Joe Biden: All about the war

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Joe Biden brought his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination to Laconia Saturday afternoon. Hosted by the Belknap County Democrats, the event had, at its peak, somewhere around 100 or so people. The energy level of those in the room, certainly high at the start, seemed to wane as the day wore on. By the time the Delaware Senator ended his appearance, it seemed just himself and a small handful of attendees (including me) had any left. And that’s too bad, because Biden had an awful lot to say.

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Indeed, Joe Biden lived up to his reputation as a policy wonk always able to give the long answer to a simple question. While that works for political junkies like me, it tends to drag for more normal people. By the end of the event (which started some 45 minutes late to begin with) the hundred people had dwindled to no more than thirty diehards. It wasn’t because Biden isn’t a good speaker, or lacking energy himself, it was just the content and specificity of what he was saying probably flew over the heads of those in the room. And, while he did a fair amount of Bush-bashing, it was delivered in a polite and measured fashion– not what the base of the Democrats is desirous of these days. These people want Bush’s head on a platter, and Senator Biden is, in my opinion, too much the long-time Senator type to deliver- to his credit, I’d say.

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If you believe, as I do, that the most important issue we face as a nation today is the war, then  you would have found Senator Biden’s remarks, as I did, interesting and relevant. While I do not agree with many of his points about the need for the Iraq war, or about how he views the President’s prosecution of it, Senator Biden is at least taking a serious and realistic approach. To me, he is the old school politician in the opposition– harsh, yet measured, and he does accept reality as it presents itself. There is no "bring the troops home NOW, stop the funding" mantra coming from this particular candidate. This separates him from the rest. That I like. Unfortunately, I don’t think the base of his party, primary voters, agrees.

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The thing that really struck me during Biden’s presentation and the Q & A that followed was the fact that it was all about the war and the state of the world at large. Calling himself an "internationalist," the long-time senator laid out elaborate and detailed plans and ideas for ending the Iraq war, while still (if you read between the lines) recognizing that we are going to have to stay involved in the region for a long time. Drawing the contrast between him and the rest of the Democratic field, he notes that while they say "end it now. Come home now," he is the only candidate that asks "then what?" While I disagree with his solution– a partition of Iraq with input and grand dialogue from all in the area, friend or foe, I give him credit for asking the question.

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It becomes quite obvious that Senator Biden is a serious guy. So serious, in fact, that I believe he is that rarest of Democrats in that he DOES see the gravity of the threat we face. One almost gets the feeling that some of his anti-Bush rhetoric is simply added to satisfy Democratic voters he needs to win the primary. I don’t see that happening, which is really too bad. Joe Biden is one Democrat on my very short list of those I could live with if I have to accept one as the next president. Joe is a realist, and that beats the heated rhetoric and platitudes offered by most of the rest of the pack. Given the current state of the activists who will decide the nominee, while Joe Biden gets a fairly positive reception from people like me, a conservative Republican, it won’t get him the votes he’ll need to win.

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Oh well– at least there’s the Sunday talking heads shows.

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Here’s a YouTube of Joe, after the event, discussing health care. Normally this subject, in a Democratic setting, would have gotten more attention than the war…

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