Free Republic

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) The 2016 calculations of three potential candidates -- two Republicans and a very senior Democrat -- plus big tests for President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filled our Sunday trip around the "Inside Politics" table. 1. Rubio's not in Iowa, but still thinking 2016 Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida skipped the big weekend GOP gathering in Iowa, and some believe Jeb Bush's presumed candidacy makes it hard for Rubio to find his 2016 footing. But Jonathan Martin of The New York Times shared reporting on how Rubio is still very interested in running, and hopeful that perhaps...

**SNIP** In years past, health ills such as infections picked up at the hospital during treatment were just considered the cost of doing business, Biden said. But then people like the founders of the Patient Safety Movement decided these sorts of infections and deaths didn’t have to be. They spoke out. “You’ve broken down the silence,” Biden told the several hundred doctors, hospital administrators and patient advocates attending. He added: “You’ve changed the vocabulary. You’ve changed the mindset when it comes to preventable deaths.” Hospital-acquired infections declined by 17 percent from 2010 to 2013, resulting in 50,000 lives saved and...

President Obama hailed late Saudi King Abdullah, who died at age 90 after a battle with pneumonia, as leading the kingdom “through its emergence as a critical force within the global economy and a leader among Arab and Islamic nations.” “He took bold steps in advancing the Arab Peace Initiative, an endeavor that will outlive him as an enduring contribution to the search for peace in the region,” Obama said of the Saudi plan that would recognize Israel in exchange for concessions including pulling back to pre-1967 borders. “At home, King Abdullah’s vision was dedicated to the education of his...

Vice President Joe Biden was asked about the Patriots scandal Wednesday morning.

It's interesting to hear Obama talk these days. His SOTU was pure bunk, as usual (What did anyone expect?). What this small missive is about is something far different. Obama has sucked the air out of the Democratic room. That's right, Hillary! may be the front runner, but she's far from got the nomination locked up, especially in the wake of 2008, where Obama showed she can be beaten. Naturally, being a Clinton, bygones will not be bygones, and while HW and Bill may be friends, Hillary! will not forget, or forgive. So far, if one looks at the playing...

WILMINGTON, Del. — A man arrested shortly after gunshots were fired near Vice President Joe Biden's Delaware home says police officers beat him up. Fifty-seven-year-old Rock Peters of Hockessin says New Castle County Police officers left him with a swollen nose, rib injuries, cuts on his face and a black eye. Photos that Peters says he took of himself afterward show his face covered with blood and bruises. Police declined to comment.

Vice President Joe Biden is playing the role of President Obama’s pitch man in advance of the State of the Union address Tuesday night, promoting the “free” stuff the White House is offering to build support for the agenda called “DOA” by the GOP. In a State of the Union address fundraising email for the Democratic Party, Biden pushed the promise of free community college and better high-speed internet. He did not mention the proposed $320 billion in taxes the White House is also heralding.

The United States must "repair the breach" between police and the communities they serve, Vice President Biden argued Monday during a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech. "We need to agree in this nation on two basic statements of truth," Biden said during a speech to the Organization of Minority Women in Delaware. "Cops have a right to go home at night to see their families. And two, all minorities, no matter what their neighborhood, have a right to be treated with respect and with dignity. All life matters." In the wake of police killings of unarmed suspects in Ferguson,...

USSS: a vehicle drove near VP Biden's DE home last night and someone in it fired multiple gun shots. Bidens weren't home.

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” couldn’t help but ask Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) about a video, which went viral, of his daughter looking uncomfortable while Vice President Joe Biden whispered in her ear and gave her a kiss on the head during the senator’s swearing in ceremony last week. “I have to ask, cause a lot of people have been speculating about it, does she think the vice president is creepy?” Wallace asked. “No, Chris,” Coons said with a chuckle. “She doesn’t think the vice president is creepy.” To the contrary, Coons went on to say that Biden,...

