Diary Contest - Who's Your Favourite Presidential Candidate

We do hear a lot from the campaigns and their staff why their candidate is the best and why we should support them.

But what about you?

Who do you like? Who is your favourite Democratic presidential candidate? During the month of August we're looking to hear from you. Tell us why you like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, or Bill Richardson.

All you have to do is register at My Silver State (if you have not already done so), log in and click "new diary" on the menu in the right sidebar. Writing a diary is relatively easy. All you have to do is type what you have to say, click preview and, if it looks okay, publish it. So even if you haven't done this before you shouldn't need to worry about that.

The rules are simple: you can remain anonymous or not, that is totally up to you, but we do limit this diary contest to Nevada residents. So please state in which city or county you live.

The best diaries will be promoted to the frontpage. Even though My Silver State only got started about three weeks ago, we already have a little less than 1,000 visitors per week with about 2,000 page loads. So at least several hundred visitors, if not more, will get to read what you have to say. You can write your diary in any way that you like. It's totally up to you. We just ask you to refrain from attacking other candidates. We want to hear what is good about your candidate, not what is bad about the others.

Get to work! Promote your candidate!

The Most Ridiculous Fundraising Email Ever

When one is on the email list of a presidential candidate (or in my case of every presidential candidate) one has to bare a lot of b.s. mails, especially at the end of quarter when all the fundraising mails are sent out.

One tries to take it in stride. However that is not always possible. Here is the most ludicrous, ridiculous, idiotic fundraising email yet:

Looking for another reason to support Joe Biden for President? We promise that during a Biden Administration, Dick Cheney will not be a member of the EXECUTIVE OR LEGISLATIVE branch of government.

Support Joe Biden for President. There's one day left before the second quarter filing deadline.
Make a contribution by midnight Saturday.

Good Lord!

Bill Richardson Now Has The Best Campaign Website - Hands Down

Bill Richardson has the impressive resume and - with his official declaration to run for president today - he has a website to match his resume.

Looking at the websites of the all eight candidates Richardson's is the best - hands down. There are several reasons for this.

Let me go into detail:

Navigation: Richardson's website is easy to navigate, when you click through the top bar you get all the information you need, above the bar is a box to register for email updates, the action center is clearly highlighted on the left hand side and there's a welcome video on the right hand side. When you scroll further down you get a more detailed look at news, blog entries, issues, etc, all the information you could also find by clicking the top bar. The only additional information you wouldn't find in the top bar are the links to PartyBuilder, MySpace, etc. That's how it should be. You should have a clear overview of the site without having to scroll down. Only on the third look does the website seem a little crowded. But just a little.

The other websites are equally easy to navigate, especially Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and Biden, to a lesser degree Kucinich, Dodd, and Gravel.

Information: Couldn't be better. You can find it all by navigating the top bar. Say, you're looking for his stance on Iraq, you go to issues, click on Iraq and get quite a bit of information. In addition to his stance on Iraq you can download a two page flyer and find related news and press releases.

The other websites are not as good as Richardson's. Hillary has a video in addition to her stance , at Obama's site you can submit your ideas. Edwards' issues page is disappointing. He has one paragraph on "Restoring America's Moral Leadership in the World" and that's it. I only found his plan on Iraq by looking at the frontpage again. I don't understand why they can't link to it from their issues page. Dodd doesn't have an issues page. But there's a link to his Iraq stance clearly visible on the frontpage. What you get is a video with his remarks on Iraq and a transcript. On Gravel's website issues are front and center with Iraq on the top. He writes only a couple of paragraphs on it - but more than Edwards. At Kucinich's site Iraq is one of the top issues and is incorporated into the "International Cooperation" page. On the sidebar you'll find related stories and forum topics. The only one who can compete, at least on the Iraq issue - I didn't look at the other issue pages, is Joe Biden. He has a detailed plan for Iraq and a seperate website devoted to his plan.

Networking: Thus far Obama had the best networking site, and only true networking site in my opinion, of all the candidates. Hillary's action center is not the real thing as networking between supporters (like personal blogs and messaging system) is not taking place. Edwards has a community blog and his One Corps site. Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel have a forum and Dodd and Biden don't have any form of networking at all - apart from writing comments on their blog posts.

