Senator Joe Biden for president---in the primaries

what no reference to Hitler? I kinda like Biden but he remains a wonk having spent something like 30 years in congress. (perhaps clouber, you don't know what a 'wonk" is.
It is commonly used to refer to a person who is knowledgeable about and fascinated by details of a particular field. But yeah, you must be right about me being right out of GWB's book. I'm a HUGE GWB fan as everyone knows.

Personally I find coluber's thought processes childish. I criticize Kucinich more than any other candidate and yet he is my absolute favorite. BBB's expression about "questioning authority' is right on but also we need to question all aspects of every candidate whether we happen to "like' them or not. There is much of Kucinich's platform I totally disagree with and am not hesitant to say so, same is true of Biden or anyone else.

e-mail from Joe Biden
e-mail from Joe Biden
12/9/07
Ohio

Is it still a secret when everyone's talking about it? This is what Drew Cline of the Manchester Untion Leader in New Hampshire wrote on this blog on Friday:

"I was chatting with an extremely well-informed Iowa journalist yesterday, and he had an interesting take on what surprises we might see in Iowa in the next month. He thinks there's a remote but real possibility that Joe Biden could see a surge in support and shock a lot of people with a very good showing in the caucuses. Biden and Bill Richardson are taking turns in fourth and fifth place in Iowa polls. But there's a lot of respect for Biden in Iowa, I was told, and he ends up being the second choice of a lot of Democrats who don't want Clinton to be the nominee. It's a long shot, but Biden has been campaigning a ton in Iowa lately, and he's started to move up in the polls. This journalist thinks Biden could take third place -- or even better by Jan. 3."
Other candidates have already spent millions of dollars in Iowa, but their campaigns are stalling. We haven't even started our final media push yet, but it seems everyone's talking about a "Biden surprise."

to the point, yes.... very distasteful. Shame on you dys.

Biden wants special counsel for CIA case
Biden wants special counsel for CIA case
Published: Dec. 9, 2007 at 9:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Sunday a special counsel should be named to investigate the destruction of videotapes of CIA terror suspect interrogations.

CIA Director Mike Hayden has disclosed the tapes were destroyed by an underling without consulting CIA legal counsel. Hayden contends their disposal was legal and necessary to protect the identity of the interrogators.

The U.S. Justice Department and CIA inspector general said Saturday they would investigate the handling of the tapes.

Biden -- chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a candidate for the Democratic president nomination -- told ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" it appears Hayden is "wrong" about the motive for destroying the video.

"It appears as though there may be an obstruction of justice charge here, tampering with evidence and destroying evidence, and I think this is one case where it really does call for a special counsel," Biden said. "I think this leads right into the White House. There may be a legal and rational explanation, but I don't see any on the face of it."

Biden said he "doesn't have any confidence" in the attorney general's office under President George W. Bush.

Democratic Presidential Debate 12/13/07 - 2 pm ET
Democratic Presidential Debate

This Thursday, December 13th, at 2:00 PM ET, Senator Joe Biden will participate in the Des Moines Register Democratic Presidential Debate in Des Moines, IA.

You can watch and listen to the debate live on CNN, C-SPAN3, C-SPAN Radio, Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio. It will also be streamed live online at DesMoinesRegister.com and IPTV.org


Check your local listings for more information.

e-mail from Biden
e-mail from Joe Biden 12/13/07

Even more evidence that the buzz surrounding our campaign is getting around. This week, Chris Matthews of MSNBC placed our campaign in the top three... "On the Democratic side - I say, and this may surprise you, that Joe Biden is now the third best bet for the nomination. I'm hearing a lot of buzz about him from people who pay attention."

This is all happening because of the the careful groundwork we laid all year powered by the support of thousands of Biden supporters across the country like you. I'm writing because I can sure use your help again today. With 21 days until the first votes, every contribution helps us pick up steam.

I hope you will take a moment to watch what Chris Matthews has to say about our campaign and then make another contribution to the camapign to help us finish strong.

Local Iowa Press likes Biden
Local Iowa Press likes Biden
12/14/07

The response from yesterday's debate is incredibly positive. David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register wrote, "Biden's showing was the best of the day... [he] was cool, commanding and presidential."

Michael Crowley of The New Republic said, "There's a growing buzz around Biden and today probably helps in that department."

