In honor of Joe Biden as the Vice Presidential pick for the Democratic ticket, I am going to offer up some posts from the archives highlighting the man who I originally supported as the top of the ticket but am more than pleased to see back on the ticket even if it is as the VP.
This is from December of last year:
You may not like his politics, his verbosity, or even his thinning hair, but there is one thing you have to acknowledge about Joe Biden. He is not going to sugarcoat his beliefs and he is going to tell you what it is that he wants to do in a realistic manner. THAT is what we need in a President. We do not need someone desperately telling us everything that we want to hear or giving us glittering generalities about "staying on offense" or "defending freedom".
There are some nice personal story articles out there that talk about Biden:
ABC NEWS: "Who is Joe Biden?"
This man isn't just blowing smoke when he tells you he understands hardship:
Tragedy Strikes
However, Biden's victory celebration was short-lived. Just days before he was set to be sworn in, his wife, Neilia, and their three children got into a car accident. Neilia and their youngest child, 18-month-old Naomi, were killed. His two other sons, ages 4 and 3, were seriously injured.
Biden got the fateful phone call while at the Senate.
"I said, 'She's dead, isn't she?' I don't know what the hell made me say that. And I walked out," Biden said. "I was so angry."
Biden even contemplated suicide as a rational option after the accident.
"I never went to the bridge," Biden said. "I'd get up in the middle of the night, go out and take out a bottle of Scotch & and I'd sit at the table and I'd try to make myself just lose it. I couldn't bring myself & but the hardest part is you feel guilty when you realize you want to live. If the love was as great and as profound as you believed it to be, why would you still want to live?"
However, with the help of his friends and family Biden was pressed on and continued in the Senate, with a few alterations to his lifestyle. His sister and family moved in to Biden's home to help with the children.
"Being a single parent is hard," Biden said. "I couldn't afford to have someone take care of my kids. But I had my mother, my brothers, my sister I had a family that just took care of me."
Biden also made the decision to commute daily to Washington from his home in Delaware. To this day, Biden still rides the train every day to work.
"My being home every day was sort of the touchstone for me. And even though all three of my kids now are out and they're grown up, I still go home every day," Biden said.
Mr. Biden has survived so much personal and political catastrophe that not much about this race — not his distant standing in the polls nor his own missteps — seems to get him down. It is the last, great ride of his White House ambitions, and this time, unlike 20 years ago, he seems determined to make it right.
“This has been the easiest campaign I’ve ever run in,” Mr. Biden said cheerfully in an interview in a van at the Iowa City Airport, where he was about to board a four-seat airplane and head off into the icy December blackness for an event at Grinnell College. “I haven’t had to game anything. For real. I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I’m just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.”
Biden at the Des Moines Register Debate:
Biden was a debate WINNER!
Joe Biden: Biden was extraordinary today. Not only did he speak specifically and with authority on issues both foreign and domestic, he was able to tie all of his arguments together under the umbrella of taking action and setting priorities. Biden also beat back the toughest question of the day when moderator Carolyn Ashburn asked him whether his past verbal gaffes in relation to race reflected a level of discomfort with the issue. "I got involved in politics because of the civil rights movement," Biden said with real emotion, adding that his career in the Senate reflected that commitment. When he finished speaking, all of his rivals offered a "huzzah" for his answer. Biden also played to Iowans' vanity by praising them as the foundation of democracy and asserting their right to be first. A complete performance by The Fix's Iowa darkhorse.