Richardson's web team seems to have taken a look at all the other websites and must have wondered "what more can we do" as I would say their networking site now beats that of Obama. Their Action Center seems to be modeled on the same platform as My.BarackObama.com and the Democratic Party's PartyBuilder and the same functions. The only additional function on Richardson's network that Obama doesn't have (but PartyBuilder does) is that you can write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

External networking sites: Most campaigns are using them, so we're looking at two things here: a) are they linking to the networking sites directly from their frontpage and b) are they linking to the Democratic Party's PartyBuilder.

Richardson does both a) and b) - as does Obama. All the other candidates don't.

Hillary, Biden, Kucinich, and Edwards link to external networking sites, though not to PartyBuilder, Dodd and Gravel make you find their links but they don't link to PartyBuilder either. Which is a shame. As I said before it runs on the same platform as Obama's and Richardson's networking sites and is a great tool, both to enhance their own network and to build a network for Democrats in general. PartyBuilder provides an extra page for presidential candidates and links to their profiles. I did a little test to see how candidates use this tool and added them to my friends network. They added me in the following order: Kucinich, Gravel, Obama, Biden, Richardson. After more than a week still no reaction from Hillary, Edwards and Dodd which I find surprising considering their resources.

I've also set up Nevada groups for all campaigns:

Nevada for Barack Obama
Nevada for Bill Richardson
Nevada for Chris Dodd
Nevada for Dennis Kucinich
Nevada for Hillary Clinton
Nevada for Joe Biden
Nevada for John Edwards
Nevada for Mike Gravel

Nevada: Speaking of Nevada, how much do the campaigns currently care about the Silver State? I'm not gonna talk about their appearances in Nevada right now, nor about their campaign infrastructure in the state but only about their web presence.

People always say Richardson needs to win or do extremely well in Nevada to stand any chance in the primaries. Not surprisingly, Richardson's Nevada page is the best among all presidential candidates. You'll find links to the Action Center, Nevada related news, press releases, video, and photo gallery. The same applies to the other state pages (Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina).

Dennis Kucinich is the only other candidate to have a Nevada page. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since March. Obama, Hillary, and Edwards are still in the old New Hampshire and Iowa mode, as they currently only have state sites for these two. I couldn't find any state specific pages at Dodd's, Gravel's, and Biden's websites.

Overall, Richardson has today launched a website that's ahead of the pack and his rivals will have some catching up to do, some more, some not that much.

Please note: this is not an endorsement of Richardson on my part. This is an analysis of his website compared to those of other candidates and does not reflect my preferences for the primaries.

Does Obama Even Care About Nevada?

While Obama volunteers in Nevada are busy and doing one "Obama walk" after the other (even in Elko), Obama himself doesn't seem to care too much about Nevada.

At least he hasn't been to the state too much. After he missed out on the AFSCME forum in Carson City one would have thought that he'd make that up by traveling to Northern Nevada soon after. Yet, three months later, and nothing happened. Obama's been a total of two times in Nevada, both times in Las Vegas. He ranks at the bottom of the list of candidates:

Richardson: 14
Dodd: 7
Edwards: 5
Biden: 4
Clinton: 4
Kucinich: 4
Gravel: 3
Obama: 2

(numbers via MyDD, via Washington Post)

Obama was on top of the list in primary contributions in the first quarter and the two men with the least money managed to travel to Nevada more often than he did? Are you serious?

All I can decypher from this is the following: currently Senator Obama is not seriously competing in Nevada. If he wants to compete here, he needs to visit and talk to the voters. He really has to make up some ground. So it better be a real visit and not just a quick stop in Reno on the way to another California fundraiser. Otherwise he might just surrender Nevada to either Hillary or Edwards who have both been to Northern Nevada more than once.

Join "Nevada for" Groups at PartyBuilder!

The Democratic Party's PartyBuider social networking site has thus far not been extensively used by presidential candidates - which is surprising when you consider that it doesn't cost anything.

