Vice President Joe Biden and Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at the Progressive Governance Leaders' Summit today in Vina del Mar, Chile. (Photo by Martin Bernett / AFP / Getty Images.)
by Mark Silva
The world doesn't have the United States to kick around anymore - or at least, to us, that's what it would appear that Vice President Joe Biden was saying in Chile today.-- with Biden suggesting that the U.S. is now willng to collaborate with the rest of the world, but will also insist that everyone follow "the rules of the road.''
Biden, addressing the opening of The Progressive Governance Conference in Vina del Mar, Chile, today, spoke of the Obama administration's wide-ranging agenda.
"We are aggressively attacking a full set of challenges that are facing our economy,'' Biden told his international audience. "We expect the recession to end later this year. But .. employment will lag far behind. We're still going to have a very, very difficult circumstance in our country -- and most of our countries -- even when the GDP begins to grow again, as it hasn't in our country. We're technically in -- not technically, in fact, in recession. So unemployment is likely to continue rising.
"At the same time, the most important thing we can do during this whole process -- and it's going to begin at the G-20 (summit of major economic powers next week) -- is to reset the rules of the road, to have common sense oversight that keeps us from getting back into the same spot we're in 10 years from now,'' Biden said.
"President Obama and I sought these offices because we had a fundamental disagreement with the policies of the last administration,'' Biden said. "We don't question the motive of the last administration -- we question seriously their policies. And it's a little bit like that old metaphor -- it takes a while to turn around a super-tanker. We are moving as rapidly as we can to change the direction of our country and our policies, but we're going to have to ask -- and we don't expect to get it, but we have to ask for a little bit of patience as we move forward....
"We genuinely want to be collaborative. We genuinely want to engage in consultation. We genuinely want to know what others think,'' he said. "We do not look to ourselves as the engine to solve the problems; we only look to ourselves in joining you to jointly solve the problems...
"But... we do need rules of the road. We acknowledge that. And we will play by the rules. But one of the things I would say to all of us is when the rules are broken don't just expect us to enforce the rules. Let me say that again -- when the rules are broken, as they repeatedly are, we are reluctant, as an international community, to enforce the rules, whether they be in Iran or whether they be in other countries in the world.
"One the rules are set, we will abide by them as part of the effort to draft them, but when they're broken there's a need for all of us to step up,'' he said.
"And so the good news is there's a change. The bad news is, for you all, there's a change,'' Biden said to laughter among his audience. "Te very good news is that we're willing to, and want to collaborate. The bad news is that you don't have the last administration to use as an excuse.... for non-action.''
Comments
The rest of the world agree's with 3/4 of the American people - it's great that the shoot first, ask questions later neocon warmongering Republicans have been kicked to the curb, where they belong!
What we've seen over the past 8 years is what we see with every new President - an "attitude" about our culture that becomes part of the public conscience. With Nixon came years of cynicism. With Reagan came the culture of political correctness and renewed jingoism and with Bush?
Well, Bush gave our culture the gems of his socio-pathic personality - lack of curiosity, fear in black and white, and most profoundly the lifestyle of a spoiled little rich boy (buy now, don't worry about the credit card. It'll all work out). For Bush it was easy. Every dumb financial decision he ever made his family or friends bailed him out of. He even ran our country that way, spending us into oblivion and keeping any wall street regulation at bay.
So what has the era of Bush/Republican given us? An economy that is worse than when he began office. A population out of work or fearful of losing their jobs and an economic collapse that could have been prevented.
But don't expect that kind of bleak picture from the true believer Republicans because even in the darkest hour of this Republican disaster we've inherited, it's always someone elses fault. The Republican psycho's actually want us to believe that the mess they made must somehow all be Obama's fault. He has been in office two months now, you know!
Posted by: Dissent is Patriotic = RNC Bruce | March 28, 2009 6:53 PM
Intn'l War Crimes Prosecutions for Bushie Republicans? - Yes They Can!
The NYTimes has just published a story announcing that "a high-level Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation against six former Bushie Republican administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, on whether they violated international law by providing a legalistic framework to justify the use of torture of American prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.
The six Bushie Republicans, according the account, are Gonzo, Feith, Addington, Haynes, Bybee, and Yoo. A very good place to start. The investigative judge who has referred the case to the prosecutor is the same courageous man who indicted Pinochet.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?_r=1&hp
Posted by: Xena | March 28, 2009 7:54 PM
What is it with the references to ships representing our economy. I keep thinking of the Skipper and Gilligan running things.
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I wonder how old Joe the Gaffe Machine will answer this request:
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/968075.html
Posted by: Terry | March 28, 2009 8:07 PM
What in the tarnation was he talking about? I would have kicked him right out of that meeting with that nonsensical talk that said absolutely nothing.
Posted by: luigi giotti | March 28, 2009 10:25 PM