For Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, this week's new Los Angeles
Times/Bloomberg poll must have been about as appetizing as a dirt
sandwich. In the all-important, first caucus state of Iowa, he was
tied with Rep. Dennis Kucinich in fifth place among Democrats. At 2
percent, he was 26 percentage points behind front-runner Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton. What he needs right now is a whole lot of ketchup --
or catch-up, if you prefer. Well, on Thursday his campaign got some
new sauce when state House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy endorsed him
at the Iowa Statehouse... That could explain Biden's smile when he
arrived at a crowded diner in Atlantic, Iowa, for a lunchtime event on
Thursday. The smile soon disappeared as he gave a grim assessment of
the war in Iraq -- an issue that has come to dominate all others on
Biden's agenda.

Labels: Joe_Biden