DES MOINES --- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has a knack for making friends.
The U.S. senator from Delaware is known for drawing out his public appearances, talking at length to a crowd. He can spend just as long meeting one-on-one with those who came to see him, often placing his hand on someone's shoulder to make a point.
"I like people, and that's the reason I'm doing it," Biden said of his presidential campaign.
Biden is betting the personal connections he has made in Iowa can help compensate for the wide gap in campaign cash between him and Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
And he's hoping that many of the friends he made in the Hawkeye State during his first presidential campaign in the 1988 cycle are sticking with him two decades later.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also is banking on the idea that caucus-goers will be won over by his foreign policy experience.
"I really think this election's about security," Biden said in an interview.
"I think they're looking for someone who they think is strong enough, tough enough, smart enough to literally make them safer, make them more secure."
Biden believes foreign policy trumps other issues this year in the caucus race because voters are uneasy about the country's place in the world. He said the first questions at his Iowa events typically center on the war in Iraq, terrorism and Pakistan.
Biden said it is frustrating there is not a more serious discussion of foreign policy matters among the presidential candidates.
"I believe every Democrat wants to get us out of the war, but how in Lord's name they get us out of the war will make a big difference, a big gigantic difference, about how many more wars there are," Biden said.
Biden has offered a detailed plan to lend political stability to Iraq. His proposal would create three largely autonomous regions of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds with a limited federal government.
Biden a 'sleeper' candidate
Despite his credentials, Biden has had a difficult time breaking out of the single digits in Iowa polls and raising money for his presidential campaign.
Biden said he has enough money for a serious buy of TV airtime in the remaining weeks of the campaign. But he marvels at the amount of money the other candidates will spend in Iowa.
"We're confident we're going to have the funds to compete at a time when historically you Iowans begin to make your decision," Biden said.
Biden believes he needs third place or a close fourth place to get a ticket out of Iowa.
He sees one sign that his rivals are taking him seriously --- he has trackers from other campaigns at his appearances.
With his experience in foreign policy, former state Democratic chairman Dave Nagle of Cedar Falls thinks Biden is the sleeper candidate in the race.
He said Biden is running a textbook Iowa caucus campaign, and believes Biden has an outside shot at third place, after laying a good foundation in the state, including the endorsements he has racked up from state lawmakers.
"You cannot write his political obituary at this point and indeed, the patient appears to be recovering," Nagle said.
Biden's road to Iowa
Biden jumped onto the national political scene at the improbable age of 29, knocking off an incumbent Republican to gain a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1972.
But his celebration turned to sorrow soon after his election when his wife and young daughter were killed in an automobile accident.
Biden raised his two sons on his own until marrying his current wife, Jill, a school teacher.
He rose to prominence in the Senate, serving as chairman of the judiciary and foreign relations committees, and threw his hat in the ring for the highest political office in the 1988 presidential cycle.
That presidential campaign was where Biden made the most prominent political misstep of his career. Biden was forced to withdraw from the presidential race after accusations of plagiarism for failing to attribute parts of a speech.
Valerie Biden Owens, his sister and the national chair of his current campaign, said one of the most painful aspects of withdrawing from the race was the feeling they had let so many people down.
"He stood up and took his medicine, but you know, a lot of people were very disappointed," she said.
State Rep. Polly Bukta of Clinton is one of those Iowa Democrats who supported Biden in the 1988 campaign and is behind him again this time.
"You don't dump your friends, even if you think their chances are slim," Bukta said.
Bukta has stayed in touch with Biden throughout the years, and calls him a caring person who treats everyone the same and doesn't talk down to people.
"He'd talk to you the same way he'd talk to the queen of England," Bukta said.
Loyal Iowa backers
Iowa House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with Biden in Washington, D.C., more than a year ago, and said he was amazed at the depth of Biden's knowledge on foreign policy issues.
He's also impressed with Biden as a candidate, describing him as a charismatic politician who can win people over.
"He can literally go into a room and everyone feels that he's talking to them," McCarthy said.
Biden helped Iowa House Democratic candidates by making appearances for them, and McCarthy credits him in part with helping take back the majority in 2006.
Biden has won endorsements from 14 Iowa state lawmakers.
Another quality of Biden's that struck McCarthy was how long his staff members stayed with him.
"Once you join to support him, they don't treat you as a business commodity. You actually kind of become part of the family," McCarthy said.
Biden's campaign is indeed a family affair. Two nieces, Missy Owens and Caroline Biden, are working on his Iowa campaign and other family members often accompany him on the campaign trail.
"We like to campaign, and I think people know we like being with them," Biden said.
Son Beau Biden thinks the chances are better for his dad on caucus night than they were when he first ran for the Senate.
"This is something that's a place my dad has been before, and the odds in this race relative to what they were 34 years ago are good," he said.
Joe Biden remains optimistic and has confidence his supporters are going to show up on caucus night for him.
"I think we're going to surprise everybody out here, I really do," Biden said.
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/12/11/news/metro/011c710a3d8ac795862573ad004f28b5.txt-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is of course, an old fashioned way to campagin, but in the end, I think it will prove very effective.
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