Monday, May 28, 2007

Biden Supports The Troops

I was just reading the story of Senator Joe Biden's visit to Iowa City as he spends the next six days traveling through Iowa. I thought that I could not support any of the Democrats who are running, but after reading his views on the war and on funding the troops while their in harm's way I can say that I will watch more of what he has to say on the issues.
In fact, years ago I liked Senator Biden when he was trying to run for President in 1988, but he got into trouble concerning charges of plagiarism while in college as well as some speeches while he was a Senator. Biden had given a stump speech which was caught on video and apparently it was a speech that Neil Kinnock of the British Labor Party had given with minor alterations. Even though in previous speeches he had credited Mr. Kinnock with the speech, in this particular one he did not. It was video taped and released by the Dukakis campaign and compared to a similar incident that had occurred during Biden's first year at Syracuse. He had received an F in in an introductory class on legal methodology for writing a paper which relied almost entirely on a single Fordham Law Review article which he cited. He was allowed to repeat the course and passed. The two controversy's caused Senator Biden to withdraw from the race and Michael Dukakis went onto win the nomination, but then lost in the general election to George H. Bush.
So reading that he has promised to be honest even if it costs him the nomination is a plus for him, as his fellow Democrats try to tap dance themselves away from the vote to authorize the war in Iraq. All except for Barack Obama who said he was always against the war, which cannot be confirmed, because he was not a Senator at the time of the original vote.
The speech at Lower City Park brought out a gaggle of Anti-War protestors that wanted the Senator to know how disapponted they are that he chooses to side with the troops instead of with them. He very correctly said that even though we should get out of Iraq that while our children are in harm's way they deserve the best that we can give them to survive in this war.
I also like his plan for Iraq, which would have three distinct areas and a strong central government, because this is the only way Iraqi is going to survive as a nation. We should have partitioned the country as soon as the war was over and before the insurgents and terrorists got a foothold. We were too optimistic that the Iraqi's would want a democratic government, even though they have never known one before.
In the end I probably will not support Biden this time as he sometimes is so full of himself that he cannot answer a simple question without going into blowhard mode and just blabbing on and on, and never getting to the heart of the question. I have watched him on news talk shows and even The Daily Show and he could not give a straight, concise answer to anything he was asked. Maybe he will learn and adjust, because his voice of moderation is sorely needed in the Democratic Party as they vie for the support of the furthest fringes of the Left and leave the moderates with no one to support.
Biden

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