Amend constitution to allow only public money in elections

Side-by-side issue comparison to Paul Ryan

Obama-Biden vs. Romney-Ryan on Social Issues:
• Contraception
• Abortion
• Stem Cells
• Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell
• Defense of Marriage Act
• Affirmative Action
• College Loans
• School Vouchers
• No Child Left Behind
• School Prayer
• Faith-Based Initiative
• Families & Children
• Tea Party
• Principles & Values
• American Exceptionalism

Tea Party should learn compromise, but are not 'terrorists'

Politico, citing "several sources in the room," reported that Biden, during a closed-door meeting with House Democrats, agreed with an argument by Rep. Mike Doyle (D, PA), who asserted that "we have negotiated with terrorists." The report said Biden asserted in response, "They have acted like terrorists."

Biden told CBS News he let lawmakers "vent," but he did not agree with the terrorism comparison. "There were some people who said they felt like they were being held hostage by terrorists," he said. "I never said that they were terrorists; I just let them vent." [Asked his opinion of Tea Party House members, Biden responded], "they'll learn that they have to have compromise. Compromise is not a dirty word. In a democracy like ours, that's the only way this place can work."

Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive

"I just want to tell you, this guy's got a backbone like a ramrod," the vice president assured House Democrats last week. He repeated a line he'd heard to sum up what his party should campaign on: "Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

Biden, the only pol in town who can be more revealing on the record than off, dished up some of the confidential details of how the decision was made to go after Bin Laden in Pakistan. Obama had to make the toughest call of his presidency based on the moon. Would there be too much moonlight that night for the brazen secret operation--the kind that went wrong and marred Jimmy Carter's presidency?

2010: Negotiated trades in bipartisan Senate bills

Obama sat with Biden, going over the package. But now Obama said, "No, I'm not going to make some of these trades." Biden, who'd been waiting for his friend to step up and assert more control, gladly stepped back.

1987: Clarion call: rekindle fires of idealism

Cheney has been most dangerous VP in history

PALIN: Yeah, I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there.

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president, that’s the Executive Branch. The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

Models his role on LBJ’s vice presidency

A: A: Lyndon Johnson. For all the foibles he had as president, in people’s minds, he really knew how the system worked. He was able to be a significant facilitator of a new frontier, new policy. People in the Congress knew him, knew he knew a lot. And so I hope one of my roles as vice president will be as the person actually implementing Barack Obama’s policy. You gotta get the Congress to go along with it.

McCain no maverick on education, health care, and debt

BIDEN: I’ll be very brief. John McCain has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives. He voted four out of five times for eorge Bush’s budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he’s got there. He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan. He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education. e has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Focus on Iraq, ending torture, healthcare, and education

Giuliani is truly not qualified to be president

Voted with Democratic Party 97.0% of 233 votes.

Next president has no margin of error, post-Bush

Embellishment forced withdrawal from 1988 presidential race

A: It was.

Q: And you learned from it?

A: I did. It was 20 years ago, and I learned from it. People have had 20 years to judge since then whether or not I am the man they see or I am what I was characterized as being 20 years ago. I learned a lot from it, and, let me tell you, it was a bitter way to learn it.

Biggest mistake was thinking he could work with George Bush

A: Overestimating the competence of this administration and underestimating the arrogance. I really thought, working with the secretary of state and with other Republicans, I could impact on George Bush’s thinking. And that was absolutely not within my capacity.

Plans to seek presidential nomination in 2008

Conducted Bork hearings in a scholarly manner, not emotional

Ralph Nader's personal asceticism and low-key style masked a sour and unrelenting demagogue--and he clearly understood the new political terrain better than Biden did.

1972 campaign brochures included photos with incumbents

[Val, Biden's sister and campaign manager, created] the "Biden post office," a base of THOUSANDS of freckled teenagers who would hand-deliver these brochures across Delaware.

