Joe Biden

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.

Speaking of Presidential candidate Barack Obama, 2007

I'm not exploring. I'm in. And this is the beginning of a marathon

Referring to his choice not to set up an "exploratory committee" and instead enter the race directly; interview on ABC News after announcing candidacy for the 2008 Democratic president nomination (January 30, 2007), 2007

You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent ... I'm not joking.

cite news, 2006

Hell, I might be president now if it weren't for the fact I said I had an uncle who was a coal miner. Turns out I didn't have anybody in the coal mines, you know what I mean? I tried that crap — it didn't work.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (July 28, 2004), 2004

He made a compelling case. The predominance of the evidence, the pure weight of the evidence, I think anyone. ... Let me put it this way, if I were back practicing law I can’t imagine I could not convince an open-minded jury of the facts that he presented as having been true.

Biden on Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations. Biden’s Record on Iraq War from FactCheck.org (February 5, 2003), 2003

Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, in my view, is one of those clear dangers. Even if the right response to his pursuit is not so crystal clear, one thing is clear. These weapons must be dislodged from Saddam Hussein, or Saddam Hussein must be dislodged from power.

US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, , quoted in, 2002

Alan Cranston understood power not as a reflection of status but as a tool with a purpose.

Meet the Press (), 2000

But I respectfully suggest, Major, that the responsibility is slightly above your pay grade, to decide whether to take the nation to war alone, or to take the nation to war part way, or to take the Nation to work half-way. That is a real tough decision.

To Scott Ritter, in hearings about the disarmament process, before the Senate Committee on Armed Services (September 1998), quoted in, 1998

If Haiti, a God-awful thing to say, if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest.

As quoted in '1994, U.S. Invasion of Haiti', by Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept, (27 April 2021), 1994

The standard of judgment is no longer results but the flickering image of seriousness, skillfully crafted to squeeze into 30 seconds on the nightly news. In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.

On the national debate, Campaign speech announcing entry into 1988 presidential race, Wilmington, Delaware (June 10, 1987), 1988

It is an exciting and dangerous time, for this generation of Americans has the opportunity so rarely granted to others by fate and history. We literally have the chance to shape the future - to put our own stamp on the face and character of America, to bend history just a little bit.

On the national debate, Campaign speech announcing entry into 1988 presidential race, Wilmington, Delaware (June 10, 1987), 1988

Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.

Busing of schoolchildren (Jun. - Jul. 1977): hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session, on S. 1651., 1977

The truth is, every major crime bill since 1976 that’s come out of this Congress, every minor crime bill, has had the name of the Democratic senator from the State of Delaware: Joe Biden.

Joe Biden in 1994, 1976

I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace—someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn't pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.

Philadelphia Enquirer (Oct. 12, 1975) Alana Goodman, Joe Biden once said Democrats needed ‘a liberal George Wallace’ (Feb. 7, 2019), Washington Examiner, 1975

Every time Richard Nixon, when he was running in 1972, would say, 'Law and order,' the Democratic match or response was, 'Law and order with justice' — whatever that meant. And I would say, 'Lock the SOBs up.'

Joe Biden in 1993, 1972