BIDEN
CAMPAIGN
LAUNCHES IOWA
WEBSITE
Site Features
New Memorial Day
Web Ad Calling
on the President
to Make Life
Saving Mine
Resistant
Vehicles a
National
Priority
Wilmington, DE
(May 27, 2007):
The Biden for
President
Campaign today
launched a new
section of its
website:
www.joebiden.com/iowa
dedicated to the
campaign’s
organization and
efforts in the
Hawkeye State.
The “Iowa for
Biden” section
provides
state-specific
campaign updates
including news,
schedules and
information on
the campaign’s
field
activities.
The new website
also features
“Home,” a
Memorial Day web
ad highlighting
Senator Biden’s
commitment to
protecting the
troops put in
harms way by
President Bush’s
failed policies
in Iraq through
his call to make
Mine Resistant
Ambush Protected
(MRAP) vehicles
a national
priority. The
ad, which was
launched
yesterday,
features April
Shacklee, whose
husband Michael
is a Black Hawk
Pilot for the
U.S. Army who
has served in
Iraq for the
past seven
months. “Home”
focuses on
Biden’s work to
get MRAP
vehicles into
the field in
Iraq. MRAPs
provide four to
five times the
protection from
IEDs than
up-armored
humvees (HMMWVs)
which are
currently being
used.
“With as many
casualties that
you hear about
from roadside
bombs, you would
think that
anything that
they could do to
lessen that
number – to
possibly prevent
that from
happening as
often as it does
– why aren’t
they doing
something about
it?,” Shacklee
says in the ad.
At an Iraq Town
Hall Meeting in
Ames this
afternoon, Biden
stressed again
the need for
these vehicles
saying,”Road-side
bombs are
responsible for
70 percent of
casualties in
Iraq and these
new Mine
Resistant
Vehicles can
reduce those
casualties by
two-thirds.”
He also took the
Bush
Administration
to task over the
Marine Corps
document leaked
last week which
showed that
commanders in
Iraq first asked
for 1,169 MRAP
vehicles in
February, 2005.
Yet this
request, labeled
"priority 1
urgent," wasn’t
acted upon for
more than a
year. Then, when
the first order
was made on May
21, 2006, it was
for only 185 of
these vehicles.
“How is it
possible that a
request that is
literally life
or death got
lost? How is it
possible that
with the nation
at war, with
more than
130,000
Americans in
danger, with
roadside bombs
taking more and
more lives and
limbs, this
administration
did not make
these Mine
Resistant
Vehicles a
national
priority?,” said
Biden.
Biden is on
day-two of a
six-day campaign
swing through
Iowa. Today, he
will also make
stops in Iowa
City where he
will speak at
the Johnson
County
Democratic Party
Family Picnic
and in Clinton,
Iowa where he
will hold an
Iraq Town Hall
Meeting. During
the six-day
swing, he will
also make stops
in Waterloo,
Maquoketa,
Dubuque,
Indianola, Des
Moines,
Emmetsburg, Fort
Dodge, Cedar
Falls and
Vinton.
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