Senator Joe Biden. From the Storm Lake Times, Buena Vista County, Iowa:
We like Biden because he has been tried privately and publicly, and came out of it all a stronger man. His wife and young child were killed in an auto accident. He faced death with a brain aneurism but survived it. Anyone who has been through what he has gains a perspective that will serve him well in the most trying of jobs.
Biden overcame severe stuttering as a child by memorizing and reciting the great Irish poets in front of a mirror. He continues to call them down at public appearances, Yeats and Heaney and Joyce, which holds a special charm for us and gives a glimpse into the man’s soul.
Biden has always impressed me as a man of letters and a man who has shown great courage in the face of death. More below the fold ...
The article has nice things to say about all of the Democratic candidates, but singles Biden out for his foreign policy experience, his plan for Iraq, and his expertise on civil rights issues. And it reminds voters "that Jimmy Carter and John Kerry came out of nowhere. Polls can change quickly with such a small sample. The results are inevitable only if we place our bet with the big money and big machines." Good news for Biden, Edwards, and Dodd supporters alike.
The article also addresses one of the main smears used against Biden; the Kinnock references in speeches made during his 1988 campaign. If you don't know the story, Biden has been unfairly attacked for forgetting to cite Kinnock once after making the speech with the citation numerous other times. A Dukakis supporter made a tape and sent it to the press, ruining Biden's chances. Though Biden was absolved, and Michael Dukakis fired the staffer, the editorial board of the Storm Lake Times remembers Biden's handling of the situation positively:
We also find Biden to be a person of integrity. When he last ran for president 20 years ago, Biden lifted a line from a British politician’s speech — whether conscious or not. Biden did not run and hide and deny and hedge. We recall it as if it were yesterday. In Davenport, he immediately admitted he was wrong, quit the race and thanked Iowans for their patience with him. We will never forget the classy way in which he ended that race. What appeared to be his major political foible is to us one of his strengths: humility, and a surprising lack of vanity. That’s something we’ve been lacking with the current occupant of the White House.
So what does this mean for Biden? Beats me. I don't know if this county of about 20,000 souls is a bellwether; it only assigns 12 state delegates out of 2,500. The paper has a reputation for being progressive, and the endorsement may be indicative of an Iowa sick of an inevitability narrative. It may be demonstrative of what happens when people get to know Joe Biden, or his rising poll numbers in Iowa, or it could simply be an outlier.
It's interesting to see how the editors of this northwestern Iowa think, so I recommend going over to the paper's endorsement and reading their rationale for a first-in-the-nation decision. John Edwards thought that he made up a lot of ground in 2004 by having the Des Moines Register endorsement - what do you think of the endorsement, and do you think the newspaper is still powerful in America? What about in Iowa?
At the very least, this is anything but bad news. At least one newspaper is a fan of Biden's courage and class, and so am I ... so I see this endorsement news as another reason to support Biden's spot on my Courage Candidates list:
Courage Candidate Profile
Courage should be our lighthouse on rocky shores. Courage leads. Courage wins.
Sen. Joe Biden (POTUS)
We've all heard the recent news, that the Senator is standing up against a terrible FISA bill. While Dodd is getting a lot of props (and rightfully so), I've been impressed by Joe Biden's courage for a long time. He marched in Wilmington with civil rights group, and he fought a tough, uphill, upset battle when he first ran for Senate as a 29-year-old. And then he had to face the death of his wife and his daughter in between winning his election and joining the Senate. He was sworn in at the hospital bedside of his two sons (who survived the accident) after an introspective search for meaning, during which he strongly considered giving up his seat. He then risked isolation from the good-ol'-boy politics of the Senate by commuting home almost every day to take care of his young children. For twenty years, he raised a family and rarely spent more than one night at a time in Washington. Many Senators do what is easy; Biden did what was right.
However, what's often forgotten is how Joe Biden stood up to Bush back in 2002. Back when everyone who disagreed with Bush was fair game, Joe objected to the Hastert Iraq War Resolution, did not vote for it in committee, and drafted the Biden-Lugar Resolution. Biden-Lugar would have forced diplomacy on the Bush administration. It could have prevented Bush's unlimited war in the Middle East. Biden had to face the fallout when the resolution was opposed by both Democrats and Republicans. Though all of our Presidential candidates who were in the Senate at the time ultimately made the wrong decision, Biden was the first candidate to stand up to Bush's Iraq plans in the Senate. That took courage.
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