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post wrote, "Winners: Joe Biden. Biden was extraordinary today. Not only did he speak specifically and with authority on issues both foreign and domestic, he was able to tie all of his arguments together under the umbrella of taking action and setting priorities... A complete performance by The Fix's Iowa darkhorse."

The entire campaign is working overtime to reach voters with news from the debate. We can shock the political world on January 3rd, but only if we can get our message into the hands of voters before the voting starts.

e-mail from Joe Biden
Over the last year, you've constantly heard the phrase "Joe is right" echoing throughout the presidential debates. After Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen praised Joe Biden for a "cool, commanding and presidential" performance during Thursday's debate, I had our Web team put together a video of Joe's performance so you can see why the other candidates look to him for action on the most important issues.

watch a video of Joe at the Des Moines Register debate:
http://www.joebiden.com/contribution/2?id=0028

On questions ranging from the economy to energy to the war in Iraq, you can see once again that Joe Biden is the candidate who will be able to act on day one as president.

Biden Pushes for 3rd in Iowa Caucuses
The polls show Joe Biden in 4th place in Iowa, which isn't bad for a candidate with little money compared to the rich super stars. ---BBB

Joe Biden: Dem Rivals "Not Making Sense" On Bhutto
Joe Biden: Dem Rivals "Not Making Sense" On Bhutto Murder
by Marc Cooper, The Huffington Post
December 27, 2007 10:30 PM

Council Bluffs, Iowa - Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden took the occasion of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to chide his Democratic rivals as too inexperienced to be president and to tout his own foreign policy credentials.

"Observe what's been going on in Pakistan and you'll see not many candidates have spoken out," Biden said. "And those few who have spoken don't make a lot of sense."

Biden made his remarks Thursday night to a an audience of about 150 supporters gathered at the local Elks Lodge in this small city abutting Nebraska.

Biden didn't single out any of his rivals by name in deriding their statements on Pakistan. But calling "nuclear-riddled" Pakistan an "emerging, urgent crisis," the veteran Delaware Senator suggested that among the Democratic contenders he alone was best suited to deal with dangerous global affairs.

In a post-event interview with The Huffington Post, Biden at first refused to specify which candidate he was referring to when he said they weren't making sense on Pakistan. He noted that front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both of whom issued brief statements earlier in the day lamenting Bhutto's murder, were "both good people" but didn't have his breadth of foreign policy experience.

When further pressed on the issue, Biden singled out second-tier candidate Bill Richardson as an example of a candidate putting forth simplistic responses to the Pakistani crisis. "Richardson said that [Pakistani President] Musharraf should step down and make way for a coalition government," Biden said. "But what coalition? There isn't any. What's he talking about?"

The assassination of Bhutto, Biden told HuffPost, was one more symptom of what he called a "dyslexic" U.S. foreign policy. "We've got things backwards," he said. "Our policy in Afghanistan where we haven't devoted enough resources to fight Al Qaeda has only encouraged the same extremists in Pakistan."

Biden devoted most of his two hour appearance to lengthy presentations of various "Biden plans" to solve thorny international issues.

"You know a lot of people make jokes about me running really running for Secretary of State," he told the crowd who peppered him with questions on foreign policy issues ranging from Russia to the Middle East to Afghanistan. "I'm not. I'm running for President. But I would ask you: 'How many of you are willing to vote for a candidate not able to be Secretary of State?'"

"I know many of the world leaders for the last 30 years. Not because I'm and important guy. But because I came up with them," he said referring to his long-time leadership position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "It's not hyperbole to suggest the rest of the world is waiting for an American president to be elected who can connect the dots. And I can."

more endorsements for Biden
Joe Biden on CNN's Late Edition this Sunday

Senator Joe Biden will appear LIVE from the campaign trail in Iowa on Late Edition tomorrow morning to discuss his candidacy and the latest political developments. Late Edition airs live on CNN starting at 11 am ET.

Yesterday, Joe Biden received the endorsement of three County Democratic Party Chairs here in Iowa, Pat Sass, Black Hawk County Party Chair; Jean Hall, Clayton County Chair; and Linda Carrillo, Cedar County Party Chair.

Friday night, we held an event for Senator Biden at the Waterloo Center for the Arts -- with supporters lining the walls to hear from the candidate who's been ahead of the curve on everything from Pakistan and Iraq to domestic violence and homeland security.

