Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday showed the country that election season is in full swing making some pretty incendiary comments about the Bush Administration and Iran . Biden said that during Bush’s presidency the world saw America as the problem and not Iran but since the Obama Administration has made a good faith effort to negotiate with Iran the world can see that Iran is the problem.
Biden said at the Rabbinical Assembly’s annual convention in Atlanta,
“By going the extra diplomatic mile, presenting Iran with a clear choice, we demonstrated to the region and the world that Iran is the problem, not the United States. When we took office, let me remind you, there was virtually no international pressure on Iran. We were the problem, we were diplomatically isolated in the world, in the region, in Europe. We were neither fully respected by our friends nor feared by our opponents. Today it is starkly, starkly different.”
As could be expected conservatives are blowing a gasket over Biden’s remarks.
Biden said Obama’s efforts to engage the Mullahs have also been responsible for the world getting tough on the Islamic Republic.
Biden said,
“That’s why China, that’s why Russia, that’s why Europe, that’s why the rest of the world have joined us in these sanctions, and the president deserves the credit,”
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign said that Biden was being reckless and that he should stop trying to blame America and Americans for all the world’s problems.
Romney’s policy director Lanhee Lee,
“Biden’s reckless statement today blaming America for – of all things – the progress of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, has reached a new low. The problem is not America. It is the ayatollahs who oppress their people.”
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, commented that Biden’s comments were “ridiculous”, saying,
“Iran was the problem then and it is the problem now. It’s foolishly misguided for the vice president to blame anyone or any country other than Iran.”
