drawing: Faces 1851 1851 — The District 11 Democrats 2018 mid-term planning meeting

by Jack Brummet

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Bloopers, hardballs, and just weird political quotations

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- Dan Quayle

"I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again."
 - Bill Clinton

"Look, when I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
- Barack Obama

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
- Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952
"Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening."
–Bill Clinton

"I am convinced that UFOs exist, because I have seen one." (1976)
- Jimmy Carter

"Half the time, when I see the evening news, I wouldn't be for me either." (1995)
- Bill Clinton

"There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one too many. Nixon should get his ass out of the White House today." [in 1974, after some of the more damaging revelations implicating Nixon in Watergate emerged]
- Barry Goldwater (who didn't like Nixon in the first place)

"I'm the only President you've got." (1964)
- LBJ

“Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”
- LBJ
"Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, then outside pissing in." [re: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover]
- LBJ

"So dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." [re: Gerald Ford]
- LBJ

"I don't mind not being President. I just mind that someone else is." (1986)
- Teddy Kennedy

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I wouldn't want to wake up next to a lady pipefitter." (1971 - quoted in Ms. magazine)
- Richard Nixon

"I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall--plead the Fifth Amendment, cover-up, or anything else. If that will save it, save the plan." (1973 - to his subordinates in the White House during Watergate)
- Richard Nixon

"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." (1973 - to the press during Watergate)
- Richard Nixon

"Well, I screwed up real good, didn't I?" (1974 - to Al Haig just before writing his resignation speech)
- Richard Nixon

"When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. But I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in and twisted it with relish. And I guess that if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing." (1977)
-Richard Nixon

"When I first came to Washington, for the first six months I wondered how the hell I ever got here. For the next six months, I wondered how the hell the rest of them ever got here." (1940)
- Harry S. Truman

"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." (1984 - testing a microphone before a radio broadcast)

- Ronald Reagan

"After seeing the movie Rambo, I'll know what to do the next time something like this happens." (1985 - referring to the TWA hostage crisis)
- Ronald Reagan

"I've often wondered, what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer--a power from outer space, from another planet?" (1988)
- Ronald Reagan

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- Dan Quayle

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- Dan Quayle

“Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." [during a September 6, 2004 speech in Poplar Bluff, Missouri]
- George W. Bush
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Farewell to Senator Ted Kennedy

click to enlarge the Senator

Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal icon of the Senate died tonight, after a battle with brain cancer.

Teddy was elected to the Senate while brother John was president, and brother Robert, Attorney General. He ended up serving longer in the Senate than all but two senators. Ever. (Are the other two the late Strom Thurmond and the not late Robert Byrd?)

Namaste to the youngest brother, and thanks for everything you've done. We talk about Bobby and Jack, and rightfully so, but Teddy had forty more years to stir the pot--and he did. He's had his hand in nearly every piece of important social legislation since 1968. Like his brother Bobby, he wasn't an underdog but he came to be a champion of the underdog, the hurting and forgotten, as well as the middle class. He didn't throw many bones to the wealthy. When Ted Kennedy was on, he could give an amazing speech too. When you talk about civil rights, war and peace, and health care, and social security, his name always pops up. I will miss his avuncular and wise presence, and above all, his conscience.
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Sean Penn's Oscar acceptance speech

I know some of my right-leaning friends don't much cotton to Sean Penn for his extra-vehicular, globe-trotting activities. But I love this guy--he's smart, loud, and talented. His personal life has been amusing to watch. Mostly, 'though, his heart is in the right place, and you have to admire someone who Stands Up. I liked his speech.





From Jeff Spicoli to Harvey Milk is a serious leap. . .but with Sean Penn, I like the extremes, and the passages in between.



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Senator Jay Bulworth raps on Money and Obscenity

From the movie, Bulworth, Senator Jay Bulworth's rap on Money and obscenity:

