Election 2008: Joe Biden
November 25, 2007 | 2 Comments
When I heard Senator Joe Biden would be in town, I knew I would have to see him, but my hopes were low.
Like Richardson, I had also seen him on the Daily Show, but this was a couple years ago. At that time I had him seriously pegged as a potential contender for the presidency. Yet as this campaign season progressed, he put his foot in his mouth a couple times and the media latched on to this pushing him further and further down the list. For me he had joined Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich as a long shot candidate.
Seeing Biden speak caused me to do a complete 180. Without question, Joe Biden has been pushed into his current position in the election by bad media coverage. I think this is unfair and dangerous. I passionately hope for Biden to find some momentum and begin to be mentioned alongside or above Clinton and Obama.
Biden is unbelievably strong on foreign policy. Where Richardson had good experience, Biden has that and more. He has even managed to get a bi-partisan non-binding agreement for a plan on how to succeed in Iraq passed in the Senate. This is a huge accomplishment, but better yet, he explained why a non-binding agreement was useful politically. Taking a complicated political maneuver like that and putting into useful understandable terms was great.
His plans for health care seemed reasonable and incremental. Rather than attack an overwhelmingly huge “universal health care” plan, he instead has broken it down into goals that can more easily and independently be accomplished. He also explains where he’ll find the funding for this initiative…
Along with that topic, as he talks it occurs to me that with every initiative and plan he talks about, he states an estimated cost and where he can find the money to fund it in the budget. This level of fiscal responsibility is refreshing.
This is certainly a candidate I can throw my full support behind. Sure he’s had a few controversial comments, but that bit of humanity doesn’t scare me. Down the road, this guy can talk the talk and walk the walk on all the issues.
Tags: 2008, biden, election 2008, joe biden, nh primary