Countdown: Biden's days as VP now 'numbered'

With Vice President Joe Biden’s latest gaffe saying we’re living “in the 20th century” instead of the 21st, a popular right-leaning magazine has created a countdown clock numbering the remaining days for the nation’s second-in-command to remain on the presidential ticket with Barack Obama.

The Weekly Standard is now counting down the days with an electronic ticker on its website.

Its report says, “President Barack Obama has slightly more than 22 days to drop Vice President Joe Biden from the 2012 Democratic presidential ticket, according to lawyers familiar with the party nominating process. That is, Democrats have until September 6 to formally nominate their presidential ticket which will then be qualified for the 50 state ballots.”

The latest blooper from Biden comes from a speech he gave in Blacksburg, Va., where he said “Once, again, General Motors [is] the largest automobile maker in the world. Folks, where’s it written we cannot lead the world in the 20th century in making automobiles? I’ve not seen it written anywhere.”

Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, responded to the Standard, saying, “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will ensure America leads the world in the 21st century by strengthening middle-class families and creating jobs. President Obama and Vice President Biden have taken our nation backward with failed policies that have resulted in higher unemployment, more debt, and a weaker economy. A campaign based on rage and divisiveness can’t hide the president’s failed record.”

The mistake about the wrong century comes on the heels of Tuesday’s speech where Biden said, “They gonna put y’all back in chains,” referring to the Republican candidates for president and vice president.

Former New York City Mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was asked on CNBC for his take on Biden’s remark, and Giuliani questioned the vice president’s mental acumen:

“Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the – I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he – I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s just not very smart.”

Former Alaska Gov. and 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin also chimed in about the “chains” remark, telling Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, “If that’s not the nail in the coffin, really, the strategists there in the Obama campaign have got to look at a diplomatic way of replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary. And I don’t want to throw out that suggestion and have them actually accept the suggestion because then an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket would have a darn good chance of winning.”

Speculation that Obama would replace Biden on the ticket has been swirling in recent days, though top Democrats have denied it.

NPR reported “no elected VP has been dropped from the ticket since 1944, when Henry Wallace was removed at the national convention that year in favor of Sen. Harry Truman (D-Mo.). And that turned out to be extremely significant, as President Franklin Roosevelt was dead less than three months after he was inaugurated for a fourth term.”

The Weekly Standard suggests, “The likeliest time for an announcement that Biden is to be dumped would be just before the GOP convention – around Friday, August 24. This would step on the Republicans’ planned buildup to their convention, and would give Hillary Clinton, perhaps the likeliest replacement, a couple of weeks to resign as Secretary of State to accept her place on the ticket, while arranging a smooth transition at Foggy Bottom.”

This week’s gaffes by Biden are nothing new for the vice president. He has a long history of blunders.

Human Events has created a video of some of his “greatest hits:”

And Britain’s Daily Mail has kept track of some of Biden’s bloopers:

January 2012: During speech at a manufacturing plant in New Hampshire the vice president spoke about outsourcing to India and put on a bad Indian accent while asking ‘How many times do you get the call, ‘I like to talk to you about your credit card.’

December 2010: During the swearing in of a Republican Senator Mark Kirk in Congress, Biden told the Capitol Hill newcomer to put that hand on the Bible and raise his left. According to the congressional rulebook, it should have been the other way round.

March 2010: He dropped the F-bomb during the signing of the administration’s historic health reforms, apparently unaware that the microphones would catch him out when he whispered into the president’s ear immediately before the announcement, declaring: ‘This is a big f****** deal!’

March 2010: Mr. Biden said ‘God rest her soul’ in reference to the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen. Mr. Cowen’s mother is alive; his father had died. Realizing his misstep, he corrected with: ‘God bless her soul.’

October 2008: Speaking in Athens, Ohio, about John McCain’s economic strategy, he said: ‘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.’

September 2008: During a political rally in Missouri, he urged wheelchair-bound state senator Chuck Graham to rise and be recognized, saying: ‘Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see ya.’ Realizing his mistake, he said: ‘Oh, God love you … what am I talking about?’

September 2008: After he was named the vice presidential nominee, he addressed a crowd in Nashua, New Hampshire, questioning how he beat out Hillary Clinton: ‘Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America,’ he said in New Hampshire. ‘Quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me.’

August 2008: He also mixed up Barack Obama’s name at his first campaign rally with the president, introducing him as: ‘A man I’m proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States – Barack America!’