While other Democrats talk Iraq, health care, and change, Biden talks Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq. At a press conference this month on the steps of Iowa's Capitol in Des Moines [he said], "I know how to make America safer!"-From Jonathan Rauch's Friday column in the National Journal on why Democrats should be looking a bit harder at the candidacy of Sen. Joe Biden (Democrat-DE).
He continued, "Immediately begin to draw down American combat troops.... Immediately give the troops all the protection they need while we're drawing them down...You must change the policy to put in place a federal, decentralized Iraq, giving the warring factions breathing room to establish their own security [and] control over the fabric of their daily lives."
For a year and a half, Biden (along with Leslie H. Gelb, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations) has advocated devolving power to autonomous regions in Iraq. The presidential campaign has brought the plan into sharper focus - and, as Biden argues, into sharper contrast with what he plausibly regards as the wishful thinking prevalent in both parties.
I may sound like a broken record here, but the Democrats place too much importance on non-Iraq issues at their peril. While healthcare, the economy, education, and the entire laundry list of important domestic issues rightly have a place at the table in any debate, the #1 issue on voters minds come Election Day 2008 will be Iraq...above and beyond the rest. They may not agree with Candidate A on the domestic issues, but Americans will none-the-less cast their vote for that candidate if they feel that Candidate A has a well thought out plan over Candidate B to defuse the situation in Iraq with the least amount of American blood.
To date, Sen. Biden is the only Democrat to propose a workable solution. To boot, his plan received - just last week - tremendous support from both sides of the aisle. And support from the opposition party will be crucial to the next administration - whoever leads it - when it comes to fixing what is wrong with Iraq.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have excellent foreign policy advisers, but their proposals to date have been way too soft and lack a certain gravitas. John Edwards' focus on the "two Americas" leads me to believe that Iraq is nowhere near the top of his list of priorities and that an Edwards presidency would quickly evolve into "Carter 2." The Democratic Party can't afford another one of those.
Following last week's MSNBC debate, Biden moved up quite a few notches in my book. And if the "front runners" don't start laying out solid, workable Iraq plans - whether it is their own or they say, simply, that Joe Biden would be their choice for Secretary of State or Vice-President - then I won't even consider giving them my primary vote in January.
