This book, a sheer delight, is an account of the working relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Given Biden's probably nomination, it is certainly timely. I will fill this review as I read.
Barack Obama gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic national convention. He electrified the crowd with his message of unity. The buzz that created led to his election to the Senate that November from Hawaii.
Joe Biden was elected to the Senate from Delaware in November of 1972. He was only 29 on election day, but turned 30 before assuming his Senate seat in January. He was placed on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and he was still there when a freshman Senator just elected from Hawaii joined that committee in January of 2005.
Joe Biden has lived a life marred by unspeakable tragedy. As he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in a stunning upset over his opponent, he and his wife Neilia had three kids---Beau, Hunter, and Naomi, whom they called Amy. Before he could take his seat in January of 1973 a tragic car accident took the lives of Neilia and Amy.
On December 18, 1972, while Joe was in DC getting ready to become a United States Senator, his wife and three kids in Wilmington pulled out into an intersection and a tractor trailer smashed into the driver's side of their vehicle. Neilia and Amy were killed. The boys survived but suffered severe injuries. This was the defining tragedy of Joe Biden's life. P. 19-20
Obama debated thoroughly whether he should run for president in 2008. He was young and inexperienced, only in his first term as US Senator. He could have waited, but decided evidently that the opportunity was there in '08 and who knows what the future would hold as far as opportunities were concerned. He ran on a platform of a more hopeful America. P. 37
Obama, a man who chooses his words wisely, was initially amazed at Joe Biden. "Man, the guy can just talk and talk." He could roll eyes listening to his Delaware colleague in committee.
From the beginning Joe Biden has been a strong fighter for civil rights. It's good to find this out. According to this book, he and Barack began to bond together after Obama's famous civil rights speech after the controversy over his pastor's comments regarding American's civil rights history when Biden praised the speech. Biden has been a work within the system person rather than a bomb thrower on civil rights. In this way he seems to have an inherent conservatism which makes sense to place him in the moderate wing of the Democratic Party.
Obama seemed to desire Biden as his VP pick from the get-go, but he did consider others and he was a bit uneasy about Joe because of his volubility. He knew that he would have to deal with him daily to keep him in the corral. P. 68
Obama was a supremely confident President unlike our present incumbent. He welcomed all points of view confident in his ability to make the best decision. He told Biden he always wanted his unvarnished opinions even when they disagreed. He was not looking for sycophants like Trump. P. 74
Obama's maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who raised him in her 10th floor apartment in Honolulu, died two days before he was elected President. P. 76
The more I read about Joe Biden, the more I like him. He is a man of great substance.
When informed that John McCain had picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, Biden asked, "Who's Sarah Palin?" P. 91
Barack and Joe showed early in the 2008 campaign that they had "chemistry." P. 93
The excitement of Obama's election and the gathering at Grant Park in Chicago and the hope it encouraged. Now look at us. How sad for the country. P. 107
November 20, 2008, Joe Biden turned 66. Hard to believe he is now the presumed Democratic nominee for President. P. 109
In developing his working relationship with Obama, VP Biden had Fritz Mondale and his relationship with President Carter as his model. He wanted significant access and roles to play and the openness to speak his candid mind to the President. P. 112
Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been 80 yrs. old had he been alive on January 20, 2009. P. 126
Some foolish people thought that Obama's election had magically ushered in a new postracial nation. Our nation's long tortured racial history could not be made to disappear in one albeit remarkable election. P. 159
Assuming the VP job, Joe Biden had a boss for the first time in his working life.
The author devotes several pages to the Skip Gates incident in the summer of '09. The President said publicly that the Cambridge police officer had behaved "stupidly." Obama called the officer and sort of apologized. He caught a lot flack for this word. Amazing now give our current POTUS and the outrageous things he says every day
The author includes a long discussion of Biden's disagreements with General Stanley McChrystal over Afghanistan, which does not interest me.
Did Obama consider removing Biden in favor of HRC in the 2012 reelection bid? P. 212
The author of this book seems to stress that VP Biden was always loyal to President Obama.
Obama knew that Biden was impetuous, but he cared deeply how Americans are treated. P. 227
Beau Biden started having symptoms by 2013. Hearing voices, buzzing sounds, that kind of thing. He was the two-term attorney general in Delaware who seemed to have a great political future ahead of him. He introduced his father at the Democratic Convention in 2008. He was labeled careful and deliberate, unlike his garrulous father. P. 229-230
"Life is so difficult to discern." Barack Obama P. 240
Nixon joked that Spiro Agnew was his shield against assassination. Who in his right mind would want Agnew as President? P. 250
The author's account of President Obama's surprise presentation of the Medal of Freedom to VP Biden is gripping and so poignant. Unlike the reprobate Rush Limbaugh, here is a man who truly deserved the honor.
The last topic in the book is the author's comments on why Obama has never publicly endorsed or seemingly not supported Biden's desire to be President. Biden chose not to run in 2016 pointing to the tragic cancer death of his son Beau. Fair enough, but this author hints he thinks another reason is that Biden didn't get any encouragement from President Obama as if he, Obama, preferred Hillary Clinton. Not way to know for sure Obama's feelings. In the Democratic primaries this year, Obama did not make an endorsement. It does make you wonder. Despite this sterling account of probably the best President/VP team in American history and their love and respect for each other, Obama has publicly anointed Biden. Perhaps the Medal of Freedom was a consolation.
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