Joe Biden: 'I am in the game'

CANTERBURY, N.H.

THE LAST time I went to New Hampshire to talk with Joe Biden about his presidential hopes it was May . . . of 1987. Back then, Biden was thought of as a different kind of politician, an exciting, inspirational figure with a strong appeal to baby boomers.

Two decades later, Barack Obama is seen as the next new thing, Joe Biden the same old thing. To wit: a Capitol Hill fixture engaged, as so many senators are, in a long-term love affair with the sound of his own voice.

The irony isn't lost on the six-term senator. Traveling between Granite State stops, Biden, 64, says he jokes with his younger staff, " 'Hey, wait, I used to be Barack.' . . . Last time, I was the charismatic young guy who could make an audience laugh or cry."

Back then, shrewd operatives in rival camps saw Biden as the candidate who could catch fire. And he did, though not in the way they worried about. After Biden's pilfering of rhetoric from British politician Neil Kinnock kindled other, similar controversies, his campaign became an exercise in auto-immolation.

If that presidential bid ended disastrously, this one started poorly, with a much-ado-about-nothing gaffe about Obama that nevertheless reminded people anew of the barely tethered cannons there on the deck of the USS Biden.

Thus far, the Delaware Democrat isn't considered a serious factor in this race. That frustrates him, and with good reason: The Joe Biden of 2007, who once again chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has a hard-to-rival résumé. And whereas the old Biden was a man in search of a message (even if it happened to be someone else's), today's candidate is certain of his cause. He's pushing a plan to transform Iraq into a federalized country, with largely autonomous regions for the Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shi'ite Arabs, under a limited central government.

History teaches that there are only four real options for the United States in Iraq, he tells a Canterbury house party: Take one side against the other; install a dictator; occupy the country for generations, or set up such a federated system.

"Everybody says we need a political solution in Iraq," Biden says. "But I am the only one in either party who has offered a political solution."

An impressive foreign-policy depth is on display as he outlines the diplomatic process and geopolitical imperatives he thinks would lead Iraq and its neighbors to embrace such a plan.

In making that plan his campaign calling card, Biden is gambling that Democrats will eventually conclude he's the candidate best suited to deal with Iraq.

"As long as this war is the centerpiece issue, I am in the game," he declares. "I think people understand that I have thought about this and that the answer I have is practical."

Yes, he lags far behind in fund-raising. But small states like Iowa and New Hampshire give him a chance to make his case, he insists.

"The good news is that you still gotta do retail politics," he tells me. Meanwhile, he thinks he can outshine his rivals in debates and joint appearances: "To be very blunt about it, I like the one-on-one comparisons."

Certainly spending a day out with Biden highlights something it's easy to miss when watching him on "Meet the Press": He's a skilled retail politician.

Starting conversationally, he ascends to angry exclamation, drops to a dramatic whisper, grows urgent with expostulation, all the while roaming the room, touching audience members as he talks.

And talks. And talks. Listening to him is like reading a Richard Ford novel; the moment expands almost without surcease, each new thought reminding him of something else that needs saying.

Detour and digression loom around every corner.

But there's also a winning gregariousness about him, as well as a casual candor that lends authenticity. Why, he asks the Canterbury gathering, did Al Gore, "purer than the driven snow" in his marriage, fare poorly with religious voters, when Bill Clinton ran well with the same groups, even though "he and his wife actually went on television . . . to essentially announce that they had had problems relating to fidelity."

The conventional take on Biden is that he's a Washington windbag who won't find a foothold in this race. Yet what I saw Saturday in New Hampshire was a confident, engaging candidate who knows exactly why he's running.

And whose audiences, though small, hung on his every -- well, almost every -- word.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.