Biden - Palin Debate Winner

I’ll start off with just one reference from Governor Palin. Who the hell is this guy McClellan in charge of the military in Afghanistan? I think she meant to say General David McKiernan. That was a stumble on her part and one of many throughout the night and the debate. One thing was very clear was the fact that Governor Palin did not directly answer many of the questions she was asked. Biden did so with facts and figures and to some that may seem boring but this is not the television series “24”! It's politics that in this time in our nations path needs facts and figures to move forward.

Joe Biden spoke from facts and corrected many of the topics that Palin went off topic on. She was quoting voting records of Obama, Biden, and McCain and Joe Biden knew the facts behind each of the votes which Governor Palin was not privy too. Big mistake on her part on specifics.

It seemed that most of the questions coming to each of the Vice President candidates was answered more so on what the men actually running for President will do. Which is what you would expect in a VP debate. All but one, the role of Vice President and what it entails. Governor Palin sought the same stretch of executive privilege from the Bush administration where as Senator Biden stated the Constitution and the dangerous damage Cheney has morphed the Vice Presidency into.

Asked on what each of the Vice President candidates Achilles heal was, Governor Palin skipped the question entirely and offered just a stump speech of the McCain platform. Senator Biden listed several items that he is weak personally first then went on the Obama platform strengths.

All said and done, Governor Palin tried her best to hold her own but she was up against an encyclopedia of information on government and voting records. For every point she tried to make for McCain, Biden could recite several votes where McCain voted against it from health care, to taxes, to energy issues, and where she was wrong on Obama‘s votes in the Senate.

Two key phrases did come out, Bridge to Nowhere against Palin and a correction to Biden from Palin to get the phrase right? Drill baby Drill! That would be a drill here and everywhere in America point from the Governor. And of course Biden pointing out the fact that John McCain would not sit down with Spain, a NATO member becacuse he thought it was a hostile nation against America?

Biden pretty much linked McCain to Bush over and over again and that will be the mud that sticks to the wall of this debate. What also will stick to the wall is the fact that Governor Palin did not answer many of the questions thrown at her. She dodged the questions to go back to previous points that Biden had made. Gwen Eiffel had to ask the questions back to Governor Palin repeatedly.

On a scale of one to ten I would give Governor Palin a six overall and Senator Biden an eight.

Last thought, when the debate was over the two candidates families all came up on stage and stayed there for a long time interacting with one another. One of the things that warms my heart is children, Joe Biden bent almost all the way over to talk to the Palin family younger kids. Biden went beyond what is normal in a post debate format and introduced his wife, family and grandchildren to Governor Palin and her family, and talked with Governor Palin’s father for a good spell of time.

Update 10/03/08 and must see video from Rachel Maddow...

Video Link



Papamoka

Cross Posted at Bring It On!

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Iowa, New Hampshire and Biden News

Seeing how all of the main stream media television is for the most part delegating Joe Biden’s run for President to the last sentence in every single news broadcast then I guess it is up to the “New Media” to really report the facts. Joe Biden is forming a wave of support and frankly I do not believe that even his own campaign knows that the Biden Tsunami is coming. Much like a Tsunami, the tremors and shocks of the earthquake from all over the United States on the internet and all the blogs supporting him will hit Iowa alone on January 3rd.

Could I offer you a list of blogs writers that are supporting Joe Biden? I can think of four not including myself that have thrown up videos, did posts on or mentioned him as the only person worth voting for in the next Presidential election. That is just my little part of the blogging world. We are breaking three thousand visitors a month here at Papamoka Straight Talk. This is all free media and advertising for Joe Biden, we are not getting paid for this effort and we do not want his money. That is not the case with every single newspaper or television station in Iowa or New Hampshire. You can tell by the major evening news stations that Biden is not spending his hard earned campaign donations with them. “Oh and Joe Biden was in Iowa today.” HUH?

Here is what is really happening according to the Joe Biden camp…

The estimated 250 people at Biden's campaign rally cheered and waved signs, manufactured and homemade, in a scene more typical of the events of Democratic front-runners. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna shock the hell out of you," Biden said over the din of a cheering crowd Saturday night in an uncharacteristically short speech. He spent less time selling himself and more time answering questions from the audience.

