Can You Say, "I've Been Punk'd." (Revised)

Joe Biden - Caricature
DonkeyHotey's photostream, flickr

Remember all the jubilation in the "progressive community" after VP Biden's trip to the Coffee Break Cafe in Stuart, Virginia. According to the White House pool report, when a diner there said, "I’m glad you all are not talking about doing anything with Social Security," Mr. Biden responded: "Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security. Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security. I flat guarantee you."

Well, apparently most of us didn't hear "the rest of the story."

Personally, I have been (and still am being) inundated with solicitations from Democratic Party leaning groups, such as Robert Borosage's "Campaign for America's Future." This organization and others are still quoting Biden, as though he is the great defender of Social Security.

Call me a skeptic, but I find it hard to believe that D.C.-based groups have no inkling that a Biden adviser "walked back" this statement on Sunday, August 19.

Here's an excerpt from, and the link to the AP piece, entitled (of all things) "Dems Slam Ryan Over Social Security Privatization," [08/19/2012]:

Last week, Vice President Joe Biden made a more sweeping guarantee during a campaign swing in southern Virginia, telling a customer at a diner that Social Security will not be changed.

"I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security," Biden told the customer, according to a White House pool report. "I flat guarantee you."

A Biden adviser said later the vice president was merely reassuring the woman that her benefits would not be changed. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

Heck, the third paragraph with the "walk back" was only buried 21 paragraphs down.

In my opinion, this is very troublesome turn of events. Bear in mind, it was only weeks ago that so-called liberal members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) wrote the Commission on Presidential Debates to ask that Bowles-Simpson not be discussed during the debates. Now, it it appears that the mainstream media may be complicit in "giving cover" to the VP.

For the past couple of years, I've increasingly found it difficult to trust the reporting of the mainstream media. This simply exacerbates the problem for me.

I'm beginning to think that we're fast becoming a "banana republic," in more ways than I had ever imagined.

“If a dog won’t come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” — Woodrow Wilson