Biden: I Don’t “Blame People” For Voting For West Virginia Felon

Daniel Doherty | May 18, 2012 4:55 PM

I presume regular TH readers are well aware of the fact a convicted felon (click here to see his mug shot) garnered 41 percent of the Democratic vote in the West Virginia presidential primary ten days ago. Yesterday, however, when asked about this embarrassing episode, Vice President Joe Biden told a reporter he didn’t “blame people” for voting to nominate a criminal over his boss. But he did, of course, blame someone else. (Via Politico):

When you’re out of work, man, it’s a depression. And a lot of people are still hurting because of this god-awful recession we inherited that cost 8.4 million jobs before we could really get going. And so I don’t blame people, they’re frustrated, they’re angry...

Will the “Blame Bush” mantra ever die? Nobody (I think) denies that President Obama inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression, but at some point the current administration should take some responsibility for the failed economic policies they have espoused and implemented. Granted, I’m not naïve enough to believe they actually will, but does The One’s right-hand man actually think a plurality of West Virginians voted for an incarcerated prisoner because of Bush? That’s certainly what he’s implying. At any rate, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote an important guest column yesterday over at HotAir.com explaining exactly why Democrats in states like West Virginia are jumping ship.

And how does a sitting president lose 4 in 10 votes to a prisoner? By attacking a major state industry.
“A lot of folks here have real frustration with this administration’s stance on coal and energy,” the Chairman of West Virginia’s state Democrat Party explained. “They are frustrated and they are upset, and they wanted to send Obama a message.”

This has the Obama camp scared. In November, they have to win Ohio and Pennsylvania. But both states are also home to voters who earn their living from coal.

So Team Obama is scrambling to hide their anti-coal agenda. The campaign website’s “all-of-the-above” energy plan now includes clean coal, which was conspicuously absent until last week. How convenient.