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Biden to Supporters: "Gird Your Loins", For the Next President "It's Like Cleaning Augean Stables"

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October 20, 2008 7:35 AM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions.

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

Not only will the next administration have to deal with foreign affairs issues, Biden warned, but also with the current economic crisis.

"Gird your loins," Biden told the crowd. "We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It's like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy."

The Delaware lawmaker managed to rake in an estimated $1 million total from his two money hauls at the downtown Sheraton, the same hotel where four years ago Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., clinched the Democratic nomination. Despite warning about the difficulties the next administration will face, Biden said the Democratic ticket is equipped to meet the challenges head on.

"I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I'm not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it," the Senate Foreign Relations chairman said of Obama. "This guy has it. But he's gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us."

"There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision'," Biden continued. "Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound."

Biden emphasized that the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border is of particular concern, with Osama bin Laden "alive and well" and Pakistan "bristling with nuclear weapons."

"You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region," Biden said in recalling when his helicopter was forced down due to a snowstorm there. "The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it's real."

"We do not have the military capacity, nor have we ever, quite frankly, in the last 20 years, to dictate outcomes," he cautioned. "It's so much more important than that. It's so much more complicated than that. And Barack gets it."

After speaking for just over a quarter of an hour, Biden noticed the media presence in the back of the small ballroom.

"I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here," he joked.

"All kidding aside, these guys have left us in a God-awful place," he then said of the Bush regime, promptly wrapping up his remarks. "We have the ability to straighten it out. It's gonna take a little bit of time, so I ask you to stay with us. Stay with us."

October 20, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1719)

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BREAKING NEWS
According to yahoo page Freddie Mac paid GOP To kill Regulation OCTOBER SURPRISE- MCCAIN IS INVOLVED Go to Yahoo news page and read it!!!!!!!

Posted by: Angie | Oct 20, 2008 7:48:33 AM

Obama has NO experience.
NADA!

He ran the ACORN community organization in Chicago.

I forgot

Posted by: al from nj | Oct 20, 2008 7:59:07 AM

Biden is such a fool.

Posted by: debbie | Oct 20, 2008 8:15:38 AM

Hahahaha, he will be tested. I wonder why? Could it be because our enemies know he is weak?

How nice, another Jimmy Carter. I guess we get to hoist the white flags early this time.

Posted by: Dave | Oct 20, 2008 8:46:29 AM

If Obama can't handle the job, elect McCain who can handle it. Simple.

Posted by: H | Oct 20, 2008 8:46:35 AM

Biden is absolutely right. I think we will see activity from AlQueda and moves from Russia that will make their recent foray into Georgia look like a training exercise.

Posted by: Paul | Oct 20, 2008 8:47:09 AM

Way to go jackass... predict an international crisis for the least experienced candidate ever...that will put undecided voters at ease...what else does your majic eight ball tell you?

Posted by: Hillary | Oct 20, 2008 8:47:15 AM

biden...
what a blowhard.

Posted by: ddlbb | Oct 20, 2008 8:47:40 AM

Hey Angie,

Did we read the same article??? It states John McCain was not even a target of the lobbying firm. Nice try Obamabot!!!

Posted by: JJR | Oct 20, 2008 8:48:29 AM

"Gird Your Loins"? "I've forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I'm not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it," Biden sure didn't plagarize these lines. He's just about the only one who'd dispense such tripe from his piehole. He's a walking disaster who finally and completely believes his own BS.

Posted by: John Stryker | Oct 20, 2008 8:48:58 AM

lol.. breaking news... read past the headline. There is nothing there.

Posted by: Mark | Oct 20, 2008 8:49:22 AM

Biden code words for OBAMA IS NOT READY TO BE PRESIDENT!

Thanks for helping spread the word, Joe!

PUMA for McCain-Palin '08/Hillary '12

Posted by: USVet | Oct 20, 2008 8:50:20 AM

The crisis will be the discovery that Obama was born in Kenya and is not eligible to be POTUS.

Let's start the fund to deport him...

Posted by: TruthHurts | Oct 20, 2008 8:50:38 AM

Sounds like reason enough not to vote the clowns BHO and Joe B into office. They are not up to the job.

Posted by: Joe Blow | Oct 20, 2008 8:50:43 AM

This is a thinly veiled way of saying that the kool-aid drinkers need to keep quaffing when Obama's oppressive tax policy bankrupts thousands of small business and sends the country into a depression. I could not care less what the "tax calculator" app on his website says, "spreading the wealth" means that small and medium sized business are going to be forced to lay off workers.

Posted by: mgreen | Oct 20, 2008 8:51:43 AM

JJR, don't confuse Angie with facts.

Anyway, what do you suppose Biden was thinking when he said this? Does his mouth just uncontrollably vomit out every thought he has? DId he not realize that a comment like this would only underscore Obama's lack of any meaningful experience?

Posted by: Paula | Oct 20, 2008 8:53:30 AM

this is one of the few times joe got it right, but then you don't have to be sherlock holmes to get this one. russia and china are in bed w/venezuela--now have a presence there and cuba is a handy place to make a beach head--only 90 miles from the usa.

Posted by: anne | Oct 20, 2008 8:55:30 AM

I like Biden, but sometimes I wish he would keep what he's thinking to himself. Sheesh.....

Posted by: Richard | Oct 20, 2008 8:55:32 AM

Even Biden knows that Obama will fall flat on his face. Before he accepted the running mate offer he used to say so. He's already doing damage control in case they win and inevitably do a terrible job. He's basically saying he knows they will do a terrible job so please vote for them again in 4 years regardless of their record.

Posted by: VoterInOhio | Oct 20, 2008 8:55:53 AM

Biden's the guy who voted against the Gulf War to expel Saddaam from Kuwait. He wanted to split Iraq up into 3 competing political units. Biden opposed the surge.

The guy's a blowhard who got to be chairman of his committees simply because he's been in the Senate all of his adult life.

Posted by: John Stryker | Oct 20, 2008 8:56:12 AM

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