Oct 09 2008
Nit-picking gone mad: Biden and Katies Restaurant
If theres one thing I absolutely cant stand it is nit-picking about mundane details.
Since the Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate in the USA bloggers and political pundits have been combing through the transcript and the telecast to try to out either or both of the candidates as liars. I have no objection to criticising the debate according to political positions and party policy but I found the bar had been set a little too low when I read Anne Coulter griping about Katies restaurant.
“If Sarah Palin had made just one of the wildly inaccurate statements smugly uttered by Sen. Joe Biden in last week’s vice presidential debate, there would have been 3-inch headlines in newspapers across America.”
“It turns out that Katie’s restaurant, where Biden gets his feel for the average American, closed 20 years ago. The only evidence that he spends any time in Home Depot is that it appears that a pipe wrench fell on his head one too many times.”
“Palin would surely have been forced to withdraw from the ticket had she said something like that…”
And its not just Anne, if you Google “Biden + Katies” thousands of entries come up with angry people claiming that Biden’s supposed lie is indicative of his dishonest nature and dubbing the episode “The Restaurant To Nowhere”. I find it all completely absurd, and I cant believe I cant believe anyone would compare Biden’s off-the-cuff remark about landmarks in his local neighbourhood to the State of Alaska wasting countless millions of dollars on “The Road To Nowhere” and “The Bridge to Nowhere” . . . it is out of proportion and a complete over-reaction!
Let me show you what Joe said:
“Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington and go to Katie’s restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years.”
Now let me show you where Joe is talking about:
So Union St is the main street and the old Katies site is just off Union - it would be reasonable to presume that many people walk down Union St on their way to the old Katies site - it would be reasonable to say Biden does infact WALK DOWN Union St on his way to Katies. It is generally acceptable to refer to the more major street in a locality rather than the side streets. So whats the big deal? I dont believe he stated an exact address for Katies just a general direction. This is semantics at its most tedious!
In the town where I grew up there was an outlet of a major supermarket chain on the corner of my street and the main street, it was called BiLo, it had been a BiLo probably since before i was born, but when the local residents from my parents generation were kids it was owned by an independant grocer and the store had the name of the man that owned it at the time. Even though the store was renovated and well-established as a BiLo in the 80s all the older people still to this day refer to it by a different name. I cant even remember what the name of the old owner was, but lets pretend it was Katie, even though all the signs said BiLo half the town still referred to it as Katies.
So everyone thinks it is such a scandal that Joe Biden would call Wings To Go (the current name) the historical site name of Katies. Oh it closed 20 years ago! Oh what a sensation! Look how old Joe Biden is! Geez have a bit of common sense people. Imagine how old the local people are that he would socialise with, converse with, and interact with! When the current owners opened a franchise of Wings To Go on the Katies site the locals unofficially called it Wings To Go @ Katies because it was a popular landmark from when they grew up!
Disgruntled blogger Ed Morrissey phoned a nearby restaurant Kosy Corner and grilled the man who works there, Nick Douras the welcoming Greek, about how long Katies had been closed - who cares! What he did uncover is that Joe Biden was a regular customer of Nicks at Kosy Corner. Nick said Joe and his wife go there quite a bit, they are regularly seen walk up and down Union St, and apparently Mrs Biden even used to go for jogs down Union St past the shop front.
Listen to the call:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/03/you-can-find-anything-you-want-except-katies-restaurant/
Yet Ed signs off with: “Epic fail on authenticity, Senator”
Hmmm I dont know what more people want from the man . . . but I know who I think may have been hit on the head with a wrench!
All I can say is that there is a food outlet currently operating on the old Katies site and it is about 30 seconds off the main drag where he is easily identified as a frequent visitor.
I think creating such a storm in a teacup is insulting to the seriousness of the real issues like the economy, health-care, civil rights etc
