Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Biden at Kopp’s Custard Stand

Joe Biden got a free custard and some unsolicited political advice.

James Joyner
19

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It must be a slow news day:  The top story on memeorandum involves Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to a custard stand.

Milwaukee’s WISN reports:

Vice President Joe Biden noshed custard and chatted with employees and customers during a visit to a popular suburban Milwaukee restaurant.

Biden, who was in Milwaukee on Friday for a fundraiser for Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, rolled up his sleeves, put on a paper hat and made cones behind the counter during a brief stop at Kopp’s Frozen Custard in Glendale.

The flavors of the day were chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Biden made a vanilla cone sprinkled with chocolate flakes for himself and a bowl of chocolate custard with a vanilla wafer for Feingold. He took no questions from reporters.

Hmm.  Not even a human interest story there.

But Jim Hoft and John Hinderaker have the scoop, so to speak.

Hoft:

Smokin Joe ordered a custard at a popular custard stand in Glendale during one of their stops. When Biden asked Kopp’s Frozen Custard stand owner how much he owed him, the owner responded, “Nothing, just lower our taxes.”

[…]

Biden told the small business owner, “Say something nice instead of being a smarta$$ all the time.”

Hinderaker has a lengthy analysis, much of which is unreadable because ad advertisement is wreaking havoc with the video’s placement, as to why lower taxes would help unemployment.

But something doesn’t compute here:   If the business owner wants his taxes lowered, why is he hosting a campaign event for Russ Feingold? His views on the matter are rather well established at this point.

At any rate, the more interesting news of Biden’s campaign swing with Feingold is this:

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.”

Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost.

“We inherited a godawful mess,” he said, adding there was “no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost.”

I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to keep blaming Bush for the situation.

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19 responses to “Biden at Kopp’s Custard Stand”

  1. JKB Avatar
    JKB

    So to paraphrase Biden: You elected us because you hoped we could change the decline that started in 2008. Well, we can’t.

    In this time of economic struggles, a Great Recession, if you will, we got nothin’. Vote for our friends.

  2. G.A.Phillips Avatar
    G.A.Phillips

    ****If the business owner wants his taxes lowered, why is he hosting a campaign event for Russ Feingold?*** um, because he is a rich dumb liberal?

    But I do think Biden has found his true calling:)

    And I guess that Obama is coming to my little town of Racine, maybe he might find his true calling at O&H bakery flipping Kringle dough……

  3. AllenS Avatar
    AllenS

    James Joyner: “But something doesn’t compute here: If the business owner wants his taxes lowered, why is he hosting a campaign event for Russ Feingold?”

    From the article: “Vice President Joe Biden noshed custard and chatted with employees and customers during a visit to a popular suburban Milwaukee restaurant.”

    What doesn’t compute Mr. Joyner are your reading comprehension skills. Notice that the article said “during a visit to a”.

    Question: Are you part of the Journolist?

  4. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    Allen: Read the very next paragraph:

    Biden, who was in Milwaukee on Friday for a fundraiser for Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, rolled up his sleeves, put on a paper hat and made cones behind the counter during a brief stop at Kopp’s Frozen Custard in Glendale.

    Unless this is some odd sort of do-it-yourself custard stand, this means that he was invited by the owner to be there for a photo-op and meet-and-greet.

  5. AllenS Avatar
    AllenS

    You said: “put on a paper hat and made cones behind the counter during a brief stop”

    Nowhere in this article does it say, Biden was invited by the owner. Nowhere. You are projecting what you want to see. I’ll say it again, nowhere in this article does it say that Biden was invited to the establishment. You, and only you came up with that.

    Were you part of the Journolist?

  6. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    Nowhere in this article does it say, Biden was invited by the owner.

    I’m inferring this from Biden being behind the owner’s counter, scooping the owner’s custard, and wearing a paper hat.

    Were you part of the Journolist?

    Nope. I was never invited, never asked, and wouldn’t have met the eligibility requirements.

  7. Steve Plunk Avatar
    Steve Plunk

    Biden needs to quit slumming with the little people.

