Biden Confused About the Franklin Roosevelt and Great Depression

Joe Biden is just on a tear. When he isn't contradicting his own party platform on clean coal or criticizing his own campaign for its own ad content, he's just plain confused on the great depression:

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Jesse Walker from the Reason comments:

And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?

(Hat tip: the Corner.)

So this is just a simple slip-up right? In a long campaign you are asked so many questions you are bound to confuse matters a little, aren't you? But think about this reaction from Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:

And if Sarah Palin had said something like this, it would be getting much more attention.

That is embarrassingly true for the media. The CNN headline would read: "Palin doesn't know basic history." There would be SNL skits covering the gaffe. Biden would have a line about "Are you familiar with presidential history?" prepared for the debate. But since it is Biden and not Palin who said it is just a minor footnote in a long campaign and not a front-page scandal.

Update: Video available on YouTube: