Mr. Biden Goes To Springfield

As was the case in 1988 when Michael Dukakis picked Lloyd Bentsen, in 1996 when Bob Dole picked Jack Kemp, 2000 when Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman, and, to be honest, in 1980 when Ronald Reagan picked George H.W. Bush, I found myself once again wishing the running mate was the nominee for President.

Barack Obama nominated MY FAVORITE DEMOCRAT as his running mate today in Joe Biden, Democrat from Delaware. In 1981 when I was attending Worsham College of Mortuary Science, I remarked to my friend and classmate, Paul Kroeger that Joe Biden was the kind of Democrat we needed as President. This was on the heels of the dismal days of the Carter Administration as the Democratic Party began its long exile from the White House, as regular Democrats, working class Democrats became Reagan Democrats. I have waited 27 years to see Joe Biden on a national ticket. That the Democratic Party could never take a guy like him seriously, instead preferring Michael Dukakis in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008 is why, as Reagan said, "I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, they left me."

Obama made a superb choice in picking Biden. As a Chicagoan, it was fun to see the announcement taking place on the steps of the Old Capital in Springfield. Obama doesn’t do much for me, but I really love Biden. I won’t go on and on about him. I think he’s been a great champion for working class Americans, a man who has triumphed terrible tragedies, survived stupid mistakes, has been a loyal but not far left Democrat and a reasonably bipartisan guy. Here is Biden's speech, http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2008/08/23/transcript-joe-bidens-speech-springfield-il/

Let me tell you three things about Biden you may not know:
1. He was THE eulogist at the funeral of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) in 2003. He wasn’t one of a dozen people who spoke at the funeral. Strom Thurmond wanted one U.S. Senator to speak at his funeral and he picked Biden. I watched it at the time. It was really impressive and spoke well of both of them.
2. For all of his years in the U.S. Senate, has a net worth of $ 150,000, and except for once plagiarizing, has never so much as been accused of an ethical or moral lapse.
3. When Biden was a child, he had a stuttering problem and was once ridiculed in class by a Catholic nun. His fighting Irish mother stormed to the school the next day and told the nun, "If you ever make fun of my son again, I will rip that bonnet off your face." It reminds me of something similar that Grandma Moynihan did after a nun read a list to the class of students whose tuition, during the Great Depression, was not paid.

Biden was not Obama’s first choice. His first choice was Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia. And although Evan Bayh received serious consideration, he was vetoed by far left groups for being too conservative. Bayh opposed partial birth abortion. The so-called National Organization for Women (NOW) prevailed upon Gore to not pick Bayh as a running mate in 2000 and other left wing kooks who have a kindred spirit in Obama succeeded again. Tensions with Russia have underscored the need for an adult and an experienced one on the ticket. It was Illinois' other Senator, Dick Durbin, who pushed hard fro Biden once again proving that even a broken clock is accurate twice a day. Although Biden was chosen for his foreign policy background, his roll out speech in Springfield stressed his domestic priorities. He is a good friend of John McCain but wasted NO TIME slugging him. Biden declared, "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader." He also blasted McCain for employing the same "swift-boat" tactics that he once deplored and was, himself, a victim of by Bush-Rove in 2000.

Biden is a superb choice, the best possible choice Obama could have made. He’s a regular guy who connects with ordinary people. As much as the liberal crazed media ridicules him for talking too much and for his gaffes, his so-called gaffes often resonate right-on with the mind set of the American people. While he is well known for his endless remarks during senate hearings, his lesser known quips are priceless.

Here are a couple that come to mind:
1. "Rudy Giuliani is the least qualified person to seek the presidency since George Bush and all of his sentences contain one noun, one verb and 911."
2. When asked during a debate to say something nice about the person standing next to him, he quipped that he thought it was a stupid exercise and proceeded to tell Dennis Kucinich that what he liked most about him was his wife.

Today he said of his own wife, "Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Jill, who you’ll meet soon, is drop dead gorgeous...she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem." It s great that the guy has a hot wife, is 66 years old and wants you to know that about her. Who does that? Regular guys–like Joe Biden.