American politician (1942- )
Public servants are obliged to level with everybody, whether or not they'll like what he has to say.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep
Al Qaeda must be destroyed. Its ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction must be stopped. But to compare terrorism with an all encompassing ideology like Communism and Fascism is evidence of profound confusion. Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. President Bush and Senator McCain lump together, as a single threat, extremist groups and states as at odds with each other as they are with us: Sunnis and Shiites, Persian and Arabs, Iraq and Iran, Al Qaeda and Shiite militia. If they can't identify the enemy or describe the war we're fighting, it's difficult to see how we will win.
JOE BIDEN
speech, Jul. 15, 2008
A little thing we've begun to do is replace all the traditional light bulbs in our house with fluorescent light bulbs. I introduced a bill to promote compact fluorescent light bulbs. If every family in America changed just one bulb, we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 7 million tons per year. There are a lot of little things we can do to make a gigantic change.
JOE BIDEN
interview, Grist
You can learn an awful lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him and seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind, but even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart.
JOE BIDEN
acceptance speech, Aug. 27, 2008
The answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don't look like you or worship the way you do or don't get their news from the same source as you do. We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.
JOE BIDEN
Inaugural Address, January 20, 2021
The fact that our economy is three and a half times as large as the next largest economy and larger than the next four combined does not make us immune from what's happening around the world.
JOE BIDEN
remarks at Entrepreneurship Summit, Dec. 3, 2011
The system wasn't working, and I thought it was time to err on the side of a new model. What might work, I thought, was a system that promoted personal accountability, consistency, and certainty. Congress could say people who committed the same federal crime, under the same circumstances, were going to jail for the same amount of time. We could give judges a narrower set of sentencing guidelines to work with, and felons would be required to pay the same price. We'd be judging the crime, not the person.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep
We still have such a long way to go but today, most Americans now get the challenge we're facing. They believe in science. The issue is important to them and they want their leaders to act on climate, particularly young people, as you said, inspired by the activism of Greta and so many young Americans as well, who are leading on climate.
JOE BIDEN
virtual town hall meeting, April 22, 2020
After 9-11, the President had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead, by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests, President Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.
JOE BIDEN
speech, Jul. 15, 2008
Some of my friends in the current administration have little interest in alliances, international organizations and treaties. There's a logic to their disengagement. They start from the premise that America's military might is the single most important determinant in the international system. Because that might is so much greater than anyone else's they see allies and agreements as more of a burden than a benefit. It's Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians.
JOE BIDEN
speech, Apr. 12, 2005
We can and we must build a more perfect union. Because the American people have seen the alternative.
JOE BIDEN
speech at Houston rally, March 2, 2020
My father had an expression he repeated a thousand times growing up: Every man and woman is entitled to be treated with dignity. Everyone. That's what your new revolution was about: dignity.
JOE BIDEN
remarks to the Ukrainian Rada, December 9, 2015
Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war.
JOE BIDEN
Inaugural Address, January 20, 2021
Democratic revolutions like the ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya -- and the ones still unfolding in Syria and Yemen --are imbued, literally imbued with entrepreneurial spirit, a spirit that requires risk and initiative, steadfast determination, and a unifying idea.... The revolution that gave birth to my own country was inspired by the same desire for freedom and ensured that from its earliest days America has been hard-wired for innovation. Back then, it was pamphleteers like Thomas Paine. Today, it's modern new technologies that connect us in an instant.
JOE BIDEN
remarks at Entrepreneurship Summit, Dec. 3, 2011
Ordinary people given an opportunity are capable of accomplishing extraordinary things.
JOE BIDEN
speech to AFL-CIO union members, April 7, 2020
When seagull droppings landed on my head at a campaign event at Bowers Beach two days before Election Day, I chose to read it as a sign of a coming success.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep
Our military might and economic resources are necessary but not sufficient to lead us into this new century. It is our ideas and ideals that will allow us to exert the kind of leadership that persuades others to follow and to deal effectively with these forces of change.
JOE BIDEN
speech, Apr. 15, 2008
Well, there are a number of lessons to this war. One of the lessons of the war is that when you go into a country that is under a dictatorship, no matter what the underlying makeup of the country is, that it takes an awful long time to be able to help re-establish a circumstance where there's a possibility of a democratic country emerging. And so that's one of the lessons I think everyone has learned.
JOE BIDEN
interview, NPR, Dec. 13, 2011
No matter what, I'm still in this for the same reason, we have to restore the soul of this country, bring back the middle class and make sure we bring people together.
JOE BIDEN
New Hampshire Democratic Debate, February 7, 2020
And by the way, this time when we rebuild the middle class, we got to bring everybody along, everybody along, black, brown, women, men, straight, across the board. The idea that somehow people are just figuring this out kind of surprises me, but everybody's just looking for a shot. No one's looking for a handout. Everybody's looking for just an even shot and they don't feel like they're getting a chance because they're not. They're being left behind. But I promise you, I give you my word as a Biden, I'm going to bring everybody along this time. Everybody along.
JOE BIDEN
Nevada Caucus speech, February 22, 2020