Anyhow, if you're a supporter of one of the eight presidential candidates you can now join the respective group on PartyBuilder:

Nevada for Barack Obama

Nevada for Bill Richardson

Nevada for Chris Dodd

Nevada for Dennis Kucinich

Nevada for Hillary Clinton

Nevada for Joe Biden

Nevada for John Edwards

Nevada for Mike Gravel

Join today and start networking!

LVRJ Reports on Joe Biden's Visit to Las Vegas

Joe Biden was in Vegas over the weekend and Molly Ball wrote a report for the Las Vegas Review Journal with the main focus on Iraq.

The article closes with the reaction of one participant:

Jerry Johnson, a 58-year-old Clark County employee, said he didn't come to Saturday night's reception expecting to be impressed with Biden.

"He's very confident and he's in it to win," Johnson said after hearing Biden speak. "I didn't think he had a chance. But with his confidence and his experience, now I think it's a possibility."

Johnson said he is undecided about whom he will support.

Read the entire article here.

Meet Joe Biden in Las Vegas on April 21

Joe Biden will be in Las Vegas this Saturday:

Meet and Greet Reception with United States Senator and Presidential Candidate Joseph R. Biden

Saturday, April 21, 2007

5:00pm - 6:00pm

Miranda 7 Room in the Pavilion

Rio Hotel, Las Vegas

Please RSVP to Omar or Ronni at 702-449-4569 or Omar@JoeBiden.com

Clinton Leads in New Zogby Nevada Poll

Zogby released a poll today of 500 likely Nevada Democratic caucus-goers conducted April 11-12 with a margin of error of +/- 4.5%.

Hillary Clinton leads the crowd with 35%, followed by Obama (21%) and Edwards (19%). Richardson has 5% and Biden 2%. Dodd, Gravel, and Kucinich register below 1%. Zogby himself states the obvious:

Their leads track what is happening nationally in polling, perhaps a reflection of name identification, as candidates just begin their efforts to build campaigns in Nevada, which has moved near the front of the line in the state–by–state presidential sweepstakes and represents uncharted waters for the 2008 election process.

So, it's basically up to the candidates. If they wanna catch up to Clinton, they need to come to Nevada and meet the voters. Dodd's working on that tonight and tomorrow. This becomes rather obvious when you look at the Zogby numbers for New Hampshire and Iowa. Obama and Edwards are just 6 points behind Clinton in New Hamphire and Edwards leads Clinton and Obama in Iowa.

One thing to keep in mind: no one really knows who will go to the caucus. No one. Caucus polling is difficult enough in Iowa where Dean and Gephardt led the polls in December 2003 only to lose heavily to Kerry and Edwards one month later.

I'll continue posting all the poll results. At the same time, I'm sticking with what I've said before: they're mostly worthless.

It's all about the Benjamins

So, the numbers have come out. It's all still a little bit sketchy, that's why I'm waiting for April 15th by which date all donations will be public. It'll be interesting to see how the candidates did in Nevada. Here's the picture so far, courtesy of Jerome Armstrong at MyDD:

          1Q(internet) General  Senate  Available  COH      Donors

Clinton    $26M (4.2)   $6M      $10M    $30M                50,000
Obama      $25M (6.9)   $1.5M            $23.5M             100,000
Edwards    $14M (3.3)   $1M              $13M                40,000  
Dodd       $4M                   $5M     $9M        $7.5M
Richardson $6M                           $6M        $5M
Biden      $3M                           $1M

Most interesting to note is that Obama is the clear winner here, having the biggest appeal to donors. He actually has more donors than Hillary and Edwards combined. He also raised it all by himself, without any big prior infrastructure which was available to both Hillary and Edwards and he managed to outraise Hillary in the primary money race, even though she had the aid of Bill Clinton.

In the second tier, Bill Richardson is establishing himself more and more as leading the PAC and being the only one who could break into the first tier. Both Dodd's and Biden's fundraising numbers for this quarter seem rather unimpressive.

Now that they've got the money to spend, let's see how much of that they will spend to woo Nevada voters.

