Just Joe being Joe...
The Vice President of the United States hasn't even been in Japan more than 48 hours and he's already found a way not only to insult Japanese women but women everywhere, as reported by the right-of-center news portal Breitbart.com on Dec. 3, 2013.
Biden is currently touring the Orient to quell rising tensions between China and its neighbors over the Chinese recently claiming certain international airspace as their own, as well as airspace over sovereign Japanese soil over the Senkaku Islands.
Joe's Asian Pivot — Over His Mouth...
The Veep's first stop after touching down in the Land of the Rising Sun was a visit to a Japanese internet company where he was scheduled to address the company's female employees to discuss the economic impact of women in the corporate world – better known as "Womenomics."
Not until recently in the history of the Japanese nation have women made a major move away from their traditional roles of caring for hearth and home, and especially from the culturally expected role of being subservient to the men-folk.
Pass Up Your Permission Slips, Girls...
When having a face-to-face sit down with five of the employees, one of the first things Biden queried them on was "Do your husbands like you working full time?"
After hitting rock bottom, Biden began digging a hole when he further inquired if the women could work from home, as well.
National Treasure or National Embarrassment...?
Not quite the first time Biden has engaged his mouth before his brain was in gear, some of his better known gaffes have been:
- "Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately." --Joe Biden, Aug. 22, 2012
- "My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, I could be, I could be Vice President!" --Joe Biden, campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio, May 16, 2012
- "I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you." --Joe Biden, citing Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." April 26, 2012
- "This is a big f**king deal!" --Joe Biden, caught on an open mic congratulating President Barack Obama during the health care signing ceremony, Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010
- "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And although, she's... wait, your mom's still... your mom's still alive? Your dad passed? God bless her soul." --Joe Biden, on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive, Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010
- "An hour late, oh give me a f**king break." –Joe Biden, caught on a live mic speaking to a former Senate colleague after arriving on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C., March 13, 2009 (Watch video clip)
- "You know, I'm embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number? I should have it in front of me and I don't. I'm actually embarrassed." –Joe Biden, speaking to an aide standing out of view during an interview on CBS' "Early Show," in the midst of encouraging viewers to visit a government-run Web site that tracks stimulus spending, Feb. 25, 2009
- "If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong." --Joe Biden, speaking to members of the House Democratic caucus who were gathered in Williamsburg, Va., for their annual retreat, Feb. 6, 2009
- "Look, John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, JOBS!" --Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2008
- "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." –Joe Biden, apparently unaware that FDR wasn't president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008 (Watch video clip)
- "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007
- "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking!" --Joe Biden, in a private remark to an Indian-American man caught on C-SPAN, June, 2006 (Watch video clip)
