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From: bounce-847698-2253447@list.whitehouse.gov <bounce-847698-2253447@list.whitehouse.gov>
To: Owens, Missy
Sent: Mon May 24 15:51:32 2010
Subject: FW: 5/24 pool report Wilmington event


From: Miller, Beth (Wilmington) [mailto:bemiller@wilmingt.gannett.com]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 3:28 PM
To: Allen, Elizabeth M.; Alexander, Elizabeth
Subject: 5/24 pool report Wilmington event

From Beth Miller, The News Journal
(302) 324-2784

VP Joe Biden attended a lunch-hour fundraiser on Wilmington’s riverfront for John C. Carney Jr., former lieutenant governor and now a candidate for Delaware’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He arrived at about 12:59 p.m. The event ended just before 2 p.m.
In remarks to about 150 people in the Christina room of the Chase Riverfront Center, Carney noted his debt to Biden -- for inspiring him toward a career in politics and for the job that allowed him to meet another Biden staffer, Tracey Quillen, who became Carney's wife.
Biden noted their common link to Claymont, a blue-collar neighborhood in northern Delaware where both men spent childhood years, and said Carney understands the struggles of the middle-class, their concerns about jobs, foreclosures, and healthcare.
The middle-class has slipped, he said, because of a "disproportionate focus on the very wealthy."
"I wish one of my kids would become a Republican," Biden joked," so when they put me in a home, at least I'll have a room with a view."
Biden said Carney would be the kind of leader who can make difficult decisions. The Republican Party has offered no solutions, he said.
"The opposition was against stabilizing the financial markets," he said. "Nothing was more unpopular.... I don't mind if they gamble -- with their own money, not with ours. Where would we have been if we hadn't stabilized the financial markets? There would have been a worldwide depression."
The Obama Administration inherited enormous debt from the Bush Administration, he said. If it had not pushed for the reforms and recovery measures it pursued, things would not be turning around now.
"In Claymont, the people are pretty tough," Biden said. "All they want to know for certain is -- were these tough decisions that seemed very bad and unpopular, are you leading us in the right direction? The American people are so much tougher than their leaders are. What they want is hope."
Biden said people are beginning to see progress in the economy. Jobs are being created. The markets are recovering. Loans to auto makers and banks are being repaid. That's what people should remind Republicans when they start talking about increasing debt, he said.
"Has anyone in the Republican neighborhood taken a decision lately?" he asked.
John Carney would have helped the middle-class cause in Congress when these decisions were being made, Biden said.
"We still have a long way to go," Biden said. "This is no time to turn back."
"We have got one of the finest candidates in the country running for Congress," he said. "Now, at a moment when there are no small-bore answers for the problems and opportunities this country faces, it takes someone with the heart and head and guts to see this thing through."
Carney was the state’s finance secretary when Tom Carper (now U.S. Sen.) was governor. He then served two (4-year) terms as lieutenant governor under Ruth Ann Minner. In 2008, he ran for governor but was defeated in a hard-fought Democratic primary by then-state treasurer Jack Markell, who went on to win the governor’s office with a resounding victory over GOP nominee and retired Superior Court Judge Bill Lee.

Carney launched his House campaign last year. One other Democrat – political novice Scott Spencer, a transit consultant from Wilmington – has filed for the seat.

Four Republicans remain in the race, including Michele Rollins of Greenville, widow of Delaware business magnate John W. Rollins Sr. She has long roots in the party and has served as staff attorney for several federal agencies (SEC, Interior, EPA) but has never run for office until now. She won the GOP’s nomination at its state convention May 14-15.

Other Republicans still (officially) in the race: political novice Glen Urquhart, a Rehoboth Beach developer who chaired the National Capitol Planning Commission for Reagan; first-time candidate Kevin Wade, an engineer from New Castle; and Rose Izzo, a Brooklyn native who has run for office in Pennsylvania and recently moved to Delaware. Urquhart and Wade have drawn support from tea party and 912 patriot groups.

Biden said his son, Beau, who is Delaware’s attorney general and was treated recently for a mild stroke, is "100 percent" now and ready to get back to work. Biden said his son planned to jog home from an appointment he had this morning for blood work.
For those with culinary interests, the menu included goat cheese, vegetable stuffed chicken, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, strawberry shortcake.