Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Biden details Iraq solution
By Shajia Ahmad
The Daily Iowan (U. Iowa)
07/03/2007

(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa — Red, white, and blue banners shared the stage with a few more colorful flags as Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., hosted a conversation with the Iowa City gay community on the outdoor patio of Givanni's on Monday night.

Outside the guarded rail enclosing the senator and his audience, several people passing through the Pedestrian Mall also stopped to listen to the presidential-nominee hopeful as he spent most of the night fielding questions about health care and speaking about his political solution for the conflict in Iraq, which he likened to a boulder sitting in the middle of the road.

"It's the thing we have to solve to regain our credibility in the world," Biden said.

Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, touted himself as the only candidate with a detailed political solution to the conflict. He advocated the installation of a federally limited central government within defined borders that would allow different regions autonomy to retain their cultural fabrics.

The senator said he doesn't want to sustain the war or increase troops but wants to protect them as long as they are overseas.

"I would do everything to bring them home, but while at least one soldier is there, I want to do everything to protect them," he said.

David Klemm, an Iowa City resident for 24 years and a gay-rights supporter, wore a "Biden for President" button next to his rainbow ribbon.

"The gay-rights community is an educated and intellectual community, and they, too, have to think about health care, and Iraq, and other issues," he said.

Klemm said he respects that the senator assumed "not one iota of difference of how people are treated in this country."

Toward the end of his speech, Biden addressed gay-rights issues specifically, calling the current administration "homophobic." He praised the community for its efforts in protecting civil rights.

"You've done an incredible service to humanity," he said.

He emphasized to the crowd that gay-rights supporters are the majority, calling the opposition a "dying dinosaur breed." "Because of all of you here, sitting in the crowd, supporting gay rights to preserve what little gain you've made, you're beginning to change America," he said. "It's a different America from what it was 10 years ago."

Carlton Blackburn, the president of Connections — a gay-community group in Iowa City — and a supporter of Biden, organized the senator's appearance. He said it was the first convention held by a presidential hopeful in Iowa City specifically for the gay community.

"The Democrats, most of them are all the same — Biden understands what's going on with the gay reality," Blackburn said. "What he's doing to break this barrier is coming out and speaking with this community and saying it's not a big deal, it's equality in action."

Blackburn is planning to invite other presidential campaigns, both Republican and Democratic, to speak if they, too, want to reach out to the gay community, he said.

[ Back to Student Voices ]