Des Moines Register
11-02-06
Yepsen: As Kerry gets stuck with a gaffe, Biden offers vision
By DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST
I was stuck for a column. So I thought I'd stick something in about Joe Biden's
thoughtful foreign-policy speech at Iowa State University Tuesday night.
But John Kerry stuck his foot in his mouth Tuesday. He botched a joke, so we
must detour into the sticky world of stuck for a moment.
It all started when Kerry gave a speech to a group of students in California. He
said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do
your homework and you make an effort to get smart, you can do well. If you
don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
President Bush pounced. He said it was "shameful" for Kerry to suggest
members of the military are "somehow uneducated." Some Democratic
candidates, including Iowa's Bruce Braley in the 1st Congressional District,
uninvited Kerry to campaign for them.
Kerry said he fumbled a joke and that he was trying to poke fun at Bush, not
troops. The prepared text was: "Do you know where you end up if you don't
study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck
in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."
So it's the difference between stuck - as in "placed" in Iraq - or stuck - as in
"mired" in Iraq. And it's one thing to say you "get stuck" in Iraq and another to
"get us stuck" in Iraq.
The damage had been done. Bush and the Republicans got a chance to go on
the offensive instead of play defense on the war. Kerry skulked back to
Washington, too radioactive for any Democrat in a close race to touch.
His presidential hopes are probably over, too. In recent times, Democrats have
never given a failed presidential nominee a second chance. Many activists were
already ticked at Kerry for mistakes he made in the 2004 campaigns. Now this.
Talk-show host Don Imus told Kerry Wednesday morning: "Please stop it. Stop
talking. Go home, get on the bike, go windsurfing, anything. Stop it. You're going
to ruin this."
Biden, by contrast, was sticking to his text. (Or at least close enough to avoid any
charges of plagiarism.) He's the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations committee and a guy who has spent a 34-year congressional career
involved in American foreign policy. In recent months, he's been offering specific,
middle-of-the-road plans for dealing with the nation's crises overseas, especially
Iraq.
So it was fitting he was invited to give the Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political
Science at Iowa State University on Tuesday night. One of those who endowed
the annual lecture, Audubon native turned big-time lawyer Chuck Manatt, told the
crowd Biden knows more about U.S. foreign policy than most people on the
American political scene. It's hard to argue with that analysis.
Biden has helped author a program for Iraq. (You can find it at
www.PlanForIraq.com.) He said it is based on the Dayton peace accords, which
are reducing tensions in Bosnia. According to his proposal, Iraqis would form
three regional governments — Shiite, Sunni and Kurd — as part of a federal
government. Sunnis would be given a 20 percent share of oil revenues to make
sure they feel vested in the country.
The regional governments would govern local affairs, and the federal one would
supervise border defense, foreign policy and oil production. A regional
conference of Iraq's neighbors would be created to help respect borders and
bolster the national government.
Oil-rich neighbors would finance a jobs-creation program in Iraq. Biden said all
this should work because Iraq's neighbors have a vested interest in restoring
stability to the area.
U.S. troops would be gradually withdrawn by the end of 2007. A force of 20,000
would be stationed somewhere in the region to quickly fight terrorist
concentrations and help train Iraqi security.
At a time when other candidates are spending the closing days of this campaign
season airing attack ads and calling each other names, it was refreshing to hear
an American political leader talking about bipartisan, nonideological solutions to
one of the biggest problems facing the country.