Joe Biden Quotes: Twenty-Five Joe Biden Quotes

Joe Biden's Twenty-five Greatest Verbal Hits
25 Joe Biden Quotes: What He said Then





Twenty-five Joe Biden quotes to compare and contrast with what the Delaware senator told the nation last night in the vice-presidential debate. Check back often for updates.

Did we miss any reader's favorite Joe Biden verbal moment?

If we did, readers can leave their favorites in the comments at the end of this article.

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“John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”
--Biden on The Daily Show - August 2 2005


“I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”
--Biden, New York Observer interview - 2007


"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking."
--Joe Biden, in an address to Indian-Americans

ALSO at DBKP:
DBKP Library of Quotes


"It's a bad idea and should be shut down and dismantled."
--Joe Biden, on the Alaskan pipeline - 1973


"A tragic mistake."
--Joe Biden, on the surge of troops in Iraq - 2006


"Uh, uh, Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about?"
--to wheelchair-bound Missouri state senator, Charles Graham - September 9, 2008



"Folk, let me be straight with you...I have a bad habit of doing that."
--Biden in the Delaware Journal - September 2007


”I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”
--Joe Biden, on Barack Obama - 2007


“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”
--Biden, post-debate appearance, MSNBC - October 30 2007


“Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran."
--Joe Biden, to staff three weeks after September 11, 2001




“If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.”
----Joe Biden, addressing the National Guard, Baltimore 9-22-08 about the time his helicopter had to make a landing due to a sudden snowstorm.


“We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.”
--Biden, October 2002


“I support immediate financial assistance to the newly elected Palestinian president. Now, I don't know what those numbers will be, and I don't know how it's going to be framed.”
--Biden,


"A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!"
--Biden, at his first campaign rally with Obama - August 2008


"I think we should divide the country into three regions, just like we did in Bosnia."
--Joe Biden, radio Interview - August 2007



“I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”
--Biden, Meet the Press - November 27 2005


“My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
--Biden, on Obama’s Iraq plan - September 13 2007


“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
--Biden, New York Observer - 2007


“When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”
--Biden Iowa campaign ad - December 2007


“We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”
--Biden at the Brookings Institution - 2005


“Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a political solution in Iraq."
--Luis Navarro, Biden for President Campaign Manager - September 26, 2007


“He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”
--Biden about Sadaam Hussein, Meet the Press - December 26, 2002



“Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He cataloged — they cataloged them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, cataloged.”
--Biden, about Sadaam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction, Meet the Press - 2007


“I don’t want him [my son] going there [to Iraq]. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference. There’s no political point worth my son’s life. There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”
--Biden on Iowa Radio about Barack Obama's votes against Iraq funding bills - August 2007


“I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about," [when he calls for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.] "John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John, what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there."
--Joe Biden, Observer - February 2007


compiled by Mondo
image: CS Monitor
Sources:
* ‘Just Words’ That Joe Biden Would Like To Forget
* Joe Biden Quotes
* Running on Adrenaline
* Joe Biden's Skeleton Closet
* Biden Unbound: Lays Into Clinton, Obama, Edwards
* Joe Biden Quotes
* Joe Biden's Helicopter Ride to the Gates of Snowy Hell
* Biden Was Wrong On the Cold War
* Joe Biden Interview
* Joe Biden: $200 Million for Iran and a Vote Against the Alaskan Pipeline
* Joe Biden to Man in Wheechair: "Stand Up, Chuck. Let 'Em See Ya!"

Sarah Palin Quotes: 25 Memorable Quotes from Her RNC Speech

"The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."
--Sarah Palin, RNC Speech







* A writer observed: "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity." I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.

I grew up with those people. They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America ... who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.

* I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion — I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.

* My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of "personal discovery." This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer.

* Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems — as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

* Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

* To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies ... or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia ... or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries ... we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas. And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both.

* ...there is much to like and admire about our opponent.

But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate.

* In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

* And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely.

There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain.

* I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

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* I came to office promising major ethics reform, to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is the law.

While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay. I also drive myself to work.

And I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef — although I've got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her. I came to office promising to control spending — by request if possible and by veto if necessary.

* It was just a year ago when all the experts in Washington counted out our nominee because he refused to hedge his commitment to the security of the country he loves.

With their usual certitude, they told us that all was lost — there was no hope for this candidate who said that he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. But the pollsters and pundits overlooked just one thing when they wrote him off. They overlooked the caliber of the man himself — the determination, resolve, and sheer guts of Senator John McCain. The voters knew better.

* And in April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical.

That's how it is with us. Our family has the same ups and downs as any other ... the same challenges and the same joys.

* I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the United States. This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office, when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau ... when I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good ol' boys network.

* Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge. And children with special needs inspire a special love.

To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.

* Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines ... build more new-clear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative sources.

We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.

* My Mom and Dad both worked at the elementary school in our small town. And among the many things I owe them is one simple lesson: that this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity. My parents are here tonight, and I am so proud to be the daughter of Chuck and Sally Heath.

* This is a man [Barack Obama] who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

* ...I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending: nearly half a billion dollars in vetoes. I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.

I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged — directly to the people of Alaska.

* Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.

Congress spends too much ... he promises more. Taxes are too high ... he wants to raise them.

- - - - -

* The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for business — like millions of others who run small businesses.

How are they going to be any better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you're trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or Ohio ... or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia ... or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.

* Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.

He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain." Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man. Clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain. That is only one more reason to take the maverick of the Senate and put him in the White House.

* A fellow prisoner of war, a man named Tom Moe of Lancaster, Ohio, recalls looking through a pinhole in his cell door as Lieutenant Commander John McCain was led down the hallway, by the guards, day after day.

As the story is told, "When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe's door and flash a grin and thumbs up" — as if to say, "We're going to pull through this." My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through these next four years.

For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. For a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.

* Sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power brokers. That's why true reform is so hard to achieve. But with the support of the citizens of Alaska, we shook things up. And in short order we put the government of our state back on the side of the people.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: Heidi from Pittsburgh for DBKP