NEWS BLOG (WSAU)  I’m going to offend you to make a point. I’m sorry.

Suppose I was giving a speech at the Young Latino High School Scholarship dinner. And I told the crowd of Hispanic graduates and their families, “cutting funding for education is like releasing piranhas into the Rio Grande while you’re trying to swim across.”

Imagine I’m at the Jewish Community Center’s charity luncheon. In my speech I say “cutting military support for Israel would be like turning on the crematorium ovens.”

Or telling the Japanese-American Friendship Rally that “…adding new tariffs on foreign goods would be like bombing Hiroshima all over again.”

Offensive. Yes?

Yet when Vice President Joe Biden was describing his political opponent’s economic positions, he told a mostly African-American audience that the proposal would “… put ya’all back in chains.”

It’s not the first time. During the primaries in 2007 Biden described Senator Barack Obama as “articulate and bright and clean and a good-looking guy”

Some will say this is a tempest in a teapot. Or it’s just the way Biden is – a man who rambles or bumbles when he’s off-teleprompter. That’s the point. In his unscripted moments, Joe Biden looks out at a partially-black audience and a slavery metaphor is the off-the-cuff line that comes to mind. No different than when Barack Obama strays from his prepared remarks and gives us a “you didn’t build that” moment.

Sometimes the words we say when our guard is down reveal a lot about us. Joe Biden's words have revealed that his mind goes to a disturbingly-dark place rather easily.

Chris Conley
8/15