Joe Biden Michigan Speech Transcript (9-15-08)

Read the full transcript of a speech given today by Democratic VP nominee, Joe Biden.

Eight years ago, a man ran for President who claimed he was different, not a typical Republican. He called himself a reformer. He admitted that his Party, the Republican Party, had been wrong about things from time to time. He promised to work with Democrats and said he'd been doing that for a long time.

That candidate was George W. Bush. Remember that? Remember the promise to reach across the aisle? To change the tone? To restore honor and dignity to the White House?

We saw how that story ends. A record number of home foreclosures. Home values, tumbling. And the disturbing news that the crisis you've been facing on Main Street is now hitting Wall Street, taking down Lehman Brothers and threatening other financial institutions.

We've seen eight straight months of job losses. Nearly 46 million Americans without health insurance. Average incomes down, while the price of everything -- from gas to groceries -- has skyrocketed. A military stretched thin from two wars and multiple deployments.

A nation more polarized than I've ever seen in my career. And a culture in Washington where the very few wealthy and powerful have a seat at the table and everybody else is on the menu.

Eight years later, we have another Republican nominee who's telling us the exact same thing:

This time it will be different, it really will. This time he's going to put country before party, to change the tone, reach across the aisle, change the Republican Party, change the way Washington works.

We've seen this movie before, folks. But as everyone knows, the sequel is always worse than the original.

If we forget this history, we're going to be doomed to repeat it -- with four more just like the last eight, or worse. If you're ready for four more years of George Bush, John McCain is your man.

Just as George Herbert Walker Bush was nicknamed "Bush 41" and his son is known as "Bush 43," John McCain could easily become known as "Bush 44."

The campaign a person runs says everything about the way they'll govern. The McCain-Palin campaign has decided to bet the house on the politics perfected by Karl Rove. Those tactics may be good at squeaking by in an election, but they are bad if you want to lead one nation, indivisible.

I count John McCain as a friend. I've known him since before he was a Senator. If he needed my personal help, I'd go. He served our country bravely, nobly. But America needs more than a great solider, America needs a wise leader.

Take a hard look at the positions John has taken for the past 26 years, on the economy, on health care, on foreign policy, and you'll see why I say that John McCain is just four more years of George Bush. On the issues that you talk about around the kitchen table, Mary's college tuition, the cost of the MRI for mom, heating our home this winter -- John McCain is profoundly out of touch.

Tina Fey as Palin on SNL: Transcript, Video

This is hysterical. If you haven't seen it yet click here (also includes a transcript). (update: video from 2nd Tina Fey as Palin, Amy Poehler as Katie Couric shown skit 9-27-08 or see video at bottom of this page).

FEY/PALIN: Good evening, my fellow Americans. I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I would be addressing you tonight.

POEHLER/CLINTON: And I was told I would be addressing you alone.

FEY/PALIN: Now I know it must be a little bit strange for all of you to see the two of us together. What with me being John McCain’s running mate.

POEHLER/CLINTON: And me being a fervent supporter of Senator Barack Obama, as evidenced by this button.

FEY/PALIN: But tonight we are crossing party lines to address the now very ugly role that sexism is playing in the campaign.

POEHLER/CLINTON: An issue which I am frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about.

FEY/PALIN: You know, Hillary and I don’t agree on everything…

POEHLER/CLINTON: (OVERLAPPING) Anything. I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.

FEY/PALIN: And I can see Russia from my house.

POEHLER/CLINTON: I believe global warming is caused by man.

FEY/PALIN: And I believe it’s just God hugging us closer.

POEHLER/CLINTON: I don’t agree with the Bush Doctrine.

FEY/PALIN: I don’t know what that is.

POEHLER/CLINTON: But, Sarah, one thing we can agree on is that sexism can never be allowed to permeate an American election.

FEY/PALIN: So, please, stop photoshopping my head on sexy bikini pictures.

POEHLER/CLINTON: And stop saying I have cankles.

FEY/PALIN: Don’t refer to me as a “MILF.”

POEHLER/CLINTON: And don’t refer to me as a “Flurge.” I Googled what it stands for and I do not like it.

FEY/PALIN: So, we ask reporters and commentators, stop using words that diminish us, like “pretty,” “attractive,” “beautiful.”

