JOE BIDEN REMEMBERS Franklin Roosevelt’s televised addresses to the nation in 1929. “As Reason’s Jesse Walker footnotes it: ‘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?”‘”

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

UPDATE: He’s Quayle-Tastic! Plus, Felix the Cat.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Meigs emails:

Re your post on Biden’s Roosevelt gaffe:

Interestingly, Herbert Hoover actually did appear on TV, in an experimental AT&T transmission from Washington to New York in 1927. He was secretary of commerce at the time, and became the first public official to be televised.

If you wanted to see Roosevelt on TV you would have had to wait until 1939 when he gave a televised address from the 1939 World’s Fair–marking both the first television appearance by a current president, and the advent of regular TV broadcasting in the US.

Well, Hoover was an engineer.