Obscenity? The rich is getting richer and richer and richer
While the middle class is getting more poor
Making billions and billions and billions of bucks
Well my friend if you weren't already rich at the start
Well that situation just sucks
Cause the richest motherf****r in five of us
Is getting ninety f***in' eight percent of it
And every other motherf****r in the world is left to wonder
Where the f*** we went with it
Obscenity? I'm a Senator
I gotta raise $10,000 a day every day I'm in Washington
I ain't getting it in South Central
I'm gettin it in Beverly Hills
So I'm votin for them in the Senate the way they want me too
And-and-and I'm sending them my bills
But we got babies in South Central dying as young as they do in Peru
We got public schools that are nightmares
We got a Congress that ain't got a clue
We got kids with submachine guns
We got militias throwing bombs
We got Bill just gettin all weepy
We got Newt blaming teenage moms
We got factories closing down
Where the hell did all the good jobs go?
Well, I'll tell you where they went
My contributors make more profits makin, makin, makin,
Hirin' kids in Mexico
And a brother can work in fast food
If he can't invent computer games
But what we used to call America
That's going down the drains
How's a young man gonna meet his financial responsibilities
Workin for motherf****n' Burger King?
He ain't! And please don't even start with that school s**t
There aint no education going on up in that motherfucker
Obscenity? We got a million brothers in prison
I mean, the walls are really rockin'
But you can bet your ass they'd all be out
If they could pay for Johnny Cochran
The constitution is supposed to give them an equal chance
Well, that ain't gonna happen for sure
Ain't it time to take a little from the rich motherf****r
And give a little to the poor?
I mean, those boys over there on the monitor
They want a government smaller and weak
But they be speakin for the richest 20 percent
When they pretend they're defendin' the meek
Now, sh*t, f**k, c***sucker, that's the real obscenity
Black folks livin with every day
Trying to believe a mothe****in' word Democrats and Republicans say
Obscenity? I'm Jay Billington Bulworth And I've come to say
The Democratic party's got some s**t to pay
It's gonna pay it in the ghetto
It's gonna pay it in the ghetto.
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Photo: The Contenders - Senators McCain and Obama

Click to enlarge Obama and McCain

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Teddy - We're pulling for you

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The End Of The Line For Senator Clinton?

click hillary to enlarge

If she won only North Carolina or Indiana, Hillary Clinton would probably drop out of the race, or at least so I thought. When I saw sun-burned Bill and the ever-poised (except if you ask about Monica) Chelsea walk on stage at the speech, I was sure she would bow out. But from her first three words, it seemed like she would not. She made a valiant speech, spinning her momentum and thanking all the voters, friends, and hacks that had just helped Obama come within 200 delegates of nailing down the nomination.

Various people--including MSNBC--were reporting last night that Hillary has cancelled her appearance on various television programs tomorrow. She has a huge fundraiser tomorrow night in Washington, D.C. She made a blatant plug for donations to Hillaryclinton.com

Pundits on at least two cable news outlets and dozens of blogs and websites speculated that Hillary was just hanging in another day or two to close out her debts. Her campaign's largest debt by far is, of course, the Five Million Dollars she loaned to the campaign.

It's a tantalizing idea....we let her cash out to drop out.

I'll bet it's happened, but I don't remember a politician holding a major fundraiser and dropping out within the week. It seems kind of greasy doesn't it?
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Obama's Speech: Moral equivalence and white guilt

...click Obama to enlarge...

There is a fascinating editorial in today's Washington Post: "The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud." "His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt. " Charles Krauthammer makes a pretty interesting case for Barack Obama being just another politician of expediency.

I felt like it was a great speech. But was my white guilt merely played like a Stradivarius? A great speech may not be noble, but accomplishes what it set out to do. The polls seem to indicate Obama got a bump from the speech in certain sectors, while he lost ground with the independents. I don't think we'll know for a while because it's not over yet.

Was this the first sign of the cynical, manipulative politician that had to emerge sooner or later? And how will all the new young and African-American voters view that? Does Obama, as a singularly historic figure, get to play by a different set of rules?
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The Press and Mass Hysteria: :::::How far will we descend?:::Watching Senator Clinton's transit and eclipse as the men sweep out the female interloper

click Hillary posing with the ambassador from Trunobulax, to enlarge...

If you follow the Democratic Presidential nomination, you may have seen the swell of articles in the 'papers, Websites/blogs/and news sites, predicting the demise of Hillary Clinton. All of a sudden, the press have descended like the pack of jackals they are (and God bless them BTW). Now her star is falling, and it's open season.

