IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

With each passing day I'm becoming more and more certain that my
prediction that Barack Obama will be the biggest flop in history. This
past weekend he tabbed Sen. Joe Biden as his Vice President nominee,
and while Joe is great for a sound bite and can be a ferocious attack
dog, his comments about Obama from the caucuses and primaries have
already made their rounds in the media. Heck, the Biden pick has
allowed McCain to blast out a very effective ad that show's Biden in a
debate saying that Obama's not ready to lead, but praises John McCain.
I also found it interesting to see the liberal get all fired up when
Biden said McCain was out of touch with the American people in his 7
dining room table jab. To be really honest, that's really weak
material for your first time out of the gate. The liberals are used to
the "Bush lied people died" BS, and the best that Obama America and
his team of writers could do was line about 7 dinning room tables?

Labels: Barack_Obama, Joe_Biden

Contrary to news reports from state and national media, three of Iowa's Democratic campaigns want their supporters to know that no blanket campaign directive has been issued, instructing supporters to throw support behind a different candidate during tonight's caucus. "If Iowans are independent enough to have chosen me from the field of candidates, I'm quite sure they have the ability to make an independent second choice as well," said Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd. The campaign for Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, offered similar sentiments.

Labels: Bill_Richardson, Chris_Dodd, Joe_Biden

... "I invited all the presidential candidates to come to this," said Dave Loebsack, but he was happy enough to get two contenders for his "birthday" fundraiser Saturday in Cedar Rapids. Joe Biden and John Edwards addressed an ebbing and flowing crowd that averaged 200 to 250. "I haven't decided whether I'm going to endorse anyone or not," Loebsack told Iowa Independent. "I don't know if I'm going to or not, but if I do I'll certainly think about it long and hard. I've been getting a lot of calls from a lot of people, as I'm sure you might imagine." Loebsack, long active in caucus politics before his 2006 election to Congress, supported Bill Bradley in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004.

Labels: Dave Loebsack, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards

The NPR debate just wrapped up in Des Moines. Here are some thoughts
about the candidates' performance, in alphabetical order. Joe Biden -
Another strong debate performance from Biden today. On all of the
three spotlight topics of the debate, Biden spoke forthrightly on not
just the details of the issues of Iran, China and immigration, but the
specific policy measures he would put in place to address those
issues. I thought Biden's point about immigrants learning English -
that there hasn't been an immigration wave in our history that has not
embraced English as a primary language in its second generation - was
a particular highlight.

Labels: Joe_Biden

When the presidential candidates release plans to deal with important issues, such as education, global warming, or veterans' affairs, the Des Moines Register more often than not buries the story in the middle pages of the Metro Iowa section. That is especially true for the second-tier candidates. Tuesday morning I picked up the Register and saw a photo of Chris Dodd and Joe Biden on the front page of the main section. Wow, that's unusual. But what do you think the story was about? 'Both Dodd, a senator from Connecticut, and Biden, a senator from Delaware, each are hoping to emerge and knock out a front-runner. But both facing an increasing amount of questions about whether they are different enough for voters to tell them apart.'

Labels: Chris_Dodd, Joe_Biden

Iowa State Representative Mary A. Gaskill of Ottumwa today became the
thirteenth Iowa elected official to endorse Joe Biden for president.
For those keeping track at home, here's an endorsement scorecard:
Hillary Clinton: 16, Barack Obama: 15, Joe Biden: 13. It's never clear
how much weight these types of endorsements carry on caucus night. The
potential is certainly there for a candidate to tap into the
endorser's network of financial backers, staff and past volunteers to
enhance their showing in the caucus, but I suspect this potential is
rarely realized to its full extent. That said, Biden's endorsement
tally is impressive nonetheless, and will come as something of a shock
to those who believe poll numbers and fundraising totals tell the
whole story in the Iowa race.

Labels: Joe_Biden

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bill_Richardson, Chet_Culver, Chris_Dodd, Hillary_Clinton, IDP, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards, Tom_Harkin

Last night, I attened a Bio-Economy Conference Forum on the campus of
Iowa State University. The event, which was held in Hilton Coliseum,
featured four presidential candidates: Senator John McCain, Senator
Joe Biden, Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Former Senator John Edwards was scheduled to also attend, but at the
last minute, had to bail out. The conference was a multi-day event and
this was, to the best of my knowledge, kind of the cap to it all. I
estimated about 250 attendees and then they allowed the general public
to sit in the seats to hear the speeches. I would estimate somewhere
between 300 and 400 people sat there. Thus, the candidates in
attendance got audiences that certainly surpassed 500 or 600 people.

