Joe Biden Liveblog in Des Moines

The final leg of the blogging triathlon has me in Des Moines at a house party for Joe Biden. There are probably 100 to 125 people here. Iowa House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is here, as well as Polk Co. Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald. Biden shows up and apologizes for being late. He says he was in a parade in Urbandale this morning and spoke at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. Says there is nothing more special to do on the 4th of July than speaking to veterans.

He gets right into talking about caring for our veterans. He says history will judge our President for his actions in waging this unwarranted war and not taking care of our veterans. We have a lot of veterans who are coming home with legs amputated and head injuries that would have died in past wars because of the advance medical care on the battlefield.

The moving up all of these primaries just makes Iowa more important. Iowa lets the small money candidates compete. Iowa is the last place where you don't need big bank rolls and heavy hitters.

Everyone else talks about ending the war in Iraq. However, he is the only candidate who has laid out a specific plan on getting out. It isn't as simple as just picking up and leaving. We don't want to trade a dictator for chaos.

I want to make sure we don't have to send our children there and want to make sure we don't have to send our grandchildren there.

It isn't enough to show what is wrong with the administration. The bill that the President vetoed was written by Joe Biden and Carl Levin. The matter of the fact is that we aren't telling the American people the truth. The truth is the only way for us to get out of Iraq before a Democratic is elected President is to get 17 Republicans to change their votes, so Bush can't veto any bills. The truth is we can't just send the bill back because we need 51 votes to do so. We lost 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats and didn't even have that. What we need to do is stand tough and keep pounding away and put pressure on the Republicans to leave the President on this issue. If there is any evidence the President won't budge is this whole Scooter Libby thing. Biden says...

This President is brain dead on the politics of these issues.

When it comes to Iraq the first option is to have a surge or withdrawal troops, so we can have a unified Iraqi government. However, a unified Iraqi government will never happen in anyone's lifetime that is sitting here. Biden knows this because he has the sad background reading history. Our second option is to be an occupier like the British. That isn't in our DNA and it shouldn't be. The third option is to set up a new dictator. Now that would be ironic. The fourth option is split the parties apart. It is what we did in Kosovo and it is the only way to solve the problem. On the Iraq debate, after the candidates lay out their tactic on Iraq we need to ask them one question...then what?

If we don't the civil war in Iraq will metastasize and Turkey will attack the Kurds, Iran will get invade, and France will burn. Why will France burn? Because 14% of their population is Muslim.

Diplomacy isn't about getting 2 people who disagree to agree. It is about finding out what the 2 parties care about and build on those.

Biden said the candidates are pretty much the same on the issues with just a few minor details. It isn't about plans when deciding what candidate to support. Biden says Edwards has a good health care plan, Obama has a good health care plan, Clinton and Biden have a good health care plan. He asks if anyone in the audience can explain Edwards' plan or Obama's plan or Clinton's plan? He says if change was based on having a good plan, we would have universal health care.

Biden says he is friends with the other candidates. He has served with most of them and these are the people that he goes out to dinner with. However, what matters when deciding who to support is presidential leadership. The president needs to use bully pulpit to make things happen. Biden is speaking with the same enthusiasm he has during the past debates. In the debeates, however, it comes off as him sounding angry. I don't get that feeling in person.

Biden opens it up for questions. I miss the first question, but Biden is using it to talk about national security. Biden says we haven't implemented any of the national security initiatives from the 9/11 commission because this administration doesn't want to mess up with their tax cuts.

Biden says he can't wait to debate Rudy Giulliani on the issue of national security because he will eat him for lunch. The notion of Democrats being weak on terror is totally wrong. He explains the reason we failed in New Orleans is because the national guard can't communicate with the local police. The FBI can't communicate with the mayor. The reason they can't communicate is the radio companies were given ownership of the bandwidth when radio was switching from digital and analog. These companies don't want to give this bandwidth back and our national security is weakened because of it. If there is no reason to have public financed elections, it is this. I wonder if Kevin McCarthy was listening to this.

My battery is running out and it is really hot out, so I am going to close up and head home.