SALEM – Former Vice President Joe Biden said he wants to return America to national and international prominence by restoring the country’s image that, he said, has been tarnished by President Donald Trump.

Biden’s remarks came at a campaign rally Saturday afternoon at Mary A. Fisk Elementary School in Salem

“Eight years of Donald Trump, I honest to God think, would change the character of the nation,” the Democrat candidate for president said. “These kids will grow up with a very different country. We’ll get it back eventually, but it’s going to have real consequences.”

“There’s a lot at stake, and I think this year – literally – character, the character of the country, the character of the candidates is on the ballot,” Biden added. “I don’t recall an election like this since I’ve been engaged in politics. Donald Trump has diminished America on the world stage, and he’s diminished (America) not only in the eyes of the world, but he’s diminished us (as) who we are and how we are viewed.”

In just eight days – on Feb. 3 – the nation will get its first real look at the road to the White House, with the Iowa caucuses. In a New York Times/Siena College poll, released last week, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had a commanding lead among the crowded Democratic field. Sanders garnered 25% in the poll, followed by former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 17%. Biden came in third with 17%, followed by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., with 15%; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., with 8%; philanthropist Tom Styer with 3%; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang with 3%.

Eight days after the caucuses in the Hawkeye State, New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary will take center stage. In a Monmouth University poll, released last week, Buttigieg was leading Biden by one percentage point, 20-19. Sanders followed with 18%, while Warren earned 15%. In another poll, released by the Boston Globe and Suffolk University, Sanders and Biden were just one point apart, 16-15%. In that same poll, 35 percent of New Hampshire Democrats thought Trump would be re-elected.

“The next president will face the enormous task of picking up the pieces left by President Trump,” Biden said. “They will have to salvage our reputation, rebuild confidence in our leadership and mobilize the world to meet new challenges. There will be no time to lose.”

Experience is one thing Biden touted during the rally, noting his successes while serving Delaware in the U.S. Senate, during the (Barack) Obama administration as vice president and during his time since leaving office. One thing he stressed above all, though, was the Granite State’s role in selecting the next president.

“There’s just 17 days left,” Biden said. “You have an enormous responsibility. What you do and who you send out of New Hampshire is going to make a big difference in who’s likely to be the Democratic nominee as presidents. I don’t think there’s a single election, no matter how young or old you are – if it’s your first vote, or if you’ve voted many times – that has been this consequential. This guy (Trump) is a different breed of cat. This is a different fellow.”

“I think it’s really dangerous,” Biden added. “We used to talk about America as being that shining city on the hill. Well, you know, our allies who once looked to us for leadership are now frankly deciding that they have to go it alone – not a joke. Our adversaries, who once feared if they crossed us they’d have a problem, they are now seeing a president they can bamboozle or just simply ignore. Ordinary people from all the nations around the world look at America differently.”

Biden, 77, plans to change that immediately, if elected president. He said he wants to restore America to that shining city, that beacon that other world leaders gravitate toward, seeking advice and providing hope to all.

“Ordinary people who once saw America as that beacon now look at it – there was an international pole done as to what nations do you most respect,” Biden noted. “You, know, we once stood as a nation of immigrants. We once stood as a nation of open arms, but the poll showed that the leader of China, internationally, is more popular in the world today and is viewed as a better leader than the president of the United States of America. What does that mean for our future? What does that mean for our kids and grandkids?”

Echoing the former VP’s sentiment was Bill Shaheen, the husband of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. He opened the event with the “Ridin’ with Biden” rally cry, but said no one is out working harder than Biden and his family. He also noted that winning the White House was just one piece of the puzzle needed to win the country back.

“We have a lot to do, ladies and gentlemen. This is not just Joe Biden’s fight, this is our fight – our fight to save our country,” Shaheen said. “It’s no sense winning the White House if we don’t win the Senate. The best chance we have at getting rid of (Mitch) McConnell is Joe Biden. I can’t tell you how many Independents and Republicans have approached me and said, ‘please give me somebody to vote for, please give me somebody to vote for,’ and that is Joe Biden.”

“Every vote in New Hampshire is worth 50 votes in California. Every vote,” Shaheen added. “If we win this primary, we are going all the way.”

In addition, former Salem Selectman Beth Roth said change in Washington is needed, and that Trump’s Make America Great Again mantra is “hollow.”

“Joe Biden gets results,” Roth said. “He has plans for us, for our future. Joe Biden will restore America to a standing where America belongs on the international stage. The world respects Joe Biden. He’s shown that he can be respected for many, many, many years of service to our country. Joe Biden is our hope for the future.”

Biden closed out the rally, which drew 150-plus people in the main gymnasium and double that outside and in an auxiliary room, with a paraphrase from Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

“History teaches us not to hope on this side of the grave, but then, once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave of justice rises up and hope and history rhyme,” Biden said. “Let’s go make it rhyme.”

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