March 31st Deadline

The candidates are spewing out e-mails this week like their life depended on it - well, their candidacies might. It's contributions week. Nothing else counts. Everyone's playing the expectations game everywhere. It can drive you crazy.

So, Nevada Caucus 2008 makes it really easy for you. On the sidebar you'll find the list of all eight candidates. You can simply enter the amount you wish to contribute to your favourite candidate, then click on the "Contribute" button and fill in the rest. Alternatively, you can go directly to the Nevada Caucus 2008 ActBlue page. The money goes to the candidates, I get zilch.

The SEIU Health Care Forum in Las Vegas: Polls, Webcast and More

In preparation for the health care forum in Las Vegas today, hosted by the SEIU and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a conference call for reporters and bloggers was held earlier this week. During this call Andy Stern of the SEIU and John Podesta, former Chief of Staff of President Bill Clinton and now head of the Center for American Progress, outlined their thoughts on the upcoming forum and on how best to achieve universal health care.

Andy Stern stressed that a solution to the health care crisis is in everybody's interest as "American business will pay more for health care they make in profit" this year. Therfore, this presidential campaign should be about the issues, not about "glitz and glamour."

John Podesta noted his "battle scars" from 1994 when he worked in the White House during the Clinton's effort to achieve universal health care. He noted that the ranks of the uninsured are rising and that there are now 7 million more uninsured than in 2000. He sees today's forum as "a critical next step" saying that he has "high hopes that what happens in Las Vegas will leave Las Vegas and set the tone for the presidential campaign."

Also on the call was Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners who conducted a poll in the four early primary and caucus states regarding health care. The poll asked 400 voters in each state about their attitude towards health care. While the overall picture did look pretty good for universal health care, I was a little disturbed by the sample. 400 voters in one state is not the best sample and when you break it down into half Democrats and half Republicans, the margin of error is just insane.

Nonetheless, here are some numbers from Nevada:

Thinking specifically about the economy, what are you personally worried about the most?

Rising health care costs 39%
Higher taxes 23%
Secure Retirement 19%

The 225 million dollars a day being spent in Iraq would be better spent investing in affordable health care for every American here at home.

Strongly agree 48%
Not strongly agree 19%
Not strongly disagree 12%
Strongly disagree 18%

Who do you think would be the BEST president on the issue of health care?

Hillary Clinton 34%
John Edwards 16%
Barack Obama 9%
Bill Richardson 4%
Dennis Kucinich 0%
Chris Dodd 2%
Joe Biden 0%
Mike Gravel 0%

Now, please note that they're just asking who would be best on health care. Clearly, Hillary has an edge here both because of name recognition and because of her work on health care during the Clinton presidency.

What I found really disturbing about these numbers though, was that 50% of the respondents were 65 or older. How representative are numbers when you have a sample of only 5% below 40 years of age? And it really made me wonder how representative other poll numbers are that do not publish the age range of respondents.

Anyhow, I'm very much looking forward to this forum, as it will hopefully force the candidates to take a stand beyond "I'm for health coverage for all" and maybe they'll even tell us how they plan to achieve it.

You can view the live webcast of the health care forum over at Think Progress starting at 9am PT/noon ET.

Biden Apparently Not for Universal Health Care

Well, I think I've finally figured out why Biden, officially citing family obligations, will not take part in the SEIU health care forum in Las Vegas on Saturday. From a Q&A with the Las Vegas Sun:

How would you deal with the nation's health care crisis?

I would move immediately to insure all children under age 18, modernize medical records and provide catastrophic health insurance to lift the burden on the 46 million people who can't afford coverage.

I would also encourage states to move toward total health care coverage, and I'd have the federal government give them much more leeway in underwriting the cost. The way to get a national consensus for a major health care policy is to cherry pick the best ideas from the dozens of states doing their own.

What happened to "universal health care?" It's what everybody in the Democratic field of candidates is talking about. Mysteriously, Biden chooses not to use this term. Does that mean he would not want to insure every American while he is in office? While providing insurance for all children and providing "catastrophic health insurance" (whatever that is supposed to mean) might sound like a good start and surely is better than the status quo it just sounds so safe, one has to wonder why Biden is even running for President. When you are not willing to lead on an issue and be bold about it you might want to reconsider your candidacy.

