Joe Biden for President - Yes, You Heard Me

All right, I know it's a little late. But as readers know, I've been a speechwriter on a Presidential campaign, and I did not use the Huffington Post pulpit to pronounce my support for my candidate. My candidate was Joe Biden.

I went to work as a speechwriter for Senator Biden several months ago. At first, the work came in small drips, and that allowed me to continue working for my other clients. A dramatic uptick came in July, when a deluge of writing requests came pouring in from the Biden team, coinciding with the release of the Senator's autobiography, and it was at that point that I began working day and night to write and email speeches to Iowa, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.

Not a day would go by when a request did not come my way. Education remarks, talking points, can I speak as a surrogate for the Senator at an event in Los Angeles?

I was happy to do it. Why? Because I truly believed that Senator Biden was the best person to be President of the United States. I wanted to work for him, not just because it was a job, which was important, but because I believed in the cause.

I was aware that Hillary and Barack were more popular. The person I share office space with in Los Angeles, Mitchell Schwartz, runs the Obama campaign in California. At various times, I'd have 20 Obama people running by my office, while I sat at my desk, trying to concentrate on my work and trying to avoid the fanatics at the door. They would often ask me how I thought the race would turn out. I'd just smile and do my work.

Senator Biden did not have the celebrity in this race, and because he's from Delaware, where money's not much of an issue when you're running for office, he did not have the fund raising prowess of Hillary (from Chicago, lives in New York) and Barack (Chicago).

I was captivated by the Senator's own life story, which I read in his book, a book that was emailed to me one July Saturday and which I had a frantic six hours to read before I had to start writing a speech about it.

Biden, as some of you probably know, was 29 when he was elected to the Senate. His wife and child were killed in a car accident a couple of months prior to his inauguration. He's a family guy, and he went home every single day to care for his sons, Hunter and Beau.

He built an incredible career in the Senate, a career spent doing the right thing. Not because it was popular - the Violence Against Women's Act was ahead of its time. Not because it was easy - urging an intervention to end genocide in Bosnia was initially considered a request to become mired in a Vietnam-ish quagmire.

So I looked beyond the hype and went to the best candidate, and I was proud to work for Joe.

I traveled to Iowa for the first time in August. I had never been here, and I had not met many of the people working on the campaign, the people I knew not by name but by their email addresses.

It should be noted that the stamina of these candidates is remarkable. They work night and day, they get on a plane many nights, or drive long distances, and show up at event at 7 a.m, refreshed, and give a speech similar to one he's given many times. Four days of traveling with Joe Biden were enough to exhaust me for a week, but he did not have the luxury of exhaustion. He was competing. He kept going, for months.

One day, in University City, I had a couple of free hours, and so I walked around the college town, searching for the best sandwich shop. As I ate the lunch with the velocity of someone who had been stuck in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, I dusted myself off and walked back toward the hotel, only to encounter Senator Biden, sweaty, in work out clothes. He had used the time off to go to the gym. I worked out by lifting a sandwich. To each their own.

When I would go to an event and watch the Senator speak, I would be absolutely enthralled. Here was a politician who really knew his stuff; he wasn't following the other candidates on Iraq, he was leading them. He knew the heads of state from around the world, and his stories were incredible. He knew when to lower his voice for dramatic effect, he knew when to make a joke. Like a standup comedian, he often told the same joke, with the same emphasis each time, as if it was the first time he'd done the material.

Back in Los Angeles, I often wore my ill-fitting Joe Biden t-shirt, really for narcisstic reasons. Whenever I'd wear it, people would say something. "Biden's a good man," "My friends love Biden." I'm in a word-of-mouth business, so engaging people who knew of Biden was good advertising for him, and for me.

I returned to Iowa this week, for the last days of the campaign. The office was humming, with mostly young people who were able to sacrifice many months of their lives to pack up and move to Iowa. A young man, Sam, picked me up at an airport one day and told me he had moved to Iowa from North Carolina for the campaign. He was living with his third supporter family.

We spent time working the phones, calling people and asking them to stand up for Joe Biden at their caucuses. Most of the people hung up on me. After hundreds of such phone calls, I couldn't blame them.

My first night in town, I was taken to dinner by the reporters from one of the major newspapers. It was me, about 20 of the Barack Obama people, and a few others I'd recognized from TV. There were only about 10 tables in the entire restaurant. The table next to us featured George Stephanopoulos and John Edwards' campaign manager. Jeff Greenfield was an another table. Sim Farar, the great Democratic Party fundraiser, was there with his wife Debbie. The Barack people at my table seemed very calm, very confident.

The next day, I traveled to Waterloo, Iowa, to an event for my boss. I drove up with a reporter from The Washington Post and a reporter from Gannett. The next morning, we met up with someone from ABC News, and we went to see the Senator speak at a morning rally.

