On the morning after the raucous Sarah Palin pep rally last night in St. Paul, Joe Biden sought contrast in Virginia Beach, where he came this morning to have a serious discussion on foreign affairs and veteran’s issues with several hundred current and former members of America’s military.
But it was the nastiness of last night—and Palin—who seemed to be on people’s mind during a wide-ranging Q&A session that followed his talk.
One questioner began by noting that it was “tough to debate a woman,” but implored Biden, in the wake of last night, “Will you promise us you will go at her the same way you would a man?”
The end of the question was drowned out by raucous applause.
A low-key Biden, however, didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he damned Palin with praise.
“I never attack the person,” he answered. “I take issues with ideas,” slyly adding, “I will not do what she is able to do so well, those one-line zingers.”
Biden said he was impressed with Palin last night. “I thought she did an incredible job. She was good.”
“The thing I was most impressed by,” Biden went on, “was what she didn’t say. She didn’t say ‘health care,’ she didn’t say ‘education,’ she didn’t say ‘middle class.’”
But on substantive issues, Biden was more than willing to engage directly.
Discussing the inconsistency between McCain’s identification with his fellow veterans and his opposition to Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-Virginia) GI bill in the last Congress, Biden told the crowd, “Don’t tell me you love me, don’t tell me you respect me, don’t tell me you’re concerned about me, if you’re not willing to do something to help me.”
Asked how he and Barack Obama would convince middle class Americans that Democrats would not raise their taxes, Biden said, “Tell the truth,” before explaining that only taxpayers making more than $250,000 per year would see an increase under their plan.
Biden was short on time, a problem for a man known for his loquaciousness. When one questioner noted that it seemed as if Republicans were purposefully trying to damage the economy, Biden didn’t dwell on specific policies, but rather explained that Republican economics creates problems “not because they don’t care about people,” but because GOP policy is driven by their ideology of “Devolution of Government.”
Republicans, he said, “believe prosperity depends on the Federal Government providing national defense and raising money for that purpose only….What happens in your back yard is your problem and your problem alone.”
Biden added, “One of the mistakes Democrats make is they don’t believe what Conservatives say. It sounds crazy, what they say. But they mean it.”