In a working-class city with a strong Irish and Catholic influence, Biden appeals to people, said Teri Goodmann, Iowa co-chairwoman for Biden's campaign. "In spite of people's desire to have the first African-American, the first woman, the first Hispanic, the reality of our lives is that we have a tremendous demand right now in this job for someone who has experience in foreign relations," she said." - Des Moines Register

Then there is this one…

Take, for example, the Joe Biden event I attended last night in Council Bluffs, about ten minutes after I drove out of the Omaha airport. At least 150, maybe 200 people gathered in an Elks Lodge, during the dinner hour, on a week night with the thermometer reading 18 degrees to hear...Joe Biden! And it was vintage Biden....This went on for two hours and came to an end only when Brother Jim had to literally drag the candidate to a waiting car. At no point did the audience grow restless or bored. After each answer, five or six more hands shot up. The interest was avid and, in fact, Biden's biggest applause line of the night had nothing to do with the usual sort of pandering, bur rather when he vowed that in a Biden administration he would outlaw all forms of torture." - Huffington Post

And then this…

To complicate matters today, the ground in central Iowa was blanketed with snow by early morning, and the highways surrounding Des Moines were littered with cars that had slid off the road. But about 100 people crowded into a public library meeting room to listen to Biden speak.

"He's an honest, good man. He tells it like it is," said Glenda McIntire of Waukee, Iowa. She said she's a long-time supporter. "It's been uphill all the way, but the first time we met here we probably had 15 people. When I see him in person I get revved up again." - Guardian Unlimited (UK)

Or this on the MSM just ignoring Biden even exists...

Immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the front page story in the Washington Post about Pakistan and the presidential campaign did not even mention Joe Biden, the only candidate who seriously distinguished himself on the Pakistan crisis.

Upon reflection, the Washington Post editorial page, which has supported Bush on the Iraq war as Pravda supported Leonid Brezhnev, followed up with a lead editorial on candidates and Pakistan, which, incredibly, did not even acknowledge of Joe Biden.

Here is why the major media, including the daily newspapers, has lost such credibility with the American people and in the case of insider print media, so many subscribers who moved their business to internet sites, including this one. - The Liberal Journal

This is going to be an uphill battle to get the word out for Joe Biden by January 3rd but it is not a mountain. We can all do this and if you can’t stand the main stream appointed front runners on the Democrat side of the process then by all means speak up loud and clear. One of the things that I love about Biden besides all of his life experience, political experience and personal candor is the where the majority of the money for his campaign is coming from. Ten bucks here, fifteen bucks here and twenty bucks from over here. There are not to many thousand dollar a plate dinners scheduled in his past or current campaign. That speaks volumes as to whom is really behind the Biden campaign and it isn’t Wall Street or special interest groups. I’m off to box up a couple of dozen rolls of paper towels for the Biden Tsunami in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Bloggers for Biden, leave a link in the comment section and I’ll toss up a Bloggers for Biden list in the sidebar of this site. And for those of you who think the other candidates running for President are not scared of Joe Biden then you have to see this amazing video from YouTube.



Catch the wave and surf it out all the way to the White House in 2009! Four out of five Dentist recommend Joe Biden. Bill Gates will pay you $1000 if you forward this post to ten friends. And some guy in Africa is willing to give me a piece of the action on $30,000,000 from his deceased fathers uncle who was some big wig in the government and all the money he embezzled we can split. Okay, I made up the Dentist thing, the Gates payment and the millions from Africa but you can believe in Joe Biden. That is a sure thing! Check him out at Joebiden.com

Papamoka

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Catch the Biden Wave

While Hillary and Barack think they have the lead tied in Iowa they are forgetting that the real substance of this election is stepping around their brow beating to get the folks attention. While catch phrases sound great on a commercial they really do not work when you actually talk to the people of Iowa. Studied answers to the obvious questions might make a candidate sound knowledgeable but it’s the 101st question that starts them to stuttering. That will eventually lead to the question never being answered because a twenty three year old staffer never thought of it.

