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Democrats Split on How to End the War
But in his speech on Friday, Obama was less explicit than other Democrats about the way forward. Calling the war "a tragic mistake," he said, "We all have a responsibility now to put forth a plan that offers the best chance of ending the bloodshed and bringing the troops home."
Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned Bush in harsh language yesterday. "Mr. President," he said, "the majority of Americans who oppose you in Iraq are not the ones emboldening the enemy. That's the one mission you have accomplished."
  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, one of 10 presidential contenders at the Democratic summit, said: "The Congress passed a resolution authorizing war. They need to pass another one that overturns that authorization." (By Andrew Councill -- Bloomberg News) |
Biden said he would do "everything in my power" to block the president's decision to deploy more troops. His broader proposal calls for a political solution that would provide regional autonomy for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and guarantees by the central government that Sunnis would share in the country's oil revenues. He wants to draw down U.S. forces.
The weekend of speeches did little to reorder the Democratic race, with Clinton seen as the early front-runner and Obama and Edwards viewed as her most serious rivals starting out.
Based on conversations with DNC members and others who attended the meeting, Edwards and Richardson helped themselves more than any of the other candidates did. Edwards won repeated applause with his speech, and Richardson drew strong reviews for his.
Former senator Mike Gravel (Alaska), the fourth speaker at yesterday's session, was perhaps the harshest of any of the candidates in denouncing those Democrats who supported the war initially. But he did little to advance his dark-horse candidacy, according to party activists, by delivering a 25-minute speech, the longest of the weekend and 18 minutes longer than the routinely ignored seven-minute time limit imposed by the DNC.
By that measure, Biden was the big winner. The normally windy senator delivered the shortest speech of the weekend. He opened with another apology for describing Obama as an African American who is "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," a comment that ruined the opening day of his campaign Wednesday.
"So, how was your week?" he began, to laughter. He quickly turned contrite: "I want to say that I truly regret that the words I spoke offended people I admire very much."