Therefore, I'm just not at all surprised he's skipping the health care forum this Saturday. I doubt the SEIU audience would have cheered him with this overtly safe, completely undaring position not worthy of a Democratic presidential candidate.

PS: After ranting my head off, I thought I'd better verify that he's not for universal heath care. So, I've just looked up his official position on health care on his website. It's pretty apparent he's really just not for universal health care. He wants to make sure that people have "access" but that's pretty much it. Here's his entire position:

Health Care

Joe Biden believes that to protect jobs, compete in a global economy and strengthen families we have to have to address out-dated health care system. The next president will have to deal with two challenges: containing the growing costs of health care and providing access to the 47 million Americans who don't have health insurance.

Joe Biden believes we need to take three steps to contain the cost of health care: modernize the system, simplify the system and reduce errors. He supports the transition to secure electronic records so that people can provide their doctors and nurses with vital medical information in real time. He believes there should be a uniform, efficient system to submit claims.

Joe Biden believes the path toward a 21st century health care system starts with the most vulnerable in our society. He would expand health insurance for children and relieve families and businesses of the burden of expensive catastrophic cases. He supports states that are pursuing innovative alternatives to make sure that everyone has access to health care and believes we should use data from these states to evaluate what works best in providing affordable access to health care for all.

What a disappointment.

Presidential Candidates' Statements on Elizabeth Edwards

As everyone else I was saddened to hear that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer has returned and is, while treatable, apparently not curable. My thoughts and prayers are with one of the most wonderful and inspiring women in public life and her family.

So far, four Democratic presidential campaigns have published statements on the frontpages of their campaign website.

Hillary Clinton:

Elizabeth is a wonderful, strong individual and my thoughts and prayers are with her, John, and their children during this difficult time. I admire her optimism and strength in the face of adversity, and I look forward to seeing them both on the campaign trail.

Barack Obama:

Today, Michelle and I join every American in sending our thoughts and prayers to Elizabeth and John and the entire Edwards family. We all admire Elizabeth's strength and determination and the deep love they so obviously share.

Elizabeth Kucinich:

Dennis and I wish Elizabeth and John Edwards and their family the very best as Mrs. Edwards continues her courageous battle with cancer.

She has shown true strength and dignity in addressing this disease. We admire her courage and her spirit.

We are confident that Mrs. Edwards will continue to play a vigorous role in this campaign.

I look forward to seeing her on the campaign trail as she and I and our husbands all work towards our visions for building a better America.

Bill Richardson:

Barbara and I send our thoughts and prayers to Elizabeth and John as they deal with this latest challenge. Elizabeth has been an inspiration and role model to all of us with her courageous and very public fight against breast cancer.

I am hopeful and optimistic that Elizabeth will continue to win her fight. In the meantime, we should all redouble our commitment to supporting efforts to find a cure for breast cancer.

Update:

Chris Dodd:

Jackie and I wish Elizabeth, John and the entire Edwards family the best during this difficult time and throughout Elizabeth's treatment process. Our prayers are with all of them.

Joe Biden:

I am truly sorry to learn that Elizabeth Edwards has had a recurrence of her cancer. However, I am pleased to hear that Elizabeth and John are optimistic and moving forward. Elizabeth, John and their children are in our thoughts and prayers.

On Biden Cancelling his Carson City Apperances Yesterday

So, Senator Biden's gamble didn't quite work. He figured, he could skip the SEIU forum in Las Vegas on Saturday (official reason: family obligations) and yet get press attention by coming to Carson City on Wednesday. Yesterday, he cancelled on short notice due to "important votes in the Senate."

While that is all valid and fine, here's the problem:

Biden has a day job (as do five other candidates). He's a Senator and therefore, when the Senate is in session, he should be in DC, and not toodling around on the campaign trail. As we're still more than nine months away from the primaries and caucuses, Biden (and Dodd, Hillary, Obama, Kucinich and Richardson) should show the voters how serious they are about wanting to be President, by actually doing their day job and only campaigning when their work schedules permit, meaning mostly weekends.

