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Biden's Wife Visits Tampa

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By BILLY HOUSE

bhouse@tampatrib.com

Published: October 26, 2008

Updated: 10/26/2008 12:23 am

TAMPA - This election is no time to be sitting on the sidelines, said the wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden at a Tampa event Saturday.

"And if anyone knows about close races, it's you here in Florida," said Jill Biden to about 100 people gathered at a letter carriers' union hall on West Cypress Street.

"So we need you to vote and vote early," she said.

Biden's pitch for people to vote in Tampa and at other Florida stops Saturday came as Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, was making a similar plea in a national radio address.
Jill Biden said that with the economy a mess, the nation mired in two wars and eight years of failed policies under President Bush, "the stakes could not be higher."

The loudest applause Biden received at the Tampa event came when she talked about being a "Blue-Star Mom," a reference to mothers like her who wear a blue-star pin to reflect that they have a family member serving overseas.

She noted that stepson Beau was deployed two weeks ago with the Delaware National Guard.

Biden, an English teacher at a community college in Delaware, also told those gathered at the Tampa event that "my students cannot afford four more years of the same failed policies of the last eight."

"That's why it's so important that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will finally provide the leadership in Washington that students deserve, that you deserve and that everyone deserves," Biden told the gathering.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673.

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