Rebecca Frankel's blog

Who doesn't like the affable, smiley U.S. vice president? Well, maybe lots of people. But you can't deny that most of the time when Joe Biden makes a gaffe there's a harmless, Homer Simpson quality to it. So he mixes up military terms, forgets who was president during the 1929 crash, and sayss Hillary Clinton is more qualified than him to run as VP. He also says things like "Oh, God love ya." I mean, I'd still go duck hunting with him. 

But this latest foot-in-the-mouth, did-he-really-say-that-out-loud comment he made yesterday on NBC's Today Show was worse than a gaffe. It was a serious misstep in leadership. The hysteria and fear gripping the American public is no laughing matter, and those in a position of influence must chose their words -- not to mention their tone, and their demeanor -- very carefully.

In his 100-day speech, President Obama used analogies with horses and barns, reassuring folks there was no need to be alarmed. This was good. Joe Biden telling folks that he doesn't want his loved ones in confined spaces like planes, trains, and classrooms, was the opposite of good. It was bad. 

Swine flu obviously takes the cake, but to mark Biden's 102nd day as vice president, here are his four other biggest gaffes.

"First Mainstream African-American"

In 2007 Biden called Barack Obama the first "mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," adding, "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

There's no taking this one back, and a host of people jumped all over him, but Biden issued an apology, and went on to become Obama's No. 2. No real harm, no foul. 

"You cannot go to a 7-Eleven..."

Definitely closer to offensive with this gaffe. While discussing the great support he had among the Indian-American community while on the campaign trail in 2006 Biden made the following comment: 

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."

Perhaps his enthusiasm got the better of him. A spokesman for the then-senator clarified with this statement:

The point Senator Biden was making is that there has been a vibrant Indian-American community in Delaware for decades. It has primarily been made up of engineers, scientists and physicians, but more recently, middle-class families are moving into Delaware and purchasing family-run small businesses..."

Oh, so that's what he meant...

"Mark My Words" & "Gird Your Loins"

At a Seattle fundraiser in October 2008, Biden painted a rather grim picture of what lay ahead for his then-running mate, saying:

Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.... We're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

The snakes in the grass he listed were Russia and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Six months later, he doesn't seem like a crazy fortune teller after all.

"Barack America"

In August of 2008, Biden was making introductions at a campaign rally in Illinois when he had this silly little slip of the tongue. More of a "doh" moment than a true offense. 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Got bad times? Get big think.

At the core of FP's May/June issue -- and it's our biggest issue ever -- is the idea that the worst of times, can produce the best ideas -- ideas, we offer you in the The Next Big Thing. Here's a quick sampling: Resilience not stability; A new dark age; a poor continent rising; human engineering. 

Anyone out there been clinging to your dog-eared copy of Das Kapital? This issue's rosy-red cover story offers vindication to the true believers -- Marx's critique of ever-fluxing capitalism deserves ra new look at this time of global financial crisis.

What not to miss: Think Again: Green Economy, Robert Kaplan's "The Revenge of Geography," and the Post's David Ignatius talks about the Davos drama in detail here for the first time. 

We've also extended and revamped an old favorite, In Box. Think you know which philosophers are the reigning heavy weights in Russia? What Strobe Talbott has to say will surprise you. Our own Joshua Keating offers a status report on the world's most hyped architectural projects and a new way to look at coups.

Enjoy!  

Preeti Aroon

"Scholars on the Sidelines," by Joseph S. Nye Jr. in the Washington Post. Referencing FP's "Inside the Ivory Tower," Nye argues that American academics are "paying less attention to questions about how their work relates to the policy world" and that more scholarship should have "real-world relevance."

Elizabeth Dickinson

David Gardner asks a provocative question in this weekend's Financial Times: Is the West's fear of political Islam condemning the Middle East to a generation of poor leadership? Political Islam is the new communism, he argues; the United States fears it so much that it prefers despots to even the most moderate Islamists. The Middle East, by implication, might be going through the same bout of poor leadership that afflicted Latin America and Africa as the Cold War contest played out in their regions.

Rebecca Frankel

"War By Any Other Name." Joe Queenan takes a look at the ripples of the Obama administration's "semi-official" move to revamp the vocabulary for "the war on terror" and the attempt to distance itself from the Bush administration's "fierce" rhetoric. Money quote: "From now on, the bad guys will be referred to as 'the ostensibly malefic.' We'll get back to you when we have a new term for 'the good guys.'"

