Vice President Joe Biden seems to have admitted at a liberal conference that President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign slogan of "hope and change" never transpired, CBS news reported. The event was attended by about 750 young progressives.
Speaking at a Generation Progress event, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, Wednesday in Washington, Biden called himself "damned sophisticated," began meandering about a theoretical waiter with a lisp when talking about LGBT matters and explained that, "I think long and hard about what I say," the Blaze reported.
In Wednesday's speech, Biden claimed that he and Obama had fallen short of bringing about change. "Look folks, this is within our power to change. Everybody says because we tried in '08 and it didn't happen, it's not possible," Biden said. "Wrong. We've gone through these periods before... But folks, this is totally within our power. Change. Change for the better is absolutely possible and I believe it's close to inevitable, if you're the drivers of it."
Biden also noted his role as a leading advocate for Obama's agenda in a wide-ranging speech that touched upon issues like domestic violence, voting rights, the problems of corrosive politics and issues of rich and poor. "Since when has it become in this nation that job creators were the investment bankers, the bankers and the shareholders? When I grew up there was a consensus that engineers, the line workers, the sales person were job creators too," Biden said. "There used to be a basic bargain in this country. I know I'm referred to as middle class Joe. In this town it means you're not sophisticated. But I am pretty damned sophisticated."
He also heralded Obama for taking a "historic step" in his climate action plan. "Failure to deal with it would generate the biggest game changer that civilization faces," Biden said of climate change. "That's not hyperbole. It's the single most significant challenge civilization faces today. It is our moral obligation and in large part the duty and the moral center of it to deal with it and we need to deal with it now, as the president has."
Additionally, he stated the importance of having a civil political discourse with Republicans while fighting for progressive causes. However, he claimed that their judgment should be challenged, not their motives. "I make no apologies. I think most of you know I have no problem - and I mean this sincerely - in saying exactly what I feel and what I believe," Biden said. "That's why I got into this. What you may not know is that I think long and hard about what I say and what I believe and how I say it, because it matters."
Biden, who ran for president twice before, hasn't ruled out running for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
