Joe Biden at Booker High School
September 4th, 2008 by kerem.ozkan in NewsAbout 1,700 Sarasotans filled Booker High School’s auditorium yesterday to hear Senator Joe Biden speak. The Democratic vice presidential nominee demonstrated that the campaign will be harshening their criticisms of John McCain and Sarah Palin for the final two months leading up to the election as he cited McCain’s campaign manager’s recent comment that this election is “not about the issues.” Keeping with Barack Obama’s pledge at the Democratic National Convention to not suggest John McCain takes his positions for political purposes, Biden said it’s not that McCain’s campaign doesn’t care, but that they “just don’t get it.”
Portraying McCain as out of touch with everyday Americans’ lives has recently become a central theme of the Obama campaign. In contrast, Biden spoke at length about his and Obama’s families, morals and working-class roots in an effort to challenge depictions of Obama as a arugula-eating, Harvard-attending elitist.
Asked by an audience member how the campaign will debate Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s aptness to be president amidst cries of sexism from the McCain campaign, Biden said, “The answer is one word: with respect. She is the governor of a state. I’m assuming as a governor of a state she is qualified. Our disagreements will be based on her views. We’ll make our differences known and that’s what we’ll debate.”
Other key themes of the night were women’s issues, health care, jobs and education.
Bradenton.com has 27 minutes of Q&A.
And a new poll has Obama up by one in Florida.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Sounds like Joe Biden is keeping it real. Nice report.
My one question is this: When politicians like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and everybody else tout their working-class roots, are they not at the same time condemning the lives of their own children? I mean, there’s no way that Joe Biden’s kids are going to have working-class roots, so does a family lineage really only have one shot at a likeable politician?
Then again, the Biden line could descend into poverty by, say, 2075, and be eligible for working-class roots again by the next century.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
We saw Biden at Booker and were mightily impressed. Sure, he’s a professional politician but his rapport with a large audience was obvious and his answers were crisp and to the point.
We would SO love to see him avoid being “Gentleman Joe” and show up The Alaskan Breeder for the one trick GOP pony she is.