Shapiro: The Dodd and Biden Show (NPR Debate wrapup)

K Gardner

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Dec-05-07 08:18 AM
Original message

Shapiro: The Dodd and Biden Show (NPR Debate wrapup)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/05/npr_debate/
(I have snipped the article.. please visit link for complete text)

The Dodd and Biden show

When Tuesday's debate turned to foreign policy, the two veteran senators schooled Clinton and Obama.

By Walter Shapiro

Dec. 5, 2007 | In politics, radio can be the great leveler. According to legend, the 5 o'clock-shadowed Richard Nixon won the first 1960 presidential debate against matinee idol John Kennedy among voters who only listened on radio. And for two hours on Tuesday afternoon on National Public Radio, those veteran foreign-policy experts Joe Biden and Chris Dodd dominated the penultimate Democratic debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. As Barack Obama put it during a discussion of Chinese trade policies, "Chris and Joe made a good point."

NPR provided the perfect forum to highlight for a brief moment the overlooked strengths of these two long shots, who collectively have spent 66 years in the Senate. The potentially dismissive word "polls" was not uttered once during the debate. With radio, there is never the manipulative temptation to group Hillary Clinton, Obama and John Edwards at the center of a stage. But most important, this was the first candidate face-off that gave some of the knottier challenges of foreign policy the detailed attention they deserve.

Scoring a debate is an impressionistic exercise -- and others may not share my upbeat assessment of Biden and Dodd. (Here is an alternative grading system.) A cerebral afternoon radio debate devoted to just three topics (Iran, China and immigration) is not likely to move political markets, even with the caucuses less than a month away. Nor did it provide the zesty one-liners and snarky attacks that often shape press coverage.

But for two hours Tuesday afternoon, Biden and Dodd made the case that traditional political experience matters in choosing a president. From the subtleties of Iranian policy (where Biden excelled) to the nuances of academic studies on illegal immigration (where everyone deferred to Dodd), the two senators sounded knowledgeable in answering questions rather than as if they were reciting "Canned Debate Answer No. 623."

These answers were neither objectionable nor memorable. But Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in his element, offering a big-picture answer. "We need a doctrine of prevention," he said. "The role of a great power is to prevent crises. And we don't have to imagine any of the crises. We know what's going to happen on Day One when you're president. You have Pakistan, Russia, China ... Afghanistan. You have Darfur. And it requires engagement and prevention."

NPR's gift to Iowa voters may have been creating the setting for the campaign's first "Experience Counts" debate. Tuesday's broadcast served as a reminder that the leading Democratic candidates all boast unconventional political résumés -- Clinton's eight dramatic years as first lady; Obama's three-year skyrocket from obscure Illinois state senator to top-tier presidential candidate; and Edwards' own rapid transition from trial lawyer to 2004 vice-presidential nominee. But as Biden and Dodd demonstrated -- during an afternoon that probably will be no more than a political blip -- there are benefits to a long apprenticeship on Capitol Hill for the presidency.