Joe Biden is running for President because he does have the answers we as a nation need to hear. Sometimes the truth is better than total avoidance to our national dilemmas. As much as the main stream media would like you to believe that this election is a popularity contest or beauty pageant it is not that at all. America has some serious problems that have been growing for almost eight years now and pretending they do not exist will not fix the need to have them all rectified as soon as possible. Having a political candidate that can and has worked across party lines on the most difficult issues our nation has faced is what substance is all about. Joe Biden has shown that ability time and time again. There is a reason why the name Biden and McCain are linked on many hot political issues. They both have had the political guts to tackle them head on and work together to try and resolve them.

With that being said, Biden is pulling out of the ranks of non contenders and I’m sure he will pull close to second or even first in Iowa simply because he tells the truth. Iowans are big on the truth. Joe is full of it and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Real life is not television and our nations government is not Hollywood. Hillary and Barack Obama may be able to bombard the airwaves for canned reasons to vote for them but Biden still speaks the truth every single day. Over at the Washington Post they have this little linked to article on Joe Biden…

Biden Pushes for 3rd in Iowa Caucuses
By BETH FOUHY
The Associated Press
Friday, December 21, 2007; 5:02 PM

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Joe Biden's aides call it "Mo-Joe" _ a last-minute surge of momentum and good luck they hope could power the Delaware senator into a better-than-expected showing in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.

"There's a fingertip instinct that tells me something is going on. I feel like I'm still in the game," Biden said in a telephone interview as he traveled to a campaign event in Cedar Rapids.

Aides acknowledge it remains an uphill trudge for Biden, a Democrat whose distinguished 35-year Senate career has been eclipsed by the star power of rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

But with all eyes on those two candidates and former Sen. John Edwards as they compete for the lead in Iowa, Biden is on a high-energy sprint across the state hoping to catch on with enough voters to make a difference. - Washington Post

One of the things that I admire about Joe Biden is that he does not have to reinvent himself to make you want to vote for him. In one breath he can explain what we as a nation should be doing about foreign policy and in the next breath what we need to do about our growing energy needs. Skip a breath and he can tell us what our immigration policy should be and how we can fix the 12 to 16 million illegal aliens in our midst. Fast forward and he can talk monetary policy or rebuilding our nations crippled infrastructure. Miss a breath and he can tell us what realistically needs to be done to fix our nations education system. Take a deeper breath and he can recite from memory historical events that are relevant to our quagmire in Iraq. Only Joe Biden has an in depth plan to get us out from under Iraq that is realistic. At no time is he forsaking our military or our nations flag to do it either.

You may ask how Joe Biden can do all of this with full experience and not blink and eye or say “ummm?” when put on the hot seat for the hot questions. Simple answer to that is his many years of experience in the Senate trying to fix our nations problems. Even with overwhelming odds he has crossed party lines for the greater good without care for public opinion when he thought it was the right thing to do. Joe Biden lives for this nation because he is not a Wall Street bought and paid for candidate. He is obligated to none. His integrity is unquestionable. Can the other candidates from all political parties state that as a fact?

That all being said, voting for the truth when the primary elections hit my state comes down to experience and getting over the negligence of the past eight years. Moderate Liberals and Conservatives prefer real substance over a manipulated campaign based on what we need to hear. We just might have had enough of window dressing and canned responses from all of the political candidates from both sides of the race. Thus, Joe Biden is the moderate answer to both political parties and the chance for a change in the status quo. On both sides of the political aisle there is far to much rhetoric and excuses that point across the aisle. Maybe we just need a President that simply tells the truth to his people and is beholding to not one person other than you and I. Would that not be a total change in current politics or what?

I have faith in Iowans that they will know who is realistic and who is passing the buck on what our nation really needs. It does not take a political genius to see who the ones that are selling sound bites and who is just talking the truth. Joe Biden will be sipping a cup of coffee down at the corner luncheon with real Iowans while the rock star political rallies are happening over at the Clinton and Obama scheduled ticketed stops. Politics in America is not always about who has the most money to spend but whom has the most substance. Iowa is the proving ground for this election and I trust the people of Iowa. Joe does too.

Let me leave you with just this video from Joe and his heart about his dedication to this nation, ruled under God, ruled under men.



Courtesy of Bright Cove

Other folks talking about Joe Biden

Bleeding Heartland... on Joe Biden's latest endorsements...

Susan In Iowa on Joe Biden's much needed advertising in Iowa...

Papamoka

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Des Moines Register Sold Out…

If I were an Iowan I would put the Des Moines Register for Hillary Clinton up there with wrapping fish with the pages it is was written on. For that matter so goes the endorsement of McCain. Let’s just say that they are skewed to follow the money and leave it at that. Second tier or third tier candidates did not spend enough money to get the endorsement with the paper. And they wonder why people read blogs like this one for political opinion. We blog for the truth and not the almighty dollar and that is where endorsements like this one come from. Some editor or accountant is looking at the bottom line and money talks over real substance.

You can not talk about true leadership and experience and not even mention Senator Joe Biden. You can not mention working across party politics and not include Joe Biden. You can however have a ton of checks from the Clinton campaign that you might just be obligated too endorse. Don’t even follow the money, follow the style of the sponsored debates.

The Des Moines Register's editorial board has endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

The Register, Iowa's statewide newspaper, said McCain, who represents Arizona, and Clinton, who represents New York, have two essential two qualities — competence and "readiness to lead."

In endorsing McCain, who tied for fifth in the Register's November poll of likely caucus-goers, the editorial board wrote Saturday night:

"Time after time, McCain has stuck to his beliefs in the face of opposition from other elected leaders and the public... A year ago, in the face of growing criticism, he staunchly supported President Bush's decision to increase troop strength in Iraq... He knows war, something we believe would make him reluctant to start one. He's also a fierce defender of civil liberties. As a survivor of torture, he has stood resolutely against it. He pledges to start rebuilding America's image abroad."

The Register's endorsement of Clinton comes as polls show she has slipped behind Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa. - USA Today.com

Even former President Clinton has no clue how to get us out of Iraq and his wife Hillary is flipping and flopping on what the latest political polls are offering. Joe Biden is not. We do not need flip floppers on any issue and when it comes to our military we need a realistic plan to get the hell out of Baghdad!

I’m amazed that the children and grandchildren of the Vietnam War are backing any of the front runners knowing the sacrifices that were made to just get out of Vietnam. We shamed our Veterans, people spat on them for just doing their duty. It took thirty plus years for our nation to recognize them as a true American hero. John McCain is two elections away from his time in the sun. Yes, I respect him for his service to our nation during the war and all of his time in public service. I just don’t get his anger when confronted on the serious issues our nation must face. That is where the Des Moines Register lost their credibility. In the same respects, Hillary Clinton has no clue as to what real life is all about having lived in the bubble of her husband the former President. She has no ability to talk one on one with an Iowan if there is not ten dozen cameras present to record it and sell it. Joe Biden does not even need one camera present to talk to the people. His message is consistent and believable.

Real issues are facing this nation and we do not need the biggest check cashed to be our nations next leader. We need someone that can deal with foreign policy in one heart beat and someone that can deal with a Teamsters strike in the next. We need someone that believes in all Americans first. Not just the folks that donate and contribute at the King and Queens court for the highest office in our land.

A friend of mine spoke of Irish funerals and how that was the only time to praise them for all they had done in life. It didn’t matter if you were the worst monster in the clan. I choose to defend and support Joe Biden not because his epitaph would look great on a head stone but I believe his experience and vision is far better than anyone from both political parties.

Hillary Clinton does not deserve the White House and neither does John McCain. One is running on the latest polls to get votes and the other is forgetting who he was two elections past that made him a true hero. The Des Moines Registers endorsement has failed the people but that is just my political opinion. Vote realistically and vote for Senator Joseph Biden for President in 2008. Common sense is what it is all about and not the money spent by any candidate.

Papamoka

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Political Endorsement Value?

