Joe Biden congratulates wrong guy for Boston mayoral win. Who messed up?
Sure, at first glance, it looks like another gaffe, but not Joe Biden's, this time. After all, getting the phone numbers right is what staff are for. At least it's not another story about the inevitability of a former first lady in 2016.
Vice President Joe Biden speaks to the crowd while touring the CSX facility, in N. Baltimore, Ohio, on Wednesday. The night before, he made 10 congratulatory calls to Democrats who won in Tuesday's election, nine of them to the right candidate.
Amy E. Voigt/The Blade/AP
WASHINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden literally 鈥� literally, we tell you 鈥� congratulated the wrong guy for winning the Boston mayoral race on Tuesday night. Son of a gun! What will that old Acela-riding, shotgun-promoting, product of Scranton, Pa., do to get attention next?
Here鈥檚 the story in case you haven鈥檛 heard. Boston鈥檚 new mayor-elect is named Marty Walsh. Minutes after the election returns indicated Mr. Walsh鈥檚 victory, Mr. Biden reached out to pump the guy鈥檚 hand, verbally speaking.
鈥淵ou son of a gun, Marty!鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou did it!鈥�
But it was the wrong Marty. The veep had called Marty Walsh, a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy and the current president of a Boston government relations firm, as opposed to Marty Walsh, the labor activist and state lawmaker who鈥檇 just won the听top City Hall job.
Wrong Marty did not get upset. He鈥檚 used to such mix-ups, apparently. He passed along the phone number of the right Marty, which he had on hand, probably taped next to the phone along with pizza carry-out info.
鈥淲alsh said Biden then jokingly congratulated him for not being mayor,鈥� .
Flip-flop alert! The guy鈥檚 mayor, he鈥檚 not mayor, it鈥檚 good either way? Take a stand, Biden.
Anyway, here鈥檚 our take on this. The mix-up was not Joe鈥檚 fault. Why? Because you don鈥檛 really think he dials his own phone calls, do you?
He is not sitting in the basement man cave of the VP residence at the Naval Observatory with a cellphone, a ginger ale, and the big screen. He鈥檚 in an office somewhere with a list of congratulatory phone calls to make and the White House switchboard all primed to dial the numbers and line them up so Biden can go down the list as fast as possible.
After all, Biden on Tuesday night was the US congratulator-in-chief, to . He made at least 10 phone calls to winning Democratic candidates in state and local races.
Among those he got on the horn was John Lundell, who won the mayor鈥檚 race in Coralville, Iowa.
Mr. Lundell had been targeted for defeat by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political group that gets some money from the billionaire Koch brothers, whom liberals love to hate.
鈥淗e indicated that he was very proud of our city, that we took on the Koch brothers and successfully beat them by such a huge margin,鈥�
Finally, do you think it鈥檚 possible that the whole wrong-Walsh thing was a purposeful mistake?
Think about it. The 2016 race is already starting. Joe needs to get reporters to stop writing about Hillary and start writing more about him. If he鈥檚 going to run, that is.
Biden鈥檚 already got the gabby, regular-guy image. The Walsh mix-up only reinforces that and proves that, if you鈥檙e tired of cool, cerebral presidential types, he鈥檚 your guy.
Literally.