Democrats for over a century were associated with the American middle class. Working-class voters once believed that Democratic-inspired intervention into the economy – minimum-wage laws, overtime pay, Social Security, Medicare, workers’ compensation – protected their interests better than unfettered free-market capitalism. Republicans often had trouble selling the argument that an unleashed economy and new technology would relegate poverty to a relative, not absolute, condition – something like suffering with a cheap outdated iPhone 4 while the better-off afforded an iPhone 6. Why, then, have Democrats lost the working class – especially white, lower-middle-class voters? There are several obvious reasons. For...

Vice President Biden might not be the only “car junkie” in the West Wing. A trip to a Ford factory outside of Detroit on Wednesday left President Obama drooling over the latest model of the auto manufacturer’s iconic Mustang sports car. While touring the factory, Obama inspected versions of the company’s F-150 pick-up truck and the Focus, a compact sedan that has seen sales spike in recent years. But it was a cherry red Mustang that drew the most attention from Obama, who declared that he needed to get into the car. “This is an American car, right here, this...

Not everyone wants a kiss from uncle Biden. **SNIP** But on Tuesday during the swearing-in for the 114th Congress, it didn't go over so well. Maggie — the young daughter of Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) — was not having it. And it was pretty awesome.

Vice President Joe Biden is famous for his off-beat humor, but when he swore in the new Congress on Tuesday his jokes took on a remarkably creepier tone. When introduced to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch's teenage granddaughter Emily, Biden commented: 'I hope you have a big fence around the house!' The comment was made as Biden posed with the 80-year-old Republican senator's large family, on the day he officially became president pro tempore of Congress. Biden thought the joke about the girl's good looks so funny, he whipped it out again when he met the daughter of freshman Senator Joni...

Last year saw a rapid deterioration of relations between their countries, but on New Year’s Day, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shook hands and expressed their desire for restored ties. The brief, impromptu meeting in Brazil came two weeks after President Barack Obama signed legislation to impose sanctions on Venezuelan officials accused of violating human rights. Days before the sanctions were approved, Maduro had called on all Venezuelans to burn their U.S. visas in protest of “imperialist Yankee” policies. …

I’ve been dismissive of Jim Webb’s prospects for winning the Democratic presidential nomination. But Jacob Heilbrunn’s column on Webb, and Steve’s commentary on that column, made me take another look. On second look, I still don’t see Webb getting very far. Will female Democrats favor Webb — currently in his third marriage and the author of what some might consider a sexist novel — over Hillary Clinton? Not likely. Will African-Americans favor Webb — so proud of his Scotch-Irish heritage — over the wife of “our first black president”? Not likely. Will white southern Democrats favor Webb? Arguably. But he’s...

Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral Saturday of a police officer shot to death along with his partner in a brazen daylight ambush that shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police following a series of high-profile deaths in police custody. Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill de Blasio are expected to speak at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, who was described Friday during an eight-hour wake attended by thousands of police officers from across the country as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

Link to the Live Player to hear Joe Biden's address. Joe Biden's address

Enjoying his vacation in Hawaii President Obama has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to New York to represent the administration at the funeral of slain New York Police Officer Rafael Ramos, in a move some would consider a clear indication of his hostility towards and disdain for law enforcement. To send a loose cannon like Biden to such a solemn occasion, knowing full well that Biden is more than likely going to say or do something truly insensitive or stupid, shows that the president has little regard for the feelings of police professionals in New York and around the country.The...

While President Obama is vacationing in Hawaii, he has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to attend the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, one of the police officers murdered in New York City. “The President has asked Vice President Biden to attend the service for Officer Rafael Ramos and is grateful that the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will be traveling to New York City to attend the service on Saturday,” the White House Deputy Press Secretary said in a statement.

A deadly, hours-long siege of a school in northwest Pakistan ended Tuesday evening with all the Taliban militants responsible killed, at least 130 people -- most of them children -- dead and a country once again grasping for answers after a horrific attack. Six suicide bombers scaled the walls of Army Public School and Degree College in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar around 10 a.m. (midnight ET) intent on killing older students there, according to Mohammed Khurrassani, a spokesman for the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban. These Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at...

Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated that he is slipping deeper into senility this week when he gave a speech swearing that he once violently ambushed an unsuspecting kid who allegedly kicked his sister off of her bicycle. The tale told by Biden bore a remarkable resemblance to a scene in “The Godfather,” in which Sonny Corleone pummels Carlo Rizzi for abusing Corleone’s pregnant sister, Connie.

The courageous ex-Muslim human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently recounted that at a speech in Washington not long ago, she met Vice President Joe Biden. Biden seized the opportunity to tell her that “ISIS had nothing to do with Islam.” Hirsi Ali politely disagreed, whereupon Biden began a lesson in the teachings of the Religion of Peace: “Let me tell you one or two things about Islam.” Unfortunately, Hirsi Ali didn’t hear much of Imam Joe’s Islamic wisdom: “I politely left the conversation at that. I wasn’t used to arguing with vice presidents.” This wasn’t just Joe being Joe,...

In a speech Wednesday, the vice president recalled a moment from childhood when he ‘smashed [the] head’ of local bully—and then threatened to kill him. Vice President Joe Biden said he once chased down a bully on his bicycle, physically assaulted him, and threatened to “kill” him—all in the name of protecting the honor of his sister Valerie. ~snip~ “I remember coming back from Mass on Sunday,” Biden began. “Always the big treat was, we’d stop at the donut shop…We’d get donuts, and my dad would wait in the car. As I was coming out, my sister [Valerie] tugged on...

We started the week with Gruber, apologizing for acting stupidly: "In excerpts of these videos I am shown making a series of glib, thoughtless, and sometimes downright insulting comments," Gruber said in prepared testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday. "I behaved badly, and I will have to live with that…" And apparently so do we – “have to live with that” I mean – as the House of Boner passed the CROmnibus last night. Now our fate is in the hands of Elizabeth Warren.Next, Senator Feinstein acted stupidly by releasing a prosecutor’s brief untainted by any...

  Human Rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled the Netherlands after years of threats from Muslim extremists. Hirsi Ali dared to speak out against radical Islam and the horrific treatment of women in the Muslim world. In 2006 Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to America.Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Malene LauritsenAyaan Hirsi Ali is the author of The Caged Virgin: Holland’s shameful treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.Ayann Hirsi Ali told a reporter recently that Joe Biden tried to lecture her on Islam.The Truth Revolt reported: In a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali discussed the...

Vice President Biden said Tuesday he’ll make up his mind about whether to run for president “at the end of the spring or early summer. "I honest to God haven't made up my mind,” Biden said at a ‘Women Rule’ event hosted by Politico. “I'm confident I'd be in a position to be competitive." "The one thing that moves me — I think that I have the ability to bring the sides together,” he added. Biden’s daughter Ashley appeared on stage with him at the event, and called his potential presidential aspirations a “family decision.”

Speaking to the Saban Forum in Washington on Saturday, Vice-President Joe Biden said that the talks with Iran, which began about a year ago and recently were extended for another seven months, had “brought significant benefits” and slowed down Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. taxpayers shelled out nearly a quarter-million dollars in November, so Vice President Joe Biden could trumpet “diversity” to world business leaders in Morocco and boast that in 2017, “for the first time, Caucasians of European descent like me will be in an absolute minority in the United States of America.” “I’ve … come here to an ancient Muslim nation at the crossroads of Africa, the Arab world and Europe to talk about what it takes for all nations to succeed in the 21st century” the vice president told the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, explaining that educational opportunities, the rule of...

Everybody recognizes the names of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson in connection with the riots in Ferguson. But here’s a question. What was the name of the manager of the convenience store who Michael Brown strongarmed? We may not be able to cite a name, but Joe Biden can put us in the ballpark. ”You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” We know that whatever his name was it was of Indian derivation. The Ferguson Market, where Brown allegedly grabbed a handful of cigars before his deadly encounter with police,...

Vice President Joe Biden backed out from appearing with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine at a memorial ceremony in Kiev on Friday, when the Secret Service determined it “wasn’t a good idea” after a crowd became “unruly,” a pool report said. “When Biden’s motorcade arrived on outskirts of what had become very large and somewhat unruly gathering, many chanting ‘shame’ at Poroshenko. … [U.S.] [S]ecret [S]ervice decided wasn’t a good idea for Biden to wade in,” according to the pool report.