Labels: Chris_Dodd, Dennis_Kucinich, Joe_Biden, John_McCain

As I've written a couple of posts below, I don't expect Rudy Giuliani
to be the GOP nominee. However, I've noticed lately that several
Democrats in the race have been going out of their way to take on
Rudy. Joe Biden scored at last week's debate with his joke that every
sentence uttered by Rudy has a noun, a verb and 9/11, and his comment
that Rudy is the most unqualified person to run for president since
George W. Bush. His campaign has been milking these moments in
fund-raising e-mails featuring highlights from the debate and
outrageous comments made by Rudy. For instance: 'As I wrote earlier,
we expected another attack from Giuliani's campaign on Friday and they
didn't disappoint...'

Labels: Barack_Obama, Joe_Biden, Rudy_Giuliani

I'll be honest, I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet.
But you can see the highlights here… Skimming the plan, it appears
that Biden would not make health insurance mandatory, so this is not
quite a universal health care plan (as Edwards and Clinton have
proposed). Under Biden's plan, all children would be covered, and
steps would be taken to improve adults' access to health insurance,
including a Federal Employee Health Benefit Buy-In and a Medicare
Buy-In for adults age 55 to 64. This seems most similar to Obama's
health care proposal, which also would put us on the road toward
covering all children and more adults.

Labels: health_care, Joe_Biden

History comes at us in two forms: history in the moment when it is
made, and history in the aftermath when it is written. The first is
action, and the second is judgment. If we're wise, we always pay
attention to the judgments of history; if we're lucky, we may get to
be present on an occasion when history is made. I had the luck to be a
witness to history being made today, as two U.S. Senators and
presidential candidates, from opposite parties, appeared at the same
podium to campaign, not for votes for their respective candidacies,
but for support of their joint plan to end the civil war in Iraq,
bring stability to the Persian Gulf region and pave the way for an end
to U.S. combat operations without leaving chaos behind.

Labels: Joe_Biden, Sam_Brownback

Iowa State Representative McKinley Bailey announced his endorsement of
Joe Biden today. Bailey is a first term State Representative and was
widely courted by Presidential campaigns because of his service in
Iraq in the 82nd Airborne Division. Biden has picked up endorsements
from a number of Iowa legislators as part of his campaign's increased
focus on the caucuses. Bailey is also a member of a prominent
political family in Hamilton County. However, his father, Hamilton
County Supervisor Doug Bailey has not just endorsed Obama, but is a
member of Obama's statewide leadership team. It's also interesting to
note that Hillary Clinton announced her retirement savings plan in the
Bailey family's hometown of Webster City.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Joe_Biden

A couple months after he apologized to supporters for his sluggish
fundraising machine, Sen. Joe Biden conceded Thursday that he raised
even less money for the third quarter of the year. Biden told
reporters outside East High School in Des Moines that he's still
confident he can find a late breakthrough in the Democratic
presidential contest. But with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beginning
to widen her lead both in polls and in the campaign money chase,
lower-tier candidates like Biden increasingly must fight to remain
viable and relevant. "I'm satisfied," Biden said of the nearly $2
million he raised in the third quarter of the year.

Labels: Joe_Biden

As Chris Cilizza reports, Joe Biden is staking his entire campaign on
a strong performance in Iowa. He has moved almost his entire national
staff into Iowa in hopes of a strong performance in the caucuses.
Biden seems to hope that this increased focus, combined with support
from many Iowa legislators (including his recent endorsement by Iowa
House Speaker Pro Tem Polly Bukta). His strategy, as reported by Marc
Ambinder seems solid, based on having surrogates hit smaller towns
with a particular focus on the blue collar Democratic counties along
the Mississippi River. However, there is one inherent flaw. Ambinder
notes that Biden has "nine field offices and 23 full-time staffers"
which is puny compared to the number of staffers and field offices
that Obama, Edwards and Clinton have. In fact, even Chris Dodd has 59
full-time staffers on the ground in Iowa right now.

Labels: Joe_Biden

That old bromide about the weather - everybody talks about it, but
nobody ever does anything about it - could just as easily be applied
to Iraq, and particularly with regard to the deadlocked United States
Senate throughout 2007. That all shifted significantly today with the
Senate's overwhelming passage of the Biden amendment to the FY2008
Defense Authorization Act. The amendment lays out Biden's vision for a
political settlement in Iraq based on a federal system of a three-way
partition of the country into semi-autonomous sectarian regions. The
regions, one each for Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish populations,
would have direct control over local matters like law enforcement and
jobs, with a weakened central government in Baghdad controlling
national matters like border security, foreign policy and the
distribution of oil revenues.

