Facing celebrity candidates endowed with hundreds of millions of dollars, the one thing Joe Biden may have going for him with only days to go before the Iowa caucuses are low expectations. For most of the campaign, few pundits or members of the media have given the Delaware Senator much of a chance to even have a respectable showing in Iowa. "The people that come out of here are going to be the ones that beat the expectations that (the media sets), it could be four people, it could be three people," Biden told TIME on Monday. "The plain old politician in my finger tips tells me that we're going to do well."
"Well", in his case, would be for Biden to come in fourth behind the frontrunning pack of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, and lately it seems that he may have a real shot. For Iowans looking for an experienced candidate, Biden arguably has the longest and most distinguished resume in the field. And it is on that strength that he is drawing surprising support in pockets across Iowa, particularly in the eastern cities like Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, as well as in rural areas, where he's giving Edwards a run for his money.
One hears caucus-goers mention Biden's name wistfully at events for Clinton, Obama or Edwards. Biden's a politician with a lot of experience that many voters wish had more money and little bit of that youthful energy that symbolizes change. Still, caucus-goers flock to hear him, eager to ask the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman about Iraq and Pakistan, Iran and North Korea.
"People have been kind to say, including even the national press, that I am qualified to be president of the United States, that I could win a general election, but how can he win the caucuses?" Biden told a crowd of several hundred people crammed into an Ames library Monday. "The only thing that I ask you, and the only responsibility to the Democrats in the rest of the country I think you have, is not to be pundits but to pick for them who you believe that the most qualified persons are to be in the finals. "
Biden has seen standing room-only crowds, like the one in Ames, across the state in recent weeks. And the Ames audience was twice moved to its feet in ovations for Biden's stump speech — a surprisingly brisk 18 minutes compared to Obama's nearly hour-long closing argument, Hillary's 45-minute speeches and Edwards' typical 35-minute spiel. Biden by comparison spends more than an hour answering questions, a strategy, his communications director Larry Rusky says, that is starting to pay off.
In addition to the large crowds, Biden yesterday signed up more than 100 precinct captains - people who will stand up and argue for him in the individual caucuses — in a single day and has raised $750,000 online in the last month. And while he hasn't budged much in recent Iowa polls, Biden has gained most in the category of experience. Of the 33% of likely Iowa caucus-goers polled by ABC News/The Washington Post who said experience was the most important quality in a candidate, nearly half said they favored Clinton, 15% said Edwards, 10% chose Biden and 9% picked Obama.
(much more)
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1699170,00.html
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