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Op-Ed Columnist
Hoping It’s Biden

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: August 22, 2008

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.

Biden’s weaknesses are on the surface. He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and, in the days following his selection, those snippets would be aired again and again.

*snip*

Working-Class Roots. Biden is a lunch-bucket Democrat. His father was rich when he was young — played polo, cavorted on yachts, drove luxury cars. But through a series of bad personal and business decisions, he was broke by the time Joe Jr. came along.

More at link

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22brooks.html

Last month [Feb 2002], Biden held a campaign fund-raiser at the posh estate of Sadegh Namazikhah, an unofficial – or, at least, unregistered – pro-Iran lobbyist. The fund-raiser brought in $30,000, according to investigative reporter Kenneth Timmerman, the man who recently wrote the best-selling book "Shakedown," about Jesse Jackson. According to Timmerman's report in Insight magazine, Biden delivered a sweeping condemnation of Bush's "Axis of Evil" formula. Why would Biden court Iranian-Americans partial to the repressive, terror-supporting, totalitarian regime? The answer appears to be as simple as a dollar sign. Biden is hardly alone.
Just last week [mid March 2002] , the American-Iranian Council, a group backed by Conoco and other U.S. oil companies, feted Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., the only Republican official to criticize Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech. ------- "Biden joins 'Axis of Evil'," by Joseph Farrah, WorldNetDaily.com , Posted: March 21, 2002

OCTOBER 2003 midmonth : (NORWAY : EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS MEET WITH TOP US DEMOCRATS, INCLUDING HILLARY CLINTON, JOSEPH BIDEN [See John Kerry], RON KLAIN [see Wesley Clark] AND STAN GREENBERG, FORMER CLINTON CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST) Norway's Labour Party is joining other European social democrats in linking up with the Democrats in the US. The goal is to be prepared with common strategies if a majority of them on both sides of the Atlantic come back to power. A group of European social democrats, led by former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook, met last week with several top Democratic politicians and party officials. They included US senators Hilary Clinton and Joseph Biden.
They also had meetings with Ron Klain of presidential candidate Wesley Clark's campaign, and Stan Greenberg, former US President Bill Clinton's campaign strategist in 1992.
On the agenda was European concern over current US foreign policy and the effects of globalization.
Espen Barth Eide, who led the Norwegian delegation, said the group met "understanding" that "economic globalization must be accompanied by political globalization." *
There remain wide differences between the European social democrats and their counterparts in the US, who tend to be far more conservative.
Barth Eide called it "natural" however, "to begin with those (in the US) who are closest to us (in ideology), even though the Democrats of course aren't social democrats."--- "Norwegian Labour Party Forges Ties With US Democrats," Norway Aftenposten, October 23, 2003

OCTOBER 23, 2003 : (REPORT : EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS LED BY FORMER UK FOREIGN MINISTER ROBIN COOK MEET WITH US DEMOCRAT PARTY POLITICIANS AND OFFICIALS INCLUSING HILLARY CLINTON & BIDEN) A group of European social democrats, led by former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook, met last week with several top Democratic politicians and party officials. They included US senators Hilary Clinton and Joseph Biden ) ----100 posted on 08/07/2004 10:37:53 PM PDT by Mo1

NOVEMBER late - early DECEMBER 2003 : (JOE BIDEN MEETS WITH FRENCH LEADER CHIRAC) To : Howlin : Is he saying that Joe Biden is going around the world talking to world leaders about getting Bush out of office? Joe Biden had a private meeting with Chriac back in late Nov, early Dec. I made some posts about it then. ---- Posted by Shermy to Howlin On News/Activism 09/24/2004 11:39:58 AM PDT · 580 of 601

JANUARY 2004 : (DAVOS, SWITZERLAND : WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM : US SENATOR BIDEN MEETS WITH IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER KAMAL KHARRAZI) Jan 24 - Senior US senator Joseph Biden criticized the American government's policies on Iran during a meeting with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, foreign ministry said on Saturday. The ranking Democrat on the senate Foreign Relations Committee from Delaware, "stressed the importance of Iran and the role which it can play in the sensitive and volatile region" in the Middle East. Joseph Biden told the Iranian foreign minister that he hoped the existing problems between the Islamic Republic of Iran and America would be removed someday.
Kharrazi had a 90-minute meeting with Biden in a rare high-level contact between Tehran and Washington, which have held no official relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, in full view of reporters in a lounge at the World Economic Forum.
Kharrazi, in turn, said "The Iranian nation has suffered gravely from the antagonistic steps of the American government and so long as these wrong policies continue, there will be no ground for dialogue and improving the two countries' relations."
The Iranian foreign minister stressed that:"American statesmen are required first to change their existing approach and prove their good will in order to pave the way for dialogue and diplomatic relations according to mutual respect." --------- "US senator slams anti-Iran policies," IRIB News, Tehran, 2004/01/24