Why I Love Joe Biden

For those of us who feel that politicians today are weather-vanes with no personal core there is a remedy. Watching Mitt Romney change his opinions over the course of the last few years, or months, or in some cases weeks, depending on who he is speaking to one has to miss a politician who knows who he is.

Watching a smooth, some say cold and calculating man like President Obama run everything up the flagpole three times before he forms an opinion on it can be distasteful.

And then.....you have Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a politician from a different age. Biden says things the wrong way sometime. He has become a bit of a caricature of himself, contrasted against the bloodless and smooth President the contrast has been too sharp. From getting ahead of the message on gay rights,( enough trial balloons had not gone up) to his laughable moments like being picked up on a microphone telling the President that his healthcare bill was a " big F***ing deal Biden makes mistakes.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves this. Are mistakes that come from intellectually honesty and passion for a belief, a sincere belief, a negative.

In 2008 there is no question that of the Democratic Candidates for President only Hillary Clinton had a resume that made her as credible a candidate for President as Joe Biden. Indeed most observers, from the right and the left, have stated over and over that in the early contests Biden won debate after debate. He was a generation too late. Being the most experienced, the most ready to be President means little now.

Joe Biden was a 29 year old just elected United States Senator when his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident. Now a single father Biden stayed in his career and returned home each night by train to be a father, an active father.

Biden ran for President twice, in 1988 his plagiarism issue in a speech derailed him. This was more a question of getting ahead of himself and not attributing than anything else but it again shows how are off we often are. Think about the things we have forgiven candidates for in recent years, and this was enough to derail Joe Biden.

Joe Biden is an old school politician. Pressing the flesh, bonhomie and back slapping. A union guy.

Vice President Biden gave a speech last Friday at an event for the families of fallen soldiers that perhaps no other politician could give. He spoke of the loss of a loved one, about his own experience, and while honoring and sharing these families grief he spoke to the survivors about the rest of his life. If you have not read the speech you should find it and do so. It was heartfelt and it demonstrated the heart, compassion, and goodness of this man who gets not enough respect and appreciation.

A man we all should be proud to know is our Vice President. Incidentally when the campaigning is over, a man that his colleagues from across the aisle respect others in his party. The respect you have from those who differ with you often is a strong reflection on your ethics and abilities.

Joe Biden is a politician I respect. About how many can you say that?