With all the folks running for President they find themselves at the mercy of the local political machines endorsement sale. If you looked at presidential politics like it was your Christmas shopping then this is parallel with the Black Friday shopping madness sales where you have to be in line at two in the morning for the doors to open at five. I tend to wonder what is the value of a local political leader in Iowa or New Hampshire when it comes to an endorsement for any one of the candidates. Just the endorsement alone is not a guarantee of votes behind the gesture or is it?

Does a political endorsement work the same as say Tom Brady of the New England Patriots putting his name behind some brand of breakfast cereal? Or for that matter Michael Jordan putting his name on a brand of sneakers or underwear sells the products but would the same thing work for votes for President of the United States?

I don’t know the answers to these questions but I do know who I prefer for the next President of the United States. For what ever value this little blogger has, I’m throwing my endorsement behind Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. You can click on the links below on why I think Joe is right…

Iraq War plan:

The Biden-Gelb plan would:

Keep Iraq together by giving its major groups breathing room in their own regions and control over their daily lives. A central government would be left in charge of common interests like defending the borders and distributing oil revenues.

Secure the support of the Sunnis -- who have no oil -- by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenue and reintegrating those with no blood on their hands.

Increase, not end, reconstruction assistance but insist that the oil-rich Arab Gulf states fund it and tie it to the creation of a massive jobs program and to the protection of minority rights.

Initiate a major diplomatic offensive to enlist the support of the major powers and Iraq's neighbors for a political settlement in Iraq and create an Oversight Contact Group to enforce regional commitments.

Begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by the summer of 2008, with a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists. - Plan for Iraq


Biden Energy Plan:

1. Establishing A Responsible Policy Toward Iran
2. Restoring US Leadership On Climate Change
3. Increasing Fuel Efficiency and Use of Renewable Fuels
4. Investing In New Energy Technology
5. Expanding Renewable Energy
6. Requiring the Federal Government To Use Energy More Efficiently
7. Encouraging Americans to Use Energy Efficiently
8. Creating Green Jobs in the Technology of Tomorrow

Homeland Security:

The 9/11 Commission gave us a blue print. To be sure, implementing it will cost more. But we can easily afford it - if we change our priorities. This year, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security is $35 billion; at $60 billion, the tax cut for millionaires is nearly double that amount.

Senator Biden would take back one year of the tax cuts for Americans who make over a million dollars a year, and put this money in a dedicated Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement.

For $10 billion a year over the next five years we could:
screen 100 percent of cargo containers coming into our ports,
better protect our chemical facilities,
improve air cargo screening,
make sure that our first responders can talk to one another in emergencies,
hire 1,000 more FBI agents,
hire 50,000 more local cops, and
create local counter-terrorism units in our large cities to stop home-grown plots
Precedent proves this can work. In the early 1990s, Senator Biden established the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund to address the growing crime problem. It put more than 100,000 cops on the street and increased investment in crime prevention programs. Violent crime rates went down.

The Bush administration slashed billions in federal assistance for state and local law enforcement and completely eliminated the COPS hiring program -- and crime rates went up. The most recent reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a continuation in the upward swing in violent crimes first reported last year when after years of steady declines, violent crime jumped 2.5 percent --- the largest increase in 15 years. - Joe Biden.com

These points are not just the only reason I am backing Joe Biden for President but they are a good beginning. I look at his campaign in the same way I look at inviting someone into my home for a coffee or for dinner. Joe would have no problem knocking on the door and sitting down at our families kitchen table as if he had been there a thousand times before. It’s uncanny how you can see that he is comfortable enough with his stand on any issue and he isn’t relying on a poll to dictate his opinion. Then there is the fact that in my gut I trust him over the rest of them to tell America all of the truth and not just what is comfortable to hear.

Now more than ever America needs a true leader and statesman. This is not a time in world history where you can learn on the job training. America needs someone that will be able to hit the ground running, Joe Biden does not have a hundred million dollars sitting in a campaign war chests which leads me to believe that he will not owe large favors down the road to special interest donors.

Other folks endorsing Joe Biden because they know Joe is right!


List of endorsements for Joe Biden are posted here…

Other folks aka Blogs endorsing Senator Joe Biden…

Vim & Vinegar

Please note that this endorsement is the personal endorsement of Matthew O’Keefe aka Papamoka only.

