Biden's Story Takes Center Stage
If it were not for the emotional threads of Barack Obama's personal story, it seems very likely that more attention would be paid to Joseph Biden's own deeply moving biography.
The vice president-elect has largely kept to the shadows during and after the general election - defying prognostications that his penchant for rhetorical largesse would irk the Obama team. His 36-years in the Senate, meanwhile, gives him little of the "newness" luster that voters, reporters and the like find so appealing in the incoming president.
But Biden's career in politics is defined by qualities - wild successes, personal and professional setback, perseverance, criticism and redemption - that in any other environment would demand more spotlight.
And on Saturday, as Obama rode the Amtrak train to his inauguration in Washington D.C. the Delaware Democrat's story took center stage. Biden, who introduced the president-elect to the crowd, began the proceedings by waxing nostalgically about his daily commutes to Washington and his fondness for his home state.
"James Joyce once wrote: 'when I die, Dublin will be written in my heart,'" said the incoming vice president. "Well, when I die, Delaware will be written in mine."
But it was Obama who made the event a poignant tribute to Delaware's longtime Senator. Nearly the first half of his roughly ten-minute address was spent drawing lessons from Biden's life.
"Joe Sr. taught his son about the values that stretched longer than the dollar, the dignity of a hard days work, the belief that anyone should be able to make it if they try," said Obama. "And the central lesson that when we Americans get knocked down, we always, always get back up on our feet. Those are the values that the American people hold in common... Those are the values that Joe carried with him to the Senate. You sent him there when he was just 30. That's when tragedy struck. Suddenly this man, who had a limitless future before him had suffered more than most people could imagine. That's when Joe Biden got back up on his feet."
"He didn't move away from Delaware," Obama went on. "Instead, day after day, month after month, year after year, he came here - to this station - and boarded the train to our nation's capital. And then, night after night, month after month, year after year, he rode that train back home in the evening to raise his boys and a beautiful family alongside his wife Jill. He would be the first to tell you that he didn't do it alone - he had the people of this city and this state with him every step of the way. Now, Delaware, I'm asking Joe Biden to take one more ride to Washington."
In many ways, Biden is an ideal counterpart to Obama. While Obama's political career has been on a relatively straight trajectory towards the White House, Biden's contained many zigs and zags. Shortly after winning a seat in the Senate, he lost his wife and one-year old daughter in an automobile accident. Laboring on, he stayed in the Senate, racking up legislative and political achievements that made him a rising Democratic star. When he launched his first presidential campaign in 1988, it was in the mold much like Obama's.
"There are definitely similarities," he told me during an interview I conducted with him for Newsweek in the summer of 2007. "One thing is, I'm waging the same campaign today, but it's a lot harder to wage it when you are over 60 than when you are in your mid-40s."
Only his presidential aspirations crash-landed amidst allegations of plagiarism and medical trauma. Eventually, it was assumed that his role in Washington would be that of elder statesman and foreign policy firebrand; his command of the issues was respected by everyone even if his penchant for verbosity was often mocked. And so, when he launched his 2008 primary campaign a large swath of the questions he fielded where whether he'd like to be Secretary of State - a somewhat disrespectful type of query that never seemed to get under his skin. When Biden failed to earn more than one percent of the Iowa Caucus vote he went back to the Senate, where he would assume enough influence to spur the question: why had he ever wanted to leave Congress in the first place.
His selection as vice president - almost every Obama aide I've talked to preferred him over the other choices - would finally draw him away from the Senate. And the ticket's victory in November would bring him, twenty years after his first effort, into the executive branch of government. But it also took him away from Delaware. And on Saturday, he said his unofficial goodbyes to his beloved home state.
"The great thing about [my wife and my] love affair with Amtrak is how truly close and personal the friends I've made over the years have become," Biden said. "They come to our homes in the summer, and it use to be - before it got too big - they'd come to our Christmas parties. Thanks for taking care of me all of these years.
"I promise you we will not let you down," he added. "We have promises to keep, promises to our children and our grandchildren, promises to one another, and quite frankly, promises to the world. Folks, this is more than an ordinary train ride. This is a new beginning."
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January 17, 2009 02:53 PM