What Biden said...

In talking to a loved one last night, who referred to the republican’s patting John McCain on the back last night (I wonder if it irritates the scars from the knives that they stuck there eight years ago) as “just politics”, I realized that it might be beneficial to just print what the candidates are actually saying and let you decide what’s honest and what’s “just politics”.

Now, unlike F-word news, I am not “fair and balanced”. I have a bias… I also, unlike the reporters at that (ahem) “news” agency, have the balls to admit it. My bias is towards the two Irish dudes – what are their names again? Oh, yeah… Biden and O’Bama.

Despite that bias, I will print all four acceptance speeches here, first Biden, then Palin, then Obama, then McCain. I will only edit their words to the extent of dropping their introductory thank you’s to friends and family and the actual acceptance and skip straight to the meat. My bias will show in my commentary. In case you’d like to skip my commentary, it will be clearly marked by white space and formatted

(like this)

So, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, my fellow Americans, here’s what Biden said…

(Biden is speaking of his mom here, after he said his thank you to her. I included this part, because I think that a portion of it demonstrates one of the reasons that I support the ticket)

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly would look at me and told me, "Joey, it's because you're so bright you can't get the thoughts out quickly enough." When I was not as well dressed as the other kids, she told me, "Joey, you're so handsome honey, you're so handsome." And when I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, and this is the God's truth, she sent me back out the street and told me, "Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day." And that's what I did.

After the accident, she told me, "Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear." And when I triumphed, my mother was quick to remind me it was because of others.

(This is what I wanted to point out. I think that Americans have forgotten what Isaac Newton said: “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." We have forgotten our history, and have forgotten and stopped recognizing the giants upon whose shoulders we’re standing.)

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you.

(Since Ms. Palin usurped democratic hero Harry S. Truman in her speech, I am going to usurp republican hero Abe Lincoln here. He said “I treat the garbage man the same way that I treat the President of the United States.” This is another thing that we seem to have forgotten – courtesy. ALL MEN (meaning, I think “mankind”, and not “male human beings”) ARE CREATED EQUAL.)

My parents taught us to live our faith, and to treasure our families. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they just try hard enough.

That was America's promise. For those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream.
But today that American dream feels as if it's slowly slipping away. I don't have to tell you that. You feel it every single day in your own lives.
I've never seen a time when Washington has watched so many people get knocked down without doing anything to help them get back up. Almost every night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I sit there in my seat and I look out my window and I see the flickering lights of the homes we pass by, I can almost hear the conversation they're having at their kitchen table after they put their kids to bed. Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as ordinary as they are profound. Questions they never ever thought they'd have to ask themselves:
-Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?
-Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars just to fill up the gas tank?
-How in God's name, with winter coming, how are we gonna heat the home?
-Another year, no raise?
-Did you hear? Did you hear they may be cutting our health care at the company?
-Now, now we owe more on the house than it's worth. How in God's name are we going to send the kids to college?
-How are we gonna retire?

You know, folks, that's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the America we'll continue to get if George - excuse me, if John McCain is elected president of the United States of America. Freudian slip! Freudian slip! And folks, these are not isolated discussions among families down on their luck. These are common stories among middle-class people who've worked hard their whole life, played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.

That promise is the promise of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it. Barack Obama gets it though. Like many of us in this room, like many of us in this hall, Barack worked his way up. His is the great American story. You know, I believe the measure of a man is not the road he travels; it's the choices he's made along that road.

And ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama could have done anything after he graduated from college. With all his talent and promise, he could have written his own ticket to Wall Street.

But what did he choose to do? He chose to go to Chicago. The South Side of Chicago. There - there in the South Side of Chicago he met men and women who had lost their jobs. Their neighborhood was devastated when the local steel plant closed. Their dreams had to be deferred. Their self-esteem gone. And ladies and gentlemen, he made their lives the work of his life. That's what you do when you're raised by a single mom, who worked, went to school and raised two kids on her own. That's how you come to believe, to the very core of your being, that work is more than a paycheck. It's dignity. It's respect. It's about whether or not you can look your children in the eye and say: We're going to be all right.

Because Barack made that choice, 150 (thousand) more children and parents have health care in Illinois. He fought to make that happen. And because Barack made that choice, working families in Illinois pay less taxes and more people have moved from welfare to the dignity of work. And he got it done.

