joshwoodzy wrote:

Ghandi wrote: I watched them replay this on CNN. Biden put his head away from the crowd and probably assumed he was out of the mic's range. He simply wasn't. End of story. It was never meant to be heard and they often exchange words a lot over the applause at all events. This is no big deal. Actually it's a big fucking deal!

Dammit, beat me to to it!

UsaSatsui wrote:

It's not even the dumbest or most embarrassing thing ever said into a mic. "The bombing begins in five minutes", anyone?

That was awesome, and that was a joke. Politicians are supposed to be eloquent, not gutter sluts. The fact that that was the most eloquent thing that Biden could think to say at that moment is just plain sad. He's pathetic, and only slightly less pathetic than Palin.

UsaSatsui wrote:

I will give you that, but it was not something he intended to say in public, and really, is it ever wise to broadcast "we're gonna bomb the shit out of another country" when you're the leader of another one, even as a joke? I'm amazed he got away with that, honestly.

The Reagan gaffe came during a mic check in 1984. From Brezhnev's death in November 1982 up until March 1985 when Gorbachev became General Secretary, the USSR was on autopilot. Short of firing missiles at the Kremlin, there was nothing Reagan could have done during that period to provoke the Soviets, because internally, there was too much disarray for them to care about anything beyond their own problems.