US presidential election

Biden vs Palin: What they said

Article published on the 2008-10-03 Latest update 2008-10-03 12:49 TU

Sarah Palin and Joe Biden
(Photo: Reuters)

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden squared off for 90 minutes, hoping to convince voters on domestic and international politics. Here are some of their comments:

The current financial crisis

Palin: "Let's commit ourselves, just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say 'Never again!' Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars. We need to make sure that we demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings and we need also to not get ourselves in debt."

Biden: "While Barack Obama was talking about reinstating those regulations, John on 20 different occasions in the previous year and a half called for more deregulation. As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health-care industry - deregulate it and let the free market move like he did for the banking industry."

 Climate change

Palin: "There are real changes going on in our climate. And I don't want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts? We have got to clean up this planet. We have got to encourage other nations also to come along with us with the impacts of climate change, what we can do about that."

Biden: "If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is man-made. That's the cause. That's why the polar icecap is melting. Now, let's look at the facts. We have three per cent of the world's oil reserves. We consume 25 per cent of the oil in the world. John McCain has voted 20 times in the last decade and a half against funding alternative energy sources, clean energy sources, wind, solar, biofuels." 

Diplomacy

Palin: "With some of these dictators who hate America and hate what we stand for, with our freedoms, our democracy, our tolerance, our respect for women's rights, those who would try to destroy what we stand for cannot be met with just sitting down on a presidential level as Barack Obama had said he would be willing to do. That is beyond bad judgment. That is dangerous."

Biden: "John McCain said as recently as a couple of weeks ago he wouldn't even sit down with the government of Spain, a Nato ally that has troops in Afghanistan with us now. I find that incredible."

The current Bush administration

Palin: "There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration. But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going."

Biden: "Look, past is prologue. The issue is, how different is John McCain's policy going to be than George Bush's? I haven't heard anything yet."

The people

Biden: "Look, the people in my neighbourhood, they get it. They get it. They know they've been getting the short end of the stick. So walk with me in my neighbourhood, go back to my old neighbourhood in Claymont, an old steel town or go up to Scranton with me. These people know the middle class has gotten the short end. The wealthy have done very well. Corporate America has been rewarded. It's time we change it. Barack Obama will change it."

Palin: "But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights."