Last night's Iraq forum
Posted: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:09 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats, Security
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
The Iraq debate/forum
Joe Biden wanted so badly finally came to fruition ... and Biden was busy in the Senate with the immigration vote. At 8:00 pm, when the event was supposed to start, only former Sen.
Mike Gravel -- who called himself the "crazy uncle who hasn't come down from the attic in six years" -- was in attendance. Fewer than 500 people were in the audience, but Gravel was surely happy with the opportunity to address them. "This is an experience for me. I get more than five minutes.”
Both he and Kucinich -- who showed up later -- took jabs at some of the other Democratic candidates. Gravel once again attacked "the senator from New York" for saying had she known then what she knew now, she would not have voted for the war. Gravel said if someone couldn't tell Bush was lying back then, the person does not have the right to become president. Kucinich added that all the candidates in Congress had an audition in October of 2002. "It was a moment of real peril and crisis in our country to exercise our foresight and judgment to share with the world."
Biden arrived shortly before 9:30 pm, and he received a thunderous applause. He had a short time to talk, since there were nine votes on the immigration issue scheduled for 10:00 pm. He talked about his plan for Iraq: "I have put forward a comprehensive strategy to end the war, my word, responsibly. It has three parts: a roadmap to bring most of our troops home next year; a detailed plan for what we leave behind; and a commitment that, so long as a single American soldier remains in Iraq, we will do everything in our power to protect him or her." Biden was the best received, and it was clear people stuck around to specifically hear him. He was in his element, talking to knowledgeable people about a subject he wanted to discuss.
