Last week's Democratic National Convention was filled with many speeches by important and powerful people in American politics. Ranging from the President and First Lady to former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. While these people, and others, gave moving and persuasive speeches as to why Hillary Clinton should be our next President, one speech specifically stuck out to me. The speech of current Vice President Joe Biden was filled with anecdotes and facts that were very compelling and made me think about how much I actually know about a man who is one guy removed from being President of the United States.
Joe Biden was born in 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and has spent much of his adult life devoted to public office. Before becoming Vice President, Biden served as an extremely well-regarded and successful Senator in Delaware. He, twice, began campaigning to be President, but both times dropped out relatively early. Many people thought and hoped he would give it a go again for the 2016 election, but late last year, he announced he would not be running.
After losing his first wife and one of his daughters in 1972, Biden lost his son in the spring of 2015 to brain cancer. Many speculated his son's death as a primary reason for Biden not entering the race.
So, what does Biden really stand for? Who is he besides these bibliographical facts? Well, those are tough questions to answer.
My first real impression of Joe Biden was formed by watching him debate Paul Ryan during the 2012 election. Biden had already been VP for a couple of years, and I, of course, knew who he was, but I had no idea what he was really like.
Biden, during that specific debate, came across a little sassy, for lack of a better word. He was feisty and direct and made it clear that he disagreed with a lot of what Paul Ryan was saying. I liked him. To me, politics is often filled with people putting on smiles and saying the polite and correct thing in order to please their constituents. Biden did not seem to do this, he did not seem like the typical politician and I admired, and still admire his passion to truthfully speak his mind.
At the DNC he spoke with courage and wit and force. He made it clear why he was supporting Clinton, or perhaps more importantly in his mind, knocking down Trump. I genuinely think Joe Biden is a great man and great politician and I hope the end of the Obama administration is not the last we will see of "Middle-Class Joe."
