Atlantic Blogger Highlights 'Giveaways' from 'Corporate Sellout' Biden
Even Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s supporters are criticizing the media’s failure to cover the candidate.
Megan McArdle, a blogger for TheAtlantic.com who has said she’s voting for Obama, slammed the media in an appearance on Reason.tv’s “The Talkshow” for not bringing up Sen. Joseph Biden’s past as a “corporate sellout.” McArdle said that was quite relevant when the Democratic candidates try to oppose financial deregulation in campaign appearances.
“And here is where I am willing to say the media is giving Obama a pass on a bunch of stuff that they shouldn’t be … It’s ridiculous that no one is bringing up every time – every time Obama says anything about financial deregulation, Joe Biden’s history should be trotted out and it’s not and I’m not sure why,” McArdle said to host Nick Gillespie.
“I mean, this is the guy who among financial journalists is known as Joe Biden, D-dash-MBNA. He has presided over some of the most egregious giveaways to the financial industry in the history of the nation,” McArdle said.
“It’s another one of those weird Democratic tickets where, like, you’ve got like a really hardcore liberal at the top and let’s just stick a corporate sellout who likes invading places to balance it.”
McArdle, a libertarian, claimed that she would be voting for Obama even though she would “hate everything he does.”
Although the media haven’t been talking about it extensively, The New York Times took a crack at Biden’s ties to bank legislation Aug. 28.
“The financial services industry began seeking relief from Congress in the mid-1990s from an increase in bankruptcies that was cutting into its profits … During that time, executives at MBNA, which was bought in 2006 by Bank of America, began donating heavily to both major political parties and many national politicians, including Mr. Biden.”
The Times also pointed out that Biden voted for the bankruptcy bill in 1998, 2000 and 2001. In 2005 Biden supported it and Obama did not.
Jeffrey Birnbaum, managing editor of digital news for the Washington Times, told National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” Aug. 25, that Biden’s son Hunter rose to the level of senior vice president at one point while working for MBNA and later on did consulting work for them after working in the Clinton administration for a couple of years.
Birnbaum also pointed out that
CNN.com’s “PoliticalTicker” blog quoted Biden Sept. 17 chiding Sen. John McCain at a rally. He told supporters that they had a choice to make between those who allow corporations and the wealthy to go "unfettered” and those who want “common sense rules” to protect transparency.
“Look, if John cares so much about this now, where was he a week ago?” Biden said. “Where was he a month ago? Where was he 5 years ago? I’ll tell you where he was, he was bragging to the folks on Wall Street, to the executives who now he calls ‘greedy.’ He was bragging to them how we’re going to shred the regulation that fetters them, that ties them down,” said Biden.