As always, the Senator's family was with him. Now, this also needs to be mentioned, because everyone on the campaign talks about it, and every reporter following Senator Biden brings it up: this guy has the nicest family you've ever met. I mean that with all due respect to your family, and to mine. These are the happiest, most sincere group of individuals you'd ever want to meet. They're not snobs. They don't think they're better than anybody. They work hard - some of them had jobs on the campaign, and I'm not talking about no-show jobs, these were people who worked like dogs.

If you can judge a man by his family, then this was another good reason to work for Joe Biden.

Back in Des Moines, I first went to the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Sitting in the coffee shop, Bill and Hillary walked by, with their entourage in tow. I forgot what it must be like to be them, with the Secret Service and all of the people hanging on.

I went to the Science Center for our party, and watched as the results trickled in. I was disappointed in the outcome, but the mood still seemed pretty good. One elderly woman in a walker burst out in tears, but otherwise, we were resigned to the results.

For the staff, now they knew that they were headed home, not to New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina at the very last minute. They would be able to rest, be with their families, go back to their jobs.

When I got back to my hotel, after the caucuses had culminated, a Barack supporter accosted me in the lobby of the Marriott to tell me she had been to 18 states for Barack, as a volunteer. She said she thought he had an almost mystical appeal, and then she asked, "Do you think I'm crazy?" I said, "Yes," gave her the cell phone number of my office mate Mitchell, and raced to the elevator.

For me, it's back to work for my clients, but first, I have to choose between Barack and Hillary. I have a strong opinion on which of the two I believe would make a better President, and I'll let you know my opinion before New Hampshire.

For Joe Biden, I watched that debate from New Hampshire, and it missed the good Senator from Delaware. Joe's up for reelection in November. I plan on supporting him, and I plan on sending him a check; I hope you do, too. The Senate needs Joe Biden, and so do the American people.

Comments

[LizM]

Wait a second...what speeches did you write for Senator Biden...exactly? I mean, what do you know about Iraq, for example?...just wondering...

[dshall]

Good article, Matt. If only the support for Biden could've grown at a faster pace. Each day more and more Americans were seeing the light. It's too bad the MSM and the youth of Iowa have so much power - America definitely got it wrong!

[boopboopadoop]

Interesting to get the perspective from someone close to the Biden ncampaign. I volunteered to do some calling to Iowans, and knew it was a lost cause. But I also strongly believed in Joe Biden, and still do. It's criminal that he never got the press attention he so rightly deserved. Why was he ignored?

And watching the New Hampshire debate last Saturday was painful, because Joe Biden deserved to be up there. I think he would have been the clear winner, and maybe...finally...Americans would have paid attention.

I'm disgusted with a system that rewards the wrong people, for the wrong reasons, and ignores
the most capable (and electable) candidate.

We needed Joe Biden.

America, you got it wrong.

[GPM56]

Matt, I'm surprised you think you now must choose between Barack and Hillary. It was excrutiatingly hard for my husband and I to let go of our hope that Joe Biden would be the country's next president, but it was immediately clear to us that, if Biden was out, the only alternative was John Edwards.

Strong doses of Biden's intelligence and common sense were apparently an antidote to Barack's "mystic" powers, as we have thus far refused to drink the Obama Kool-Aid. And while we agree with Alan Greenspan that Hillary could do the job, we do not believe she's electable in the general. I know it's not fair but, sometimes, that's how life goes.

I realize there are several significant differences between Edwards' positions on the issues and Joe Biden's, but I will never forget how, in the heat of the 2004 campaign, John Edwards and his family came back to Lawrence, Kansas (a state redder than Bozo's nose and possessed of one entire electoral vote) solely because the Kerry-Edwards train inadvertently failed to make pre-scheduled stop at 3:00 a.m. to address the few KU students who were there waiting, hoping to hear even a few paltry words from the Democratic candidates.

When the Edwards family came back to Lawrence, I watched as thousands of people stood for hours in the rain (the man behind me was using a walker) to hear John speak. And he didn't let us down. He reminded us that there are no red states or blue states, but that we are the United States, where ALL Americans counted.

John Edwards sacrificed money, energy and valuable time to make sure that people who had little if anything to give him -- people whose votes would never put him in office -- knew they were valued.

And, since I am forced to choose change over experience, that's the kind of change that I think is most likely to lead the country out of the abyss.

[tigesgirl]

I am flabbergasted at some of these recent posts. Why would a person with all the experience in bipartisan cooperation, international legislation and negotiation, judicial appointments, etc. that Biden has-- why would he ever accept a vice presidential position to someone clearly inferior to him in knowledge, accomplishments and experience? Moreover, Biden has already been asked to be Secretary of State once. This position, too, would be a step down. Biden consistently asked a question on the stump this year: "Wouldn't you want someone as your president who is qualified to be Secretary of State"? None of the remaining contenders except Richardson fit that qualification. Edwards, should he be nominated (and I hope he is; he is my distant second choice to Biden) will need to choose someone like Richardson who is really interested in the the v.p. position. Obama, well he's just hopeless. We have no idea what he will do about anything.

