Cross-posted from the Biden Blog.
This is Joel from the Biden campaign. Feel free to check out the transcript of Joe Biden's questions and answers from the ABC debate, cross-posted from our blog.
You can also see Senator Biden's first campaign ad, "Cathedral," after the jump.
3:30 Update: I just posted a video montage of Senator Biden's answers.
Check out a photo from the pre-debate rally in Iowa!
Here is a quick montage of all the answers below:
9:05 Question: Does Obama have enough experience to be president?
BIDEN: "I think he is a wonderful guy to start off, number one. It was about Pakistan we were talking about. The fact of the matter is Pakistan is the most dangerous, potentially most dangerous country in the world. A significant majority of jihadists with nuclear weapons. We have - and I disagree with all three of my friends - We have no Pakistan policy. We have a Musharraf policy. That's a bad policy. The policy should be based upon a long-term relationship with Pakistan and stability. We should be encouraging free elections. There is an overwhelming majority of moderates in that country. They should have their day. Otherwise, they're going to go underground."
George further questions Senator Biden on his statements. Senator Biden responds, "I think I stand by my statement."
9:30 Question: George plays the campaign ad that Senator Biden is set to air in Iowa:
David Yepsen asks Senator Biden for a reaction to Governor Richardson's plan for Iraq.
BIDEN: "My reaction is that it's time to start to level with the American people. This administration hasn't done it for seven years. We should. The fact of the matter, much more at stake with our security depending on how we leave Iraq. If we leave Iraq and leave it in chaos, there will be a regional war. A regional war will engulf us for a generation. It'll bring in the Shia. It will bring in the Saudis, it will bring in the Iranians. It'll bring in the Turks. I laid out a plan a year ago with Lesl Gelb that said we should separate the parties, give them breathing room in order to establish some stability. I notice most of my colleagues are coming around to the plan these days but the bottom line it will take one full year if you argued tomorrow to get every single troop out and when you begin to take the troops out what are you going to do with the 4,000 or 5,000 civilians left inside the Green Zone?"
9:37 Question: Senator Biden responds to Gov. Richardson and the central premise of a centralized government in Iraq.
BIDEN: "Look, the fundamental disagreement I have with my colleagues up here is that they seem to cling to the fundamental strategic mistake that everyone on both sides clings to, that is, if there is any possibility in the lifetime of anyone here of having the Iraqis get together, have a unity government in Baghdad that pulls the country together. That will not happen, George. It will not happen in the lifetime of anyone here. Secondly, the point is that you have to separate the parties to give them breathing room. You have to get them out of each other's face just like we did in the Balkans, the same exact thing. Third piece I'd make to you is that there's much more at stake here. This war must end, but there's much more at stake as to how it ends. If it ends with this country splintering, we will have for a generation our grandchildren engaged in a regional war that will be consequential far beyond, far beyond Iraq. America's security interests are at stake. You will see Turkey move in and take on the Kurds. You will see the Iranians move in and pick sides among the Shias. You will see Saudi Arabia and Syria continue to fund the most radical extreme elements of the jihadis."
George pushes Senator Biden on Richardson's plan to withdraw all troops from Iraq. Senator Biden responds to the viability of Richardson's withdrawal goals:
"They cannot be out by December. Number one. Number two, we've had 20,000 western troops in a place where there is he more sectarian violence from Vlad the imperial to Milosevic. What did we do? We separated the parties. Not one single troop has been killed not in the last ten years. There is peace. There is a circumstance where the genocide has ended. They're becoming part of Europe. Every troop must be out over time if there is not a political agreement but if there is a political agreement.
RICHARDSON: "Why do you leave residual troops behind?"
BIDEN: "I leave residual troops behind because you're going to have a minimum of 4,000 civilians there. You need combat troops and you'll need them to protect the 5,000 troops that are there."
9:47 Question: Could prayer/faith have prevented the tragedies of recent natural disasters and the bridge collapse in Minnesota?
BIDEN: "George, my mom has an expression. She says that God sends no cross you're unable to bear. The time to pray is to pray whether or not when you're told as john was and i was that my wife and daughter are dead to have the courage to be able to bear the cross. The time to pray is to pray not only before but pray that you have the courage, pray that God can give you the strength to deal with what everyone is faced with in their life, serious crosses, serious crosses to bear. The answer to the gentleman's question is, no, all the prayer in the world will not stop a hurricane but prayer will give you the courage to be able to respond to the devastation that's caused in your life and with others to deal with the devastation."
10:02 Question: Can you name a time when you didn't tell the whole truth on an issue and what did you learn from it?
BIDEN: "In my public life there hasn't been a time I haven't said what I thought. I'm sure there's times in my whole life i haven't said everything I've thought and many times I've said too much of what i did think. [ Laughter ] But my problem isn't saying what i think. My problem is saying too much about what I think. I honestly can't think of an issue in the United States Congress where I haven't straightforwardly said why i was voting, why i was voting that way and i said it straight up."
10:15 Question: Education, Standards, and Performance
BIDEN: "Tomorrow morning at 9:00 my wife will walk into a classroom and teach for the 30th year in a row and the one thing any teacher can tell you is the last person you want to base your performance on is the administrator of the school. That's the first thing you figure out if you teach. There needs to be performance based pay. The way to do it is start at the front end. Pay those people who perform in undergraduate school. Give them the alternative to go and get the same pay as an engineer get and go to work as a math teacher as a science teacher, et cetera. So you start performance based pay by, in fact, paying the best performing students who want to teach and give them a chance. Every other major country in the world is starting their kids at the same salary they start their engineers. We should be able to do that. My father used to say don't tell me what your value -- show me your budget. If you in fact value education, then it should be equally important as engineering or anything else."
10:18 Question: We saw the Federal Reserve lower the discount rate for banks. Should it lower rates for everyone else?
BIDEN: "The answer is yes, but we need - as the governor says - more transparency particularly with regard to hedge funds and private equity funds causing this to go under. There is no transparency, no accountability. We don't know how deep this problem is. Chris will take care of it in the banking committee and i mean that sincerely. I think it's much deeper. Almost as deep in terms of dollars not liability as the savings and loan crisis."
10:21 Question: What was the decisive moment that got you into politics?
BIDEN: "George, there's a lot of things that led me to be engaged in politics. I worked in the African-American community east side of my city as the only white employee for a long while when I was a kid and I got involved in the civil rights movement. I thought the question was what made me run for president?"
GEORGE: "Decisive moment in your life that put you on the broader path."
BIDEN: "The decisive moment that put me on the broader path, that was the civil rights movement. When I found out and realized that it does make a difference if you're engaged. You actually can change people's lives. You can actually change the state of the nation."