Now, I was a little curious and counted the numbers of votes missed by the four current Democratic Senators running out of 88 votes since January:

Biden: 22
Dodd: 22
Obama: 3
Hillary: 2

(comparison: McCain: 25, with Brownback and Hagel also frequently absent)

Biden and Dodd (as long as they haven't been sick or didn't have some serious family business to attend to) should either resign, so they can run full-time, or should resume their day job. Being absent 25% of the time from your day job while running for President is simply inexcusable.

So, it actually did bode well for Sen. Biden that he chose to stay in Washington last night. Otherwise his absenteeism rate would have jumped by another couple of votes.

Biden in Carson City on Wednesday

While Sen. Joe Biden is not attending the SEIU forum on health care in Las Vegas this weekend. However, he seems to have liked visiting Carson City for the AFSCME forum last month so much that he's returning to Nevada's capital city tomorrow:

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking the presidential nomination, will speak in Carson City this week, his campaign announced Monday.

Biden is the only Democratic presidential candidate not scheduled to attend Saturday's forum on health care in Las Vegas. But he will make two speeches in the state capital on Wednesday, according to the campaign.

The five-term Delaware senator is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. at the legislative conference of the Nevada AFL-CIO at the Carson Nugget. Then at 7:45 p.m., he will speak to the Carson City Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Presidential Series, at the Silver Oak Golf Club.

Saturday's forum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas will feature Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Chris Dodd, former Sen. John Edwards, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The forum is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Most Dem. Candidates to Attend Health Care Forum in Vegas 3/24

The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) give Nevada its second presidential forum. And it's only March.

"New Leadership on Health Care: A Presidential Forum" will take place on Saturday, March 24th in Las Vegas. Since it will solely focus on one issue it will be more difficult for candidates to be vague on what they plan to achieve. Well, that's at least what one can hope.

Even though this forum is open to Democratic and Republican candidates, thus far only Democrats have confirmed:

• Senator Hillary Clinton (NY)
• Senator John Edwards (NC)
• Senator Mike Gravel (AK)
• Representative Dennis Kucinich (OH)
• Senator Barack Obama (IL)
• Governor Bill Richardson (NM)

Gov. Vilsack had also confirmed - before he dropped out of the race. The only declared Democratic candidates missing are Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. But with everyone else planning to attend I'd be surprised should they choose to skip this forum. After Obama didn't attend the AFSCME Forum in Carson City last month it will be interesting to see how the crowd at this forum will react to him vs. Hillary and Edwards.

The details:

New Leadership on Health Care: A Presidential Forum

March 24, 2007
From: 09:30 AM until 01:00 PM

Address:

UNLV's Cox Pavilion
4505 S. Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154
(Cox Pavilion is located at Swenson and Tropicana)

UPDATE: Dodd will also attend, according to a SEIU press release. That only leaves Biden unconfirmed.

AFSCME Forum - Roundup

I had some problems with the livestream at C-Span from time to time but other than that I must say that I was positively surprised by today's forum.

First of all, I really liked the format. I've seen my share of debates and most of them sucked. Even though there were 600 people in the audience the setting came across as quite intimate. 10-15 minutes for each candidate by himself was quite a good idea to get acquainted with all the candidates.

Generally, I was surprised by the quality of the field. We have a wide variety of qualified candidates. And even the ones that are not taken seriously are still interesting and have something to say. Two of the frontrunners, Edwards and Hillary, pretty much performed as expected though Edwards was better than Hillary.

Because of livestream problems at the beginning I didn't catch too much of Dodd but it seemed like he did really well and got a great response from the audience. Other than that I was quite impressed by Bill Richardson and also Joe Biden who came across as the most qualified candidates. Finally Kucinich and Gravel rounded things up and didn't disappoint. I don't know if either should be president but I'd definitely like to see more of them in politics.

All in all, it's gonna be a fun year - and a much better and more interesting primary campaign than 2004.

