"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."
Not only will the next administration have to deal with foreign affairs issues, Biden warned, but also with the current economic crisis.
"Gird your loins," Biden told the crowd. "We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy."
The Delaware lawmaker managed to rake in an estimated $1 million total from his two money hauls at the downtown Sheraton, the same hotel where four years ago Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., clinched the Democratic nomination. Despite warning about the difficulties the next administration will face, Biden said the Democratic ticket is equipped to meet the challenges head on.
"I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I'm not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it," the Senate Foreign Relations chairman said of Obama. "This guy has it. But he's gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us."
"There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'," Biden continued. "Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound."
Basically get ready if Obama gets elected because our enemies will feel emboldened to test him for his inexperience.
and
If Obama becomes President his popularity will sag and he will make unpopular decisions widely viewed as unsound.
Nice!
Meanwhile, some are asking whether Palin is advocating a federal marriage amendment based on this quote:
She says: "[I]n my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that’s where we would go because I don’t support gay marriage."
Commenting on Roe v. Wade, Palin said, “I’m, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas.”
By being a "federalist" it seems to me she supports state right to make the decision rather than the federal government.
from wikipedia for "federalist":
In contemporary usage, as articulated by president Bush's New Federalism, federalists advocate the principle of greater regional autonomy within the United States—usually by allowing individual states to set their own agendas and determine the handling of issues, rather than trying to impose a nationally uniform solution.
When she says "I wish on a federal level that that’s where we would go because I don’t support gay marriage" i do not read this as suggesting she wants a US federal marriage amendment.
2 comments:
Anyone who thinks that a young, charismatic African American President wouldn't be sorely tested is either naive or gravely in denial. Anyone who thinks Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not still gunning for this country is living in a cave, and I don't mean that allegorically.
Personally, I welcome all the help I can get with the problems I face in my professional life. I'm not so arrogant to believe that I know it all, can do it all, will have it all without help from others because I know I am only human. The arrogance displayed in the assumption that it is somehow weak to ask for help from others in governing something as enormous as this country in this intimately connected world is astounding. Yet, regardless of the ridiculous lack of elegance in Biden's remarks, it's clear that is what he was attempting to convey, that Obama will need help as a leader because ALL leaders need help in times of crisis. Whomever is elected will be inheriting a country so badly beaten down by the last 8 years of extreme mismanagement that anything less than a mid-level state of constant crisis would be miraculous.
But let me guess: you still think Bush was fabulous. Just like Joe Six Pack Sarah with the $150,000 wardrobe.
Thank you for your comments.
1. Interesting you brought up race. I have never mentioned it in any of my posts regarding Obama.
2. What is interesting is not that an Obama presidency will soon be tested. Naturally any president will have and will benefit from all the help to face our nation's challenges. What is interesting is the suggestion that Obama's response will both be slow and will appear as wrong. It is also interesting that a McCain presidency will be less likely to be tested.
3. Bush got somethings wrong, he also got somethings right. I count the Iraq war, the war on terror, war on HIV in Africa, the proposal to refrom fannie mae and freddie mac, as well as proposal to give individual the options to choose the investment options for social security among the right things he did. His biggest failure I see is the recent financial bailout.
4. $150k is alot. But of the four candidates, only one is not a millionaire. And we do know that you have to look successful inorder to be successful. Thus I see the price tag as an advertisement and investment cost. I think it is much better money spent than $150k for styrofoam pillars for one night of a national convention.
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