"You know, I think — I think the American people, you know, they're gonna want — you know, that new car smell. You know, their own — they — they wanna drive somethin' off the lot that — that doesn't have as — as much mileage as me." — President Obama on ABC News' This Week. Not exactly a great moment in political oratory. But it's also hard to fathom who Obama could have had in mind when he uttered those words, since the Democratic contenders all are showing plenty of wear and tear.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Martha, let's keep our eye on the ball. The reason I've been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 20 times — I've been up in the Kunar — I've been throughout that whole country, mostly in a helicopter and sometimes in a vehicle. The fact is we went there for one reason: to get those people who killed Americans, al-Qaida. We've decimated al-Qaida central. We have eliminated Osama bin Laden. That was our purpose. And in fact, in the meantime, what we said we would do, we would help train the Afghan military. It's their responsibility...

MOSCOW — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Kiev on Friday condemned Russia for its “unacceptable” military intervention in Ukraine, while exhorting Ukraine’s newly elected government to complete its democratic and anticorruption reforms. During a joint news conference, Mr. Biden urged Ukraine’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko, to form a new government “in days, not weeks,” and to champion economic reforms, promote further economic integration with the West and root out what Mr. Biden called “the cancer of corruption.” “Even if the guns in the east fell silent tomorrow, Ukraine would still face a struggle for its democratic and economic...

Republican bulldog Rep. Trey Gowdy put the kibosh on the idea of impeaching President Obama during a nationally television Fox News interview, telling his broadcast audience that booting the commander-in-chief from his office would open the doors to something even worse —the ascension of Vice President Joseph R. Biden. The Biden-is-insurance joke has been around since 2008, and people saw it as less of a joke back then than they do now, I think. It really does seem like the only way Obama could become more unhinged is if Democrats still controlled both houses of Congress.I'm not sure if...

Joe Biden If the question is asked, “What is the number one reason that any first time presidential candidate really has for selecting a running mate?” a common answer is, “Someone who could step in as president should the need arise.” Although that should be a primary consideration, it is rarely if ever the case no matter which political party one is talking about. In almost all cases an individual is selected as a running mate for one reason and one reason only and that is to help get the ticket elected. It is very simple, if the ticket fails...

GUATEMALA NEWS REPORT TRANSLATION--- Minors in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras will receive refugee status in the United States as of December, according to a plan announced yesterday by the country's vice president, Joe Biden. WASHINGTON DC -The presidents Otto Perez Molina, of Guatemala; Salvador Sanchez Ceren, in El Salvador, and Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, welcomed the news that Biden gave at the forum "Investing in Central America: creating opportunities for growth", organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Biden said that parents who are legal in the US. UU. refugee status for their children who live in the...

A Republican congressman known as a pit bull in Washington said Thursday that he doesn't support the idea of impeachment proceedings against President Obama because winning that fight would elevate the vice president to the Oval Office. 'Have you met Joe Biden?' South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy asked during a Fox News Channel interview. Impeachment talk has swirled around Washington since the president announced that an executive order overhauling America's immigration system is imminent. But some in the GOP see Biden as Obama's hedge against removal from office, since much of his public exposure has come in conjunction with a...

Trey Gowdy said his party can't impeach the president over his threatened immigration overhaul – but only because Biden would become president The folksy Biden wants the top job for himself but Republicans see him as a potentially embarrassing one-man gaffe factory One senior House GOP aide said Biden is 'two floppy shoes short of a complete clown outfit' and Obama's 'insurance policy' Gowdy hinted that impeachment is being dangled by the White House as bait in the hope that the GOP will destroy its own credibility by trying it A Texas Republican congressman and a judge-turned-news-analyst floated the idea...

