Biden: Timing is everything

[babylonsister]

Also, video at link~

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-1120bidennov20,1,6402085,full.story?coll=chi_news_politics_util&ctrack=3&cset=true

Biden: Timing is everything
Stalwart Democratic senator stakes his presidential bid on winning in Iowa -- where it all fell apart for him 20 years ago

By James Oliphant Tribune staff reporter
November 20, 2007


DES MOINES - Joe Biden's story starts and ends, and starts again here: The Polk County Fairgrounds, home of the Iowa State Fair. Twenty years ago it all went wrong in a few poorly chosen words. Now it is the place to exorcise the ghosts.

Twenty years ago, Biden was his generation's New Voice, the Democrat whose rhetoric and youthful exuberance recalled the Kennedy mystique. For a time, he seemed the ideal antidote to the autumnal stagger of the Reagan administration's latter days.

The rest of the field in Iowa was hardly formidable: Earnest Rep. Dick Gephardt from Missouri, Paul Simon, the durable bow-tied liberal from Illinois, Michael Dukakis, the technocratic Massachusetts governor, among others. The prize loomed for Biden.

His ability to talk in that rousing fill-the-hall style had put Biden in this place. Then came his speech at the State Fair and his failure to credit a British politician, Neil Kinnock.

His license with Kinnock's words were soon outed by the Dukakis' campaign, sending Biden's presidential dreams sprawling into the wilderness. Rarely has someone as verbose as Biden been so persecuted for something he didn't say.

And after all of that, he almost died, and had his brain sliced open on an operating table.

A very bad year.

more...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-1120bidennov20,1,6402085,full.story?coll=chi_news_politics_util&ctrack=3&cset=true

[1corona4u]

1. Wow....

Thanks for posting that. Powerful stuff. It's sad that some people trivialize him.

[napi21]

2. That's a great article. Tak the time to read it if you can. n/t

[gateley]

3. Thanks again babylonsister! This is an EXCEPTIONAL article IMO. For those

For those who are considering Biden, I'd highly recommend reading the rest of the article at the link. EDIT to remove an inaccurate statement on my part.

A couple more quotes from the article (examples of Biden shooting from the hip - as usual):

In 1987, "I was a 42-year-old guy who never really when I started off intended to really run. Quite frankly, I thought more about how to win than how to govern. I wasn't nearly as sure as what I wanted to do if I were able to govern. Today it is almost the opposite, unfortunately," he half-shouts over the roar of the propellers. "This time, rightly or wrongly, I am given a fair amount of credit by serious press guys for being ready to be president, but there's grave doubt whether I can get the nomination to run for president. So it's kind of a flip, do you know what I mean?"

And he marvels at the media attention given Clinton and Barack Obama at the expense of the other candidates.

"It's sort of been liberating. I don't feel constrained in this campaign. I'm going to win or lose on my own terms. One of the things that last time taught me was the worst way to lose was on somebody else's terms."

Education? Jill Biden is a teacher, has taught kids for 30 years.

Iraq? Well, Beau is in the National Guard. His unit is deploying to Iraq next year.

Health care? "They literally had to take the top of my head off twice," Biden likes to say. "At least I had health insurance."



Good stuff! Thanks again for posting this link!

[babylonsister]

4. You had to register? I just tried linking to it again and got to the

article w/o registering. :shrug:

[gateley]

5. You're certainly not suggesting Operator Error, are you? :-) Knowing me, sigh,

I probably did something goofy. Thanks for checking! I'm going to take that line out of my post - I don't want to discourage people who would like to see what it says.

[PatSeg]

6. This was a great article

I hope people take the time to read the whole thing.