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Arkansas colleagues heap praise on Biden Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau DENVER - Two Arkansans who know Joe Biden best claimed Wednesday the Delaware senator has the toughness and the common touch to win over Arkansas voters. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., serve alongside Biden, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee. Biden accepted the party's nomination Wednesday. Biden is known for his doggedness in Senate hearing rooms and his expertise in int ernational relations. But Lincoln said something often overlooked is his dedication to so-called "home and hearth" issues like health care and education. "All you have to do is sit down and visit with him about his mother or his brother or his sister, this is a man devoted to family values," Lincoln said. "You can see all that he does flourishes out of those values." Lincoln's only visit to Iraq was with Biden last September. Both senators praised the nominee's international affairs experience. Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He's also been chairman of the judiciary committee. Biden has been in the Senate since 1972. "He's respected around the world," Pryor said. "He's really adding experience, and Joe Biden is a very tough person." Barack Obama tapped Biden as his running mate last week. Republican presidential nominee John McCain has not made his vice presidential pick. Democrats said Biden blunts criticism of Obama's youth and his inexperience in foreign affairs. An Arkansas convention delegate for Obama, state Rep. Stephanie Flowers of Pine Bluff, said Biden "brings balance to the ticket." Some Arkansans had hoped Obama would pick Hillary Clinton for the ticket. But Arkansas delegates looked forward to supporting Biden, they said. "Sen. Biden will be great for Obama," said Taylor Riddle, an alternate delegate from Jonesboro. "There's nobody that's upset that Hillary Clinton wasn't on the ticket." Flowers said she sees hope for a party that hasn't carried Arkansas since Bill Clinton won his second term in 1996. "We've made errors in judgment in the last two presidential elections and we need to start reversing the error," she said. The Obama-Biden ticket can win in Arkansas by demonstrating they are tough and prepared to lead, Pryor said. "Joe Biden is a very, very tough person, personally and politically," he said. "I think part of the evaluation that people make is 'Are these people tough enough to lead?' It shows with Biden." But for all his toughness, Pryor said Biden, who grew up in blue collar Scranton, Pa., would also connect with the struggles of Arkansas' working families. "He has such wonderful international experience and broad knowledge, and yet he relates to the working man really well," said Berta Seitz, a convention delegate from Fayetteville. Biden's Senate career almost ended soon after it started. His son, Beau Biden, told convention-goers Wednesday. The vice presidential nominee nearly refused to serve as a senator when, soon after he was elected at age 29, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. "He said 'Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another father,'" Beau Biden said. It's his personal story that's shaped him and made him sensitive to America's problems, his colleagues said. |
