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Last week, Vice President Joe Biden added a fresh gaffe to the myriad in his collection. To be fair, it isn’t necessarily a gaffe. As thoroughly and comprehensively wrong as he is in this latest blunder, he genuinely believes it. So maybe it doesn’t quite qualify as a gaffe. Rather, it’s a true believer’s thoroughly incomprehensible genuine thought. Either way, it’s astounding. 

Said the Veep:

Every single great idea that has marked the 21st Century, the 20th Century and the 19th Century has required government vision and government incentive.

That would shock every great inventor, thinker and entrepreneur from those eras. Think Henry Ford or the Wright Brothers or FedEx founder Frederick Smith, to name three of thousands.

Ryan Young at OpenMarket.org willingly takes Biden’s statist assertion on behalf of Adam Smith. He pulls this quote from the Great Scot’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (read it online):

The man of system . . . is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. … He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board.

Young and Alex Schibuola further dissect Mr. Biden at The Daily Caller. Mr. Biden,  President Obama and the entire crew they have in place are true men and women of the system, believing their great plans in the hands of people who know better than the average Joe is the only path to progress.

Great philosophies are timeless, true throughout the ages. Smith’s words perfectly describe today’s control freakish, government-first, micromanaging, ”system” liberals. Could he have been any more prescient in using the term “great society”?

The Great Scot: Adam Smith knew Joe Biden and his type long ago.

Note: It’s hard to keep up with the plethora of Biden gaffes, mistakes, misspeaks. But some people try: See YouTube here and here for video documentation of the Veep’s hit list.

Then-Senator Joe Biden, running for vice president, had it right in October 2008, mostly. He said, in a near political death wish, that the “about to be elected” Barack Obama would face a major international crisis, because he was young and someone, somewhere, would “test” him. Remember this?

Another mistake: He said he was “brilliant.”

But instead of a foreign country doing us harm, Mr. Biden must have meant a foreign company. That’s right. He just “misspoke.” Still, the president is being tested — and he isn’t passing the test (see Dick Morris). Thank goodness it isn’t a foreign country testing him although one wonders about the snickers of those who wish us harm. Certainly they are taking note and we should stay alert.

Of course, the president, as a candidate, brought all this on himself, claiming that government can do everything, from “fixing health care” to stemming the “rise of the oceans” (see Althouse Blog). As a liberal, I’m sure he believes in karma, and the irony of him not being able to fix the Gulf oil spill even as he railed that government could make New Orleans whole immediately after Katrina should not be lost on anyone. Is this the gang you want running your health care? (See The Daily Caller regarding HHS already missing the new law’s deadlines.)

So, as it is, it’s a foreign company, BP, doing us harm, putting the young administration in (a real) crisis. Thank goodness it’s only a company. Let this be a lesson to the government-knows-best crowd.

It’s only a foreign company, but President Obama’s inability to deal with the crisis leaves a lot to be desired, more doubt about government takeover of industries, and adversaries licking their chops.

Annotations & Elucidations

Calling Mr. Ripley 

It’s more Tea Party mania as Tax Day fast approaches. Groups are seeking Tea Party support in potential opposition to President Obama’s next choice to the U.S. Supreme Court; liberal activists are trying to infiltrate Tea Parties with the purpose of embarrassing them (as we’ve known all along, and which the mainstream media finally has picked up on, see Aleksandra Kulczuga at The Daily Caller as well as the AP); and in Virginia, Tea Party activists have won two western GOP unit chair elections in recent days.

Meanwhile, nationally, and speaking of Tea Parties, support for the health care law is plummeting faster than a Soprano victim in the Elizabeth River, and more Americans than pay income tax think we’re over taxed! That should tell you something, and Scott Rasmussen and Richard Olivastro do in Analysis and Commentary, respectively.

Think the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act is nervy, standing up to the big, bad federales? William Green of the Tenth Amendment Center has an idea that will knock your boots off. Also in that vein, and speaking of New Jersey (The Soprano’s), many here patted themselves on the back after Governor McDonnell and the General Assembly balanced our budget without a general tax increase and reduced spending to $70 billion (over two years), a figure last seen in 2006. Very nice. But, as Norman Leahy notes at Tertium Quids, the other new governor, Chris Christie of New Jersey, is fighting for, and winning, real reforms, not to mention that even though it is larger than Virginia, it’s annual budget is $29.3 billion. Even more impressive: The N.J. deficit is $10 billion; our two-year deficit was $4 billion. New Jersey more frugal than Virginia? Call Mr. Ripley.

News

Morrissey, Style Weekly settle $10 million libel lawsuit (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Griffith reaping GOP support (Roanoke Times)

Boyer elected head of Bedford GOP unit (Lynchburg News & Advance)

National News

Groups look for Tea Party support on nomination (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Foes of Tea Party movement to infiltrate rallies (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Census: No evidence of a conservative boycott (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on gay adoption: Kids ‘aren’t puppies’ (New York Daily News)

Analysis

Support for Repeal of Health Care Plan Up To 58% (Scott Rasmussen/Rasmussen Reports)

66% Say America Is Overtaxed (Scott Rasmussen/Rasmussen Reports)

Florida Senate GOP Primary: Rubio 57%, Crist 28% (Scott Rasmussen/Rasmussen Reports)

Christie may be the real GOP model (Norman Leahy/Tertium Quids Blog)

Media Research Center: Coverage of Tea Parties is disparaging and biased (Aleksandra Kulczuga/The Daily Caller Blog)

Commentary

Next it will be government crashing the Tea Party (Richard Viguerie & Mark Fitzgibbons/Washington Examiner)

Ending the Fed From the Bottom Up (William Green/Tenth Amendment Center)

Stupak’s Final Retreat (Editorial/Washington Times)

Good Riddance (Thomas Sowell/GOPUSA.com)

Democrats Manipulate CBO (David Limbaugh/GOPUSA.com)

Can You Afford More Taxes? (Richard Olivastro/GOPUSA.com)

A V-Shaped Boom Is Coming (Larry Kudlow/GOPUSA.com)

Is Romney Grasping at Straws? (Aaron Goldstein/The American Spectator)