Joe Biden likes to talk. A senator for whom I used to work once asked Biden a question at a dinner. Biden answered. For one hour. Non-stop.

Barack Obama found out about Biden’s love of his own voice early in his senate career. During a Foreign Relations committee hearing, then-chairman Biden was droning on and on. Obama scribbled something to a young aide, who excitedly thought it might be a major senatorial directive. Instead, Obama had written something more to the point.

The note read, “Shoot. Me. Now.” 

The Master of Being Wrong, All the Time

It’s good for him that Joe likes to talk, because his flow of words masks something else. He was sworn-in as a senator in 1973. Ever since, he’s been wrong about virtually every public policy decision over nearly five decades.

I’m not talking about his gaffes or embarrassing quips. Or his hands-on approach to women (and their hair). Just do a web search and you’ll be reading for hours on end. Instead, his record on foreign policy and national defense has been one long pattern of errors.

Robert Gates, secretary of defense under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, wrote in his 2014 memoir Duty that Biden has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

This might seem like a tough indictment, but when asked about it, Gates cited some of the huge misjudgments of Biden’s long career. The former defense sec noted that Biden opposed aid to South Vietnam, which led to that country’s collapse.

“He said that when the Shah fell in Iran in 1979 that that was a step forward for progress toward human rights in Iran,” Gates said. “He opposed virtually every element of President Reagan’s defense build-up. He voted against the B-1, the B-2, the MX and so on. He voted against the first Gulf War.” 

But Wait, There’s More

Gates’ catalog of Biden’s ineptitude is spot-on. Biden supported the “nuclear freeze” movement in the early 80s, which would have given the Soviet Union an edge over the United States at a time when the USSR was trying to bully its way around the world.

Biden opposed the strategic defense initiative, which was essential to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, SDI technology defends people from Poland to Israel, not to mention the U.S.

In 2007, Biden rejected the Bush Administration’s troop “surge” in Iraq. He declared it “a failed policy,” notes the Heritage Foundation’s James Phillips. “He later claimed that Iraq’s improved security, made possible by the surge, was a victory for the Obama Administration.”

As recently as 2011, Biden “advised Obama not to send a military team to kill Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who organized the September 11 terrorist attacks,” notes journalist Alex Ward. “The mission, with a few hiccups, was successful — and was arguably one of the biggest foreign policy ‘wins,’ at least symbolically, of Obama’s presidency.”

A Dangerous Man

On foreign and military policy, Biden’s history in the Senate and the Vice-Presidency is one of constant talking, bad ideas, and dangerous judgment. This is true of his economic and social commitments, as well. He fits in well with the Democratic Party’s love for abortion, the homosexual agenda, and economic policies that would deter growth and prosperity. All in the name of compassion, of course.

In 2012, the late Charles Krauthammer said, “The Vice President has been over the last 30 years holds the American record for wrong on the most issues in foreign affairs ever.” 

So, let’s keep Joe out of the presidency. I mean, the guy won’t starve. His most marketable commodity — his love of gab — should earn him hefty fees on the speaking circuit.