Posted on 09/09/2008 2:46:34 AM PDT by markomalley
GREEN BAY -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday stressed his middle class upbringing, his ties to the Roman Catholic Church and his appreciation of the Green Bay Packers in this blue-collar, heavily Catholic region of the state.
Biden talked about the difficulties the Fox Valley region is facing, referencing the closing of the NewPage paper mill in Kimberly.
"You lose a job, you not only lose your ability to care for your family, you lose a sense of human dignity, you lose a sense of your own self worth," Biden said. "This used to be a country that when people got knocked down your government was there not to solve your problem but at least to help you get up."
Referring to his youth playing sports, Biden said his father only had one piece of advice: "Unless it’s broken Joey, get up."
That is also the objective of the Obama ticket, he said.
"The American people are ready to get up, I’m ready and Barack Obama's ready. We are going to restore the fundamentals of this country," he said.
Biden made his first stop in Wisconsin as part of the Obama ticket, doing a town hall-style meeting at Green Bay’s KI Convention Center. The campaign estimated the crowd was about 1,000.
Republican Party of Wisconsin executive director Mark Jefferson said in a statement the change Biden and Obama promise equates higher taxes.
"Promising to help working and middle class families, the fact is Biden and Obama both voted to increase taxes on people making $42,000," Jefferson said. "On the other hand, Senator McCain will provide immediate relief for American families while reforming Washington to regain the trust of taxpayers -– getting the government’s budget and spending in check and creating jobs.”
Biden also took swipes at the Republican ticket on the Iraq war and the economy, promising he and Obama would end the war if elected. He said a current proposal from President Bush to set a timeline for troop withdrawal shows that he and Obama were right while McCain has been wrong.
He also said the Obama administration would be committed to supporting the troops overseas and when they return back home.
"There is only one sacred obligation government has, and that is to care for those who we send to war and care for those who we bring home from war," he said.
At one point in his stump speech, Biden stopped mid-sentence to shake the hand of a veteran sitting in the front row.
“Thank you for your service pal,” he said.
On Social Security, Biden said to loud applause, "We are not going to do that John’s going to do – we are not going to privatize Social Security."
Biden took questions for about 35 minutes, including from one woman who encouraged him to be tough with GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
"Don’t be afraid to engage her, you will be wonderful," urged the supporter.
While assuring the crowd he would approach the debate like any other, Biden gave Palin credit for making a "great political speech" at the GOP's national convention. He added that the Alaska governor has not been thoroughly vetted.
"Sarah Palin is eventually going to have to do what I do, she’s going to have to go on 'Meet the Press' and have them come after her like they come after me," he said.
Biden, a Catholic, talked about his school days at the Norbertine-run Archmere Academy in Delaware, where he said Packer fandom was nearly mandatory. St. Norbert College is just down the road from Green Bay in DePere.
Biden said rooting for the Packers had a payoff at Archmere.
"If the Green Bay Packers won, we got out early," said Biden, who said he started following the Packers in the team's 1960s glory days. "If the Green Bay Packers lost we got homework. I’m a Green Bay Packer guy since high school."
Good grief, what a spastic, steaming assclown.
Biden pays no respect to his betters because he cannot even recognize they're better than him.
abortion joe will sway no genuine Catholics and when the dust clears after the election he will be found to be a minus with Catholics. He will go down as the worst VP selection since Tom Eagleton in 1972. Eagleton was lucky the mcgovern kicked him off the ticket. It saved him from being part of the worse ash kicking in history.
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver
Monday, Sept. 8, 2008
To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:
When Catholics serve on the national stage, their actions and words impact the faith of Catholics around the country. As a result, they open themselves to legitimate scrutiny by local Catholics and local bishops on matters of Catholic belief. In 2008, although NBC probably didn't intend it, Meet the Press has become a national window on the flawed moral reasoning of some Catholic public servants.
On August 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, describing herself as an ardent, practicing Catholic, misrepresented the overwhelming body of Catholic teaching against abortion to the show's nationwide audience, while defending her "pro-choice" abortion views. On September 7, Sen. Joseph Biden compounded the problem to the same Meet the Press audience. Sen. Biden is a man of distinguished public service. That doesn't excuse poor logic or bad facts. Asked when life begins, Sen. Biden said that, "it's a personal and private issue." But in reality, modern biology knows exactly when human life begins: at the moment of conception. Religion has nothing to do with it. People might argue when human "personhood" begins - though that leads public policy in very dangerous directions - but no one can any longer claim that the beginning of life is a matter of religious opinion.
Sen. Biden also confused the nature of pluralism. Real pluralism thrives on healthy, non-violent disagreement; it requires an environment where people of conviction will struggle respectfully but vigorously to advance their beliefs. In his interview, the senator observed that other people with strong religious views disagree with the Catholic approach to abortion. It's certainly true that we need to acknowledge the views of other people and compromise whenever possible - but not at the expense of a developing child's right to life. Abortion is a foundational issue; it is not an issue like housing policy or the price of foreign oil. It always involves the intentional killing of an innocent life, and it is always, grievously wrong. If, as Sen. Biden said, "I'm prepared as a matter of faith [emphasis added] to accept that life begins at the moment of conception," then he is not merely wrong about the science of new life; he also fails to defend the innocent life he already knows is there.
As the senator said in his interview, he has opposed public funding for abortions. To his great credit, he also backed a successful ban on partial-birth abortions. But his strong support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and the false "right" to abortion it enshrines, can't be excused by any serious Catholic. Support for Roe and the "right to choose" an abortion simply masks what abortion is, and what abortion does. Roe is bad law. As long as it stands, it prevents returning the abortion issue to the states where it belongs, so that the American people can decide its future through fair debate and legislation.
In his Meet the Press interview, Sen. Biden used a morally exhausted argument that American Catholics have been hearing for 40 years: i.e., that Catholics can't "impose" their religiously based views on the rest of the country. But resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion. And the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people's convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law. American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their "pro-choice" beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades.
If we claim to be Catholic, then American Catholics, including public officials who describe themselves as Catholic, need to act accordingly. We need to put an end to Roe and the industry of permissive abortion it enables. Otherwise all of us - from senators and members of Congress, to Catholic laypeople in the pews - fail not only as believers and disciples, but also as citizens.
+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver
+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver
“If the Green Bay Packers won, we got out early,” said Biden, who said he started following the Packers in the team’s 1960s glory days. “If the Green Bay Packers lost we got homework. I’m a Green Bay Packer guy since high school.”
Let’s see, now. In Pittsburgh, he tells how he became a devoted Steeler fan. At home, everybody, including Joe, is an Eagles fan. Now in Green Bay, he is a life-long Packers fan.
What a pandering, suck-upping POS. Wait until the media reports on this. Waiting ...........(silence)
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