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Posted: December 7, 2007 4:00 PM
Underdog Biden Revving up in Iowa
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Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., returns to Iowa Friday for the second time this month after three trips to the Hawkeye State in November. With Iowa’s caucus just 28 days away and no single leading candidate among the Democratic presidential contenders, Biden’s team is gearing up for a major campaign blitz in hopes of pushing ahead in the final stretch.

The campaign is aiming to finish in at least third or a near fourth place in the Iowa caucus in order to stay in the presidential race. And, looking at Biden’s growing list of state endorsements, his chances may be improving.

By the end of November, Biden received 14 legislative endorsements in Iowa — just trailing Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., campaign spokesperson Mark Paustenbach said. Furthermore, more than 50 local leaders and Democratic party activists have endorsed Biden for president, revealing “the grassroots energy behind Sen. Biden that’s spreading across Iowa. We look forward to their help in building toward a successful caucus day,” political director Danny O’Brien said Wednesday in a press statement.

Staffers also said the campaign is planning a serious TV ad buy in Iowa in the next two weeks. The broadcast blitz will complement his campaign’s full-page newspaper ads. One ad from late November features a line-up of his fellow Democratic candidates, including Senator Clinton, saying Joe is right.

Biden attracted a lot of national media coverage this week for his response to a new National Intelligence Estimate, which found that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and for his criticism of President Bush’s policy toward Iran.

Biden blasted Bush for “raising the specter of World War III” with Iran on Oct. 17, even though “he had been told by our own intelligence community it was likely Iran had halted its weapons program in 2003.”

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Biden questioned when the president learned the new information of Iran’s nuclear program.

“Are you telling me a president that’s briefed every single morning, who’s fixated on Iran, is not told back in August that the tentative conclusion of 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. government said they had abandoned their effort for a nuclear weapon in ‘03? I refuse to believe that. If that’s true, he has the most incompetent staff in modern American history, and he’s one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.”

Iran was also a major topic during the National Public Radio debate on Tuesday in Iowa.

Biden led the pack in attacking Bush for not matching his rhetoric to the intelligence on Iran.

“It was like watching a rerun of his statements on Iraq five years earlier,” he said. “Iran is not a nuclear threat to the United States of America. Iran should be dealt with directly, with the rest of the world at our side. But we’ve made it more difficult now, because who is going to trust us?”

Biden joined other presidential contenders in going after Clinton, focusing on her support of the U.S. Senate resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards force a terrorist organization.

“There’s no evidence — none, zero — that this declaration caused any change in action on the part of the Iranian government.”

Appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also said Bush should be impeached if he were to launch an attack on Iran without congressional approval.

Meanwhile, the Biden campaign announced that it qualified for matching federal funds. “Voters in early states don’t believe this race is just about money or celebrity status, but about experience and ideas,” campaign manager Luis Navarro said in a news release.

Biden will appear on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday from Iowa.