Elizabeth Warren insists she has no interest in running for president in 2016, but the rich liberals to whom she spoke Thursday afternoon seemed unwilling to take ‘no’ for an answer. The Massachusetts senator got a rock stars’ welcome during a closed-door speech to major donors, one of whom interrupted her by yelling “Run, Liz, Run!”

Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that people in Washington don’t think it’s a good thing to be labeled as middle class. Speaking at the American Association of Port Authorities convention in Houston, Biden reminded attendees of his nickname, “Middle-Class Joe.” “In Washington, that’s not meant as a compliment–it means you’re not sophisticated,” Biden said.

"Every day for the last six years, I ask my staff early in the morning to contact the Department of Defense to get a detailed report of the number of troops deployed, the number wounded, and the number killed.

Many children have imaginary friends. But few of those BFFs are called Joe Biden.... ....Earlier this year, Avery's grandmother, Becky Burke, posted a message on Biden's website, informing him of his littlest fan and their regular 'chats', according to KCCI News 8.... Then, last Wednesday night, she answered the phone - and Biden was on the other end. 'He said, "This is Joe Biden" and I said, "Who the hell is this?' said Ms Burke. 'And he said, "This is Joe Biden", and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I said that to you.”

Vice President Joe Biden misstated the number of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan by 47,000 at a Veterans Day event today at Arlington National Cemetary. Here´s audio of his remarks: "Every day for the last six years, I ask my staff early in the morning to contact the Department of Defense to get a detailed report of the number of troops deployed, the number wounded, and the number killed. Not a general number; the exact number every day," said the vice president. "Because for every one of those warriors there´s an entire family, extended family, back in America that...

The vice president tried to clear the air in an address to Jewish Federations of North America Monday. November 10, 2014 Vice President Joe Biden sought to smooth over U.S.-Israeli relations Monday in an address to the the Jewish Federations of North America. Nearly two weeks after a senior Obama administration official called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a chickenshit" in an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, Biden attempted to play down the scuffles that have characterized the leaders' relationship in recent months. He described the two countries' rapport clearly in his signature, colloquial style. "Like all close friends,...

Having left everything in capable hands here at home,Big Guy departed from Andrews Air Force Base last night for a week abroad in China, Myanmar (sometimes called Burma), and Australia. He thinks they still idolize him over seas. Somebody probably should have briefed him on China’s current sentiment: Obama always utters "Yes, we can," which led to the high expectations people had for him. But he has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters. US society has grown tired of his banality. Bush, who dared to do everything, and Obama, who dares to do nothing, come from...

Ballot propositions and congressional races are sucking up all the political oxygen in the run-up to Tuesday’s elections. They should. Informing ourselves and getting out the vote is critical for the healthy functioning of our democracy. But for an electorate hoping for post-midterm relief from campaign ads and candidate messaging, that reprieve will be short-lived. Soon after the November ballots are tallied, the 2016 presidential campaign will kick in. Hold on for the ride. This early presidential cycle will contrast potential candidates’ differences on government’s role, health care and taxes, but nothing will say “I’m running” more than a foray...

Vice President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address at next week’s AFL-CIO/AFT Summit on Career and Technical Education and Workforce Development.    The Nov. 13 event at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., will focus on the importance of career and technical education (CTE) in preparing K–12 students for both college and career pathways. It also will examine the role of unions as collaborating partners with business, policy makers and local communities to create opportunities that prepare workers for good jobs, raise wages and spur economic development and community revitalization.Scheduled speakers include AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; Snap-On Tools Chairman and CEO...

While he has been kept tucked in the Oval Office and the Democrats have sent Bill and Hillary Clinton out to campaign for Democrats, today, in an un announced interview on NPR the President has said: “ “In this election cycle, this is probably the worst possible group of states for Democrats since Dwight Eisenhower. There are a lot of states being contested, they just tend to vote Republican.” Previously the President said (just before they locked him in the Oval Office): “ “I’m not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that,” Obama said. “But make no...

Fort Lauderdale, Florida (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden isn't buying the growing consensus heading into Election Day that Republicans are poised to take control of the Senate. "I don't agree with the oddsmakers," Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. "I predict we're gonna ... keep the Senate."