Crisis intrudes on Iowa: Biden has been right all along
A Crisis Intrudes On Iowa
The Washington Post
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, December 28, 2007

DES MOINES -- The assassination of Benazir Bhutto came as a brutal reminder of the gravity of the decision Iowa's voters will be rendering in their caucuses next Thursday night. Its impact may be felt most powerfully by Democrats who have been thinking less about issues than about the style of leadership they are seeking from their next president.

All of a sudden, the politicians' endless loop of television advertisements took on a somber significance. During coverage of Bhutto's murder on "Good Morning America," up popped a Hillary Clinton ad where the message over grave music is that the moment "demands a leader with a steady hand who will weather the storms." No kidding.

A short while later, a Joe Biden commercial looks as if it had been produced precisely for this moment. "We don't have to imagine the crises the next president will face," intones a very serious voice. Indeed not.

Clinton, of course, is hoping that the chaos in Pakistan will fortify her relentless arguments about the importance of experience. Biden's refusal to back away from his insistence that this should be a foreign policy election seems shrewder now than it did last week. Biden has been warning not for months but for years that the United States faces its gravest challenge in Pakistan.

The images from Pakistan ratified that Biden was no Chicken Little. He noted yesterday that he had "twice urged President Musharraf to provide better security for Ms. Bhutto and other political leaders." Biden was suddenly relevant -- to television bookers for sure, but also, perhaps, to voters.

David Axelrod, one of Barack Obama's senior advisers, acknowledged that the events in Pakistan could well shake the campaign. But he insisted that they validated Obama's original judgment that the war in Iraq was the wrong battle at the wrong moment. Obama, he said, would be happy to reopen the debate on "judgment" in foreign policy.

Still, Iowa's Democrats work to their own rhythms. Foreign policy differences -- indeed, almost all issue differences -- have had little to do with the battle here.

Instead, said Axelrod, the rhythm of this campaign has been defined by "three different approaches" to the presidency laid out by Clinton, John Edwards and his own candidate.

Clinton's argument, he said, is that "she's been around the block," a not quite charitable way of characterizing Clinton's claims that her experience readies her for the coming battles for change that all Democrats devoutly wish to wage.

"The Edwards campaign is 'Storm the Bastille,' " said Axelrod in a colorful description of the former senator's fierce attacks on drug companies, oil companies and all others who would stand in the way of reform. This is appealing to the many Democrats who are in a fighting mood.

But Obama is running as the candidate who can transcend these fights. In offering his closing argument at a Masonic hall here yesterday, he poked fun at Clinton's recent embrace of change as her own magic word. No, said Obama, change "has been our message when we were down, and our message when we were up. And it must be catching on because . . . everyone is talking about change."

Clearly but obliquely referring to Edwards, Obama preached that anger won't cut it, either. "There's no shortage of anger and bluster and bitter partisanship out there," he said. "We can change the electoral math that's been all about division and make it about addition."

Thus has a wide Democratic consensus defined the choice here as among three different change agents: one tough and experienced, another forceful and angry, the third sunny and inspirational. Biden stands outside their fight, listening to his own drummer.

Democrats have been in this place before. Writing to his friend Newton Minnow about the 1960 nomination battle among John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson, the veteran New Deal lawyer James Rowe wondered what all the commotion was about.

"As long as the available mechanism is the Democratic Party, and the troops to command are Democrats, I do not think there would be much difference between the three men," Rowe wrote. "This is the reality and all the sound and fury of 'liberalism' and 'moderation' which all of your gentlemen indulge in are mere chimera."

But here, this late December, the differences among today's three leading Democrats seem real enough, and all the more so now that the world has brutally forced its way into Iowans' already agonized deliberations.

Joe Biden's case for his national electability video
Joe Biden's case for his national electability video - outstanding:

http://www.joebiden.com/contribution/2?id=0032

Biden Sees Largest Crowd Of His Campaign
Biden Sees Largest Crowd Of His Campaign
Des Moines Register
by Abby Simons
January 2, 2008

Jo Stevens sat and watched Sen. Joe Biden weave his way through the largest crowd of his presidential campaign on Tuesday at Raccoon River Brewing Co. in Des Moines.

