Biden, on a post-debate appearance on MSNBC, October 30, 2007:
“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”
Biden appearing on The Daily Show, August 2, 2005:
“John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be
honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the
country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”
On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: “I’ve been calling for
more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and
others subsequent to my saying that.”
On Obama:
Reacting to an Obama speech on counterterrorism, August 1, 2007:
“‘Look, the truth is the four major things he called for, well, hell
that’s what I called for,’ Biden said today on MSNBC’s Hardball,
echoing comments he made earlier in the day at an event
promoting his book at the National Press Club. Biden added,
‘I’m glad he’s talking about these things.’”
Also that day, the Biden campaign issued a release that began,
“The Biden for President Campaign today congratulated
Sen. Barack Obama for arriving at a number of Sen. Biden’s
long-held views on combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.” That release mocked Obama for asking about the
“stunning level of mercury in fish” and asked about a proposal
for the U.S. adopt a ban on mercury sales abroad at a
Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Assessing Obama’s Iraq plan on September 13, 2007:
“My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave,
somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany”
of peaceful coexistence among warring sects.
“I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
Speaking to the New York Observer: Biden was equally skeptical
— albeit in a slightly more backhanded way — about Mr. Obama.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American
who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,”
he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Also from that Observer interview: “But — and the ‘but’
was clearly inevitable — he doubts whether American voters
are going to elect ‘a one-term, a guy who has served for four
years in the Senate,’ and added: ‘I don’t recall hearing a word
from Barack about a plan or a tactic.’”
Around that time, Biden in an interview with the Huffington Post,
he assessed Obama and Hillary Clinton: “The more people learn
about them (Obama and Hillary) and how they handle the pressure,
the more their support will evaporate.”
December 11, 2007: “If Iowans believe campaign funds and
celebrity will fix the debacle in Iraq, put the economy on track,
and provide health care and education for America’s children,
they should support another candidate,” said Biden for
President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro.
“But I’m confident that Iowans know what I know:
our problems will require experience and leadership
from Day One. Empty slogans will be no match for proven
action on caucus night.”
Also that night, Biden said in a campaign ad,
“When this campaign is over, political slogans like
‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing.
The next president has to act.”
September 26, 2007: Biden for President Campaign
Manager Luis Navarro said, “Sen. Obama said he would do
everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized
the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to
vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a
political solution in Iraq.
December 26, 2006: “Frankly, I think I’m more qualified
than other candidates, and the issues facing the American
public are all in my wheelbarrow.”
On Iraq:
Biden on Meet the Press in 2002, discussing Saddam Hussein:
“He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national
security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat.
This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”
Biden on Meet the Press in 2002: “Saddam must be
dislodged from his weapons or dislodged from power.”
Biden on Meet the Press in 2007, on Hussein’s WMDs:
“Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in
the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said
he had them. He catalogued — they catalogued them.
This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream.
This was, in fact, catalogued.”
Biden, on Obama’s Iraq plan in August 2007:
“I don’t want [my son] going [to Iraq],” Delaware Sen. Joe Biden
said from the campaign trail Wednesday, according to a report on
Radio Iowa. “But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my
granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave
makes a big difference.” Biden criticized Democratic rivals
such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama who
have voted against Iraq funding bills to try to pressure
President Bush to end the war. “There’s no political point worth
my son’s life,” Biden said, according to Radio Iowa.
“There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”
Biden on Meet the Press, April 29, 2007:
“The threat [Saddam Hussein] presented was that, if Saddam was
left unfettered, which I said during that period, for the next five
years with sanctions lifted and billions of dollars into his coffers,
then I believed he had the ability to acquire a tactical nuclear weapon —
not by building it, by purchasing it. I also believed he was a
threat in that he was — every single solitary U.N. resolution
which he agreed to abide by, which was the equivalent of a
peace agreement at the United Nations, after he got out of —
after we kicked him out of Kuwait, he was violating.
Now, the rules of the road either mean something or they don’t.
The international community says “We’re going to enforce the
sanctions we placed” or not. And what was the international
community doing? The international community was weakening.
They were pulling away.”
Biden to the Brookings Institution in 2005: “We can call it quits and
withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake.
Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only
encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”
Analyzing the surge on Meet the Press, September 9, 2007:
“I mean, the truth of the matter is that, that the — America’s —
this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure,
and that the surge, which was supposed to stop sectarian violence and —
long enough to give political reconciliation, there’s been no
political reconciliation... The reality is that, although there has
been some mild progress on the security front, there is, in fact,
no, no real security in Baghdad and/or in Anbar province,
where I was, dealing with the most serious problem,
sectarian violence. Sectarian violence is as strong and as
solid and as serious a problem as it was before the surge started.”
Biden in October of 2002: “We must be clear with the
American people that we are committing to Iraq for the
long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.”
On Meet the Press, January 7, 2007, assessing the proposal
of a surge of troops to Iraq: “If he surges another 20, 30, or
whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic
mistake, in my view, but, as a practical matter, there’s no way to say,
‘Mr. President, stop.’”
On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005:
“Unless we fundamentally change the rotation dates and
fundamentally change how many members of the
National Guard we’re calling up, it’ll be virtually impossible
to maintain 150,000 folks this year.”
(The number of troops in Iraq peaked at 162,000 in August 2007,
during the surge.)
Having said all that: “There’s something decent at the core
of Joe Biden.” — Jim Geraghty, December 13, 2007
