Senator Joe Biden does it again.

The latest shock from the 2008 campaigns in progress is yet another Senator Biden gaffe in a recent interview with The New York Observer:

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

It doesn't exactly take a genius to identify "clean" African-Americans who lead public lives. Given that we have just celebrated a holiday to honor an articulate, bright, clean and nice-looking African-American, this is a really dumb thing for Senator Biden to say. On the other hand, the mainstream media seems to be focusing on the accusation of cleanliness as being particularly offensive; given Senator Obama's past use of marijuana and cocaine, surely Senator Biden meant that as a compliment.

The interview is also interesting for some comments about Senator Hillary Clinton:

“Are they going to turn to Hillary Clinton?” Biden asked, lowering his voice to a hush to explain why Mrs. Clinton won’t win the election.

“Everyone in the world knows her,” he said. “Her husband has used every single legitimate tool in his behalf to lock people in, shut people down. Legitimate. And she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a place where 100 percent of the Democrats know you? They’ve looked at you for the last three years. And four out of 10 is the max you can get?”

Yes, in the real world, people who "lock in" and "shut down" their opponents by pressing legitimate means to sociopathic extremes tend to be feared and despised instead of trusted and respected.

In case you were wondering if Senator Biden has a chance of becoming President, observe that Henry Kissinger wrote in "Ending the Vietnam War" that:

Senatorial pressures for a speedy retreat from Vietnam were mounting daily. On April 14, the entire Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on the President in the Cabinet Room, the first time this had happened since Woodrow Wilson. Schlesinger and I delivered grim, nearly identical briefings about the military situation and Saigon's prospects. The senators replied that they had not come to discuss Vietnam strategy but to speed the evacuation of Americans and to make sure that we were not delaying it in order to rescue Vietnamese. Giving priority to saving South Vietnamese, they held, would get us involved militarily all over again. Ford tells the story in his memoirs:

The message was clear: get out, fast. "I will give you large sums for evacuation," New York's Jacob Javits said, "but not one nickel for military aid." Idaho's Frank Church saw grave problems which "could involve us in a very large war" if we attempted to evacuate all the South Vietnamese who had been loyal to us. Delaware's Joseph Biden echoed a similar refrain. "I will vote for any amount for getting the Americans out," he said; "I don't want it mixed with getting the Vietnamese out."