Biden aides say that his longtime view is that life begins at conception. Biden challenges Palin to take questions

Joe Biden is accusing the McCain campaign of sequestering Sarah Palin, his counterpart on the Republican ticket, and challenged her Sunday to sit for network interviews.

“She's a smart, tough politician,” Biden told Tom Brokaw in a “Meet the Press” interview live from Wilmington, Del. “So I think she's going to be formidable. Eventually, she's going to have to sit in front of you like I'm doing and have done. Eventually, she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually, she's going to have to answer on the record.”


The McCain campaign says Palin will eventually do interviews, but none are scheduled.

Biden, too, took a weekend off from the Sunday shows after he was named as running mate for Barack Obama, although Biden appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes."

During the interview, Biden also repeated his previous view that “life begins at the moment of conception,” the same position as John McCain.

“For me, as a Roman Catholic, I’m prepared to accept the teachings of my church,” Biden told Brokaw. “I’m prepared, as a matter of faith, to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.

“But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else, who is equally — and maybe even more — devout than I am, seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.”

Aides said that is Biden’s longtime position — the answer he always gives.

Brokaw asked Biden how he could have that view and also vote for abortion rights.

“No … I have voted against curtailing the right — criminalizing abortion,” Biden replied. “I have voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it’s a moment of conception."

Biden also said:

• Iraq will only be stable under Obama, not under McCain.

Brokaw asked: “Five years from now, do you think Iraq will have relative stability and democratic principles in the central government?”

Biden replied: “If there is an Obama-Biden administration, yeah. If there is a John McCain administration and Sarah Palin, I think it's probably not going to happen. Because John does not view this in terms of the region. I never heard him speak about how he's going to integrate Iraq into the region, where you have these competing interests that exist.”

• McCain’s claim to being a change agent is “malarkey.”

“I heard Sarah Palin and John McCain talk about change,” Biden said. “Tell me one single thing they’re going to do — on the economy, foreign policy, taxes, that is going to be change. Name me one! This is such malarkey — 90 percent of the time, John votes with the president.”

• Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), a former Democratic ticketmate who is now a vocal McCain supporter, is going to have a tough choice about which party to caucus with in January.

“Every time I see Joe these days, I walk up and I say, ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe — say it ain’t so,’” Biden said. “Look, Joe has made a judgment. Joe is going to have to make a tougher judgment when this election is over.”