Biden; Forced Down, Forced Out?
Sep 23, 2008 Political
Joe Biden has been embellishing a story just a little bit and that story is that his helicopter was forced down in Afghanistan. While I suppose that we would technically call it forced down, the reality is that it landed because of weather. So, if I stretch it, the weather forced it down. But I guess it does not sound as heroic to say our helicopter was forced to land because the weather turned bad. That shows that a pilot had good sense and took care of his ship and his passengers. It is much more glamorous to say that it was forced down leaving the impression that Russian Migs, Ack Acks, missiles, small arms fire or even a mechanical malfunction had literally forced the helicopter down and that Biden was in real danger.
This is the line of thinking that makes it more glamorous to say that “I landed under sniper fire after the pilot spiraled in like a corkscrew and then I ran for cover” than to say “we had an uneventful landing and a band and school children greeted us and then we walked to a car and were driven away.”
Joe Biden has mentioned being forced down one other time and he did so again today at a National Guard conference in Baltimore. John McCain spoke there yesterday and there is no doubt the Guardsmen respected him and honored his service. It was also obvious that he was comfortable there. Biden had to follow that and try to make people believe he has some relevance. McCain is a war hero so Biden had to embellish a story in order to sound like he can connect with the troops.
In reality, the conference went from hero to zero.
I think the troops noticed that as well.
Rumor has it that Biden will be replaced by Clinton after the VP debate because of a previously undisclosed illness. I don’t think it holds much water but the left is awfully uncomfortable with Palin. Biden’s daily gaffes are not helping. I guess it is likely he will no more be forced out than he was forced down.
Will they force him out?
Tags: biden, embellishment, forced landing, helicopter