It's not every day that the Vice President of the United States calls you out specifically by name and encourages folks to applaud.
Well, it happened to me on Thursday, and really made my day!
Governor Bev Perdue,Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (and U.S. Senate candidate), and I were the only statewide elected officials present. Also in attendance at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill were NC House Speaker Joe Hackney, Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt, and Rep. Verla Insko.
As outlined by WRAL-TV and the Raleigh News & Observer, Vice President Joe Biden "deliver[ed] a vigorous defense of the administration's record" and also had the following to say:
“Now that the heavy lifting is over, we can go out and make our case,” Biden said.As 2012 beckons, the recurring visits here by both the President and the Vice President are proof that North Carolina is ground zero as a swing state.
The vice president said that the Republicans “are wildly out of step” with popular opinion on a broad range of issues from holding oil companies responsible for cleaning up the spill in the gulf to supporting basic regulations to prevent another meltdown on Wall Street.
“They say they want to put on the brakes,” Biden said. “But they really want to do is throw us in reverse. As the president said, they drove the car in the ditch. ...
Biden said there are limits to what government can do.
“Barack and I are realists. Government is not the answer. But we also know we can plant seeds. These seeds that have been planted have generated whole new industries.”
1 comment:
I was more than thrilled to be called out by him by name and title at the beginning. Very cool! The VP was his classic self - He gives a terrific speech - both in specifics and in rah-rah - and is down-to-earth at the same time. Very learned in both foreign and domestic policy, too.
Coincidentally, approximately 23 years ago I met then-Senator Biden for the first time in the same location: The Carolina Inn. At that time a gaggle of Democratic presidential candidates were at UNC for a pre-1988 primary debate.
Over the years I've met Biden several times. Before the multitude of times during the 2008 campaign, Melanie and I met him at the 2004 Vance-Aycock Dinner at Asheville's Grove Park Inn.
He's a classy statesman.
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