Back in the day, I had a college professor for Freshman English who’s favorite assignment was for us to “compare and contrast.” (Beowulf versus Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was his favorite smackdown.) I thought about him today when I read yet another story about Joe Biden, our illustrious Vice President, putting his foot in his mouth yet again. (Are his shoes orthopedic or orthodontic?) Think back several administrations ago, when Bush the First was in office. Back then, the media’s favorite sport was lying in wait for then-Vice President Dan Quayle to say something – anything – that they could pounce on. Remember the big brouhaha about “Potatoe”? How about his comment about unwed mothers? As I recall, nothing Quayle did or said even remotely approached the idiocy of what our current Veep comes out with on a more-or-less regular basis. And while we do get to hear about what Biden says (thanks to FOX News and conservative Talk Radio), nobody in the mainstream press seems to be able to muster up more than a “that’s just ol’ crazy Uncle Joe…gotta love him” kind of riff. No outrage. No “off with his head frothing at the mouth.” No “get this guy a muzzle, stat!” panic from the members of the fourth estate. No, they saved all that for Danforth “Full Dinner Jacket” Quayle. Nope. Nary a peep outta the media over Biden, even as virtually every Republican I know is suddenly praying fervently for the continued health of Obama. [Read more…] about Hell to the Veep.