Senate Iraq vote today will be Biden's opening tonight, advisor says

HANOVER, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will use a vote in the US Senate today on his Iraq resolution to point out that he has the leadership to be president during tonight's debate, his pollster says.

The Iraq resolution calling for a partition of the country into three segments passed the Senate today 75-23.

It is the first time the Senate has reached a bi-partisan consensus on Iraq policy in over a year.

"This vote was huge," said Biden pollster Celinda Lake in an interview. "It shows that Biden is leading on the most critical issue in the campaign."

Lake's polling shows Iraq is three or four times more important than other issues like the economy or healthcare among Democratic primary voters.

"They see Iraq as a boulder in the the road," Lake said. "They think that unless we solve Iraq we just won't have the money to do the other things we want to."