Biden: Not about issues?
Posted: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 4:18 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Joe Biden
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Back in attack-dog mode, Biden offered a number of counterarguments to Tuesday’s Republican National Convention speeches here today, as well as the McCain campaign chief’s statement that the campaign will not be about issues.
“Well, let me tell you, that means to them this election is not about you being able to scrape up the tuition money to send your kid off to college,” he said. “It's not about whether or not you're going to fill up your gas tank. … That to me is an issue. It's an issue to me and to Barack Obama.”
He also referred to President Bush calling McCain the “man we need,” saying that the Arizona senator certainly earned his endorsement by voting with him “90 percent of the time.”
“It look like we have another Minnesota Twins team up there,” he joked, noting that Fort Myers is the team’s spring training home.
Responding to Fred Thompson, who he called “Red October,” on taxes, he looked directly into the bank of cameras in the back of the room and challenged back that Democrats would not give tax breaks to him or oil companies, but “to these people right here in this room.”
He closed his speech by defending Obama on Iraq, saying he’s “been getting beat up so unfairly.”
“My friend -- and when I see him I’m going to ask him to go down to the gym with me, Joe Lieberman -- talked about surrender,” Biden said. “They use phrases like that, about surrender and putting country first.” He then noted that the Bush administration is about to enter into an agreement to remove U.S. forces on a timetable, something Obama had called for earlier and Republicans attacked.
“So, if Barack Obama is the agent of surrender, George Bush is the one signing the surrender papers,” he said.