If your site is endorsing Joe Biden please leave a link in the comments.

Papamoka

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Biden Lacks Celebrity but has Stamina and Policy

While the cash machines of Hillary and Obama are dumping millions of dollars at the media houses of Iowa television and radio stations Joe Biden is taking a walk to the corner lunch. While the television bombardment of both political parties gears up over the next few weeks I can actually forecast the television repair shop escalation in business as more than just a foot goes through the living room boob tube.

Over the past few weeks I have been writing about the glorification of candidates from both parties by the media based on the amount of money they might derive from the candidates. Joe Biden is not a money made candidate or a glorified rock star in politics. Joe is just Joe if you ask the folks on the train home from the capitol every night. Joe fly’s coach to Iowa and not on a sponsored by this company or that corporation private jet or plane. Joe prefers interviews in public with real reporters rather than press meeting statements.

Joe may not have a super star style but he does have what it takes to be President. He has humility, he has experience and he has the heart of the American people in his hopes and dreams for tomorrow.

Margery Eagan of WTKK Talk Radio and the Boston Herald had the chance to actually talk to Joe Biden and her article in the Herald is a must read if you don’t believe that the MSM has your vote locked up and the checked cashed…

Celebrity culture keeps Biden waiting in the wings
By Margery Eagan
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

• The Iraq War is the No. 1 concern for most Americans.

• After almost every Democratic debate, I hear the same surprised remark from the few people I know who actually watch them. That is, “Joe Biden was great ... Biden is best on the war ... ” Or, as Mary Lou LoVecchio put it yesterday, “howdo I get a (Joe Biden) bumper sticker?”

• Biden, in the Senate for more than 25 years, now head of the Foreign Relations Committee, is the guy who just pushed through, with bipartisan support, the soft partitioning of Iraq resolution. He “forgot more than Hilarity knows,” a conservative GOP-guy told me yesterday.

So here’s the question: why then is Biden still in single digits? Light years away from Hillary, Obama, and Edwards, the three top Democratic contenders?

The answer’s “pretty simple,” said Biden in a telephone interview yesterday with the Herald and 96.9-WTKK. “Money ... we will have raised $12 or $13 million by the time this is over,” he said, an amount that would have been competitive not long ago. “Now we’re talking about two candidates spending that much in Iowa alone (Hillary and Obama) ... a state with just 3 million people.”

SNIP a Roo…

In any case, we in the media covered Hillary and Obama non-stop. Hollywood, (or in the case of Oprah, Chicago) fell in love with Hillary and Obama, raising money for them non-stop. Then the media reported nonstop on how much money each had raised. And then the “so-called horse race” in the polls. Somewhere in there we talked about ideas. But not much.

Mostly we just talked Hillary vs. Obama with a little about Edwards mixed in.
Here’s something noteworthy about newspaper next-day coverage of last week’s debate, the one that finally got people tuning in (4 million viewers compared to the usual 2 million). Presumably we wanted to see Hillary fight back against the ganging-up-on-her “boys.”

SNIP Again…

Joe Biden’s son Beau, by the way, is Delaware’s attorney general and a National Guardsman likely to be deployed to Iraq in 2008. But Beau is not a celebrity. So most of us didn’t know that, either. - Boston Herald

If you believe that Hillary and Obama are the only answer to the Republican candidates in the field because of an advertisement then you are not paying attention to life as it effects you politically. This election is not about Survivor or the Bachelor reality shows where they plot against one another. Bad metaphor there, I apologize. This election is about cleaning up eight years of Bush and Cheney mistakes. It’s about America and if the election can be bought then Bill Gates or Warren Buffet should be the next President of the United States.

Pick your reality television show and toss the idea out the window. The politics of this next election needs real leaders and real ideas and Hillary and Obama may have the cash but the price is not right if you catch my drift.

Senator Biden is the gold standard! Followed by a close second is Governor Bill Richardson but that is a post for another day.

Papamoka

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Joe Biden, Statesman Enough for You?