[LizM]

You're wrong about one thing...it's MORE than a little late.

Two truths have become crystallized in my mind as a result of the Iowa caucuses. Number one, the national media and blogosphere have been amazingly content and obliviously unapologetic over the last couple of years as they went about their solemn duty of knowingly and purposefully depriving a large portion of the American people of the opportunity to witness and assess the superior qualifications of a great leader. The national media have never taken Senator Biden seriously and this reflects very poorly on all of them, whether they realize it or not.

Any positive media attention that Senator Biden received could only be described as pure, unadulterated tokenism at its most inconsequential. Leave it to David Brooks, God bless his own brand of token attention to what matters, to admit that had the national media paid a fraction of the attention to Joe Biden - from the beginning - that they lavished on their three pre-ordained leading Democrats, Senator Biden's campaign would have been at least competitive, if not victorious. The funny thing is, David seems to think that this is absolution. It doesn't come close.

The national media and blogosphere have proven again, and without a doubt, that their collective incompetence and ineptitude know no bounds.

Secondly, it is very easy to blame the media for being lazy, incompetent, or worse, as the case may be. It is far more difficult to take personal responsibility for our own enlightenment. It has become clear that the gullibility of the electorate, from one end of the country to the other, and our own laziness when it comes to ensuring that we are at least half way informed to make an intelligent decision about one of the most critical elections in a very long time are also limitless.

A Biden presidency was written in the stars. Unfortunately, too many people in this country have their sights set so much lower. When did Americans become so content to settle for so much less than the very best?

[Jillianw]

I awoke today to listening to the news of the confrontration between the US and Iranian ships.

Once again I cried.

This was the right time for Joe Biden.

[SoonerThought]

Amen, brother. I sent Joe several checks already, and damn it, I will again. America lost when Iowa dumped Joe Biden.

[SCharb]

I like Joe Biden. He was my second choice. Even though he's not running for president anymore, at least he should get some positive media attention for his work in the Senate.

Biden's people have a duty to make sure to draw the cameras for his next major action. Positive coverage is just what we need to restore our faith in government.

[ProudLiberalDan]

Joe Biden is one of the few people with an Iraq plan that makes sense.

The country WILL break up sooner or later. It was a false construction in the first place.

In any event, I hope Joe Biden is near the top of Obama/Clinton/Edwards' list of potential VPs.

[cephalgia]

I too believe Joe Biden is a good and intelligent man. Hopefully, whoever the next Democratic President is, they will get Joe Biden on their team at once.
I know he said he wasn't running for Secretary of State, but damn, wouldn't that be an amazing appointment! Finally, some respectability and credibility in that office again.

[Mickey777]

Matt, what an absolutely wonderfully written article!! Sen. Joe Biden - the American President we never had the chance to get to know! So while we all wait for Joe"s return to the Senate on January 22 - please read our version of a PRESS RELEASE letting everyone know that WE WANT JOE BACK ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL! If this works " we won"t have time to remember that Joe tried to withdraw from the race! Joe Biden Supporters say "No Second Choice" - read all about it at:
http://biden-iowacaucuscountdown.blogspot.com/2008/01/press-release-biden-supporters-say-no.html
Michele, IL

[tigesgirl]

Joe is still the best person to be president. I canvassed for him for 4 weeks in New Hampshire and almost to a person the team I was heading found positive responses. Everyone said "I like Joe" "I really like Joe Biden".
But no one thought he could win because of the megadollars Obama was raking in. Joe is everything in substance that Obama is not. I will be so disappointed, Matt, if you decide to endorse Obama. He is the least experienced person to run for the presidency in my lifetime (and I'm well over 50). His rhetoric and oratory far supercede his abilities. We really don't know what he stands for. What does "change" mean? The Huffington Post is supposed to be rather liberal: there's nothing liberal about Obama. His statements on Iraq and Iran are downright scary. He shows no compassion at all for the growing numbers of poor and the struggling middle class. He parrots the positions of Biden, Edwards, Dodd on any given night. If one wants to go for a real fighter, and the most liberal of the remaining candidates, one must turn to John Edwards---whom the media is about to snuff out.
As for Joe Biden getting back in; I don't think so. He has given it his best shot--"on my terms" he always said. He's gone home to be the best foreign relations chair the Senate has had in half a century.
Please, either endorse John Edwards or don't endorse anyone.

[Rescisco]

Thanks for your post. Biden, and my favorite Chris Dodd, made a few critical mistakes. They showed up for an election with a brain and with knowledge. Neither Jesus, Chuck Norris, nor Oprah endorsed them, and they had the audacity to suggest that serious times might require serious leaders. Remember, the the average voter has the mental acuity of Brittney Spears. I think we should send the entire electorate to rehab.

[tsegat01]

Thank you for sharing your campaign experiences with the rest of us. Your words confirmed the impression I had of the candidate and the Biden family.

This is a great loss for the American people. His voice was silenced much too soon.