PS: Oh, yeah, Obama wasn't there. He chose to spend the day in Iowa. After watching the forum I must say that that was probably not the smartest move. Though he did get the endorsement of former Senate leader Tom Daschle today.

Biden: "Sign me up for the Pledge"

"Ask the next person who tells you, let's get out of Iraq: What next? What next?"

Biden puts a lot of emphasis on his plan to get out of Iraq and especially what happens after that. He sure knows his stuff, no arguing about that.

Question by an AFSCME member about No Child Left Behind. Biden talks about his wife, who's a teacher. Says the program is underfunded, calls for smaller classes, wants to get the best students out of college as teachers but "we gotta pay them". Talks about 400,000 kids who qualified to go to college last year and didn't get to go.

All in all, he exceeded my expectations. Maybe that is because a lot of people (bloggers and pundits) were talking him down.

Liveblogging the AFSCME Forum Today

I intend on liveblogging the AFSCME forum in Carson City later today. Fortunately, the forum will be broadcast live on C-Span and will also be available as a livestream on the websites of C-Span and ABC News. This way I'll actually be able to watch it from Germany.

The forum itself will take place at 12noon pacific in the following format:

Candidates confirmed to attend, as of publication, in order of appearance at the forum:
(as determined by lottery)
United States Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT
United States Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, D-IA
Former United States Senator John Edwards, D-NC
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, D-NM
United States Senator Joe Biden, D-DE
United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-OH
Former United States Senator Mike Gravel, D-AK

The forum layout and rules (as determined by AFSCME)

At 2:45 am EST all the candidates attending have been invited to attend a group photo and video on then the forum stage. Following the photo the forum will begin with remarks from United States Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), AFSCME president Gerald McEntee and Nevada State Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley.

After the introduction and welcome, each candidate will take the stage individually:
- The candidate will give 2:00 minute opening remarks
- The candidate will answer three questions. Two from George Stephanopoulos and one submitted by AFSCME the order of questions is up to the moderator.
- The candidate has no more than 3:00 minutes to answer each question.
- The candidate has 1:00 minute to make closing remarks
- There will be a count-down clock visible to both the guest and moderator during each segment.

Biden: "I want to see Nevada blue"

Joe Biden started his three day campaign swing through Northern Nevada last night at a fundraiser for the Washoe County Democratic Party in Reno.

He made his case to the audience why they should for him in the Nevada Caucus next January and hit it off quite well:

"The president has criticized those of us who have led the effort against his escalation as saying we're emboldening the enemy," said Biden, 64 and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Well, let me tell you something, Mr. President, it is not the American people and Joe Biden and the United State Senate that are emboldening the enemy. It's your failed policies that are emboldening the enemy.

"It's the only mission this president has accomplished in Iraq -- to embolden the enemy."

Biden also reiterated why Nevada is important for the upcoming presidential election:

Biden said Nevada is going to be vital in determining the Democratic nominee for president.

"It's going to determine in large part who the nominee is going to be," he said. "You're one of four contests right up front, and I think the combination of those contests is going to determine the nominee.

"Secondly, Nevada is a winnable state (for Democrats), so you're going to see a lot of us."

Nevada went to Bush by narrow margins in 2000 and 2004.

"I want to see Nevada blue," he said to cheers from the crowd, referring to the Democratic color designation for states.

There was also a blogger among the audience. Chip at Nevada Dem writes:

At the end of the evening, I could imagine Joe Biden as President, a good President at that given the huge challenge the next President will have cleaning up the diplomatic mess left by our current President. But the more overwhelming sense was that Senator Biden will be perhaps the most helpful voice on foreign relations advising the next Democratic President. He already occupies the position from which he can best serve America.

Today, Joe Biden will be in Carson City and Reno:

Tuesday February 20th, 2007

9:45 AM

Sen. Biden will speak to the Carson City Democratic Party
Comma Coffee
312 South Carson Street
Carson City, NV

7:00 PM

Sen. Biden will speak to the Nevada Committee on Foreign Relations
Topic: Iraq’s Future and America’s Interest
Jot Travis Student Union Pine Lounge
University of Nevada-Reno
Reno, NV