This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: August 27, 2008 - DENVER -- As soon as he accepted the Democratic Party nomination for vice president last night, Sen. Joe Biden showed that he would help the Obama ticket on issues beyond foreign policy. He let voters know about his life beyond being chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a life that keeps him in touch with his own family and with the hopes, dreams and problems of ordinary Americans.
At the same time, Biden made it clear that he was not going to give GOP presidential hopeful John McCain a free ride on foreign policy issues. Biden seemed ready to answer every attack Republicans might launch against Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama by making the election a referendum in part on whether McCain, not Obama, possessed the judgment and experience to be president.
Telling delegates that the choice in November was clear, Biden echoed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comments the previous night that McCain may have served his country well as a soldier but was not qualified to be president. Biden said the “times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader … who can deliver the change everybody knows we need.” Obama, he said, would deliver that change.
Biden noted that Obama has consistently promised to bring American troops home from Iraq while McCain has been unwilling to set a deadline for withdrawal. Yet, Biden noted that even the Bush administration and the Iraqi government “are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.”
This story is part of the Beacon's coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. To read the rest of our stories, click Convention Coverage.
That was just one example Biden used in setting a theme that McCain has been wrong and Obama right on many foreign policy issues. He also tried to link McCain to foreign policy problems in the Bush administration.
“The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole with very few friends to help us climb out,” Biden argued, saying that policy is why “our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history.” Biden also turned his attention to bread and butter issues that, polls show, top Americans' worries.
Although he may be a Washington insider, Biden is also a rare politician who leaves the capital behind every night to take the train home to Wilmington, Del. The trip, he implied in his speech Wednesday night, keeps him in touch with problems ordinary people are coping with.
“As I look out the window at the homes we pass, I can almost hear what they’re talking about at the kitchen table after they put the kids to bed,” he said, then ticked off a myriad of problems that undoubtedly struck a chord with his audience at the convention and those at home.
Because of GOP policies, Biden said these families are being forced to ask questions they never thought they’d have to ask about finding money to fill their gas tanks and pay the winter heating bill; of getting by another year without a pay raise while coping with rumors that the company might cut health benefits; of parents trying to cover college cost while wondering whether they’ll be able to retire.
“That's the America that George Bush has left us,” Biden said, “and that's the future John McCain will give us.”
He said middle-class families were beginning to lose faith in the assumption that hard work and playing by the rules would be rewarded with a better life tomorrow.
“That promise is the bedrock of America,” he said. “It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it.”
He added, “Barack Obama gets it. Like many of us, Barack worked his way up. His is a great American story.”
The American story-American dream theme has been the refrain of numerous speakers at the convention, from Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri to numerous governors.
Biden praised Obama for choosing a life of service over many other careers after completing an Ivy League education. He credited Obama for helping poor and needy Chicagoans to turn their lives around by working to get them get health insurance, pay less taxes and move from welfare to work. In Washington, Biden said, Obama “hit the ground running,” reaching across party lines to get laws enacted, whether the issue was curbing the spread of nuclear weapons or giving “our wounded veterans the care and dignity they deserve.”
Saying, “these are extraordinary times,” Biden told delegates that he and Obama will work to inspire hope at home and restore America’s respect abroad.
Following Biden’s well-received acceptance speech, Obama made an unscheduled appearance to the convention hall. His presence electrified delegates, who chanted “Yes we can.” He hugged Biden and appealed to the delegates to help the ticket “take back America.”
