Jan 08 2007
Campaign 2008: Joe Biden Joins the Race
The race for the Democratic nominee just got a little more crowed on Sunday:
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden promoted his presidential bid Sunday, saying he thinks he can hold his own against potential high-profile rivals such as fellow Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“I’ll be Joe Biden and I’ll try to be the best Biden I can be,” the 64-year-old Delaware lawmaker said. “If I can, I have a shot. If I can’t, I lose.”
My first thought in reading his quote is, can we please stop referring to ourselves in the third-person? I find it annoying when athletes talk about how TO can only to what TO does…
My second thought was, what will be his angle?
Considered one of his party’s most experienced spokesmen on international affairs, Biden is the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He plans a series of hearings on the Iraq war and has promoted a detailed plan for peace in Iraq that would divide the country along ethnic lines.
Ah, the war. He will not be alone in that angle, but being a committee chair will help promote his name. It seems to me there is little disagreement publicly on the war; we really went there under sketchy circumstances but, pulling out would be a mistake. I’m hoping the mud-slinging will be brief and we will get to some serious solutions as quickly as possible.
The final thought I had was, haven’t we seen ‘Biden for President’ before?
Mr. Biden, who was first elected to the Senate in 1972, also sought the presidential nomination in 1988. But he dropped out of the race after admitting that he had used speeches by other politicians without attribution, and after reports that he had plagiarized while in law school.
I thought so. Looks like there will be skeletons for most of the candidates in this race. I wonder which ones will be the scariest?
Iowa Voice: Whan an absurd little man, I tell you. “I’m going to run as Joe Biden, and if I do that, I can’t lose!†I think he’s got it backwards, and he’ll soon figure it out: that if he runs as Joe Biden, then he can’t win. He and Vilsack should combine forces. Between the two of them, they might make it out of New Hampshire.
The America Street: There are bigger policy differences between Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Vilsack and Kucinich, than between Hillary and Biden. And part of Hillary’s edge is rooted in the support she’ll draw from women eager to see the gender barrier broken Part also rests on the popularity her husband retains. Biden can’t match her on those two points at all.
Irregular Times: So, let me get this straight: Biden is saying that if he cannot be the best Biden he can be, he will lose the 2008 presidential campaign, so he’ll try to be the best Biden he can be. How, though, could Biden be anything other than the best Biden he can be? I mean, if Biden turns out to be a bad Biden, then that’s still the best Biden he could be, right? He just would turn out to be a lousy Biden, that’s all.