You may have noticed I love politics. . .and hardball, and if you're in the game you have to be able to pitch and hit the hardballs. Beginning with the withdrawal of Senator Joe Biden from the race (really, the only person I could wholeheartedly get behind), I have become extremely dejected. Today, the Drudge Report and other media outlets focused on Hillary's "emotional" statement yesterday: "Senator Hillary Clinton got emotional and had tears in her eyes as she spoke with voters about how hard it is to balance a busy campaign life and her passion for the country's future." Got emotional!? If she had been angry, of course, it would not have been characterized as emotional, but reported something like "Hillary Clinton gives spiritied response to heckler." On the Drudge report main page alone today, these articles all appeared. . .none of which portray Sen. Clinton or her campaign in a favorable light:

HILLARY UNLOADS: YOU'RE NO MARTIN LUTHER KING
HILLARY TEARS IN EYES...
'IT'S NOT EASY'
...VIDEO...
Rivals React...
VIDEO: BILL SAYS HE CAN'T MAKE HILLARY 'YOUNGER, TALLER, MALE'...
...Answers call from wife during speech: 'I love you!'
FLASH: RASMUSSEN South Carolina: Obama 42% Clinton 30%...
NEW HAMPSHIRE 2008...
DIXVILLE NOTCH: First votes counted; Clinton gets none...
WASH POST HILLARY VIDEO: 'FIRED UP AND READY TO BORE'...
VIDEO: 'Iron My Shirt!': Screaming Men Disrupt Clinton Event...
MAG: Clinton campaign faces a 'cash crunch'...
TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGN...
'She did not work this hard to get out after one state! All this talk is nonsense'...
Clinton Fires Back: Obama, Edwards Given 'Free Ride'...

Man, oh man, oh man, oh man. I have read Matt Drudge for years and am able to read him with a good filter. But this is just depressing. Everyone is unloading on Senator Clinton. Yeah, she may have "asked for it" (another allusion that used to be used to explain away rape), and that's life when you're the front runner. Well, she isn't the front runner anymore. And it feels like people are taking advantage of the situation. Now that she's down, it's time to give her a curb stomp. And yet today, her campaign, and perhaps the Senator herself have begun playing the race card: "HILLARY UNLOADS: YOU'RE NO MARTIN LUTHER KING." I thought ganging up on Hillary was depressing. But her campaign's apparent reaction is even more depressing. . .if it can be tracked backed to her strategists. I guess it probably can.

Today, in Dover, Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, said while introducing Mrs. Clinton: “Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually” passed the civil rights legislation. So now, the Senator's camp is playing the race card? This is even more depressing than the rest of the news! And to boot, they toss in the assassination card.

Quoting from the New York Times politics blog:

"Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have been in a running feud arising from her suggestion at Saturday’s debate that he was raising “false hope.”

"Mr. Obama responded that Mr. Kennedy did not decide going to the moon was a false hope and that Martin Luther King, Jr. did not see ending segregation as such.

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Obama’s rejoinder by Fox’s Major Garrett after her speech in Dover. “It took a president to get it done.”

"The Obama campaign declined to comment on either of those remarks."

This has become so disheartening that I have thought of abandoning politics here altogether, skipping the caucus, and maybe even not bothering to vote. That won't happen, but I am sitting here utterly dejected tonight. This has not been a good week. It's rare when I get the blues, but these past few days have trying. A co-worker committed suicide, and now it feels like the political party I have worked for since I doorbelled for Sen. George McGovern in Oregon in 1972 is also committing suicide.

I can live with whoever we finally nominate. I will work for and send money to whoever we nominate, but tonight, I'm not feeling the love; I'm not feeling the passion; what I am feeling is down down down. You may have correctly apprehended that I am a glass half-full person. Tonight I am down to the corners.

The corners is about as obscure a reference as you could possibly find. It isn't even Google-able. Let me explain. Hobos often collected old (capped) liquor bottles. If you hold a lighter to an empty bottle of vodka, gin, bourbon, etc., the residual liquor, say, half an ounce or so, will slowly collect in a corner at the bottom of the bottle. If you have enough bottles, you may even get a buzz. So far this campaign has transmogrified me from a relentless optimist of the glass half-full school to searching for corners.
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Clinton Hints Obama Drug Use::::::maybe Kev was right & I should switch my allegiance to the guy I liked in the first place: Senator Biden

I have, of late, been dodging some the barbs hurled my way by Kev, claiming the Clinton campiagn is coming apart at the seams and devolving into a jumbled one-ring circus of mud-slinging, obfuscation, innuendo, outright prevarication, and cheapjack skullduggery launched like a desperate Hail Mary as the campaign drifts downward in the polls.

