Making the rounds in Iowa in support of his presidential bid, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) spoke to students at the University of Iowa and reiterated his support for public financing of campaigns as a way to restore "legitimacy" to the political process, particularly in the eyes of young people.

Biden has opted in to the presidential public financing program for the primary contest and just signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill introduced Wednesday to improve the presidential system. Here's what he had to say to the students:

"It's not about access, it's about legitimacy," the Delaware senator said to 150 people gathered at the Iowa Memorial Union on the UI campus in Iowa City. "The truth of the matter is that you young folks look out there and see an electoral system that you think can be bought and paid for, and this turns you off because you feel inconsequential."

Biden argued that the single most important thing we can do to put an end to the influence of money in politics is to enact a public campaign finance law. Biden has been advocating this since 1974, when he first co-authored such a bill with Iowa Democratic Sen. Dick Clark.

"The amount of money that has to be raised in political campaigns is obscene," Biden said. "And as they say in southern Delaware, `It ain't comin' from y'all. It's coming from people who have money.'"

"Do you folks want be in control? Do you want to make sure everything you do or say is as consequential as the Hollywood producer, or the multimillionaire, or someone who inherited millions of dollars?" Biden asked rhetorically. "With public-financed elections, nobody gets to go to the front of the line."