Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a fundraiser Wednesday night for freshman U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.
Biden has become a leading figure in helping House Democrats prepare for next year's elections. Kissell, a Biscoe Democrat, narrowly won his seat 2008. The GOP has targeted the seat in next year's mid-term elections. Fayetteville businessman Lou Huddleston, a Republican, is running for the seat.
Dome's Barb Barrett filed a report about the event, which was held at the Cleveland Park home of William and Susie Taylor. Among those in the audience was U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat.
Kissell introduced Biden.
"There’s something magical about someone from a textiles background, and who was teaching high school civics a year ago, to be standing up here with the vice president. That’s a miracle. That’s what makes this country great," Kissell said.
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Biden talked of his work campaigning in North Carolina last year, and called the state a harbinger of the rest of the country.
"We believed if we won North Carolina, not only would it mean we’d win the general election, but it would mean there was a genuine change in the country," Biden said.
Biden talked of Kissell’s economic background, comparing it to his own. He noted that Kissell, like Biden, might be among the only members of Congress who received a pay raise when they came to Washington.
"He comes from a pretty distressed district," Biden said. "They’ve lost all those jobs."
Kissell, Biden noted, made a difficult vote to support the economic recovery package this year.
"He had the nerve and the wisdom to take a chance, even though I know you got the living devil beat out of you at home," he said.
Biden said he and Obama inherited a country in need of many repairs.
"By the time we were elected we had an inkling of how fundamentally we were out of kilter," he said. "People now say to us, 'Why are you doing so much?' Even some Democrats are asking. ... Every president up to this president has been judged ... as to whether he could prioritize what he would deal with first. This is the first president in my lifetime who did not have that luxury."
Correction: A previous version of this post misstated Kissell's election results. Dome regrets the errors.
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Re: Biden appears at Kissell event, black guy gets press
Tim D’Annunzio has to wonder at this point why his party is pushing this Huckstable guy?
I wonder too.
When Tim has more money, Tim makes more sense, and Tim appeals to neither Under the DOME or DC press even though he has raised more money as a real angry TeaBagger than the marketing tool of superficial packaging created by the NRCC?
Do Republicans need another reason to make a decision? Is it RACE?
Say it aint so Michael Steele!
Say it aint so...