One of the things we've been told about Joe Biden lately is that he takes the Amtrak home to Wilmington at the end of the day. The day I shared a car with him, I saw for myself that he doesn't just take the train. He works hard, and what I saw made an indelible impression.
It was late on a Friday afternoon in the mid-nineties, and I had finished some work in Washington and was meeting my wife up in New York for the weekend. I was in the next to last row of an Amtrak car when Senator Biden took the seat behind me. Soon after we left the station, he got on his cellphone. While a small part of my brain soaked in the newspaper, most of my attention was on what I was hearing.
This guy was working hard, and he was very, very smart. He had at least two conversations. One was with who I presumed to be a Senate staffer, and the other was with another Senator. The conversations focused on language in some domestic legislation. I was surprised and impressed with the level to which he drilled down. This was not just a big picture guy who left it to the staff to iron out the details. He had a deep and intricate knowledge not only of the subject matter of the legislation, but of how small changes in the bill could have huge impacts on what it was he was trying to accomplish.
What he was trying to accomplish was central to his efforts. What I witnessed was an earnestness, and a total lack of cynicism, that took me by surprise. This wasn't about anything other than getting the best results from this piece of legislation.
The other thing that impressed me about this guy was how he talked to the staffer, and to the other Senator. The tone with each was the same. He was collaborative, conversational, practical, and he didn't pull rank. He showed each of them respect, and gave them reason to take ownership in the issues they were discussing. At my law firm, we insist that everyone from our runners to our senior partners are treated with the same level of respect, so there is very little that impresses me more than to see someone who appears to operate under the same creed.
In the years that followed, I noticed that whenever I saw Joe Biden on television, he would address whoever he was talking to, or talking with, the same way he addressed the staffer and the other Senator. Simply put, he is who he is, and it's easy to understand why he has colleagues who like him on both sides of the aisle. There were post-9/11 days when there was no room for debate with the neocon view of the world, and I worried deeply about what was happening to our country. I remember the first times I started feeling the least bit hopeful again about where we could go as a nation came when I would see Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel appear together on a Sunday talk show. Here were two men, two patriots, from different parties who could reach consensus on what we needed to do to get out of the mess we were in, and realized that the consensus was more important than the partisan divide.
By 2007, during the first Democratic debates, my personal choices were, in order, Obama and Biden. (As you can imagine, I'm a happy guy today) My problem then with anybody but Obama was that Biden, Edwards, Clinton and most of the rest didn't try to stop the nonsense that would become the second Iraq war. But Joe Biden became, in my mind, the best of the rest. As Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he has created a consensus among grownups, including Republicans Hagel and Lugar. Like almost every other candidate, he was wrong on Iraq, but his mind remained supple and open to real world solutions. (His idea of separating Iraq into three separate regions, Sunni, Shiite and Kurd, has, to a sad degree, come about de facto through ethic cleansing.) On the Judiciary Committee, he showed a level of leadership that should make those of us who believe in a right to privacy feel secure.
At his core, Joe Biden has proven to be the guy I saw on the Amtrak to Wilmington: a brilliant, earnest guy who knows how to treat people. When he got off the train that Friday night to go be with his family, I remember thinking that the people of Delaware were getting their money's worth. We all may get the chance to get our money's worth.
Regarding Joe Biden's infamous gaffes, somebody who talks as much as he does is bound to stumble on his words sometimes, but his earnestness and sincerity is what makes it different. If a calculating person makes a stupid mistake, people tend to be less forgiving.
Thank you Illinois and Delaware.
Or hadn't you heard.
It's been a common knowledge at least in this area that he rides the Metro to Washington, takes out the garbage - that's no news to us regular folks. But no, I have not heard that he shares drying dishes with his wife, Jill Biden, although it won't be a surprise.
By his demeanor, you'll never know he is one of the most powerful Senator in Washington. To this day, he remains just like that. Approachable and funny.
Joe is the most under appreciated and under rated Senator. Thanks to Senator Obama - Joseph Biden, US Senator from Delaware will finally have his moment. But don't expect him to change.
He will always be just that - regular folk, good father, husband and a dedicated public servant !
Here's to Joe, and here's to Delaware !
Thanks for the insite.
I'm so excited about this Team!!!!
Now let's make it happen!
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans and Russo-Georgian war .
So some one must have to feel responsible and do the job ; late in the office , in the train and at home after getting a lovely kiss and dinner from a lovely wife . That hard working person is Senator Joe Biden .
OBAMA / BIDEN 08
Carol
Obama-Biden 08
And he may be the only person in DC that can use all the levers of power that Cheney is leaving behind.
I CAN'T WAIT..........
Biden was my initial pick for President until I got to know and respect Senator Obama. I was for Gen. Wesley Clark for VP because I believe he is the attack dog that can do damage to John "POW" McCain. Still, I am happy that Joe Biden is on-board, working to help us change this country after the years and years of damage caused by the thugs currently in office.
WELCOME ABOARD, Joe! And thanks, Alan!
He is the only Republican who is even near to being a real human being when it comes to fixng something the Republicans have screwed up.