Labels: Iraq, Joe_Biden

Iowa House Speaker Pro Tempore Polly Bukta, D-Clinton, has become the
ninth member of the Iowa legislature to endorse Delaware Sen. Joe
Biden. With the addition of Bukta, the campaign's endorsement list
includes five members of the Iowa House Leadership. Biden was one of
four candidates to attend Bukta's annual corn boil held in August.
Biden was the final speaker of the day and many in the stands at
Riverfront Stadium in Clinton had moved to the grounds, most
scampering after New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Connecticut
Sen. Chris Dodd and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards on a quest
for pictures and autographs. On that day, Biden spoke forcefully about
his plan for Iraq and his reasoning for voting to continue funding.

Labels: Joe_Biden

Labels: Bill_Richardson, Chris_Dodd, Hillary_Clinton, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden appeared (20 minutes late)
on the steps of the Iowa Statehouse today to announce he's been
endorsed by a state legislator. More on that in a moment. Biden
offered a 5 minute, 15 second response after I asked him to analyze
Bush's announcement to the country that's scheduled for this evening
(it's no secret what Bush is going to say)... Now, back to the
endorsements. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines
endorsed Biden today. That would be the Kevin McCarthy who is an
assistant Polk County Attorney and the same Kevin McCarthy who was Joe
Lieberman's Iowa campaign manager back in 2003. "This presidential
campaign is all about Iraq," McCarthy said to open his remarks at the
news conference.

Labels: Joe_Biden

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

With the moving up of major parties' primaries, politics have been
brutal this summer. As Joe Biden (who probably shouldn't make jokes
about Tulane being underwater) said on the Daily Show last night in
reference to Senator Obama's turn in fortune, "It's rough out there."
And it is coming within the Dem party and from the right wingers who
say things like "Edward's whored his wife's cancer for a fund raising
gimmick". Over on the right, similar gesticulations are happening
(right, John McCain?). The politics of dismantling are brutal, but
doesn't the average voter see through the strategy? To dismantle
Obama, the strategy is to minimize his foreign policy experience; to
dismantle Edwards; go after his money (via his haircut); to dismantle
Clinton, go after her war votes and on and on.

Labels: Joe_Biden

An Iowa City event which had drawn a great deal of national attention has been partially postponed to allow presidential hopefuls who are also U.S. senators to travel back to the beltway for debate on a bill. The Iowa Professional Fire Fighters State Convention was to host presidential hopefuls Tuesday and Wednesday. Gov. Bill Richarson, Sen. Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Hillary Clinton confirmed they would be in attendance. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden was also scheduled to appear and represent his father, Sen. Joe Biden. There was also speculation that Pres. Bill Clinton would appear beside his wife for the event. The fire fighters have decided to postpone this portion of their convention when it was learned the event conflicted with debate on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bill_Richardson, Chris_Dodd, Hillary_Clinton, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards

Joe Biden came to see us this morning. By us, I mean the Cedar Rapids Gazette. He spent an hour and 10 minutes giving very long answers to very short questions from the editor, the vice president/general manager, the political writer, and the newsside columnist, who also has a role in the paper's editorial department. Oh, and there was me, the dilettante. "My only shot is you guys grilling me and making conclusions if I should be hanging around," Biden said, "because it sure won't be the money." Meaning, the Democrat U.S. Senator from Delaware who is running for president isn't playing in the Clinton-Obama league when it comes to fundraising. So he, like most of the presidential candidates seeking to attract as much possible attention in Iowa, Biden pays visits to local television and newspaper people in Iowa when the opportunities arise. The most obvious benefit: He'll get a story and a photograph in tomorrow's Gazette, and the same on Gazetteonline.com and its Iowacaucus.com site. In turn, the newspaper can say it hosted Biden, asked him direct questions on the public's behalf, looked him in the eye.

Labels: Joe_Biden

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden is proud of the fact that he hasn't changed much since 1994. "If I could wave a magic wand," he told the standing room only crowd in Cedar Rapids Sunday night, "the one thing in world politics I would do would be the empowerment of women." Biden was responding to an audience member who questioned what could be done about the declining status of women in Iraq. "I don't want to empower women because they are sweet and nice," he added. "It needs to be done because that's 51 percent of the world's population and because it would better us all." Although the primary topic for Sunday's stump speech was the Iraq War, the U.S. Senator and author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act often answers audience questions or follows a train of thought which leads him to discuss women and/or women's issues.

