Biden Strong On Foreign Policy, National Security

by Jennifer Ludden

NPR.org, August 23, 2008 ·

Through four decades in the U.S. Senate, Joseph Biden, 65, has honed a reputation as a heavyweight on foreign policy and national security and a strong debater, if one sometimes prone to verbal gaffes.

....
"But the senator (Biden) is also known to get carried away with the sound of his own voice, digressing into irrelevant personal anecdotes. "

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Lets think about this.

Hmmmmmn .... How do I change my party affiliation?

Who cares? Go look it up...

I did numbnutz .... do you not know what a URL aka Link is?

California Voter Foundation - Voting FAQ

That exchange points to another problem with Biden as a party spokesman. Rather than build up the credentials of a party deeply mistrusted by the public on foreign affairs, Biden often seems more interested in advertising his own accomplishments. In the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Biden did, in fact, champion an anti-terrorism bill similar to the one now before Congress (though it was, as he complains, badly watered down by anti-government conservatives and leftist civil libertarians). And Biden doesn't let you forget it. "I introduced the terrorism bill in '94 that had a lot of these things in it," he bragged to NBC's Tim Russert on September 30. When I spent the day with him later that week, Biden mentioned the legislation to me, and to several other reporters he encountered, no fewer than seven times. "When I was chairman in '94 I introduced a major antiterrorism bill--back then," he says in the morning, flashing a knowing grin and pausing for effect. (Never mind that he's gotten the year wrong.) Back in his office later that afternoon, he brings it up yet again. "I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing. And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill." You don't say.

At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: "I'm groping here." Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction. "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran," Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

The staffers sit in silence. Finally somebody ventures a response: "I think they'd send it back." Then another aide speaks up delicately: "The thing I would worry about is that it would almost look like a publicity stunt." Still another reminds Biden that an Iranian delegation is in Moscow that very day to discuss a $300 million arms deal with Vladimir Putin that the United States has strongly condemned. But Joe Biden is barely listening anymore. He's already moved on to something else.

First, Iranians aren’t Arabs. They’re Persians, as both Arabs and Iranians would quickly point out to anyone ignorant of the distinction. They have no relation linguistically or culturally, except that both are predominantly Islamic. One would expect a foreign-policy expert to know at least that much. Team Obama ridiculed John McCain when he inadvertently mixed up Sunnis and Shi’ites, but this is much more fundamental.

Beyond that, what would a check for $200 million have bought us with the Iranians? We know what it would have bought for the Iranians — more resources for the nuclear-weapons program already in progress in Tehran. Bear in mind that this was shortly after the attacks on New York City and Washington had caused billions of dollars in damage and perhaps trillions in economic impact, not to mention the 3,000 lives that terrorists ended on that day. If Biden wanted to spend $200 million, maybe he would have thought to spend it on Americans, and not the nation that even then was the acknowledged leader in financing terrorism around the world.

I’m sorry, but a man who thinks it appropriate to send hundreds of millions of dollars — “no strings attached” — to a terror-sponsoring regime in order to make America a supplicant of radicals is no foreign-policy genius.

Then why are you asking if you already know.. You act like your phoney " re-register" decision matters a hoot..

How many sock puppets do the Republicans have on this board?

GW is a member of USMB??

A taste of Biden "Foreign Policy and National Security" shortly after 9/11.

Rhetorical Question
by Michael Crowley
Post Date October 22, 2001
Rhetorical Question

snip-

On the USA PATRIOT Act (Nat. Security)



Responding to 9/11 (Foreign Policy)



From Hot Air (same author) August 23, 2008
Hot Air Blog Archive Biden’s foreign-policy chops