Black ex-gov of Virginia slams Biden for 'chains' remark

RICHMOND, Va — The nation's first elected black governor, Doug Wilder of Virginia, has lambasted Vice President Joe Biden on national television for his comment Tuesday about banks keeping people "in chains."

Wilder, a Democrat and a grandson of slaves, echoed indignant Republican claims that Biden's remarks before a largely black crowd in Danville, Va., brought racism into the presidential race.

In railing against Republican efforts to undo Obama administration regulations reining in Wall Street after the 2008 stock market meltdown, Biden said the GOP wants to "unchain Wall Street."

Then, Biden added, "they're going to put y'all back in chains."

Wilder said on CNN that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be a better Obama running mate and called on Biden to "cool it, back up" and admit that he was wrong.



Read more: Black ex-gov of Virginia slams Biden for 'chains' remark - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21321232/black-ex-gov-virginia-slams-biden-chains-remark?source=rss#ixzz23g2rfHCe
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Hmm...sort of makes Romney's gaffs pale in comparison eh?

From what was given above, I think its a stretch to say his remarks were in any way racist. That said, it seems like there were some other recent statements by Biden that may well have been.

In all honesty, i think too much is being made about this. I knew biden was talking about being econimically and financially chained, rather than enslavement because of their race.

Sometimes these gaffs should be viewed by both sides as what they are, unfortunate mistakes with no real ill behind them. Biden is just a goober, but probably not a bad person.

Bryant wrote:From what was given above, I think its a stretch to say his remarks were in any way racist. That said, it seems like there were some other recent statements by Biden that may well have been.

I believe it is a stretch to call Biden's recent remarks "racist", but comeon man....why the hell do goofy white boys always feel like that have to mimic black speech patterns when talking to a room full of black people??? I've never understood that and from what my buddies tell me, it is a running joke in the black communities. The term wigger is used in these instances. Of course Biden himself is a joke so I guess it's all good.

Still though, I think all of these "this gaffe is worse than that gaffe" postings are fairly petty. People always make mistakes. It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe in. Someday I hope we quit keeping tabs on these petty mistakes. It will go a long way to healing the political polarization of tUSA.

Dennis; that last paragraph isn't a slight towards you. This is just the topic that I chose to post my feelings in. Seems that most of our political topics lately are nothing but shallow he said/she said stuff.

Marconius wrote: Someday I hope we quit keeping tabs on these petty mistakes. It will go a long way to healing the political polarization of tUSA.

......Seems that most of our political topics lately are nothing but shallow he said/she said stuff.

Well, I wouldn't go holding my breath on that one anyway. The media loves that stuff because it makes ppl angry, and angry ppl tune in more often/buy more newspapers. The politicians love it as well even though they always act shocked and annoyed, because when they're talking about this stuff they don't have to actually try to talk about inconvenient stuff like their policies or where they stand on the actual issues. That way, people don't have to find out that (a) they have no policies/standpoint on issue XYZ (b) If they do have a policy/standpoint then it's all wishy-washy soundbites which don't have any bearing on actual reality. The people love the petty bits because hey, who doesn't love a good bitchfight? Plus, if the politicians actually talked seriously about real issues, then people might have to actually sit down and engage their brains once in a while to see whether or not they like what the politicians are saying. And what's the old saying, "if you make someone think they're thinking, they'll love you. if you make them actually think, they'll hate you". Is a lot easier to sit back and watch the latest escapades on the X Factor/Jersey Shore, and if you want to pretend to be thinking, just turn on your cable news channel of choice and let the talking heads there tell you whether to be happy or sad.