Denver Conversations
24 August 2008 6:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Reporting from Denver
Was at a Salon.com party last night and the conversations confirmed what I’m hearing in
emails as well. Even Obama supporters are a bit surprised that Obama didn’t
pick Hillary. Some weren’t quite sure about Biden, mainly because they don’t
know him. But the real topic of conversation among many was the question and expectation
of just how hard Obama will fight the Republicans. Why Democrats aren’t willing
to take the gloves off like they are, willing to win at any cost.
Obama didn’t like the idea of 527s. Well, 527s work and are necessary,
especially when the Republicans are utilizing them non stop.
Can Democrats fight like Republicans? Translation: can we fight dirty in order
to win? Absolutely, but will we? That’s just one reason picking Joe Biden is
a strong indication that the close contact is about to ratchet up. It finally did yesterday.
“You can’t change America when you supported George Bush’s policies
95% of the time. You can’t change America when you believe, and these are
his own words, that in the Bush administration we’ve made great progress
economically. You can’t change America and make things better for our senior
citizens when you signed on to Bush’s scheme of privatizing social security.
You can’t change America and give our workers a fighting chance when after
3 million manufacturing jobs disappear, you continue to support tax breaks
for companies who ship our jobs overseas. You can’t change America and end
this war in Iraq when you declare and, again, these are John’s words, no one
has supported President Bush in Iraq more than I have, end of quote. Ladies
and gentlemen, you can’t change America, you can’t change America when you
know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight
years of George Bush’s presidency.” – Joe Biden in Springfield, Illinois
It’s also a nice change to see a vice presidential candidate who isn’t afraid to throw an elbow or two, maybe even stick his foot out when the other guy isn’t looking. Watching Lieberman and Edwards in 2000 and 2004, respectively, getting their clocks cleaned by Dick Cheney is something no one wants to see again.
From the conversations I had last night, I’d say Democrats are more than ready to see seriously hard push back for the onslaught of attacks McCain is launching
day in and day out. Rhetorical rabbit punches included.
“Your kitchen table is like mine, you sit there at night after you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. That’s not a worry John McCain has to worry about. He’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.” – Joe Biden in Springfield, Illinois
