Oops! Joe Biden's smart mouth gives GOP more ammo with botched Wisconsin trip

Would you call it a disastrous trip?

Maybe not disastrous, but memorable. You will hear about Vice President Joe Biden's trip to the Wisconsin custard shop many times over the course of the next five months.

The simple campaign-like stop will give conservatives even more ammunition in an upcoming midterm election season that already looks ominous for President Obama.

Walking into a custard shop and asking where the ice cream is isn’t a huge offense.  Homer Simpson would do it.  Joe Biden did that when visiting a Kopp’s Frozen Custard store in Wisconsin on Friday. 

However, it was the follow-up exchange that’s generating a lot of buzz.

After Biden gets his custard, he asks the store manager how much he owes him.

“Lower our taxes and we’ll call it even,” the manager replied.

Biden didn’t acknowledge that.  Refusing to even look at him, Biden turned and....

...walked away from the manager, appearing to just blow him off.

It’s odd that Biden didn’t have something to say because politicians get hit on this all the time. Republican or Democrat, people always tell elected officials they want their taxes lowered.

You would expect a “God love ya, we’re doin’ everything we can to get the economy jump-started again.”

A few minutes later, Biden is caught on video again telling the manager: “Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?  Say something nice.”

The manager went on to tell a local TV reporter that the vice president went up to him later and whispered that he was just joking.  The manager also said, however, it didn’t appear to him that Biden appreciated the comment.

That’s self-evident.  You can pick that up in Biden’s body language. (Of course, being caught on tape using salty language is nothing new for Biden.  He memorialized the president’s healthcare bill signing by saying it was a "big ... deal.”)

Everyone could get a charge of out that, saying that was Joe Biden just being Joe Biden.  But this one’s different.  Telling a voter he’s a "smartass" for requesting lower taxes is something the Republicans can and will use.

One thing’s for sure: The term has just entered the 2010 official election lexicon.

-- Jimmy Orr

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Photo: Screenshot of Joe Biden eating ice cream custard. Credit: WISN

Comments

[Crisco]

Joe Biden is good at one things! Gaffes

[CB]

"Telling a voter he’s a "smartass" for requesting lower taxes is something the Republicans can and will use." - most importantly, you left out "should" from the latter portion of your sentence.

After all - we're the little people - you know the smart-asses!

[stewart]

maybe if Joe had told the guy his friken custard tasted like crap and then yaked it up on the floor would have been a apropos come back for the insolent shop keeper?
The thing that I think many people really want from our leaders is that they be straight shooters, you know like if you come across a smart ass you call him out on it, be he a shop keeper or a bad player on the world stage, the shop keeper got back what he dished out.
Give em Hell Joe!

[Gregory]

This man is a catastrophe with legs and if the Democrats know what's best, they'll keep Biden in the basement of the WH until the mid-terms are over. Everytime he opens his mouth it makes for a cringeworthy news story.

This guy makes Dan Quayle look like Socrates.

[TexasLady]

Good old Joe ,he just never disappoints us.Amazing how he can eat anything ,with his foot in his mouth most of the time.
The manager had every right to comment. His shop ,his custard (not ice cream ,Joe) and his freedom of speech. Joe has a nasty mouth. All of the custard in the world won't clean it up..
Remember in November.

[Randy Turner]

'Joe Bite-Me' just reaffirmed two things we already knew about him:
1. He 'Can't handle the truth"; and.
2. He has to get in the last word against the little guy.
Biden is an embarrassment to America. But we have 'Hope" for a 'Change' in November 2012.
P.S. -- How's that 'Hope and Change' working out for YOU?

[Mike C.]

So now it's insolence to request lower taxes from an elected official? You liberals REALLY do not like to be questioned, huh? But hey neither did Hitler and Stalin. Two other socialists and megalomaniacs.

[bruce]

Joe Biden. The epitomy of ignorance. But considering who the president is he fits right in.

