Biden to vigorously challenge Palin on issues
Larry O'dellDemocratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden said Thursday that he will vigorously challenge his Republican counterpart Sarah Palin on the issues, but will refrain from personal attacks.
Biden made the remarks Thursday in response to a question from a woman who attended his forum on national security and veterans issues in military-heavy Virginia Beach. The questioner said she realized it's tricky for a male candidate to debate a woman but implored Biden to "please promise me you'll go after her the same way...."
The rest of the question was downed out by applause and cheers.
"The way I was raised is: I never, ever, ever attack the other person," Biden said, adding that probably was not what many his fellow Democrats want to hear. "I will take issue with her as strongly as I can."
Biden said that has been his approach through 13 presidential debates.
"I'm not good at the one-line zingers. That's not my deal," Biden said.
Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention was packed with zingers, and Biden said he was impressed with the way she delivered it.
"I think she's going to be an incredibly competent debater," he said.
However, he said he noticed Palin never mentioned health care, education or the middle class.
He said in response to another question that the middle class would be better off economically under Democrat Barack Obama than Republican John McCain.
"Ninety-five percent of American households' taxes will go down," he said. "If you're making $250,000 a year — and I hope you are — we don't have a tax cut for you."
At a town hall forum later in Manassas, Va., Jennifer Halpin of Leesburg, va., said, "I'm really tired of Republican pandering to women voters. ... I think it's preposterous for Republicans to think that just because they add any woman to the ticket, that we're going to be dumb enough to turn into Stepford wives" and vote for the GOP ticket
Biden said in response, "Spoken like my wife, daughter and sister."
The senator was joined there by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who was a top contender for the spot on the ticket awarded to Biden. Kaine tweaked the Republicans for calling Obama an inexperienced, risky option.
"We can't afford to put someone in the White House that says ... 'I don't know much about economics anyway.' That would be risky," Kaine said, referring to an earlier statement by McCain professing a lack of economic knowledge.
Biden spoke to more than 150 people at the town-hall meeting, addressing economic issues. He complimented Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — though he mistakenly referred to her as lieutenant governor — for poise and impressively delivering her speech Wednesday night at the Republican convention, but said she and other GOP speakers failed to address Americans' concerns about the faltering economy.
"They can't explain eight years of economic decline hitting the middle class like a gut punch," Biden said.
Biden had said earlier that he'd never known anyone more courageous than McCain, his longtime Senate colleague, but said Obama already has demonstrated better judgment on military and foreign policy matters. It's a claim Biden has been making to counter Republican criticism about Obama's lack of experience.
"Experience only matters if you couple it with judgment," Biden said.
Brigadier Gen. David McGinnis, chief of staff of the National Guard Association and one of six participants in the forum, said he believes Obama is well qualified to be commander in chief because he has a strong grasp of strategy.
"He has a demeanor that is unbelievably cool," McGinnis said.
Biden also said the nation's leaders have a "sacred obligation" to care for the soldiers they deploy and the ones who come home — an obligation he said the Bush administration has not met.