ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (CNN) -- Sen. Joe Biden's campaign manager, Luis Navarro, tells CNN, "We are very excited. The Senator pointed out that he was the only candidate with a clear plan on Iraq."

Navarro said of the rest of the Democratic presidential field, "Almost every Democrat on stage would be preferential to the one in office."

Earlier, Navarro said in a written statement: "We welcome Bill Richardson adopting the key elements of the Biden Plan for Iraq -- a political settlement that gives its warring factions breathing room in their own regions with control over the fabric of their daily lives including the police, education, jobs, marriage and religion. But while we should start to withdraw our troops now and get most of them out by early next year, Richardson is wrong to rule out a small residual force to prevent Al Qaeda from gaining a foothold and to continue training Iraqis."