in the district. The vice president's favorable rating is only +4 (41-37 percent); Hoffman's favorable rating is +14 (47-33 percent).

And then there was the content of the speech itself. The vice president's 35-minute speech meandered through childhood recollections -- such as his lifeguarding on Lake Ontario and watching his father leaving Scranton to look for a job in Wilmington -- and attacks on Republicans.

Biden lit into Republicans for not doing anything about global warming, but one of liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava's few conservative positions was opposition to job-killing cap and trade. And as gas prices have begun to rise, Biden decided to pick a fight with Sarah Palin over drilling for oil.

We wonder, how many votes having Biden campaign in the district will cost Bill Owens and the Democrats?

Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!

Stacy McCain has more from Watertown here and here.

- JP

[Recon Dad]

There are signs that Biden may be a toothless attack dog

You could add hairless.

[the anti-liberal]

Are we talking about the ‘former Vice President’ Joe?

[Constitutions Grandchild]

I don’t know anything about Biden and Watertown, but Watertown, New York, is one of the prettiest memories I have of traveling around northeastern US. That and Vermont. Whew! Pretty places.

[skr]

They edited that fast enough, didn’t they?

[the anti-liberal]

We’re talking about the CNN article, right? I think they edited it in about five minutes after it was posted here.

[beaversmom]

[presently no screen name]

Wonder how many showed up just to see him, not so much to hear him. I’m not wired to do that - I’d pull a Joe Wilson - YOU LIE and be dragged out! Thanks for the good news.

[the anti-liberal]

Speaking of editing, that last sentence:

We wonder, how many votes having Biden campaign in the district will cost Bill Owens and the Democrats?

Should be:

We wonder, how many votes will having Biden campaign in the district cost Bill Owens and the Democrats?

[John 3_19-21]

Havent been there in February have ya.

[JPG]

Ahhh, a picture of Sam, winner 3 times of “the ugliest dog in the world” contest. Sam recently died of old age, I think he made it to 17. Butt ugly but possessing a very sweet disposition, according to his owner...nothing like Plugs Biden.

[OpeEdMunkey]

"Biden Packs 'Em In"

Could be worse. Could have been Barney Frank instead of Joe. Think about that headline!

[shotdog]

That must have been some pretty good blow you were consuming. Watertown has passed its prime, to be gentle, and its street/traffic patterns were designed by an ad hoc committee right after a New Year’s party (with no chairman in charge). Empty buildings and trash in the streets abound as do entire streets in need of repaving. Nothing in New England struck your fancy?

otoh, Owens is Biden his time. Joe packed them in. That is to say, about 250 folks attended his rally. Earlier this year in another Central NY city, Auburn, with 10,000 fewer souls than Watertown, turned out over 20,000 for Sarah Palin...two orders of magnitude greater.

[skr]

That’s the one.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

My trip through Watertown was many, many years ago — 1967 to be exact. I just remember how beautiful my country was after being “locked out of the country” by the riots in Detroit, the “Vive Quebec Libre” speech of Charles DeGaulle and how beautiful the lake country of New York looked to me. My country seemed to be paradise at that point.

We passed through Detroit ten hours prior to the rioting. It was a sleepy quiet Sunday morning, as I recall. We stopped for gas and headed on to Ottawa and a day later found ourselves in the middle of civil unrest on both sides of the border.

My father, fearing that my mother and I would be caught in a terrible mess in Ottawa due to DeGaulle’s unpopularity sent us WAY up north to an Native Canadian village. Fortunately, DeGaulle could be persuaded to return to France BEFORE he was sent to his eternal reward and Mom and I could return.

Then, we couldn't come home, we proceeded East and couldn't go near mailboxes in Quebec as they were placing bombs in them. When we hit the “Falls” (Horseshoe and Niagara), and crossed into the US — it was spectacular. Home sweet home.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

You’re right — it was summer and gorgeous. I fell in love. I’m a country girl at heart.

[riri]

Yep, no place like upstate New York those two weeks of summer.

[John 3_19-21]

They didn’t even get 2 weeks this year I’m told.