Joe Biden Hits a Home Run
By Larry Cudek, RN Senator Joseph Biden’s performance in the vice presidential debate with Alaska Governor Sara Palin on October 2 was a triumph for all of us who have been sickened by John McCain’s claims to be the “maverick,” reformer friend of the middle class. Senator Biden’s response that night was a resounding “Who are you kidding?” Biden accused McCain of trying to fool the public with his health care plan by promising a $5000 tax credit for family health insurance coverage which currently costs $12,000 per year: “So you’re going to place- replace a $12,000 plan with a $5000 check you just give to the insurance company,” Biden told Palin. “I call that the ultimate bridge to nowhere.” McCain’s plan would also tax workers, like us at Kaleida, on our employer-provided health coverage. In response to Governor Palin’s incessant accusations that an Obama-Biden administration would raise taxes, Senator Biden made it abundantly clear that no one earning less than $250,000 would pay a dime more in taxes of any kind and that only the rich would pay more, thus eliminating the $60 billion contribution to the rich that is the Bush tax cut. Apparently sickened somewhat himself by Palin’s “John McCain is a maverick” rant, Biden responded: “He’s (McCain’s) not been a maverick when it comes to education- he 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 the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that people really talk about.” Biden also cleared the air on Palin’s misunderstanding of the Constitutional powers of the vice president as she referred to a “flexibility” that the Constitution allows which Vice President Cheney has utilized as becoming, as many would argue, a co president. Biden made it very clear that the Constitution does not
state or imply any flexibility here whatsoever. It gives the vice president no legislative responsibilities other than a casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate when needed and no executive powers at all except to be ready to serve if the president dies or becomes incapacitated. He told her that Mr. Cheney had been “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had in American history” through his role in starting the war with Iraq, in misleading Americans about weapons of mass destruction, in leading the charge to create illegal prison camps where detainees are tortured, in illegally wiretapping Americans, in creating an energy policy which favored the oil industry that made him very rich. Senator Biden linked John McCain and George Bush in both past and present time frames. It is well known that John McCain voted for Bush sponsored legislation 90-95% of the time, but “The issue is how different is John McCain’s policy going to be from George Bush’s?” he asked: “I haven’t heard how his policy is going to be different on Iran than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy in Afghanistan is going to be different than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy in Pakistan is going to be different than George Bush’s….It may be, but so far it is the same as George Bush’s.“ The voters seem to be hearing. In early October, Barak Obama’s lead in the New York State alone has increased from just 5 percent to over 20. Obama’s calm and reasoned response to the financial crisis has brought typically Republican states like Florida and Indiana into contention. But, the judgment shown by each of the presidential candidates in selecting their running mates is most striking, and in John McCain’s case, most troubling. After watching and listening to Joe Biden speak and debate for 90 minutes were you not relieved that such a statesman could easily step into the presidency in an emergency? How many could say the same for Sara Palin?