And when he came to Washington, when he came to Washington, John and I watched with amazement how he hit the ground running, leading the fight to pass the most sweeping ethics reform in a generation. He reached across party lines to pass a law that helps keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. And then he moved Congress and the president to give our wonderful wounded veterans the care and dignity they deserve.

You know, you can learn a lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him, seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind, but even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart. I watched how Barack touched people, how he inspired them, and I realized he had tapped into the oldest belief in America: We don't have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it. And change it - and change it is exactly what Barack Obama will do. That's what he'll do for this country.

You know, John McCain is my friend, and I know you hear that phrase used all the time in politics. I mean it. John McCain is my friend. We've traveled the world together. It's a friendship that goes beyond politics. And the personal courage and heroism demonstrated by John still amazes me.

(Did you catch the reverence with which he speaks of John McCain? This is one of the things that I love about Biden and Obama. They speak of their political opponents as cherished human beings, not as objects of ridicule. Yes, they’re both politically tough on Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush, but not personally disrespectful. Haven’t we had enough of personal disrespect and personal attacks in our politics?)

But I profoundly - I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country, from Afghanistan to Iraq. From Amtrak to veterans. You know, John thinks, John thinks that during the Bush years "we've made great economic progress." I think it's been abysmal. And in the Senate, John has voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time. And that is very hard to believe. And when John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no, none, no relief for 100 million American families, that's not change; that's more of the same. Even today, as oil companies post the biggest profits in history - nearly a half trillion dollars in the last five years - John wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks.

(A quick question: are you tired of watching oil companies take your money, make huge profits from it, and then pay little or no taxes on those profits? Me too. Well, according to Mr. McCain’s website (http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/JobsforAmerica/taxes.htm), he wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. It costs money to run the government, folks, and if corporations pay less, who do you think is going to be paying more? That’s right – us. I don’t know about the republican plank of “lower taxes”, all I know is that, over the last eight years, my payroll taxes have gone from 15% to 18%. So I guess that they mean “lower taxes for rich people”.)

That's not change, that's the same. And during the same time John voted again and again against incentives for renewable energy: solar, wind, biofuels. That's not change; that's more of the same. Millions of Americans have seen their jobs go offshore, yet John continues to support corporations that send them there.
That's not change. That's more of the same. He voted 19 times against raising minimum wage for people that are struggling just to make it to the next day.

(Oh, and speaking of Americans trying hard to make it day to day, let’s talk about McCain’s plan to “help” us by instituting a “summer gas tax holiday”. The proposal is to institute a moratorium on the gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. That means that on a ten gallon gas up, you’re saving 1.84. If you’re one of the unfortunate ones who has a twenty gallon tank, it’s about $3.68. Is that really going to help? I would say that a better solution would be to try to cut your driving by twenty miles per tank. Depending on your gas mileage, that could save you anywhere from $2.00 (hybrid) to about $5 (Hummer) per fuel up, and not just through the summer, but year round.)

That's not change. That's more of the same. And when he says to continue to spend $10 billion a month when the Iraqis have a surplus of nearly $80 billion, that's not change. That's more of the same.

(This tally is strictly financial. It does not take into account the five thousand young Americans who have given their lives in this mess. And I’m still waiting for someone to tell me HONESTLY what this “war” is all about and what would constitute victory, so that we’ll know when we’ve won.)

The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier.

(Again, respect for John McCain. Much more respect than the republicans showed to John McCain in 2000, when conservative groups practically called Mr. McCain a traitor to his country.)

They require a wise leader. A leader who can change, change - the change that everybody knows we need. Barack Obama is going to deliver that change. Because, I want to tell you, Barack Obama will reform our tax code. He will cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people who draw a paycheck.

That's the change we need. Barack Obama, Barack Obama will transform our economy by making alternative energy a national priority and in the process creating 5 million new jobs and finally, finally freeing us from the grip of foreign oil. That's the change we need.

Barack Obama knows that any country that outteaches us today will outcompete us tomorrow.

That's why he'll invest in the next generation of teachers and why he'll make college more affordable. That's the change we need. Barack Obama will bring down health care costs by $2,500 for the average family and at long last deliver affordable, accessible health care for every American.