Labels: Joe_Biden

... HOT: John Edwards: I've been calling him the likely nominee for some time now, but it's probably time to back off that. I think he's running a better campaign than he ran in 2004, and he's been the first out of the gate with specific proposals on issues, including a very specific health care plan. ... On the downside, I think the early spotlight is shooting some holes in his image. ... (HOT) Barack Obama: He draws huge crowds wherever he goes, he's charismatic and he seems to be able to run a campaign on broad themes without anyone asking him why he's not specific on anything. ... But, I don't think he's prepared to be Chief Executive. I think he lacks the experience. The fact that he's entirely non-specific on issues means I have no idea what I agree with him on. ... WARM Chris Dodd: He jumped into the upper half of my list by being the first to advocate for public financing of campaigns in the debate. ... I'm glad he's running in Iowa, but he feels like more of a "I have something to add to the conversation" candidate than a true contender. (WARM) Bill Richardson: He brings incredible foreign policy experience to the race. He may be the last presidential candidate in my lifetime to bring 4 Nobel Prize nominations to the table. He's the only candidate in the race from farther west than Illinois. He might also be the only candidate that doesn't scare the crap out of the NRA. However, his admission that he hadn't advocated for the firing of the Attorney General because Alberto Gonzales is Hispanic was flatly racist, and there's no excuse for it. ... COLD: Joe Biden ... Hillary Clinton ... She's putting a happy face on her years of controversy and blaming them on "sticking up for her beliefs," which is partially true. She's got enormously huge money and the capacity to out-advertise any of her opponents 2-to-1. ... I'm a firm believer that voters should never choose a candidate just because they can beat the Republicans, but there's an argument to be made that there's no way she could beat a Republican.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bill_Richardson, Chris_Dodd, Hillary_Clinton, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards

Just back from watching the debate with JCDems chair Brian Flaherty who says, in chairmanly neutrality, that everyone did great and he wants to hear more health care. The rest of the thoughts are mine in blogger-ly snarkiness. Joe Biden had a great night and Brian Williams knew it; by the end of the debate he was going to Biden more and more and Dodd and Richardson less. And in the post-debate interviews, Biden was in What I'll Do As President mode (well, Secretary of State maybe) while Dodd was begging for consideration and Richardson (who looked disappointed) was giving the answer he should have given to one of the debate questions. My favorite sequence was the "elephant in the room" round early in the debate when Williams asked about perceived weaknesses and character flaws. (Someone missed an opportunity to chuckle at the question with an air of "this is so ridiculous it's beneath me, but as you insist on asking, I have nothing to hide.") Edwards did well with his response to a $400 haircut question, which served as the launch pad for some Everyone Should Have The Opportunity I've Had and Son Of A Millworker stories including one I hadn't heard before of having to leave a restaurant without ordering because his dad couldn't afford anything on the menu.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Hillary_Clinton, Joe_Biden, John_Edwards

Joe Biden was the last candidate to address the crowd, and took the stage to robust applause. Every election cycle, he said, America puts up a job description for president. The job description changes from cycle to cycle, but this time, according to Biden, the job description is: restore America's place in the world, restore the middle class, and put an end to the politics of polarization. In today's America, Biden said, there is not a single problem that lends itself to a solution supported by 51% of the people and opposed by the other 49%. In order to prevail in the general election, Biden said, the Democratic nominee will need to not just win the same tier of 20 or so "blue" states won by Al Gore and John Kerry in the last two cycles, but also be competitive in at least 9 or 10 traditionally "red" states as well. Establishing his thesis for the night, Biden said, "I'm not running for the exercise." Biden characterized the current political climate as the politics of false choices. Iraq, he said, cannot be passed on to the next president, or abandoned by the United States, without any idea about what comes next.

Labels: Joe_Biden

... Biden characterized this approach as "federalism," and said it was fully within the letter and intent of Iraq's constitution. The answer, according to Biden, is to work with the Iraqi government and factions on an internal settlement while convening multilateral diplomacy to address issues concerning the entire region. ... Biden concluded by stating that the future pillars of American foreign policy will need to be behavior change, rather than regime change, to address foreign governments with whom we have conflicts, and prevention, rather than preemption, to address future threats to American interests and security. ... Biden was professorial, authoritative, sophisticated in his appreciation of the nuances and complexities of the challenges awaiting the next president.

Labels: Joe_Biden