  8. AllenS Avatar
    AllenS

    Originally you said: “why is he hosting a campaign event” to: “scooping the owner’s custard, and wearing a paper hat” so I guess we’ve made some progress.

    Think about this, maybe the owner just wanted to get close to Biden so he could let him know that his taxes were too high. In other words, the owner did not host the event, but allowed Biden onto his property to tell him what he thinks. Are you surprised then, that Biden would call the man a “smart ass”? I guess the owner had it coming. Right?

    I live close to Oscela, WI. The Polaris factory announced a couple of weeks ago, that it is closing down and moving to Mexico. 500+ jobs are going to be lost. We have a Dem. Governor, two Dem Senators, and representing the 7th district of WI is Dem Obey. A Dem POTUS, the Senate majority is Dem, and the House also. Is it too much to ask that a citizen who owns a business in WI, or anywhere else for that matter, would confront the VP and express their view that taxes might be the cause of this? Without you trying to find some kind of excuse?

    You said: “I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to keep blaming Bush for the situation.’

    I’ll answer that. As long as he’s the VP, and Obama is the POTUS.

  9. AllenS Avatar
    AllenS

    Osceola

  10. Gerry W. Avatar
    Gerry W.

    We have globalization and no one is doing anything about it. It has been going on for some 30 years. Tax cuts alone will not solve this problem. We have to get away from failed ideology and do something different. We cannot compete with 2 billion cheap laborers. The jobs are gone and they are not coming back. Cities and states are helpless with 2 billion people who want our jobs at wages of a dollar an hour. We lost our textiles to Hong Kong. We lost most of our steel, autos, and electronics to Japan. It is first cheap labor and then they take the industries. And we are losing the middle class. Instead of ignoring our problems, we need to attack them. You need to invest in your country, in your people, and in the future. It takes time. It will take 10 to 20 years. We will lose a generation or two without jobs, while the more tech savvy younger people will adapt. It is a sad situation and we saw it years ago and no one has done anything about it. And this is a “Godawful mess that we are in.”

  11. DavidL Avatar
    DavidL

    Vice President Joe Biden sassing his employer. Sounds lke insubordination to me. What say you Stanley?

  12. An Interested Party Avatar
    An Interested Party

    I’d be curious to know what this man’s tax rates have been over the past few years…are they higher now than they have ever been? Or was it just “all in good fun” to take a stereotypical swipe at the vice-president? As for all those Wisconsin locals who might complain how thing are just so horrible now that Dems are represented among their governor, senators, and local representatives…were jobs not leaving in droves when Republicans held all these positions? Was it the land of milk and honey in those times? As Gerry W notes above, globalization means that a lot of manufacturing jobs that existed in places like Wisconsin are gone and will never come back…I would think that workers in such places will never be able to compete with workers in places like China on a corporation’s balance sheet, no matter what the tax rates are…

  13. Smarta$$conservative Avatar
    Smarta$$conservative

    The problem with “losing a couple of generations” of jobs with the government being the provider instead of the private sector is that it doesn’t give our kids the opportunity to craft their own path to wealth…They’ll be stuck with a low-end government-mandated path to mediocrity,,,

  14. Gerry W. Avatar
    Gerry W.

    Yes. I agree. But if we keep losing private sector jobs due to globalization. Then what is the answer? We are giving away our jobs and then the conservatives say we need to create jobs in the private sector. Fine with me, but we lost 2 to 4 million jobs to third world countries. So what will take the place of the jobs we lost?

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/whirlpool-to-shut-indiana-plant-cut-1100-jobs-2009-08-28
    http://www.nysun.com/comments/60366
    http://www.toledoblade.com/assets/pdf/TO51488727.PDF

    So, what will replace these jobs?

  15. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    If anyone watched either of the videos in this post, they both said it was the manager, not the owner of Kopp’s, who Biden was talking to.

    Watch the second video, linked in the post, which is more complete, and you can actually hear the comment and see it delivered. Seems pretty clear it was in a sarcastic tone and the manager didn’t take any offense to it. The internet on the other hand…

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