'Muzzled' Biden's Halloween Present: A Press Avail

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'Muzzled' Biden's Halloween Present: A Press Avail

October 31, 2008 10:38 PM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: Earlier this week, Republicans claimed that Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., had been “muzzled” by the Democratic campaign, noting that he had not held a full-fledged press availability with traveling reporters since a Sept. 7 flight to Montana. But Friday night, in a deserted Ohio eatery on Halloween, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee once again fielded questions from his press corps, refuting any accusations that he had been “muzzled.”

“If I’m muzzled, I don’t know, I’ve done 200 interviews, I’ve been doing, you know, half a dozen to a dozen satellite feeds everyday, I’m doing shows,” Biden said, touting the local interviews he conducts daily. “I mean, so no one said anything to me about it."

Perhaps it was the near-empty diner that left Biden with no alternative than answering questions from the media. When Biden walked into Kewpee, a small burger joint in Lima, Ohio, just after concluding his rally in this northwestern Buckeye State town, the senator found more reporters than diners.

“Everybody’s trick-or-treating,” he noted on this Halloween night.

Standing beside a large white sign that read, “No Loitering, Begging, Solicitation at any time,” Biden quickly gladhanded with the few diners before addressing the swarm of reporters. He cautioned that the upcoming election will be “closer than everybody thinks it is,” expressed hope that his friendship with rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was still “intact,” and said that no matter what happens on Tuesday, “this is a mindset-changing election.”

While the Biden regularly rips the McCain campaign's “scurrilous attacks” on Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., tonight he hoped that his friendship with the Republican nominee was still strong.

“I don't know, I hope it's intact,” Biden said of the lawmakers’ relationship. “John and I haven't had a chance to speak.”

Noting that McCain’s latest ad was “positive,” Biden said he hopes, “John ends this campaign with his strength.”

“One of the things I've admired about John, and I've considered him, why I've considered him a friend, he does, he never gives up,” Biden said. “But so, and I just hope when it's over, win or lose, you walk up and you shake hands and say, 'John, we've got a lot of work to do.'”

"When this is over, win or lose, John and I are likely to be around, in one form or another, in one job or another," Biden predicted. "And I hope, uh, my hope is we can work together. Because folks, it sounds corny, you cannot do this stuff unless you start to get a little purple here. You can't make these big decisions. I mean, you need, you need cooperation, no matter how."

But before any post-election pleasantries are exchanged, Obama and Biden still have to defeat McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Nov. 4. That’s why, Biden said, the Democratic team is campaigning in such a wide array of states.

"We’re going everywhere: Montana, Arizona,” he said, to name a few. “I mean, we’re everywhere we can be because … this election is going to be a lot closer than everybody thinks it is."

"We feel good, we look good, but it’s not over yet,” he cautioned, noting that he is “a politician who has run scared every single election.”

“The fact of the matter is that I have, I have done relatively well in my own elections,” Biden said. “But I have never, never, before the polls close, said, ‘Man, this is in the bag.'”

The Delaware lawmaker expressed confidence in Democrats’ chances in Pennsylvania and Virginia, but concern about their options in Florida, North Carolina, Missouri and Ohio.

“I think it’s going to be close in Florida, it’s going to be close here, it’s going to be close in Missouri. I think it’s going to close. ... I don’t think it will be that close in Pennsylvania. I feel very good about Pennsylvania, maybe because I know the state so well,” said the Scranton-born Biden. “I’m not overconfident about it, but I feel, you know, real good there. I think it’s going to be close in North Carolina. You know, Virginia feels really good but, you know, it ain’t till it happens.”

But if the Democrats do claim the Oval Office and also reach the 60-seat threshold in the Senate?

"It would be good for the country," Biden said.

Whoever emerges victorious Tuesday night, Biden called this a “mindset-changing election,” noting the nation’s struggling economy and later, its damaged reputation due to foreign policy decisions such as the war in Iraq.

“We’re in a deep hole, man,” he said. “And the Republicans get it. The Republicans, they're going to be very chastened by this election, win or lose. I doubt whether you're going to see a lot of Republicans coming back talking about compassionate conservatism. I doubt whether you're going to find many Republicans in the United States House and Senate talking about how if you just let this stuff trickle down, and all you got to do is more of the same.”

“I mean, they don't use that phraseology, but I really think this is a mindset-changing election,” he added. “And so I think there is going to be a center that can generate some genuine, bipartisan consensus.”

Eventually, a few kids summoned up the courage to approach Biden as he addressed the press, bringing an end to the impromptu question-and-answer session. But maybe reporters will get another chance to pepper the senator Saturday, when Biden spends a second-straight day busing around the battleground Buckeye State. Ohio diner stops appear to be a favorite place for Biden to open up. The last time the veep nominee answered any questions at all from his traveling press corps was Oct. 14 across the state at an eatery in Lisbon.

October 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (232)

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! The obama gang is in for a Big SURPRISE - we're those
18 Million Hillary supporters that did NOT unite, support and will NOT vote for obama. We have been quietly watching & waiting for our turn - and the time is near!

VOTE SMART: McCain/Palin - we can
TRUST them

Posted by: Molly | Oct 31, 2008 10:55:30 PM

Molly, your a fool, their own party doesn't trust them, how can we.