Stevens likes Biden. She thinks he can save the world. And, like so many potential supporters of his, she is worried that he is going nowhere Thursday when Iowans gather for their precinct caucuses.

"I'm so for him, and I'm so afraid he doesn't have a chance. It's just a feeling I have," Stevens said.

Even so, Stevens, 76, said she will caucus for the Delaware Democrat, regardless of his single-digit poll numbers.

She doesn't have a second choice. He's the one, she said, and she hopes that other Iowans will feel the same.

An estimated 550 people overflowed the brewpub to hear Biden speak Tuesday - in contrast with the few dozen people who showed up at his campaign events a few months ago. People are starting to pay attention, and it was clear Biden enjoyed the attention.

Click here to continue reading the Des Moines Register:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/NEWS09/801020366/1001/NEWS

Biden scoffs at poll figures, says race still 'wide open'
January 3, 2008
Biden scoffs at poll figures, says race still 'wide open'
By ABBY SIMONS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Oskaloosa, Ia. - Delaware Sen. Joe Biden told potential caucusgoers that his campaign was still very much alive, and that despite consistent single-digit polling numbers that keep him in fifth place, the only poll that counts takes place tonight.

"There's an old expression attributed to Mark Twain," Biden opened to a crowd of about 80 at the Pepper Tree restaurant on the outskirts of town on Wednesday. "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

In a speech full of analogies, Biden called those in attendance the final jury for his closing argument, adding that the race remains "wide open," regardless of the three front-runners, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The 35-year veteran senator added that he would be the only Democratic nominee to take on any Republican on foreign policy issues. He cited the mistakes of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who is said to have lost the 2004 presidential election to President Bush because of a lack of emphasis on foreign policy, something Biden has consistently touted throughout the past several months in Iowa.

"Remember 2000? It was lead-pipe cinched, remember? We didn't have to talk about that morality stuff, we didn't have to talk about foreign policy. All we had to talk about was the things the American people agreed upon," Biden said. "The next time around, the great candidate John Kerry's people convinced him that he didn't have to compete with foreign policy, that he didn't have to take on terrorism. All he had to do was have a better health care plan, a better education plan."

Yet Kerry lost, Biden said, because Americans believed Bush would protect them better than Kerry could.

Grinnell College chemistry professor Lee Sharpe, 47, said although he disagrees with Biden and all other candidates on ethanol, he remains on the fence about whether he will caucus today for Biden or Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican.

Sharpe, a fiscal conservative and social liberal, considers himself a Republican, but feels the party has been hijacked by the religious right. He said that McCain has adequate experience, but that he has found Biden's Web site information far more thorough.

Sharpe wondered whether, if caucusing for Biden, it would be possible to make McCain his second choice.

"It would be interesting to see a debate between the two," he said.

Biden Volunteers Dot I's, Cross T's
Biden Volunteers Dot I's, Cross T's
Posted January 2, 2008

A video peek backstage at Joe Biden's campaign headquarters is Des Moines, as volunteers make the final phone calls to lock up support and solidify their organization in competitive precincts. Polk County field director Raena Davis, a Miami (the warm one, not the midwestern one) native and recent Brandeis graduate, talks about the momentum that has been building over the last couple of months.

Video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelby-highsmith/biden-volunteers-dot-is_b_79394.html

BBB
Senator Biden has withdrawn from the presidential primaries. He didn't have enough money to continue. The Media (and debates) ignored him and the other non-big-money raisers. I admire and respect him for his attempt to raise the quality of candidates to benefit America.

Thanks, Joe!

BBB

Re: BBB


Ditto!

Thank you from Joe
I wanted to send a short note to say how incredibly grateful I am for the support you have shown me in this campaign. My entire family and I are in awe of the many of you who opened up your hearts and homes to us during the campaign to give us a chance to change this race, and the country, for the better.

And we succeeded. Whether it was keeping the Democratic Party focused on finding a political solution in Iraq, securing funding for MRAP vehicles for our troops, or calling for a fundamentally new approach to Pakistan, we had an impact on this election in ways that will reverberate into next November, when we elect a Democrat to the White House.

Although I am ending my Presidential campaign, I am not going away. I'm returning to the Senate as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will continue to ensure that we protect the nation's security and show our country that Democrats know how to keep America safe, keep our commitment to our troops and restore our country's respect in the world.

Again, thank you so much for making all of this possible.

Joe