Maybe he's right. She may have crossed the line on this one. Maybe it's just hardball, but I don't think so. This one kind of has an air of savage desperation. Remember when they floated ominous and unsubstantiated rumors about something dark in Barack's past? The Associated Press reported from New Hampshire yesterday that the Clinton campaign has once again begun dropping sinister hints about Obama remarkable for their lack of proof and specificity:



"A top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said Wednesday that Democrats should give more thought to Sen. Barack Obama's admissions of illegal drug use before they pick a presidential candidate.

"Obama's campaign said the Clinton people were getting desperate. Clinton's campaign tried to distance itself from the remarks.

"Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman of Clinton's front-runner campaign, raised the issue during an interview with The Washington Post, posted on washingtonpost.com.

"Shaheen, an attorney and veteran organizer, said much of Obama's background is unknown and could be a problem in November 2008 if he is the Democratic nominee. He said the Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth."

Kev would have me switch allegiances to Senator Barack Hussein Obama. I'm not ready for that yet. If I had to vote my heart, my choice would be Senator Joe Biden. But I am a pragmatist, and if Clinton falters I'm not quite sure which way I should turn. Not that it matters much in this heavily front-loaded primary season. By the time my caucuses roll around, the matter will have been decided. All the contestants want from me is a check.


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Obama's Dirty Secret, Part 2

Earlier this week (Obama's Dirty Secret), we talked about the Obama skeleton-in-the-closet rumor allegedly floated by the Clinton campaign. In New Hampshire yesterday, Presidential hopeful Senator Obama told high school students that when he was their age he was experimenting with illegal drugs and drinking alcohol. Admittedly, he wasn't encouraging the kids to follow in his footsteps ("what the hell you doin' sitting in here on a sunny day like this!? When I was your age...").

Obama stopped by a study hall at Manchester Central High School and answered students' questions about the war in Iraq and his education plan.

An adult asked about his time as a student, and Obama said: "I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof-off in high school as my mom reminded me," said the Senator. "You know, I made some bad decisions that I've actually written about. You know, got into drinking. I experimented with drugs," he said.

While Obama has discussed this before, you have to wonder if he wasn't prompted to bring it up one more time after the rumors the Clinton campaign may or may not have floated.
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Barack Obama's Dirty Secret

This didn't take long. The mud is being flung in the 2008 presidential race, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trading sound bytes over rumours of a secret scandal and, now, Republican rivals of Mitt Romney, shocked by his sudden surge, are being forced to deny they are behind a nasty push-poll attack on his Mormon faith.

It is the Hillary/Obama tilt that is most fascinating, of course, since it looks like they have the most to lose. There has yet to be any speculation on exactly what skeleton may or may not be in Obama's closet. But we can guess, can't we? It has to be cocaine or pot, an affair (with either a man or woman), or some sort of payoff or bribe. Anything else can almost be laughed off. Hillary's camp, of course, can deny any involvement.

Obama can whine about the politics of personal destruction or that he is being "swift-boated." But in the end, he takes on a little water doesn't he? And his pathetic performance in the last debate doesn't help. Coming out of the previous debate, he had Senator Clinton on the run. But his answers to the (red herring) question on driver's licenses for illegals made him look like just like one of the boys. He couldn't give a straight answer.

Suddenly, Barack Obama has to deal with these vaguely alluded to personal scandals, without the benefit of an accuser. . .or even a specific charge against him! He has to deny unspecified transgressions, or go on the counterattack. However, it is hard to counterattack when your accuser denies ever floating the rumors. Yesterday, Obama demanded the Clinton campaign--or anyone at all--bring the charges out into the light of day. Remember when Senator Gary Hart dared reporters to air the charges against him? About two days later all we saw were pictures of him with Donna Rice on his aptly named boat, The Monkey Business. It will be interesting to see if this imbroglio fades away or picks up steam.
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Obama vows to hector Senator Clinton to the very end

In an interview in Ohio with the New York Times, Senator Barack Obama says he will now begin hectoring Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more forcefully. He told the reporter that she had not been candid describing her views on critical issues. Obama is desperately trying to convince his spooked supporters that his lack of assertiveness can be overcome and that her domination of the presidential race is merely temporary/

Obama’s vow to go on the attack comes just over two months before the first votes for the Democratic nomination. This vow follows lame showing previously this year, where has not exhibited the aggressiveness demanded by presidential politics and has so far allowed Hillary to storm to the top of the rockpile.

