Biden says 'We're not the White Party. Mittens will Put You in Chains'

Unchain Me Joe. Yesterday during a speech in VA, Vice President Biden warned a group of Black supporters that Romney policies would put them ‘back in chains’- as in slavery. While he is correct that the goal of white supremacy is the genocide of persons of color, he probably shouldn't get too carried away with Obama's overwhelming Black & Latino support. Many Black voters support Obama because he is the 1st Black president and because they identify with the daily racism he faces from whites, many of whom are Republican. Such treatment resonates deeply with non-whites because we experience white supremacy/racism constantly. He is treated how we are treated - based on his skin color. Biden should not get this kind of support for Democrats/Obama confused with support that is based on delivering actual tangible benefits to communities of color. Democrats have fallen short in this regard and are the better choice when compared to the White Party and its rabid cavedwellers. However, Democrats may have slid so far to the right that they think providing the bare minimum to Blacks & Latinos is sufficient (not enslaving Blacks) which is unacceptable. As the changing demographics (the shrinking white population & growing non-white population) continue to shape party politics much more should be expected from Democrats than GOTV speeches and symbolism. - bw From [HERE] Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. created a stir Tuesday at a campaign speech in Virginia when he told the crowd that Mitt Romney’s policies would enable the banking and financial sectors to “put you all back in chains.”

The remark came roughly two-thirds of the way through Mr. Biden’s 30-minute speech, which was delivered to a crowd that included many African-Americans at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, Va. “Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,” Mr. Biden said. “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”

On a C-Span video of the speech, the audience does not appear to react negatively to Mr. Biden’s phrasing; indeed, laughter can be heard among the crowd. President Obama and his surrogates have been campaigning heavily in Virginia, and the campaign’s strategy relies in part on energizing the black vote to take the traditionally Republican state, which moved to the Democratic column in the 2008 presidential election. According to the Census, the population of Danville is roughly 48.8 percent white and 48.6 percent black.

After Mr. Biden’s address, some clown Republicans assailed Mr. Biden’s remark. On Twitter, Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, likened the comment to one made by Sarah Palin when she compared critical press coverage to “blood libel,” a term alluding to the false allegation that Jews once killed Christian children to use their blood for religious rituals.

“The press pounded Palin when she talked about ‘blood libel,’” Mr. Fleischer wrote. “What will they do about Biden’s ‘chains’ remark?”

Later Tuesday, both presidential campaigns responded to the vice president’s remarks, with Mr. Romney’s campaign calling the phrasing “not acceptable.”

“After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama campaign has reached a new low,” Andrea Saul, Mr. Romney’s press secretary, said in a statement. “The comments made by the vice president of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election. President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments.”

In a statement, Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, defended Mr. Biden.

“For months, Speaker Boehner, Congressman Ryan and other Republicans have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy. Since then, the vice president has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. Today’s comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families. We find the Romney campaign’s outrage over the vice president’s comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate’s stump speech questioning the president’s patriotism. Now, let’s return to that ‘substantive’ debate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promised 72 hours ago, but quickly abandoned.”

As he concluded his speech, Mr. Biden confused North Carolina with Virginia, where Danville is located.

“With you we can win North Carolina again, and if we do, we win the election if we win you,” Mr. Biden said.

The city of Danville abuts the northern border of North Carolina, which also went for Mr. Obama in 2008 but is considered a more challenging state for his campaign this time around.

At a second appearance on Tuesday, in Wytheville, Va., Mr. Biden said his remarks had merely alluded to a term used previously by Republicans, including Mr. Romney’s running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan. In his response to Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address in 2011, Mr. Ryan said, “We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy and create millions of new jobs and opportunities for all people, of every background, to succeed and prosper.”

“And I’m told that when I made that comment earlier today in Danville, Va., the Romney campaign put out a tweet,” Mr. Biden told the crowd in Wytheville. “You know, tweets these days? Put out a tweet, went on the airwaves saying, ‘Biden, he’s outrageous in saying that,’ I think I said instead of ‘unshackled,’ ‘unchained.’ ‘Outrageous to say that.’ That’s what we had. I’m using their own words.”

“I got a message for them,” Mr. Biden continued. “If you want to know what’s outrageous, it’s their policies and the effects of their policies on middle-class America. That’s what’s outrageous.”

Mr. Romney addressed Mr. Biden’s original remark in a speech Tuesday evening in Chillicothe, Ohio, calling it an indicator that Mr. Obama’s presidency had become “angry and desperate,” according to The Associated Press.