Really, What Is Joe Smoking?

I’ve seen this statement from Joe Biden referenced at a couple sites today, and the more I think about it the more bizarre it becomes:

It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking…Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate… And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right. [ed. emphasis added]

What in the hell is he talking about?

Really, there are two possibilities that make sense of the following statements, and neither of them are particularly appealing.

1) Biden really believes in the conspiracy theory model of world history, where there is a shadowy cabal of wealthy industrialists, or Jews, or both, who are really “calling the shots” in the world. It might sound like I’m being facetious here but I’m not. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that Great Britain based its foreign policy during World War One upon the sincere belief that “international Jewry” was a real force that could be swayed and used against Imperial Germany. I’m not ready to believe such stupidity is forever beyond the human spieces. If this is the sort of thing Biden has in mind, he should make it clear to all of us what color the sky is in his world.

Or, 2) the Democrats have in mind what the nuttier fruits on the Right and Left (9/11 “Truthers”, or Howard Dean) have claimed about George Bush, i.e. the deliberate introduction of some spectacular upheaval to be used in order to fundamentally change our Constitutional order bypassing the regular democratic process. Biden’s comments are so cryptic it is hard to be sure what he has in mind, but something like this would make sense of his remarks.

So those are the options; either Joe believes in an imaginary conspiracy, or he longs to be a part of an actual conspiracy.

I’m open to other “solutions” to these remarks, such as proof that Joe has gone off his meds or something.