Exploiting tragedy for votes

[Big Don]

1972 crash still haunts driver's family

No DUI in crash that killed Biden's 1st wife, but he's implied otherwise

By RACHEL KIPP • The News Journal • September 4, 2008
Delaware Online
Excerpt:


Since his vice presidential nomination, Joe Biden's 2007 statement that a "guy who allegedly ... drank his lunch" and drove the truck that struck and killed his first wife and daughter has gained national media traction.

Alcohol didn't play a role in the 1972 crash, investigators found. But as recently as last week, the syndicated TV show Inside Edition aired a clip from 2001 of Biden describing the accident to an audience at the University of Delaware and saying the truck driver "stopped to drink instead of drive."
The senator's statements don't jibe with news and law enforcement reports from the time, which cleared driver Curtis C. Dunn, who died in 1999, of wrongdoing.
"To see it coming from [Biden's] mouth, I just burst into tears," Dunn's daughter, Glasgow resident Pamela Hamill, 44, said Wednesday. "My dad was always there for us. Now we feel like we should be there for him because he's not here to defend himself."
Biden spokesman David Wade said Wednesday that the senator "fully accepts the Dunn family's word that these rumors were false."
It's unclear who first suggested alcohol was a factor in the crash, but since Barack Obama tapped Biden to be his running mate on Aug. 23, The New York Times, National Public Radio and The Economist have run stories that characterized Dunn as a drunken driver.
((((END EXCERPT))))
KEY POINT:

The senator's statements don't jibe with news and law enforcement reports from the time, which cleared driver Curtis C. Dunn, who died in 1999, of wrongdoing.

Not only was Mr Dunn NOT drunk, he was CLEARED OF WRONGDOING. Biden feels free to slander the memory of a dead man. Is this the "Nuance" we are told of?

 

[shesulsa]

Well, I don't have personal access to the files and live too far away, but the most convincing excerpt I read from the articles I found was this:

"The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver, is incorrect," said Jerome O. Herlihy, a Delaware Superior Court judge who was chief deputy attorney general and worked with crash investigators in 1972.

A lot of questions come up in my head: What evidence was collected in 1972 to prove drunk driving? What was the legal limit then? Why didn't Biden pursue it if he felt convinced that the man was drinking and therefor in the wrong?

I'm *so* not voting for either McCain/Palin OR Obama/Biden.

 

[Makalakumu]

It doesn't matter, 35 years or 100 years later. If my family is killed in a wreck, I'm not going to be thinking rational about it.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

It doesn't matter, 35 years or 100 years later. If my family is killed in a wreck, I'm not going to be thinking rational about it.

Now that is a very true statement!

 

[shesulsa]

It doesn't matter, 35 years or 100 years later. If my family is killed in a wreck, I'm not going to be thinking rational about it.

Now that is a very true statement!

Indeed it is.

 

[Big Don]

It doesn't matter, 35 years or 100 years later. If my family is killed in a wreck, I'm not going to be thinking rational about it.

But, would you be using it to further your ambitions?

 

[Big Don]

Two days after the crash, Herlihy, a neighbor of the Bidens in the late 1960s who still considers the senator "a friend," told the paper that there was no evidence that Dunn "was speeding, drinking or driving a truck with faulty brakes." No criminal charges related to the crash were ever filed against Dunn, who lived in North East, Md.

I can't imagine losing my family that way, but, I really can't imagine trying to get ahead by using it.

 

[shesulsa]

I can't imagine losing my family that way, but, I really can't imagine trying to get ahead by using it.

Nor can I.

 

[grydth]

"Exploiting tragedy for votes" seems to most to be solely an affliction of the opposing party. But what is it?

Does anyone know when (or if) Biden has spoken publicly of this terrible loss during the 2008 campaign? If so, in what context?

As one with a wonderful wife and children, I am thinking their loss in and of itself would be the central point. Not whether my wife was driving badly or the other guy was drunk - or the most careful guy on the road. Would it not be a crushing loss irrespective of whether there was any fault?

What exactly constitutes "exploiting tragedy"?

Sometimes, where there is a loss, people do get into the political arena. After their daughter was murdered by a released criminal, the Greishauber family crusaded relentlessly in NY to have "Jenna's Law" passed. It ended parole for violent felons. So, was this family exploiting the young woman's death to get votes in the Legislature - or were they trying to ensure another family didn't have that horror occur? There are many examples of this.

Rudy Giuliani was accused of exploiting 9/11 relentlessly.... but how could he highlight his ability to lead without that?

To me, a pretty clear and craven example was Hillary Clinton telling the oh so sad story of the woman who was refused admission and treatment in a hospital because she was uninsured.... and (gasp!) she died! (choke, sob!) There wasn't a dry soccer mom eye in the house at event after an event.... only the story was a fake. The woman was both admitted and treated in the hospital - and she was insured, too. Nothing like exploiting a tragedy that didn't even happen!

 

[Sukerkin]

You chaps have really got to get yourselves a better class of politician ... oh wait ... there isn't one is there? Honesty (of all kinds) and politics are bi-polar attributes.

 

[Grenadier]

You chaps have really got to get yourselves a better class of politician

Excellent advice, but unfortunately, politicians with integrity tend not to get very far up the ladder.

 

[shesulsa]

You chaps have really got to get yourselves a better class of politician ... oh wait ... there isn't one is there? Honesty (of all kinds) and politics are bi-polar attributes.

We need to get enough people who care and who are willing to make personal sacrifice to get involved in the process. Television killed more patriotism than anything else, I think.

 

[celtic_crippler]

It doesn't surprise me. Politicians routinely lie, exagerate, and/or omit facts to further their agenda.

 

[punisher73]

Because maybe on some level he wishes that there would have been a reason for the accident. Maybe for him to move on it would be easier to have blame and think alcohol was a factor and that was the only reason his wife was killed. It would be tough losing someone, but then to just lose someone and it just be a completely random ACCIDENT would be even tougher with no rhyme or reason to it.

People of all walks of life use their tragedies to illustrate why there are coming from a certain POV, or to establish rapport with audiences. Life experiences shape us and make us who we are, I think in the right context you should use those to show "why" you can hold a certain POV because you have "been there, done that".

 

[celtic_crippler]

....or maybe he's just lying to win sympathy and get more votes.