Democrats at Iowa "Red, White & Blue" Banquet Hear Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden

Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd spoke to approximately 500 Scott County (Iowa) Democrats on Friday, December 14, at their "Red, White & Blue Banquet" fundraiser, hoping to make their way into the Winner's Circle on caucus night, January 3.

Senator Biden pointed out the importance of the Iowa caucuses this way: "The rest of the country is somewhat envious that you have so much control. If you do not send someone out of here with a ticket, that person does not get a chance nationally. You and New Hampshire are the only thing between money being the only thing picking the candidate. You take the process really seriously. Otherwise, the regular guy without $10 million-plus to spend on a campaign couldn't do it. Absent you, there is no gate whatsoever. Nothing like this takes place anywhere else in the world. Don't let them take it from you."

That last statement was a veiled reference to the many states, including Michigan, that have made attempts to wrest the "first-in-the-nation" title away from the Hawkeye state.

Biden noted that at least three Democratic candidates have spent $20 million on their campaigns in Iowa. He said at least four of the candidates have spent between $5 and $11 million in Iowa on TV ads alone.

Biden called the 2008 election "the single most important election of my lifetime. There is so much at stake. It is not political hyperbole. The American people are ready to stand up. When have the American people ever let their country down? We believe that our tomorrows will be better than our yesterdays."

Telling the crowd that he has been to Iraq "more times than all of the other candidates combined," Biden lamented the burden of the war on its young soldiers. "If we brought all of the soldiers home right now...if it ended tomorrow...14,500 of those who returned would be so seriously injured that, over the average life-span of 38 years that they will have left, they will need $600 billion in support." He based this on the well-reported facts that MASH units are saving more soldiers than in any previous conflict. He then added, "This conflict is producing more amputees than the Civil War."