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Gingrich: 80/20 The Dems will win

According to an interview Newt Gingrich had with the National Journal, the Republican's goose is cooked. Read the full article in the National Journal here.

Q: You said fairly recently that the Democrats had a very high likelihood of winning the presidency next year.

Gingrich: I think that the country, after the last couple of years, has a bias in favor of change -- I think probably starting with [Hurricane] Katrina and coming through Baghdad and the whole sense of too much spending. And you sense a lack of enthusiasm in the conservative base, and you sense a stunning level of intensity in the anti-war Left. And so you just look at the dynamics and you have to say the odds are probably 80-20 [in the Democrats' favor].
Q: 80-20?

Gingrich: Yeah. That's my guess. Now, it could change. If you had a [Republican] candidate who could break out and who could say, "Obviously, we need to change pretty dramatically, and the party of trial lawyers, public employee unions, [and] left-wing ideologues probably can't change,"


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John Edwards rips into Ann Coulter, she-devil

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: "Former Sen. John Edwards on Friday fired the latest round in his ongoing verbal feud with Ann Coulter, calling her a "she-devil" at a public event before quickly adding that he shouldn't engage in name-calling.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Edwards was 0n a rant against the right-wing media and reminded a crowd in Burlington, Iowa, that his wife called Coulter out earlier this summer.

"We know these people. We know their game plan. They're going to attack us personally," former Senator Edwards said. "They attacked Elizabeth personally, because she stood up to that she-devil Ann Coulter. … I should not have name-called. But the truth is -- forget the names -- people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language."

In June, on ABC's Good Morning America, Coulter said she had learned her lesson after being attacked and villified for suggesting that Edwards was a "faggot." "If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot," Coulter said.

Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, later called in to call in to Chris Matthew's Hardball and challenged Coulter directly. "I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely to stop the personal attacks," Mrs. Edwards said. Coulter was flummoxed and did a few Jackie Gleason-style homina hominas before sputtering out altogether. . .

Some recent Ann Coulter posts on All This Is That:"

Caption of the week: "Coulter's Ugly Crack"

Ann Coulter calls Presidential Candidate Edwards A "Faggot" & Howard Dean Fights Back

Ann Coulter: Justice John Paul Stevens Should Be Poisoned

Ann Coulter Says POTUS Picked The Wrong Guy

$25,000 Worth of Ann Coulter

Heroes And Villains No. 49--> Mario Cuomo & Ann Coulter

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Photograph: Jack & Bobby Kennedy deep in conversation

click Jack and Bobby to enlarge
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Hillary Clinton and John Edwards caught on a live mike scheming how to eliminate some of their opponents from debates

I always love these "hot mike" incidents on the campaign trail! In this case, however, it was probably not a hot mike, but a shotgun mike trained on them from some distance away. . .by our good friends at Fox "News." An A.P. story gives a few more details.

Democrats John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton were caught yesterday by Fox News microphones discussing a plan to limit future joint appearances and cut out some of whom they consider to be lesser rivals and also-rans.

Edwards: "We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group."
Clinton: "We've got to cut the number" and "they're not serious."

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Go, Al, Go!:::::::::::Al Franken swamps his senate competition in fund-raising

Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken raised almost $2 million in the recent reporting period, according to the Associates Press, and pulled in more money either his Democratic rival or the Republican incumbent, Senator Norm Coleman.

Franken, the comedian-turned-writer-turned-talk show host-turned-candidate, announced yesterday that he raised $1.9 million in the second quarter of the year. The incumbent said he raised about $1.6 million in the period, and Democrat Mike Ciresi, a pathetic $750,000.

"It's unusual for a challenger to have this kind of quarter," Steven S. Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis told the wire service, "It is a very impressive showing."

Once again, this is going to be a fun election. . .

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Tough Talking Joe Biden!

click to enlarge

According to the New York Times, Joe Biden unloaded on the President yesterday. Now, if Cindy Sheehan had said it, I wouldn't like it. But Smilin' Joe. . .bring it on!

In Des Moines, Iowa at a campaign event, Senator Biden had some choice words for President Bush.

“This guy is brain dead,” Mr. Biden said to surprised applause and laughter from the crowd. “I know I’ll be quoted, I’ll be killed for that.”

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