// August 24th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // Newsy Goodness
Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Springfield, Ill. (Photo: Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)
When Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race after a poor showing in Iowa early this year I was depressed, but not surprised. I met Biden, seeing him speak on campus, in a very small room at Plymouth State University during the primary campaigning. I saw all the Democrats (and several Republicans) running, but by far Joe was the guy who impressed me the most. I was
excited to cast my vote for him. Yet by the time NH could vote, he was gone. With his age and failed past runs, it seemed likely that Joe would remain a strong Senator, but not extend his leadership further.
When Barack Obama announced today that Joe Biden was his choice for vice-president, I was ecstatic. Biden adds experience, foreign policy, economic policy, and straight talk that’ll run up one side of McCain and down the other.
Biden is going to shake stuff up. He’s the sort of person who has never had a thought he didn’t immediately vocalize. He’s going to make a lot of headlines for the Obama campaign between now and November, McCain’s smears will no longer go without counter speak. The great part about this is that Biden can engage in the mud slinging while Obama remains above, focusing on the issues.
I know there are many who think Hillary would have been the better choice, but I fully disagree. As strong a candidate as she was, she would add little to Obama’s resume, and will serve the democratic party much better as one of the most outspoken in the Senate. So if you find yourself morose that it isn’t a Barack/Hillary ticket, go watch some Biden vids on YouTube, this guy rocks!
I could continue to talk about why I love Senator Biden, but why not read why the Obama campaign chose him straight from the Obama/Biden campaign’s “Meet Joe Biden” site:
- Like Barack Obama, Biden has been an outspoken critic of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq.
- Biden’s leadership was instrumental in helping to bring stability and peace to the Balkans. In 1999, Biden wrote a resolution endorsing the air war in Kosovo that was passed by the Senate.
- Biden is a leader on the congressional effort to end genocide in Darfur.
- In the late 1990s, Biden led the effort in the Senate to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO and to pass the Chemical Weapons Treaty.
- Biden has been instrumental in crafting almost every major piece of crime legislation over the past two decades. His Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 put more than 100,000 police officers on America’s streets and has been credited with bringing down crime rates to the lowest in a generation.
- In 1996, Biden authored legislation to create a national registry of sex offenders, which tracks people convicted of sex crimes involving violence or committed against minors.
- Biden authored and passed the landmark Violence Against Women Act, the strongest legislation to date that criminalizes domestic violence and holds batterers accountable.
- Biden was a strong supporter of the Family and Medical Leave Act, cracked down on deadbeat dads, and has been a consistent champion for equal pay.
- Biden was one of the first to introduce legislation to address global warming and he co-sponsored the most aggressive piece of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate.
- Biden is a champion on the issue of making college more affordable by using the tax code to reduce costs.
- Biden was successful in passing a provision that prevents budget cuts to military facilities while the nation is at war, one of his key priorities, ensuring that all veterans have top-notch medical treatment in a fully-funded VA health care system.
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