(Bonus pick: Presidential Pets. Couldn't resist...)

Britt Peterson

Walter Benn Michaels's essay "Going Boom," in the February/March issue of Bookforum. According to Michaels, boom time for markets is bust time for literature, which turns back to unhappy but irrelevant periods of the past when there's not enough drama in the present day (the 1990s-2000s spike in popular fiction about the Holocaust), or focuses boringly inward (the memoir, anything Oprah's Book Club recommends). But, during an economic collapse, Western novelists will have enough material to deal relevantly with the present, and financial crisis fiction will blossom. (Hat tip: Paper Cuts)

Annie Lowrey

U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag blogs that crime has fallen in New York City during the recession. Indeed, Orszag says economic bad-times tend to spur property crimes, but not violent crimes. "One reason may be that alcohol use tends to decline during recessions (another potentially surprising finding), and that the reduction in alcohol use reduces violent crime," he notes. (Hat tip: Tapped)

Andrew Polk

Nouriel Roubini puts a brake on all the sanguine predictions for China’s 2009 recovery prospects in a report titled "Outlook for China's Economy in 2009 and Beyond." In the analysis, Dr. Doom tells investors not to get ahead of themselves, as the Chinese economy has not seen a true rebalancing toward domestic consumption, but he also notes one major positive: The country's trade surplus might finally be shrinking.

Greg Shtraks

Today's big story on the high seas are the Somalian buccaneers, but the future of naval warfare may be developing in another part of the Indian Ocean. While India is taking measures to protect its vulnerable coast from terrorist attacks, China is preparing to make a major announcement at the 60th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) on April 23rd. Writing in Time Magazine, Howard Chua-Eoan describes the brewing naval rivalry developing between Asia's two aspiring superpowers. 

In the aftermath of the earthquake that's killed at least 250 people and displaced a total of 28,000 from their homes (17,000 of whom are taking refuge in tents and group camps, some even sleeping in their cars). And in an attempt to offer...comfort, Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has gone and stuck a big old boot in his mouth, again.  

While touring makeshift shelters in L'Aquila, the city most devastated by the quake and its aftershocks, Berlusconi remarked: 

Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping."

Yes, there's merit in the sunnier outlook of "when you have lemons make lemonade," but Berlusconi's comment -- made as rescuers continued their desperate search for survivors -- was grossly off color. 

Though the prime minister did change his position on accepting foreign aid, saying that other countries would be welcome to help rebuild cultural sites.  

Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

Elizabeth Allen

Those interested in Darfur should check out this profile of the lead prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, from the World Affairs journal. The article's authors, Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, go behind the scenes to explore the politics (and political jockeying) of Ocampo's legal pursuits, including the case brought against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, including quotes from FP's recent interview of Ocampo.

Preeti Aroon

China High: My Fast Times in the 010 -- A Beijing Memoir, by ZZ. This book is a testosterone-charged memoir written by a Chinese-born, U.S.-educated, Beijing-based lawyer/entrepreneur known simply as ZZ. The tale is filled with sex, drugs, motorcycles, nightclubs, and scandalous Mandarin cuss words.

Elizabeth Dickinson

Writing in the New York Times, Jeffrey Gettleman (a recent FP author) reviews Gerard Prunier's Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe. Prunier is one of the Congo’s longest and most astute observers. Tracing the continent's most devastating conflict -- which has left more dead than any war since WWII -- his task is daunting. But I, for one, will be reading. 

Rebecca Frankel

In the Weekly Standard, Harvey Mansfield wonders: In a global recession, is the overly predicted life worth living? It is a well-timed question. Mansfield argues that "in the present financial crisis" it's the economists who have "so far escaped notice." Perhaps it's high time we "abandon the crude positivism that claims that one can study facts without giving advice, or that one can confidently predict without causing people to believe in one's predictions."

Greg Shtraks

According to Yasheng Huang, democracies are "peaceful, representative -- and terrible at boosting an economy." In his article for FP last year, Huang argued that the economic part of this hypothesis does not apply to today's India. But what if the inverse of this theory is true? In an editorial for The Atlantic, Robert Kaplan explores Narendra Modi, a rising star in the "Hindu-chauvinist" Bharatiya Janata Party and chief minister of the province of Gujarat, the economic powerhouse of northwest India.

RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images