POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Biden Defends Remarks

AP ^ | 7/8/06 | LIZ SIDOTI

[mathprof]

Facing criticism, potential 2008 presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday defended his recent remark that "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."

The Delaware senator said his words were taken out of context.

On a recent edition of the C-SPAN series "Road to the White House," Biden is shown in New Hampshire boasting about his support among Indian-Americans.

"I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking," the senator said.

The clip made its way through cyberspace this week and caught fire in Washington, where Biden is known as one of the more long-winded senators.

Visiting troops and officials in Iraq this week, Biden was asked about the comment during an interview with CNN's "The Situation Room."

The senator said he has had an "incredibly strong" relationship with the Indian-American community in Delaware and that his comment was misinterpreted.

"I was making the point that up until now in my state, we've had a strong Indian community made up of leading scientists and researchers and engineers," Biden said. Lately, he said: "We're having middle- class people move to Delaware, take over Dunkin' Donuts, take over businesses, just like other immigrant groups have, and I was saying that ... they're growing, it's moving."

"I could have said that 40 years ago about walking into a delicatessen and saying an Italian accent in my state," Biden added.

[Cobra64]

[TaMoDee]

Hey, Did you see the "Mind of Mencia" on Comedy Channel
when he played an "Indian" 7/11 owner/counter clerk?
LOL all the way!

[Cobra64]

He wouldn't expose himself as the *sshole he is.

Nope. He's just Dunkin fer Donuts.

[ArmyBratproud]

So Biden is defending the use of racism. Typical Democrat.

[ntnychik]

Soooo....just what was the "context?"
I think he said what he said, and would NOT have let a Republican off the hook for the same thing.

[Optimist]

Did you see the "Mind of Mencia" on Comedy Channel when
he played an "Indian" 7/11 owner/counter clerk?

The Simpsons started it with Apu....

[chiefqc]

They may not have been plagiarized, but he's still a moron.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Biden needs to stay away from CSPAN's "Day on the Campaign Trail with _____". Last time he melted down in a campaign year was in 1988 - when CSPAN's cameras covered him, cinema verite style, for a day in New Hampshire. At one point in the portion of his day they had shown - Biden was caught sparring verbally with a teacher in a campaign stop audience. He made claims to have been law review editor and to have earned certain honors while in law school while presenting an "I am better than you are therefore I win" line of argumentation. The problem for Joe was that none of the claims were true. Added to the 60 Minutes scrutiny of the Neil Kinnock speech ("My father was a coal miner...") this pretty much took Joe out of the picture.

[nonliberal]

I saw that episode:

The funniest one was when the guy came in to try to rob Carlos and Mencia had a gun with a laser sight. "Now you have a dot on your forehead too!"