1987: Heckled for exaggerating academic record

Biden also claimed that at University of Delaware he had finished with three undergraduate degrees. His law school records showed, however, that in his first year at Syracuse he was ranked 80th out of 100 students and in his final year 76th out of 85. Also, his full academic scholarship was half based on need, and rather than three undergraduate degrees, he earned one with a dual major in history and political science. Also, he had shared the moot court award with other students. Biden recalled later of his presidential campaign, "The floodgate had opened."

OpEd: Praised as poorest US Senator; but earns $248K

1988: Presidential run intended as base-building for 1992

If someone had hooked me up to a lie detector in 1988 and asked if I was going to be a fully announced candidate for 1988, I would have said no. If they had asked me if I was building a base to run for president in 1992 or 1996, I would have said, “Absolutely.”

1988: plagiarized law school paper, but not malevolently

This was an academic mistake. I hadn’t been trying to cheat. My gurus advised me to just say I did it and ask for forgiveness. I said, “It was an academic mistake. I wasn’t trying to hide it. If I was trying to hide it, why would I cite this article that no one else in the class found? I didn’t cheat.“

I’d made a stupid mistake 22 years earlier, I told the press. ”I was wrong, but I did not intentionally move to mislead anybody. I am in this race to stay. I am in this race to win.“ The NY Times headline was ”Biden admits plagiarism in School but says it was not ‘malevolent.’“ [As a result, Biden withdrew from the presidential race.]

Boyhood speech impediment dominated his schooling

"I talked like Morse code. Dot-dot-dash-dash," he later remembered. If you asked him his name, he might reply, "J-J-Joe Biden." Kids poked fun at him. They called him "Dash." Biden said, "It was like having to stand in the corner with the dunce cap. Other kids looked at me like I was stupid. They laughed."

Joey had three ways of coping with his stutter:
1. Family
2. Guts
3. Nuns

Yet empathy was scarce in grade school. When he read aloud his homework, one little jerk would taunt, "B-b-b-BIDEN!" So, Joey turned to his second technique for coping with the stutter: proving that he had guts. [And if his boyhood gutsy exploits didn't work, Joey] appealed to a higher power. Or, more specifically nuns.

2008: I would not be anyone's V.P. nor Secretary of State

"If we have a Democratic president," he said, "I can have much more influence, I promise you, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than I can as vice president." And he laughed, walking off to rejoin his family and get back to Wilmington. For most of the nation's history, the vice presidency had been avoided like a plague by most ambitious politicians. More often than not, especially in the first hundred years of the Republic, the office was regarded as a dead end, a sort of gold watch in retirement.

2008 primary: Obama is "articulate & bright & clean"

Evidence of Jefferson's lingering ghost was provided by none other than Joseph Biden, Obama's eventual partner on the Democratic ticket. Earlier in primary season, he unwittingly echoed the author of the Declaration of Independence when he marveled at Obama's ability to bathe regularly and string sentences together. To Biden, the candidate seemed to be a character straight out of fiction. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," he declared. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Familiarity & experience balances Obama's inexperience

To distance himself from President Bush, McCain emphasized his role as a political maverick rather than party stalwart. Yet his experience--the thing that gave him cache with moderate voters--left him appearing old, outdated, and bound in the strictures of traditional politics. In need of adding balance, he selected as his running mate a governor--one who was female, young, and relatively unknown to the national political spotlight.

As VP, I’ll be point person in Congress

A: I had a long talk with Barack. Let me tell you what Barack asked me to do. I have a history of getting things done in the US Senate. John McCain would acknowledge that. My record shows that on controversial issues. I would be the point person for the legislative initiatives in the US Congress for our administration. When asked if I wanted a portfolio, my response was, no. But Barackindicated to me he wanted me with him to help him govern. So every major decision he’ll be making, I’ll be sitting in the room to give my best advice. He’s president, not me, I’ll give my best advice.

And one of the things he said early on when he was choosing, he said he picked someone who had an independent judgment and wouldn’t be afraid to tell him if he disagreed. That is sort of my reputation, as you know. I look forward to working with Barack and playing a very constructive role in his presidency, bringing about the kind of change this country needs.