Joe Biden Likes our Aspirational Style | Bernie Sanders
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New York Times, "BIDEN LOOKS BACK, ASPIRATIONS INTACT", Thursday, April 21, 2016 ~ PRAISE FOR SANDERS
- Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., center, at the Oval Office this month.
He remains neutral in the battle between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but not between their campaign styles.
*He’ll take Mr. Sanders’s aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton’s caution any day.
Having passed on the 2016 presidential race, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. watches the fight for the Democratic nomination with a mixture of longing and restlessness. He remains neutral in the battle between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but not between their campaign styles. *He’ll take Mr. Sanders’s aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton’s caution any day.* “I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” Mr. Biden said in an interview on the Washington-to-Wilmington, Del., Amtrak train he has ridden throughout four decades in national politics. “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big — we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic,’ ” he said in a mocking tone. “C’mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I’m not part of the party that says, ‘Well, we can’t do it.’ ”
...Pointing to the financial crisis, the Great Recession and fierce battles with Republicans over health care and government funding, Mr. Biden said, “We had about eight atom bombs dropped on our desk.”
*Yet he likes the idea that Mr. Sanders is aiming high, regardless of whether the large steps he envisions to narrow INCOME INEQUALITY and broaden economic opportunity become realized in the next presidential term. The philosophy Mr. Biden has advocated within the Obama White House: Push for a lot, and persevere over the long run.
*“Presidents have always been told by really smart people: ‘Don’t push something that you can’t succeed in-- it diminishes your power,’ ” he said. “I completely disagree with that proposition. “Everything I’ve ever cared about — with the exception of the president’s brilliant passage of the Affordable Care Act -- takes time,” he added.
*“The only way to get these big things done is talk about them.”
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/us/politics/biden-looks-back-aspirations-intact.html?_r=0
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