(For informational purposes – health care costs increased 5.8% last year. Industry analysts say that they will rise another 5.8% this year. Also, major insurance companies are talking about increasing your co-pays and deductibles to help them “meet the rising costs”. More like to help them get more of your hard-earned money.)

That's the change we need. Barack will put more cops on the street, put security back in social security and he'll never ever ever give up until we achieve equal pay for women. That's the change we need.

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. And for the last seven years, the administration has failed to face the biggest the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India's great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror.

Ladies and gentlemen, in recent years and in recent days we once again see the consequences of the neglect, of this neglect, of Russia challenging the very freedom of a new democratic country of Georgia. Barack and I will end that neglect. We will hold Russia accountable for its action and we will help Georgia rebuild. I have been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, this administration's policy has been an abysmal failure. America cannot afford four more years of this failure.

And now, now, despite being complacent in the catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barack Obama, Barack Obama is not ready to protect our national security. Now let me ask you this. Whose judgment do you trust? Should you trust the judgment of John McCain when he said only 3 years ago, "Afghanistan - we don't read about it anymore in the papers, because it succeeded"?

(Because of the Bush administration’s “cut and run” tactics in Afghanistan, the Taliban has re-emerged there, stronger than ever. It’s like no American soldier died there, and no American money was spent there. If we do back into Afghanistan, it will be to simply clean up the mess that we left. I don’t know about you, but duplicity of effort, especially where American lives are involved, bugs me.)

Or do you believe Barack Obama, who said a year ago, "We need to send two more combat battalions to Afghanistan"?

The fact of the matter is, al-Qaida and the Taliban - the people who have actually attacked us on 9/11 - they've regrouped in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and are plotting new attacks. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has echoed Barack's call for more troops and John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was right. Should we trust John McCain's judgment? When he rejects, when he rejected talking with Iran and asked what is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama, who said we must talk and must make clear to Iran that it must change?

Now, after seven years of denial, even the Bush administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran because that's the best way to ensure our security. Again and again John McCain has been wrong and Barack Obama has been right. Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says, when he says that we can't have no timelines to withdraw our troops from Iraq, that we must say indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift the responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home? Now, after six long years, the administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home. John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama was right.

(Please note that the US withdrawal timeline was not set by the US government. It was set by the IRAQI parliament. They wanted us out by 2010, but may have allowed an extension to 2011. I said a year ago that the time would come when we’d either have to leave willingly or be driven out – well, folks, we’re on the verge of being driven out. I have no doubt, however, that the Bush administration and McCain will take full credit for this early withdrawal, despite the fact that the earliest date that Secretary Rice was willing to commit to was 2015.)

Again, again and again on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong and Barack Obama has been proven right. Folks, remember when the world used to trust us, when they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they'll look at us again. They'll trust us again and we'll be able to lead again. Folks, Jill and I are truly honored to join Michelle and Barack on this journey.

(You know how one of the pieces of conservative rhetoric is that “everything changed after 9/11”? They’re right, but not in the way that they think. Everything changed after 9/11 because, before 9/11, we were perceived as the good guys. I’m glad that Biden recognizes that this has changed.)

When I look at their young children, and when I look at my grandchildren, I realize why I'm here. I'm here for their future. I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington. I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly line workers, the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures.

Our greatest presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy, they all challenged us to embrace change. Now, it's our responsibility to meet that challenge.

Millions of Americans have been knocked down. And this is the time as Americans, together, we get back up. Back up together. Our debt to our parents and grandparents too great, our obligation to our children is too sacred.
These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. I'm ready. Barack is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time.

God bless America, and may God protect our troops! Thank you!

End of speech.

Here’s an interesting little factoid for you: in Europe, even the most conservative of politicians refuse to sully God’s name by invoking it in a political format. In America, it seems like a politician is unelectable UNLESS they sully God’s name by dragging it through the mud of petty politics. As a Christian, I would sincerely LOVE to see politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle leave God out of their petty bickering. A wish that I fear will not be fulfilled in my lifetime.

Okay, that’s what Biden said. Personally, I found it inspiring and found myself nodding a lot during the speech. But again… I have both a bias and the balls to admit it. Tomorrow night, I’ll print Ms. Palin’s speech.

Peace.

Randal