The MM tends to dismiss Joe Biden as a bumbling, avuncular figure, because he doesn't possess a "filter" and is, therefore, "gaffe-prone." I really hope the GOP makes the same mistake, because people who underestimate Joe Biden do so at their own peril. The Vice President is far more intelligent and accomplished than he is given credit for being.
Here are some career highlights.
Why does he appeal to much of the middle and working class? Because he knows what it's like to actually be both middle and working class (just like the POTUS & First Lady).
Biden's father had been very well-off earlier in his life, but had suffered several business reverses by the time Biden was born, and for several years the family had to live with Biden's maternal grandparents, the Finnegans.
When the Scranton area went into economic decline during the 1950s, Biden's father could not find enough work. In 1953, the Biden family moved to an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, where they lived for a few years before moving to a house in Wilmington, Delaware.
He knows what it's like to be the underdog, and what it's like to be bullied.
I was in 7th grade at St. Helena's and I still remember the reading: "Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman..." I remember reciting, "Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man." The nun said, "Master B-B-B-Biden! What's that word?" She wanted me to say gentleman. But by then, I had learned to put my sentences into bite-size pieces and I was reading it: "gentle" | breath | "man".
Ninety-nine percent of the time, the nuns were great. I never had professional therapy, but a couple of nuns taught me to put a cadence to my speaking, and that's why I spent so much time reading poetry – Emerson and Yeats. But even in my small, boys' prep school, I got nailed in Latin class with the nickname Joe Impedimenta. You get so desperate, you're so embarrassed.
Unlike Ryan, Biden is extremely well-versed on the topic of foreign affairs.
Biden was a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and chaired the committee in January 2001 and from June 2001 through 2003. When Democrats re-took control of the Senate following the 2006 elections, Biden again assumed the top spot on the committee in 2007.
Biden was generally a liberal internationalist in foreign policy. Biden was also co-chair of the NATO Observer Group in the Senate, and chaired the Subcommittee on European Affairs.
A partial list covering this time showed Biden meeting with some 150 leaders from nearly 60 countries and international organizations.
SALT II Treaty
SALT II was a controversial experiment of negotiations between Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev from 1972 to 1979 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of the progress made during the SALT I talks, led by representatives from both countries. SALT II was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides.
SALT II helped the U.S. to discourage the Soviets from arming their third generation ICBMs of SS-17, SS-19 and SS-18 types with many more Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs)
An agreement to limit strategic launchers was reached in Vienna on June 18, 1979, and was signed by Leonid Brezhnev and President of the United States Jimmy Carter. In response to the refusal of the United States Senate to ratify the treaty, a young member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware led a delegation of six senators, who met with the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko, and Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. They "educated" Gromyko about "American concerns and interests," and secured several changes to the treaty that neither the U.S. Secretary of State nor President Jimmy Carter could obtain.
The interests in question consisted of a concern among American hardliners that the Soviets would evade treaty limitations on missiles by vastly expanding production of shore-based naval attack planes called Backfire bombers. Moscow insisted that the Backfires could not reach U.S. territory, but the hawks were convinced otherwise. Eventually, the Soviets agreed to limit production of Backfires to 30 a year.
The treaty was never ratified, but that had nothing to do with Joe Biden. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, and the Senate backed out the Treaty.
He took a stand against injustice at an early age.
Segregation in the US
Biden attended the Archmere Academy in Claymont...During these years, he participated in an anti-segregation sit-in at a Wilmington theatre.
And continued to do so as an adult.
Apartheid in South Africa
On the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden unleashed an uncommonly sharp tongue in July 1986, accusing mild-mannered Secretary of State George Shulz of softening economic sanctions against South Africa for its policy of apartheid.
"We ask them to put up a timetable [for remedial action]," he thundered, waiving a fist. "What is our timetable? Where do we stand morally? I hate to hear an administration and a secretary of state refusing to act on a morally abhorrent point. I'm ashamed of this country that puts out a policy like this that says nothing, nothing. I'm ashamed of the lack of moral backbone to this policy."
The diplomatic Shulz countered "What we want is a society that they all can live in together. So I don't turn my back on the whites and I would hope that you wouldn't."
Biden countered: "I speak for the oppressed, whatever they may be."
Biden cares about women.
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, H.R. 3355) signed as Pub.L. 103-322 by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.
VAWA was drafted by the office of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), with support from a broad coalition of advocacy groups.
The Act passed through Congress with bipartisan support in 1994, clearing the House by a vote of 235–195 and the Senate by a vote of 61–38.
"In 1990, I wrote legislation called the Violence Against Women Act. I was convinced this might be the most important piece of legislation I had introduced and among the most difficult to turn into law. I was surprised at the resistance from inside-the-beltway women’s groups. I knew these groups didn’t entirely trust me because I wasn’t pure on the issue of abortion. But there were others things beyond the groups’ long-held suspicions of me. I got the sense that women’s advocacy groups were worried that the VAWA would be a distraction from their main issues. And there was also a certain amount of personal pride I sensed among women. VAWA failed to reach the Senate floor in 1990 and finally passed in 1994. Violence against women would no longer be written off as “she was asking for it” (rape), “sexual miscommunication” (date rape), or “a family matter” (domestic abuse). Once our criminal justice system recognized these as serious & inexcusable crimes, women could stop blaming themselves." ~ Promises to Keep, by Joe Biden, p.240-245 , Jul 31, 2007
Biden respects a woman's privacy and right to choose. He also supports stem cell research.
Constitution does offer an inherent right to privacy. (Oct 2008)
Roe v. Wade is as close to a consensus as we can get. (Oct 2008)
Nominees should agree on constitutional right to privacy. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
Voted YES on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Voted NO on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Expand embryonic stem cell research. (Jun 2004)
Ensure access to and funding for contraception. (Feb 2007)
His Civil Rights Record.