POEHLER/CLINTON: “Harpy,” “shrew,” and “boner shrinker.”

FEY/PALIN: While our politics may differ, my friend and I are both very tough ladies. You know it reminds me of a joke we tell in Alaska. What’s the difference—

POEHLER/CLINTON: Lipstick.

FEY/PALIN: …between a hockey mom—

POEHLER/CLINTON: Lipstick.

FEY/PALIN: …and a pitbull?

POEHLER/CLINTON: Lipstick.

FEY/PALIN: (PAUSE) Lipstick. Just look at how far we’ve come. Hillary Clinton, who came so close to the White House. And me, Sarah Palin, who is even closer. Can you believe it, Hillary?

POEHLER/CLINTON: (PAUSE) I cannot.

FEY/PALIN: It’s truly amazing, and I think women everywhere can agree that no matter your politics, it’s time for a woman to make it to the White House.

POEHLER/CLINTON: No! Mine! It’s supposed to be mine! I need to say something. I didn’t want a woman to be President. I wanted to be President, and I just happen to be a woman. And I don’t want to hear you compare your road to the White House to my road to the White House. I scratched and clawed through mud and barbed wire, and you just glided in on a dog sled wearing your pageant sash and your Tina Fey glasses.

FEY/PALIN: What an amazing time we live in. To think that just two years ago, I was a small town mayor of Alaska’s crystal meth capitol. And now I am just one heartbeat away from being President of the United States. It just goes to show that anyone can be President.

- 9-27-08


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• SNL's Tina Fey Spoofs Palin, VP Debate: Transcript, Video (10-4-08)

Palin solo in Carson City, Nevada: Transcript (9-13-08)

VP nominee Sarah Palin gave a speech by herself in Nevada on Saturday. Read the full transcript.

We're going to take our case for reform, that needed reform in DC to voters of every background in every party -- or no party at all. And with your vote, we're going to Washington, not embracing status- quo-politics-as-usual again, we're going to shake things up! (Cheers, applause.)

John McCain is a guy who has been through a few tough fights before. He wore the uniform of our country for 22 years -- (cheers) -- five of those years as a POW. He's served America in good times and in bad and he, like you, like me, always proud to be an American. (Cheers, applause.)

John McCain knows what it takes to overcome great challenges. And for the job of leading our country and winning the war, he is the only man in this race who's got what it takes. (Cheers, applause.) At a decisive moment in the course of the war, remember it was John McCain who refused to break faith with our troops who have now brought victory in Iraq right within sight! (Cheers, applause.)

And as the mother of one of those troops, that's exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief. (Cheers, applause.)

I know I'm not the only one, either. I want to applaud our moms over here, the Blue Ribbon moms. Our hearts are united. Thank you so much for serving our country in your special way. Thank you, moms! (Cheers, applause.) Thank you! And our hearts are united.

Nevada, this is a moment when principles and political independence mean a heck of a lot more than a party line. John McCain doesn't run with the Washington herd. He's willing to shake things up in Washington, and that's why we need to take the maverick of the Senate and bring him to the White House! (Cheers, applause.)

Senator McCain has called the two of us a team of mavericks because he knows that we've done some shaking up up there in Alaska. As mayor, I shook up the old system and had to take on the good old boys. I reminded people there that government is not always the answer. In fact, too often, government is the problem! (Cheers, applause.) So we got back to basics, and we put government back on the side of the people.

What we did up there -- I eliminated taxes on personal property, and I eliminated taxes that were hurting our small businesses, like business inventory taxes. (Cheers, applause.) Property taxes were too high. We already had a sales tax. Property taxes were too high, so we cut rates every year that I was in office. And those reforms worked, and our community took off. Wonderful economic indicators of success when you let the people keep their own money! (Cheers, applause.)

As governor then, I brought the same agenda of positive change. We took on the old politics-as-usual in Juneau. The old oil company monopoly that had really controlled our state, we broke it. And the good-old-boy network of lobbyists and special interests that used to run things, whatever they're running now, it's not the state of Alaska! (Cheers, applause.) And nearly half a billion dollars in wasteful, excessive spending, well, that's what vetoes are for. (Cheers, applause.)

