Back on the Trail, Biden Blasts McCain, Palin
Email
Share October 08, 2008 2:01 PM
ABC News' Matt Jaffe Reports: After a 10 day hiatus from the campaign trail due to debate prep and the death of his mother-in-law, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden was raring to go Wednesday in Florida, ripping the McCain/Palin ticket for their debate performances, campaign tactics, and stances on issues from the economy to taxes to climate change.
With the hometown Tampa Bay Rays advancing to the American League Championship Series this week, the Delaware senator declared to a 3,500-strong crowd at the University of South Florida that, were the debates a best-of-five games baseball playoff battle, this series would be over.
"Last week I had a debate - at least I think it was a debate with Governor Palin," Biden quipped as the audience roared. "And last night Barack had his second debate with John McCain. Now, I realize I'm slightly prejudiced about our ticket, but if this was a best of five series, it'd be over. It'd be done."
Biden cited last night’s town-hall presidential debate in Nashville as evidence that voters are looking for "an optimist...not an angry man".
"The questions and the people in that town hall last night, I believe, personally believe reflected what a majority of the American people are looking for. A steady hand. Leadership. An optimist. Not an angry man lurching from one position to another. They're looking for answers," Biden said, continuing to highlight what he felt the opposing ticket didn't say.
"You didn't hear a single question about the ugly inferences and the unbecoming personal attacks launched by the McCain campaign on Barack Obama. You didn't hear one single average person ask that," Biden said. "Barack Obama showed again last night that he understands, he understands that these debates aren't about Gov. Palin and me, they aren't about Barack Obama and John McCain, these debates, this election is about you, not us."
Biden declared that the Republican ticket chose "fear" tactics over "intellectual" options, that they are taking "the low road to the highest office in the land."
"There's one other option, the one they have chosen is to appeal to fear with a veiled question. Who is the real Barack Obama? Ladies and gentlemen, to have a vice presidential candidate raise the most outrageous inferences, the ones that John McCain’s campaign is condoning, is simply wrong."
"When those guys start saying the things I just read to you, you know they’re going to try to take the low road, take the low road to the highest office in the land. And that’s exactly what they're doing."
"I guess when you vote with George W. Bush 90% of the time, your best hope is to attack your opponent 100% of the time," Biden said. "Folks, don’t be distracted, those attacks don't hurt Barack Obama or me, they hurt you. Every single false charge and baseless accusation is an attempt to get you to stop paying attention to what's going on in this country. Beyond the attacks, what is John McCain really offering?"
Biden borrowed a line from fellow Scranton-native Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to illustrate his point.
"You can't call yourself a maverick when all you've ever been is a sidekick. That's why you're seeing John McCain’s campaign become so erratic, relying on political stunts instead of offering real solutions."
On a day that began with a coordinated global interest rate cut to address the international economic downturn, Biden said that McCain had had an "epiphany" that stemmed more from political desperation than a change in policy.
"Did he realize that this economic crisis is the final verdict on a failed economic philosophy of cutting regulation, of blind-folding the over-seers to let Wall Street do whatever it wants?" Biden asked. "I don’t think he got it....The problem with John’s epiphany is not that he saw the light - he saw the presidency slipping from his grasp, that’s what he saw."
When he wasn’t accusing the Republican ticket of attempting to distract voters from the issues, Biden was simply arguing that McCain and Palin are wrong in their approaches to dealing with them, citing climate change and taxes as prime examples.
"You can't change our approach to global warming if you think, as my opponent says, you're not quite sure of the cause," he said, hitting out at Palin's debate comments on climate change before turning to taxes.
"When Sarah Palin said Joe Biden thinks it's patriotic to pay taxes, let me tell you what Joe Biden thinks, Joe Biden thinks it's unpatriotic to support allowing $100 billion in unpaid taxes to be taken offshore! That's what I think!” |
