Democratic Forum Liveblogging – Final
21 February 2007 2:30 pm by Taylor Marsh
Democratic Forum Liveblogging – Final –photo update below–
Coverage sponsored by AFSCME
Liveblogging… warts and all…
Joe Biden is up.
You\’ve got to make Iraq the world\’s problem not just ours. … If we
don\’t get it right we\’re going to be shackled for a very long time to come.
… You need a federal system. – Joe Biden
| Biden leaving the media room right after my question to him. |
Biden actually did a two minute opener, the only one of the day. He also mentioned
his website, telling the audience \”in the interest of time,\” you can
see his plan for Iraq there. It takes giving Sunnis a piece of the pie. He\’s
\”betting his career\” on the need for a federal system in Iraq.
Biden is Iraq centric, because that\’s his sphere of expertise, foreign policy.
He wants regional involvement and talks. He asked the audience to go further
than just getting out of Iraq, but ask the candidates who want to get out: What
next?
Education was a question, with Biden saying he sleeps with a teacher every
night, his wife. Teachers need to be paid. Classrooms need to be smaller. Biden
also mentioned his wife just got her doctorate, and that he handed it to her.
He then went on to quote… saying with a laugh, \”I\’m very careful about
quoting.\” The audience got it.
\”We have an incredible opportunity to change the world,\” but Bush
is going to leave the next president a mess that requires \”no margin for
error.\”
I then went into the media room to listen to Joe Biden. Most of the questioning
was on Iraq. He\’s good on it, no doubt. But an opener question had to do with
only campaigning positively. He made mention of the \”11th commandment,\”
ala Reagan: never say anything negative about a fellow Democrat. Then back to
foreign policy.
| Biden and your humble correspondent, with me on the far right of the picture. Via RenoDiscontent and cross-posted here. |
But it was Biden\’s pledge to not say anything negative that got him in trouble
when I got to ask the last question. I asked Biden what he thought of Hillary\’s
plan to withdraw funding from Iraqi troops. He bowed his head, smiled, then
said, \”Next question.\”
I waited.
Then Biden said he would deal with all the proposals together. It\’s obvious
he didn\’t want to say anything negative about Hillary\’s plan, even though he\’d
criticized it before. Then he took each plan, going back to his question, even
if you withdraw from Iraq it sill comes down to \”What\’s next?\”
He then walked off the stage and straight to me and shook my hand.
\”I\’m getting better,\” Biden said with a smile.
\”You didn\’t answer my question,\” I said honestly.
\”I\’m getting better,\” he said again.
Then out he went. I ended up standing next to a woman. She turned to me and
said \”He\’s got a plane.\” Then she added, \”I\’m his sister.\”
I told her, \”You need to tell him to answer the question.\”
She said, \”Well, he doesn\’t want to…\”
\”I know, say anything negative about anyone, but it\’s not negative to
stand up and tell the truth,\” I said to her.
\”He did answer your question. …\”
\”No, he didn\’t. He can be honest and answer the question, without being
negative. He should just say it.\”
She was a bit surprised.
It was a very honest exchange between Senator Biden, his campaign, as well
as his sister. There\’s no doubt that he got the message. He\’s good, no doubt
about it. But he should not be afraid of sounding \”negative,\” when
he\’s simply stating his opinion and telling his truth.
In the same article, Biden criticized Clinton\’s proposal to cap American
troops and to threaten to cut funding to Iraqi security forces.\”From the part of Hillary\’s proposal, the part that really baffles me
is, \’We\’re going to teach the Iraqis a lesson,\”\’ Biden said. \”We\’re
not going to equip them? O.K. Cap our troops and withdraw support from the
Iraqis? That\’s a real good idea.\”
I would have liked to hear him say straight out he disagrees with Clinton\’s
proposal, which he does. It\’s early, so maybe he will next time around.
The forum is over and I\’ve got some tape of Kucinich, as well as something
Mike Gravel offered that was, let\’s just say, very interesting. He wants to
abolish the tax system.
That\’s all for now, folks. I\’ll be uploading audio a bit later. Pictures too.
AFSCME did a great job on this. Lots of information and access. Clinton was the only candidate to my knowledge that didn\’t stop by the media room and take questions.
…Oh and to finish it up, Eric George of PoliticsTV got Jonathan Singer of MyDD and myself together to do a media wrap up. At the end of a very long 24 hours for all of us, I just hope we all got our message across. The Democrats have some terrific candidates. As a funny aside, Roger Simon was sitting close to where we were filming. You could tell he was very irritated and annoyed by the interview and conversation. The second we finished he said something like, Now that you guys are finished could you move… then gestured for us to, well, basically get lost. Crotchety old fart. He\’s just jealous because PoliticsTV didn\’t ask him for an interview. Just kidding. That\’s it from Carson City. I\’m off to Reno to catch my plane now. It was fun. Thanks, AFSCME.