[B.Chillin]

"The thing that I think many people really want from our leaders is that they be straight shooters, you know like if you come across a smart ass you call him out on it, be he a shop keeper or a bad player on the world stage, the shop keeper got back what he dished out." --Stewart--

Seriously, what's so disdainful about the shop keeper asking for lower taxes? As if the Shop Keeper was out of line? He wasn't. Joe Biden agreed to represent the people when he entered his current office. Calling them names like this is unacceptable, despicable, and downright classless! Now, that's straight shooting.

I get tired of our lowered expectations of our political leaders. We don't demand they be professional and upstanding. In my business, if I acted half as casually as Obama or Biden, I'd be out of business. The same should be true of those who serve in more grandiose positions than I do!

Come on Joe...you're the VP of the greatest country in the world...shape up already!

B.Chillin

B.Chillin

[kuruc]

i would like to meet biden, one on one, in a dark alley. the pos would learn the fact of life. OBAMA, dumb; BIDEN, dumber! ameri ca what a country!

[RPrince]

You've got to be kidding me. This is really digging deep to try and find something that doesn't exist. "What do you have to be a smarta..?" and everybody is laughing and being joval? Come on. This is not offensive to anyone. This is a classic case of trying to drive a story to sensational levels in order to draw attention you yourself. In other words, shoddy journalism. You can't even call this journalism.

[rob thomas]

biden,obama?what a joke,total hypocrisy,they can say and do whatever they please,but if we question anything they do.we are the bad guy.sounds like satans agenda to me.vote them out.battle cry,remember come november

[John]

Remember, fall before the feet of our Totalitarian leaders. Besides, that soda jerk more than likely is in a very low tax bracket, if at all, even though he's working and as we all remember, Joe said the more taxes you pay the more patriotic you are, so really soda jerk, shut up, you're hardly patriotic, for starters.

[Paleta Fresca]

Just wait, we're forming a new political party... The Smart-Ass Party.

[zap]

Joe Bite Me is a joke, and the clown who chose him, is just as bad. Common sense left the white house when Reagan left office and hasn't returned since. I would have said, Hey Joe, the ice cream is free, but you own a 200 billion use tax for lying to american for so long due to your inability to remember the facts. The crack head should just put a fork in his eye

[Roger Kastle]

Joe is human after all! The SMART ASS Repulicans will use this for their
smart ass benefit!

Posted by: Ron | June 28, Australia

[yeti]

Incompetent? We don’t need no stinking competence! This administration looks more like a combination of Jimmy Carter and Spiro Agnew every day.

[Orlando]

Joe biden may have embarrased himself yet again, big deal. Some people posting comments are actually saying hes the biggest embarrassement to america, really? Its only a year and a half, and everyone forgot THE biggest most embarrassing IDIOT we, i mean some of us elected. G.W. Bush, hes the heavyweight titleholder and, he set the bar so high that it will be next to impossible for any politician to surpass.....God Bless America!

[Justjean]

Tacky. Try manners class Mr. Biden. YOU are suppose to be a reflection of America and you answer as if a legit statement was beneath you. You are a thorn in America's side.

[Gmohr]

Does anybody remember the remark Cheney made to Leahy on the senate floor? Biden's remark is as much a non-issue as Cheney's.

[Please]

First of all, Biden did NOT just blow the guy off when he mentioned taxes. You see him looking down at his phone and his mouth is moving! He RESPONDED.
Second of all, the manager himself said that Biden was joking around about him being a smarta$$. The manager DIDN'T MIND, so really, I wish the media would stop trying to make a story out of nothing! And I wish other people would learn to take a joke. Biden's a nice guy. He just says what the rest of us are thinking and I can appreciate that. Comes from growing up in a large Irish Catholic family. So what!
Did you guys have a problem w. Cheney telling a member of Congress to go eff himself? Doubtful.

And then we have the ever present "socialism" post. Give it a rest, guys. It's like a broken record and doesn't even make sense. If you don't like socialism then I suggest you stop sending your kids to public school, stop using roads, cancel your Social Security, etc etc etc.