I'm "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage. (May 2012)
Inalienable rights cannot be denied by any majority. (Oct 2010)
1987 Biden Report: Reject Bork; he'd roll back civil rights.
Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on setting aside 10% of highway funds to help minorities & women who own small businesses. (1998)
Voted NO on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business. (Oct 1997)
Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
Voted NO on banning affirmative action hiring with federal funds. (Jul 1995)
Called for the Re-introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment. (Mar 2007)
His record on Education.
Joe Biden's Voting Record on Education
Voted YES on $52M for "21st century community learning centers".
To increase appropriations for after-school programs through 21st century community learning centers.Reference: Amendment to Agencies Appropriations Act; Bill S Amdt 2287 to HR 3010 ; vote number 2005-279 on Oct 27, 2005
Voted YES on $5B for grants to local educational agencies.
To provide an additional $5 billion for title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of Reference: Elementary and Secondary Education Amendment; Bill S Amdt 2275 to HR 3010 ; vote number 2005-269 on Oct 26, 2005
Voted YES on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education.
Reference: Kennedy amendment relative to education funding; Bill S AMDT 177 to S Con Res 18 ; vote number 2005-68 on Mar 17, 2005
Voted YES on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors.
Vote to authorize a federal program aimed at reducing class size. The plan would assist states and local education agencies in recruiting, hiring and training 100,000 new teachers, with $2.4 billion in fiscal 2002. Reference: Bill S1 ; vote number 2001-103 on May 15, 2001
Voted YES on funding student testing instead of private tutors.
Vote to pass an amendment that would authorize $200 million to provide grants to help states develop assessment systems that describe student achievement.
Reference: Bill S1 ; vote number 2001-99 on May 10, 2001
Voted YES on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction.
Vote to reduce the size of the $1.6 trillion tax cut by $448 billion while increasing education spending by $250 billion. Reference: Bill H Con Res 83 ; vote number 2001-69 on Apr 4, 2001
Biden scores 91% by the NEA on public education issues
He cares about families.
"I understand what it’s like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder if your kid’s going to make it. I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here. And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”
The notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise 2 kids alone--I understand. I understand, as well as the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. They’re looking for help. They’re not looking for more of the same." - Biden at the 2008 VP Debate
A little bit from his voting record:
Biden fought for Family and Medical Leave, up to 12 unpaid weeks. (Sep 2007)
"Helping In The Workplace And At Home: As a father who parented small children on his own, Joe Biden knows first-hand the challenges of balancing work and family. He recognizes that it can be especially difficult for women, who often make the health-care decisions, take the kids or elderly parents to see the doctor, or stay at home when someone is sick. Joe Biden believes we need to provide all workers, including women, with the flexibility they need to both take care of their families and remain working For this reason, he fought for the Family and Medical Leave Act that has given 50 million workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to look out for a sick family member. As there are many more workers who cannot afford unpaid leave, he is co-sponsoring the Healthy Families Act, which would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven paid sick days to care for their own or their families’ medical needs."
Fund 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs in underserved areas. (Dec 1997)
"Biden co-sponsored a Bill to open 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs Amends the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to make grants to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to establish and extend club facilities where needed, with particular emphasis on establishing clubs in and extending services to public housing projects and distressed areas. Redefines the term "distressed area" to include an Indian reservation with a population of high risk youth of sufficient size to warrant the establishment of a BGCA. Earmarks specified funds to provide a grant to BGCA for administrative, travel, and other costs associated with a national role-model speaking tour program."
A job is about more than a paycheck; it's about dignity. (Sep 2012)
We value working class; Republicans value privileged class. (Mar 2012)
Extending unemployment benefits is the American way. (Dec 2010)
No job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Aug 2007)
Implement current recommendations on job safety. (Aug 2007)
Couldn’t afford living at minimum wage; advocates raising it. (Jul 2007)
Voted NO on terminating legal challenges to English-only job rules. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on restricting employer interference in union organizing. (Jun 2007)
Voted YES on increasing minimum wage to $7.25. (Feb 2007)
Voted NO on repealing Clinton's ergonomic rules on repetitive stress. (Mar 2001)
Voted NO on killing an increase in the minimum wage. (Nov 1999)
Voted NO on allowing workers to choose between overtime & comp-time. (May 1997)
Protect overtime pay protections. (Jun 2003)
Rated 100% by the AFL-CIO in 2003, indicating a pro-union voting record. (Dec 2003)
Allow an Air Traffic Controller's Union. (Jan 2006)
I've mentioned only a small part of VP Biden's record. What is Ryan's record? What are his accomplishments?
Paul Ryan’s 13 Yrs in Congress Passed only 2 Minor Bills
August 12, 2012 As we continue to vet the real Paul Ryan and work our way through the myths until we get to the truth, Paul Ryan as an abysmal record for being in Congress for 13 years.
Through a report in Huff Post, it was revealed that for a guy that spent 13 years living and breathing Washington all he could accomplish were two lousy, insignificant bills.
Paul Ryan’s Accomplishments in Congress:
The first bill of Paul Ryan was in July 2000, that had to do with changing the name of the Post Office in his district. We can now thank Paul Ryan for renaming the post office: Les Aspin Post Office Building, a french name.
The second bill in December, 2008, that Paul Ryan is responsible for is a bill that changes the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are taxed by the IRS. Ryan’s bill changed the way arrows are taxed at .39 cents per arrow instead of an 11 % excise tax.
Is this they kind of political statesmen Mitt Romney is putting his faith and trust in to possibly become the next President if Romney should have some mishap as President?
A post office name and an arrow tax? Are you truly joking here, Romney?
Biden won the debate with Sarah. He can win this one, too.