January 31, 2007
Senator Joe Biden announces his presidential bid and shows the nation what they will be getting. Not a bad guy just a guy who speaks his mind that can be interpreted as not PC.courtesy of StevenLoneWolf
BIDEN: I mean you've got the first sorta mainstream African American who's articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy. I mean that's a storybook, man.
OBAMA: You'd have to ask Senator Clinton I mean Senator Biden what he was thinking. I don't worry too much about what folks are talking about during the campaign season.
OBAMA: He called me. I told him it wasn't necessary. We have got more important things to worry about. We have got Iraq. We have got health care. We have got energy. This is low on the list. He was very gracious and I have no problem with Joe Biden.
OBAMA statement: I didn't take Sen Biden's comments personally, but they are historically inaccurate. African American candidates like Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm, carol Mosley Brown and Al Sharpton gave voice to many important issues through their camoaign, and no one would call them inarticulate.
JESSE JACKSON: Knowing Joe Biden the way I do, I'm sure he didn't mean it as off-color, but it is certainly highly suggestive.
BIDEN: Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or Republican party has produced at least since I've been around. Ask Obama what I thought. He knows what I meant by it. The idea was straightforward and simple. This guy is brand new and something no one has seen before. My mother has an expression, clean as a whistle and sharp as a tack. That is the context. He is crisp and clear. He was not intending to take a shot at his opponent and colleague.
BIDEN statement: I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama.
AL SHARPTON: I told him I take a bath every day.