Picture courtesy of Senator Biden office

For the record I kind of like Senator Joe Biden for a couple of reasons for President. He isn’t afraid to put his neck out on the line on any issue and he backs his stance up with the facts needed to do so. There isn’t an “Um, um, (cough, little bit of throw up there in the back of the throat) when he speaks when asked about any topic. His recall of facts immediately come forth and he tells the voters why he has the position he has and then follows up why the voter should have the same thought process.

Of all of the Democrat’s running for President I would have to favor Senator Biden over all of them when it comes to foreign policy. Unlike a former beauty pageant contestant, Joe Biden seems to know all there is about the world conflicts and he does not need a map to know where they are. I tend to doubt that the rest of the candidates other than Bill Richardson could go toe to toe with him on issues to do with conflict around the world.

Then there is the man that is Joe Biden and his style of campaigning that does not need one hundred million in the bank like Hillary or Barack. Knocking door to door, running for President in Iowa is as grass roots as you get.

Over at Yahoo News they have this story on what Senator Biden is doing for his bid for President of the United States…

By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 2, 4:05 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden remains mired in single digits in Iowa polls, but he's racking up support from the state's legislators.

Biden has the backing of 10 legislators, including the House majority leader. That makes him at least competitive with top tier rivals Barack Obama, who has one more endorsement, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who garnered the most endorsements. He also has more endorsements than John Edwards, who is vying with Obama and Clinton for the lead in Iowa polls.

Biden said the endorsements demonstrate that local politicians think he has a shot at gaining the nomination.

State lawmakers know the ins and outs of the caucuses, and they "wouldn't be endorsing me if they didn't think I could win in Iowa," Biden said in an interview with The Associated Press.

And, he said, their support could be crucial in the days leading to the caucuses.

"An endorsement in a caucus state from someone who gets out and knocks on doors and has an organization is significantly more valuable," Biden said. "You've got to be pretty dedicated to spend a couple of hours on a very cold January night somewhere in the 1,700 (caucus) precincts in Iowa."

Biden, who is making his second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, has worked hard for the support. - Yahoo News

Our nations highest office has gone from George Washington who could have been the first American King to someone that thinks he is a King. Where George and Martha would put up visitors from all of the land if they ventured to Mount Vernon, George Bush would have the Secret Service have them arrested for trespassing. Granted the times and attempted assassinations on our President’s has made protection part of the job but the simple idea of being able to talk to your President no longer exists in America.

Has anyone actually talked to the current President, the past couple of President’s? Form letters in response to a letter you sent does not count.

If I had a choice of watching a television commercial of all of the candidates running for President or just one of them knocking on my door, I think I would be more persuaded to listen to the actual person standing in my kitchen or living room. Name twenty or more people that you would boast to about having a Presidential candidate in your home? Not on the television but he sat on your sofa or at your kitchen table and told you what he was all about. Then he asked you what you thought, holy crap! I would be telling the world.

You can spend millions on television and radio ads but nothing beats the one on one contact with the voters. In my lifetime I have met many politicians and the personal encounter is far different than what you will ever see in a thirty second advertising commercial. Not one person on this earth can have their entire message wrapped up in one television or radio commercial. Twenty minutes in your home breaks down a plethora of evils in the advertising dollars to be made on Presidential advertising.

Senator Biden is following a tried and true method of campaigning but the time for doing so is growing shorter. With many states vying to be first for bragging rights, the process of actually getting to know all of the candidates is lost. In doing so, the best person for the job of President ends up being in the hands of who can pay for enough advertisement.

It has been said that candidates for President love to press the flesh of the voters. In the same context, the voters need to press the flesh as well with the person that may just be the next President. Shaking hands with a man or woman that wants to be the leader of the free world is kind of important. You cant sell that or describe that emotional moment on television.

Carry on Senator Biden, I wish you luck and the opportunity to meet many interesting and concerned people that will welcome you into their homes in Iowa! Press the flesh my friend.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

UPDATE 10/21/2007: The Storm Lake Times endorses Joe Biden for President

It’s hard to go wrong with any of the candidates. We stand with Joe Biden because he has all the professional skills and, more important, the personal strength to get the job done unlike any other candidate.

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