[Please]

Randy Turner> Hope and Change is working out just fine for me, thanks! How's that reguritating everything Sarah Palin says working out for YOU? How much are they paying you to post here, btw?

[Brad]

Are you kidding? Bidden was absolutely correct to call this blowhard for what he was.

If he can't make it, it isn't taxes that's holding him back, it's his own crappy product. If you're going to be successful, taxes are zero impediment.

[Michael]

As I recall, plagiarizing Joe Biden wasn't good enough to run for President twenty odd years ago.

He wouldn't be VP now aside from the fact no one else wanted the job under Obama.

It's a shame the shop owner didn't have the presence of mind to remind this foul-mouthed "public servant" who the boss is by reminding him of his history.

[JM]

Brad, if you think taxes aren't a big factor in whether you can sell a product at a profit and compete in the marketplace, you have obviously never owned a business of any kind or been self employed. Come back and post once you have grown up and pulled your head out of Obama's a55.

[tdub]

Ironic thing that seems to be forgotten by the rabid press and righties with a short term memory loss--------that owner probably DID have his taxes go down this year. Of course, no one is actually researching that.... Instead, it's "a gaffe", a "disaster"...........blah blah blah.

[maybear]

please> a lot of us would love to cancel soc sec, stop sending our kids to public schools, etc. problem is, we are forced to pay for those regardless. socialism: where your choices are a) pay through the ears for crappy services, or b) quit the services, and still pay through the ears.

[Robin Datta]

Too bad the working, taxpaying uS citizens cannot fire Biden line Obama fired McChrystal.

[Don L]

Unfortunately, dissecting that word and applying its first root dirivative applied to the custard shop owner - I won't analyze who owns the last part.

[Tj]

My reply would have been simply:

"Well Sir, better to be a smart one than a dumb one..."

[Wrm]

The guy was being a smartass... Whats the big deal. And whats with everyone decrying high deficits but at the same time asking for lower taxes. Bush proved you can't have it both ways, and in fact lower taxes are why our deficit is "out of control" This is a non-story

[Hugo Daun]

Wow, how desperate for "ammo" must the GOP be if they feel the need to constantly bring up Biden's off-the-cuff remarks?
OMG, the Vice President said a "bad word"!
Ridiculous!

[Sandy]

The ice cream manager was most likely told to keep his comments on the gentle side.
Me? I'd have asked him to pay for the stinking cone and would have charged him Double tax and then asked him how it feels to be raked over the coals for tax money.
Of course, the secret service would have closed me down, post haste.

[RandySpangler]

I guess the fact that he didn't call the manager a "dumbass" was a compliment! It must take a smartass to know a smartass...

[Barry Hussein]

If that store manager is unhappy with how much he is paying in taxes now, just wait for a couple years until the credit card bill for Obozo's gigantic spending binge comes due. Less government services for more money, as the debtor's prison walls being built by our current commander-in-thief are made so high they can only inflate themselves into solvency. That store manager was far more polite than he needed to be to blowhard Biden. Unfortunately I don't trust the Republicans to be one whit less irresponsible than the current criminal regime of Obozo, Pelosi and Reid.

[The Bell]

Joe Biden's an insufferable bozo. Not exactly news, is it?

[Nikos Retsos]

I am really disgusted with Mr. Biden's overflowing with obsenities foul mouth, as I am disgusted with the euphemisms in the U.S. media describing it as "colorful language!" Shall we start to define porn as "colorful videos?"

It used to be that Vice Presidents existed only to attend funerals for foreign dignitaries. But with Mr.
Biden older than most world leaders, he is just collecting dust at the White House, holds Mr. Obama's coat
during press conferences, and usher the president away from the lectern when they are over. Pretty much a boring job for a person with "a bite" to spare.

