Phil. Inquirer: “Biden Gives Voters Context Instead Of Sound Bites,

Making Issues Clear"

Dec. 24: In Keokuk, Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Joe Biden paced before the fireplace in Susan Dunek’s living room as he outlined the war-powers clause, part of his answer to a voter’s question about Iraq. Then he stopped himself. “This is boring,” the Delaware Democrat said. “No, it isn’t,” protested his audience.

Biden is speaking his mind, giving Iowa voters context instead of sound bites, making issues clear. His crowds are growing, they’re listening intently, and many people stay behind for a picture, an autograph, or simply to touch him. Even his opponents have tipped their hats to his gravitas, inspiring a YouTube ad that showed clips of three Democratic rivals saying, “Joe is right.”

“He doesn’t have the celebrity, but I’ve always admired his experience,” said Ray Goeke, 79, a retired music teacher from Keokuk. “He’s been dead right on Iraq. It’s just unfortunate more people don’t listen to him.”

“He’s got a lot of guts, reminds me of Harry Truman,” said Paul Neimann, 66, a retired factory worker in Burlington, Iowa.

“The core Biden constituency is news consumers, people who are paying attention to the world - and they will caucus,” said John Marttila, who has advised Biden since 1972.

http://blog.joebiden.com/?p=1592

I don't want to hear what someone would like to do, or maybe would think about doing. I want someone to clean up this GD mess, and who actually has a plan, and intention to do so.
The top trio, has nothing to offer me. They have lovely words, but no plan. I need a plan, and a determination that the plan will come to its fruition.

the "lovely words" might be inspiring, but under the current conditions, I'm turning into a hard-core pragmatist. I want someone who can actually DO something, someone who has a real, doable plan. Biden is the only person I see who is truly capable of the job at hand.

We do not have the luxury of toying around with maybes. Something has to be done...now.

We need to get the hell out of Iraq, and we need to leave it better than when we intruded upon their space. I mean, wasn't that the point...ha,ha,...

We need to re-affirm our commitment to the doctrine that our founding fathers risked their lives to establish. We have a Constitution, and it has served us well.

We need to be a leader in our global community. It's a small world, and it's the only one we have: rich, poor, literate, illiterate, black, white, brown, red, yellow...we are all captive on what could be the perfect environment for all living species, if we just respected its limitations.

We need to be able to communicate with other nations, and respect their cultural differences.

Who else can do this effectively? I just can't see any of the "top three" being able to do this. One has too much baggage, one has no experience, and would be too naive, and one doesn't know squat about foreign anything.

What does it take to make people realize that this isn't a game show? This is real life. This really matters. I get so frustrated sometimes because people just don't separate the game from the outcome. Grrrrr....

much the same way they view sporting events. We are so competitive, we only think about winning when the future of the entire planet is in jeopardy. It is really sad. I am hopeful that people will really wake up, but when I look around me, I'm not so sure.

why, beause I said so....

Anyway, when you come right down to it, HRC and Obama are holding plans close to the vest in order not to alienate anyone or give the GOP some sound bite to hit them with in November...

Edwards, Biden and the other candidates, are trying to explain what is wrong and how they plan to fix what ailes us...

I'm not picking on Obama, but, to me at least, there seems to be somethng missing...

both Houses of Congress will support.

There may not be much of a problem in the H of R, because of the solid DEM majority.

But, in the Senate, cloture votes, obstruction, and republican road-blocking will still remain.

Biden is the candidate who, for years, has already proved a capability for getting more significant legislation passed with more bi-partisan support than every other candidate combined.
Like it or not, that's a fact!

Biden is the one who will get more accomplished without a solid DEM majority in the Senate.

And, besides Iraq, look at the BIG CLUSTER@#$% of other issues that Chucklnutz will leave behind him.....
and all the shit that's about to really hit the fan. The economy, and the value of a dollar for examples.

If very little gets done by 2012 because of continued republican obstruction of many important issues, who will get the blame? DEMS can kiss the White House good bye.


IMHO, if we get a Biden/Obama ticket in '08, the republicans won't smell the White House for 16 years, and that benefits the vast majority of Americans, And besides, how many new SCOTUS Justices will come out of that?

Regardless of how he fares in the election I'm glad he got the chance to add to it. He's one of the few taking the issues seriously and not playing the attack game.

There is so much at stake right now, we can't afford to be careless in our choices.

Good article.

Rightly or wrongly, Hillary is absolutely loathed by Republicans. She would lose the election. Republicans could nominate Satan and they would still vote against her.

said John Marttila, who has advised Biden since 1972.

OMG, I remember John Marttila and Associates from the 1972 campaign. They gave an experienced, professional edge to that campaign. I don't remember how old Marttila was at the time (and I don't remember there being two t's in his name either :)), but he must be getting up there by now.

I was living in a VW van in 1972 and the only political thing I remember was McGovern-Nixon. Election night was one of the few times we had access to a TV.

of others switching their support -- not really sure if it's a money thing or a difference of philosophy -- but there doesn't seem to be a lot of loyalty showing there.


Edit - embarrassing misuse of word.

about what they say, lest the lose favor among the voters or give the MSM or R's a statement that could come back and haunt.

It bothers me that The Three were all saying "oh, no -- I'm focusing on being a Senator -- I have no plans to run for President" when you know the machine was already in motion.

Contrast that to a Bill Maher vid I saw for the first time the other night - Biden was on the panel. Maher was saying something to Biden and added "I know you said you were thinking about running for President..." and Biden said "I am. I'm running for President." Maher appeared to be surprised that a candidate just mentioned it so casually, so NATURALLY without any of the hoopla the others engaged in when they announced their run.

He was never coy about it, was always up front, and told it like it was. No political weighing of words for Biden, what you see is what you get and I really YEARN for that from our President!

and though I had watched the original show, it was more interesting in retrospective.

The only thing we know for sure is that the MSM is lying like all hell about the polls and about everything else as usual. 35 yrs in the cesspool and Biden is only worth 150k? Most republicans spend that much on hookers and whiskey every year.

Iowans, if you cant get your guy, please support Edwards because although his voting record is god-awful he at least seems to have gotten his head out from his ass and is now saying the right things. But definitely support your guy to the bitter end because last time around the lying crooks in the MSM had Edwards at 8% right before he went on to get 32%. That could be your guy this time.