Stocks set to Plunge after Fall of Lehman Bros.

This is extremely dangerous. We need to wake up to the disaster that is looming. The press should be treating it like hurricane Ike and Hanna - nonstop coverage. This is a crisis. If we don't respond, we will see events far worse than 9-11. You don't believe me just ask the man who ran the economy for over a decade, Alan Greenspan. He says it's a "once-in-a-century" financial crisis.

U.S. stocks headed for a sharply lower open and Treasury bond prices soared Monday as investors reacted to a stunning reshaping of the landscape of Wall Street. A series of events took out two storied names Sunday: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Stocks posted sharp losses in markets across much of the globe as investors absorbed a bankruptcy filing by Lehman and Merrill Lynch's forced sale to Bank of America for $50 billion in stock. And perhaps most ominously, American International Group Inc. is asking the Federal Reserve for emergency funding. The world's largest insurance company plans to announce a major restructuring Monday.

The swift developments are the biggest yet in the 14-month-old credit crises that stems from now toxic subprime mortgage debt.

Investors are worried that trouble at AIG and the bankruptcy filing by Lehman, felled by $60 billion in bad debt and a dearth of investor confidence, will touch off another series of troubles for banks and financial institutions. Wall Street had been hopeful six months ago that the collapse of Bear Stearns would mark the darkest day of the credit crisis.

But many market observers have said for months that a cathartic sell-off is necessary for Wall Street to purge its worries over bad debt and the tight credit conditions that have hobbled the economy. A scare and subsequent sell-off in the markets could establish conditions for a market bottom to form.

Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 372, or 3.3 percent, to 11,086. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 48.00, or 3.81 percent, to 1,210.50. Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 49.25, or 2.8 percent, to 1,730.25.

Bond prices surged as investors fled to the security of government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, plunged to 3.50 percent from 3.72 percent late Friday. The dollar was lower against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Markets in Tokyo and several other Asian money centers were closed for holidays. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 3.64 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 3.33 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 4.37 percent. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Swiss central bank stepped in an attempt to calm markets by making more short-term credit available to banks.

Light, sweet crude dropped $4.43 to $96.75 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after damage to Gulf of Mexico oil infrastructure from Hurricane Ike was less than Wall Street feared. Worries about a slower economy have also weighed on oil prices in recent weeks. Oil is down sharply from its mid-July highs when it hit a record over $147 a barrel.

But despite the pullback in oil, prices the gas pump rose above $5 per gallon in some parts of the country Sunday after Ike left some the nation's refining capacity inoperable.

McCain-Palin Sexist, Anti-Press Strategy is Failing

The McCain, with the selection of Sarah Palin as the vp, was to gain the woman vote. They hoped they could win over the so-called disenchanted Hillary vote. They are also playing the sexist card anytime the press asks Ms.Palin a tough question. The press is beginning to catch on to the ploy. And the initial incitement over Ms.Palin's selection is fading.

Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, criticized the media at a weekend fundraiser, telling supporters that the hosts of The View “picked our bones clean.”

"In spite of what you see …in the newspapers, and on shows like The View — I don't know if any of you saw The View yesterday, they picked our bones clean — in spite of what you see, that's not what the American people are saying and what they are believing," said McCain, in a recording obtained by ABC News. "They are now seeing a clear difference with these candidates, and they are seeing who is going to make the best president, and that's why we're pulling ahead."

[...]John McCain had a tough exchange with the hosts of The View during a recent appearance, during which he was pressed on the credentials of running mate Sarah Palin, claims in his campaign ads that co-host Joy Behar called “lies,” and how many houses he and his wife own.

If the election were held today, Barack Obama would have enough electoral votes to win. And that total win only increase as the Palin effect fades. The polls are already trending in Obama's direction. It doesn't help McCain that Obama raised a record $66 million last month.

Even Rove admits that McCain ads are less than truthful.

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove suggested Sunday that John McCain had gone “one step too far” in some of his recent ads attacking Barack Obama.

Rove has leveled similar criticism against Obama. “McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far,” he told Fox News, “and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the ‘100 percent truth’ test.”

The Obama campaign immediately leaped on the quote. "In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove — the man who held the previous record — said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove’s on-air comments.