Joe Biden appearance in Coralville, IA this evening (January 2nd)

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I've been leaning towards John Edwards for some time as far as my Caucus choice. That having been said, I've been a big fan of Joe Biden's for many years as well as being so impressed with him in the debates, particularly in regards to foreign policy issues, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to see him in person before the big event tomorrow.

The event was scheduled at a building that I knew wasn't very big and thought that perhaps they weren't expecting that much of a crowd. I got there about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start, and noticed the mass of vehicular humanity attempting to find parking places! The pavilion was actually located at a park in the middle of a neighborhood of tight, winding streets with of course limited parking. People were parking along the curbs of the nearby streets, and I had to find a spot a good 1/4 mile away - not fun with all of the snow piled up and single digit temperatures!

The room was close to full once I got inside, and several Biden family members were already there - his niece was getting the crowd warmed up, and around 30 minutes after the scheduled start, Joe arrived to what I guess is his campaign's theme song, "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner. The young man who is the president of the College Democrats at U. Iowa introduced him and said he was proud to save the best for last...I guess not all of the twenty-somethings are supporting Obama!

Anyway, Joe got into the speech by talking about what a critical election this was, not because of the candidates involved but simply for the time we're living in and the crises that will face the next president. He brought up the fact that he's been talking about Pakistan as the most dangerous nation on earth when everyone else has been beating their chests about Iran, and wanted people to think about whoever their candidate of choice would handle the situation with Pakistan. He told the story of setting up a meeting back in the 90s with Slobodan Milosevic - he refused to meet with him publicly, bringing up the way Hitler was seen as legitimized by having other world leaders meet with him publicly in the years leading up the beginning of WWII. Anyway, he met with Milosevic late at night in his office, and when Milosevic asked JB what he thought of him, Joe answered "I think you're a damn war criminal and I won't be satisfied until you're tried and prosecuted!" He said that Milosevic immediately went to the press and figured the world would be on his side, seeing his treatment by a "mere senator" as "disrespectful", and the world reacted by turning on Milosevic! He did use this as an opportunity to point out how he disagreed with then-President Clinton, who did not want to engage militarily over the genocide, but he pointed out how not one U.S./U.N. troop has died in the 10 plus years since the intervention against Serbia.

He got into how much he wanted to get into "the ring" of debate with some of the Repub candidates - regarding Rudy, he said that he's forgotten more about terrorism than Rudy will ever know! He talked about what utter phonies people like Romney and Huckabee have shown themselves to be - "I wonder what Jesus would say about waterboarding???" :woohoo: "How can these guys stand up for tax cuts for those making an average of $1.5 million while telling us we can't afford health care for kids??"

He only spoke for about 30 minutes, and couldn't really stay for questions as he had another appearance scheduled for Cedar Rapids followed up by several appearances tomorrow leading up to the Caucus results tomorrow night. As far as crowd demographics go, it skewed from 30s to 60s, but there were a decent number of 20-somethings there. Overall, I was quite impressed with the enthusiasm and energy of the crowd (I knew Joe would certainly be enthusiastic), and it wouldn't surprise me to see Joe do considerably better than polling has indicated to this point!

Unfortunately for us Bidenites, the only way we get to find out about these events is when someone goes -
so we appreciate you!

:yourock:


From what we have been hearing, Biden is going to come in alot better than people are predicting.
Sitting on pins and needles over here!

I would truly love to see him!!

Appreeeeciate it! It's always great for us here to hear as much as we can about what's happening on the ground.......print media and the net, and Iowans for Joe is mostly what we hear from. MSM=Mucho Sucko Medio.
Good Luck with your pick tomorrow night, but not too much:D

Unfortunately, I'll never get to see him here in Oregon unless the people of Iowa caucus for him and give him a ticket out of the heartland. Thanks so much for the report!

i can't let you go without at least a parting thought:

Biden as POTUS, re-establishing US role as respected world leader; Edwards as AG, taking on all the big corporate interests with his staff of newly-selected US Attorneys. He'd be to the Corporatists what RFK was to the mafia.

Granted, JE as POTUS would oversee an AG driving that, but it is CLEARLY a full-time job and a litigator like him could really make it happen. Why dilute that talent by making him deal so much with international affairs - Biden's "comfort zone?" Biden's history as a public defender civil rights lawyer, constitutional lawyer makes him compatible with JRE's message, but JRE would be better to drive the fight day-to-day

Just sayin...

ps; I was an Edwards fan in '04, glad Kerry picked him; figured he'd succeed Kerry. I tried to stay agnostic, but JRE was my fave up until a couple of months ago when the criticality of Iraq and of Pakistan changed that. Those need an absolutely steady hand from day one, no margin for error.

if he's unable to garner the votes needed to propel him to the nomination; in fact, much more so than even the position of VP. I think that his skills as a litigator along with his devotion to genuine justice would make him an incredible candidate for that role! Mind you, I'm certainly not throwing in the towel yet; I'm sure the picture will be much clearer once the dust settles following Super Tuesday.

Thank you so much! I know of a lot of college kids (all guys, one of them being my nephew) who are supporting Joe here in NC. I think he's the guy they want to have a beer with this go-round. :evilgrin: Of course our primary isn't until May. Blah! ;( We feel left out.

Taking the time to tell of your experience was really really nice of you.

A couple of months ago there was a great pic posted on DU of Obama and Edwards. I captioned it "Barack Obama, Vice President to President Joe Biden, and John Edwards, Attorney General". I meant it then, and I mean it now! I love frogcycle's point of JE being to corporate power what RFK was to the Mafia.

Thanks again -- and have fun tomorrow!

:hi:

They are 3 votes I'm counting on for Joe.