Now, given the fact that the Honorable Mr. Biden has also a mouth that stinks like a sewer, and given the fact that the white house chief of staff Mr. Rahm Emmanuel is considered an equal to Mr. Biden in the use of profanities at the white, I feel the Republicans should ask the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) to assign this designation to the democratic white house: Thewhitehousewashingtondc.xxx

I think Americans should be outraged by the lack of minimum civility standards by top officials in our government who sound like street punks in a Chicago gang infested street corner! And I believe that we are progressively coming to a stage of political decay in which "The Honorable Mr...." has started to mean "The Obscene Mr....!" Nikos Retsos, retired professor, Chicago

[Kala]

Despite the massive prop up by the Democrat Propaganda Press, Biden's gaffe are non-stop. They try to pass it off as "That's Joe Biden, Ha Ha" what a funny guy. If this was a Republican, the left wing press would have "Dan Quayled" him a long time ago. Remember him, the press vilified him for misspelling.

Despite what the Democrat Press Machine thinks we are not stupid and we also remember what they did.

Now we can google their comments and compare their treatment of people in power. Isn't that the reason we were taught to write term papers, to compare and contrast.

We can recognize lies and sophistry when we see it in print.

[Midwayman]

Joe "Bite Me's" behavior is just another example of the utter contempt with which this administrations views the American People. To come into someone's place of business and call them a "smartass" in response to what was likely just a humorous quip, was rude, arrogant, and condescending. Well, that pretty much sums up this administration. That manager should have told the Vice Community Organizer to get his "smartass" out of his store. Now that would be a fun YouTube Video!

[notmeagain]

Ever heard of a "SENSE OF HUMOR"??????

[Elly]

"P.S. -- How's that 'Hope and Change' working out for YOU?"

It's working pretty darn well! I know that my healthcare costs are going to be affordable in the future, I will never have a mortgage based on phony derivatives, I will be proud to drive a Ford, and...what's next...immigration will be fixed, etc., etc. In 1 1/2 years since Obama/Biden came to power, I have had more change and hope than in the past 8 years.

Who cares about custard? Republicans. That's all they can think of for something to talk about.

[JoeSixPack]

God love him, that magnificant idiot! So who really is saying that Palin would have made a worse VP???

[Cavedave]

General McChrystal was fired for disrespecting the president, whom he worked for. Dit make sensethat Je biden should be fired for disrespecting a tax paying citizen for whom he works?

[Greenspam]

Manger was a smart*ss alright. VP Biden asked him how much he owed, and what kind of answer was "lower my taxes and we will call it even." How much was the ice-cream cone? $5?

Some other smart*ss responses:

1) Bush - "Just pull out of Iraq and we will call it even."
2) Pope - "Just declare birth-control is ok and we will call it even."
3) Palin - "Just stop making controversial and false statements and we will call it even."
4) Pelosi - "Just kill the heatlhcare bill and we will call it even."
5) Joe the plumber - "Just say you lied about your comment about taxes and we will call it even."

The list goes on. Obviously, the business manager was great at trying to make a "political point" but it was a smart*ss answer to "how much was owed"

[stewart]

Good for Joe!

[Jaxenro]

The manager may be a smartass but VP Biden is a dumbass

[HL]

Biden is undoubtedly an ignorant fool, but that is the standard for the Obama regime. What should be offensive about Biden, Obama and the Obamacrats is their arrogance, their belief that Americans exist to work for and serve them, rather than that they, and the government as a whole, is our servant. In November the "smartasses" will begin the process of flushing Biden, Obama and Obamacrats down the overflowing Washington toilet.

[hmrhonda]

Yeah, I bet this guy is going to vote for Feingold after Biden's visit. Way to go, Joe!!!!
I hope the Republicans get lots of mileage out of this one!!!!
Yet another administration campaigning for a candidate "kiss of death".

[Bill Carson]

Honestly, I no longer blame Biden orObama. They known quantities, truly lousy leaders. Now, I blame the American people for sticking like glue to those losers. Obama's approval rating should be far lower than what it currently is. We deserve every new tax hike, every new government power increase, and every last bad thing that happens to us for giving virtually dictatorial power to the Democratic Party. Too bad that I and all the people who were against this have to suffer along with all our weak fellow citizens who thought Obama and the Dems were going to give them something for nothing.

[avery]

And that ingrate even got his frozen custard for free, too.