The other day I realized that I knew more about Sarah Palin than Joe Biden. So, for those in a similar position, here is some information from Wikipedia:
Joe Biden is the senior United States Senator from Delaware. He is both the Democratic vice presidential nominee for the November 2008 election and a candidate for re-election in the U.S. Senate.
Born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania for ten years prior to moving to Delaware, Biden trained as a lawyer and became a senator in 1973 at the Constitutional minimum age of 30, making him the fifth-youngest senator in U.S. history.
He is a long-time member and current chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and has worked on resolutions concerning the Yugoslav wars and Iraq War. He has served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dealing with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties, and led creation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Violence Against Women Act.
He’s 66 years old with a history of health problems:
In February 1988, after suffering from neck pains, Biden was hospitalized and given lifesaving surgery to correct a brain aneurysm that had begun leaking. Another operation to repair a second aneurysm was performed in May 1988. The hospitalization and recovery kept him from his duties in the U.S. Senate for seven months.
He isn’t all that great with saving money and investing:
With a net worth between $59,000 and $366,000, and almost no outside income or investment income, he is consistently ranked as one of the least wealthy members of the Senate. Biden states that he has been listed as the second poorest member in Congress, a distinction that he is not proud of, but attributes it to being elected early in his career.
He’s tried twice to become the Democratic nomination for President:
Biden has twice run for the Democratic nomination for President, first in 1988, and again in 2008. Both times he was unsuccessful.
He believes in global warming and thinks something must be done. He has an anti-gun ownership voting record. He supports universal health care. He supports guest-worker visas for immigrants. His positions on Internet privacy are worrisome:
Biden sponsored a bill that would make it a felony to record internet radio, and signed a letter that urged the Justice Department to prosecute file sharers. Biden also sponsored two bills, the Comprehensive Counter Terrorism Act and the Violent Crime Control Act, both of which contained language effectively banning encryption. Phil Zimmerman, creator of PGP, has said it was Biden’s legislation (SB 266) that “led me to publish PGP electronically for free that year, shortly before the measure was defeated after vigorous protest by civil libertarians and industry groups.”
According to “The Political Positions of Joe Biden,” he’s a strong supporter of removing invasive non-native species. He opposes drilling for oil in the Arctic and supports government funding alternative sources of energy. He has a mixed record on supporting free trade. He is very pro-union. He was against Bush’s tax cuts.
He supported the war in Iraq, but now believes that was a mistake. He thinks Iraq should be partitioned and supports a plan to remove our troops from Iraq.
He believes troops should be deployed to Sudan. He is a self-described Zionist and is highly supportive of Israel. He is pro-choice, but is opposed to government funding abortions. He supports civil unions for homosexuals, and is opposed to privatization of welfare.
Now don’t you feel a little more informed?
yes, and i just decided not to vote for him
Yes, I feel more informed. And I still think that Obama made a horrible mistake. I pretty sure there were better Democrats he could’ve gone for, like Madeleine Albright.
Choosing Palin–as much as I disagree with her views–is the only right thing McCain has done.
Choosing Palin (on fifteen minutes’ acquaintance) isn’t a “right thing”. It’s a sop to the Christofascist wing of the Republicans, to shore up “the base” when people like Dobson and Buchanan were threatening to spoil their ballots rather than vote for McCain.
McCain didn’t pick that nutjob–his handlers did, and I think they’ve made a grave strategic error. They picked Palin for her “good lil’ wifey” appeal, but I suspect she leaves a lot of rational republicans (if there’s any repub supporter who can still be referred to without irony as “rational”) and fence-sitters cold.
his record doesn’t seem too bad, for someone who’s not going to be getting his hands on any real power…
And some of the hits he’s been getting in speeches are pretty good, even if he did end up last in the GenericOff.
Joe Biden, the man who gives less than half of one percent of his United States Senator’s salary to charity, said Thursday, that it is patriotic for Americans to pay more in taxes. Apparently, though, to the Senator, it’s only patriotic if the government TAKES the money from you.
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I know it’s just because I finished reading the Ezekiel Bread post before this one, but for now on I am going to associate Joe Bidon with dung.
Albright can’t be nominated for VP. She was born outside of the United States to American parents. There’s no exception in the Constitution for this fact.
@Stephen:
So John Sidney McCain can’t be president? … I suspect he’ll be surprised.