Joe Biden: Nothing But Talk, Talk, Talk

“John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”

--Biden on The Daily Show - August 2, 2005

“I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”

--Biden, New York Observer interview - 2007

"It's a bad idea and should be shut down and dismantled."

--Joe Biden, on the Alaskan pipeline - 1973

"A tragic mistake."

--Joe Biden, on the surge of troops in Iraq - 2006

”I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

--Joe Biden, on Barack Obama - 2007

“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”

--Biden, post-debate appearance, MSNBC - October 30 2007

“Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran."

--Joe Biden, to staff three weeks after September 11, 2001

“If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.”

----Joe Biden, addressing the National Guard, Baltimore 9-22-08 about the time his helicopter had to make a landing due to a sudden snowstorm.

“We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.”

--Biden, October 2002

"I think we should divide the country into three regions, just like we did in Bosnia."

--Joe Biden, radio Interview - August 2007

“I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”

--Biden, Meet the Press - November 27 2005

“My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”

--Biden, on Obama’s Iraq plan - September 13 2007

“When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”

--Biden Iowa campaign ad - December 2007

“We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”

--Biden at the Brookings Institution - 2005

“Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a political solution in Iraq."

--Luis Navarro, Biden for President Campaign Manager - September 26, 2007

“He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”

--Biden about Sadaam Hussein, Meet the Press - December 26, 2002

“Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He cataloged — they cataloged them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, cataloged.”

--Biden, about Sadaam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction, Meet the Press - 2007

“I don’t want him [my son] going there [to Iraq]. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference. There’s no political point worth my son’s life. There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”

--Biden on Iowa Radio about Barack Obama's votes against Iraq funding bills - August 2007

“I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about," [when he calls for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.] "John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John, what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there."

--Joe Biden, Observer - February 2007

Hat Tip: Death By 1000 Papercuts