Posted by: JR | Oct 31, 2008 10:59:31 PM

Thats what happens when your brain dead look what happened when the brain dead voted for Bush in 2004. Lets hope we can get someone in that cares about this country and not Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and a score to settle with Vietnam. God help us all another 4 years of a republican and this country can kiss its arse goodby

Posted by: Rose Szymanski | Oct 31, 2008 11:12:00 PM

I guess she missed the poll that stated 84% of Hillary supporters now support Obama.

So much for the "18 million"

Thankfully, most of Hillary's supporters realized that there were more important issues at stake than petty grudges.

My own mother was a Hillary delegate in WA, and even she knows better than to vote for McCain and Talking Parrot.

Palin was the clincher for her. She was so insulted by McCain's pick she instantly decided she had to vote for Obama.

No doubt, she wanted Hillary in the White House, but there's still a very good chance that could happen.

Posted by: Nice Try Though | Oct 31, 2008 11:17:02 PM

The unrelentless attack on Sarah Palin by the Obama campaign is going to back fire. It's resented by most women whether they agree with her politics or not.

Posted by: Hippie Smasher | Oct 31, 2008 11:18:16 PM

Yeah Molly, it's either 18 Million or one. No progressive will ever vote GOP. Admit it: you're a republican.

peace

Posted by: david | Oct 31, 2008 11:19:53 PM

"Hippie Smasher"

I had heard irregardless but not unrelentless.

"Unrelentless" is NOT a word! (neither is irregardless)

Go back to school!

Peace

Posted by: Educated Hippie | Oct 31, 2008 11:27:26 PM

I actually liked reading this. Whatever side of the political spectrum, whenever someone speaks of the other side with respect it gives me a bit of hope for the future of American politics.

Posted by: Brian | Oct 31, 2008 11:50:47 PM

***
*** The unrelentless attack on Sarah Palin *** by the Obama campaign is going to back
*** fire. It's resented by most women
*** whether they agree with her politics
*** or not.

That would assume that women are voting purely based on the candidates gender. Polls don't show that.. and anyone who votes for irrational reasons such as that do greater harm to our country than good, and would do a greater service by sitting out the election and letting the more intelligent individuals decide the race.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/108022/Candidate-Support-Gender.aspx

Obama - for a better America, even for the idiots.

Posted by: jdb | Oct 31, 2008 11:53:19 PM

Vote Hillary!!!

Write her in, I did!

Posted by: gg | Oct 31, 2008 11:54:52 PM

It looks as if Obama might be a little upset come election night! The American people are starting to realize what he is all about with his "redistributing the wealth" and all his radical friends! I would not want to be in that 1 Million crowd come election night, because if the ONE does not win the city of Chicago will be set on Fire!

ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all...

Posted by: chuck | Oct 31, 2008 11:58:32 PM

We'll see.

Posted by: Kitty | Nov 1, 2008 12:00:38 AM

Well I'm the 18 million former Hillary supporters and we do support Obama. So my dear republican sisters stop lying like your leader McCain. God, have you not shame. We all detect the sly McCain lie type sour grapes of the would-be chiristians.

Posted by: MissClarity | Nov 1, 2008 12:01:40 AM

Posted by: chuck | Nov 1, 2008 12:02:42 AM

"talking parrot"???!!

How sexist can you get? Geez. Get over it. she's a heck of a lot smarter than you...and most of the people around her.

Posted by: francis | Nov 1, 2008 12:03:04 AM

Funny how the press corps admit that Biden is not a very interesting candidate to constantly prey on. We even hear story about how sparse his coverage is, compared to the Obama, Palin, or McCain, unless he says one or two strange things.

Yet days before the election, we are complaining that he is muzzled? Has anybody been turned down from a Biden's interview before?

Posted by: ItalianJob | Nov 1, 2008 12:07:09 AM

How many has Palin done? Oh, that's right, she is the one truly being muzzled, because when she isn't, they wind up using her interview transcripts on SNL verbatim, and get huge laughs without having to change a word. What more could a comedy writer ask for!

Posted by: benji | Nov 1, 2008 12:12:04 AM

Seems to me that we've heard a lot about Joe the Plumber. If I recall from the Nixon administration, they had a bunch of Plumbers too and they also used them in an attempt to subvert an election. G. Gordon Liddy was a Plumber and a domestic terrorist who actually spent time in jail. John McCain calls him a friend and has accepted money from him and has appeared on his show. So much for paling around with a terrorist. Obama and Biden are the only two logical choices for the change that this country requires to change the course of the country, and most of Hillary voters recognize this, except evidently, Molly.

Posted by: Mark | Nov 1, 2008 12:14:39 AM

Every attack on Palin is "sexist", lol. Her coverage in the left media has been negative, you gotta admit that. But anybody else (male or female) would have had the same fate running against the machine Obama produced. Ask Joe the Plumber.

I do hope that the 18 millions cracks noticed that back when Clinton was been relentlessly attacked by the right media, it wasn't sexist. I remember Clinton being called the B word too. And now they think all of the sudden people will switch to them cause Palin is a woman. How are you going to base your shot at the WHITE HOUSE on flimsy and unreliable politics like this? There ought to be a stronger strategy in McCain's camp.

Posted by: ItalianJob | Nov 1, 2008 12:16:00 AM

Say what you want about Palin (most of it untrue and I and many, many others believe that McCain made a fantastic selection anyway), but I really fail to see how the Biden selection has been a positive for Sen. Obama?

Posted by: Grand Old Party | Nov 1, 2008 12:16:41 AM

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