I'm from Delaware and I've met Joe Biden. Many, many of us Delawareans have. Unlike the OTHER Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Biden is as advertised. You see him everywhere around Delaware, and he is a good, decent, caring, accessible guy. I write this, because I wanted to share a real impression of Joe Biden from on the ground here in Delaware to those who might only get to see an impression through the often jaded or sanitized political lens.
The two points of this email are that based on my personal experience: (1) Joe Biden is as advertised, and (2) Joe Biden is a friend to the Jewish Community.
More below...
Joe Is As Advertised:
Unlike that OTHER Vice Presidential candidate, Joe is what the Obama-Biden campaign says he is. I've had the opportunity to meet Joe Biden a few times, before he ran for President or Vice President and while his Senate seat was as safe as they come, and he is the real deal. I've even seen Joe Biden in a depely personal moment, when he gave a eulogy for a mutual friend in St. Joseph's Catholic Church on the Brandywine. This was a very dear friend of Joe's who died way too young of Lymphoma. He is a hard-working man of the people. And yes, he talks too much sometimes. His eulogy at that funeral was beautiful, and it was an appropriate length and many fellow Delawareans jokingly said afterward how it was amazing that he wasn't still talking :-) He obviously knows foreign policy and he does take the Amtrak train home. No one can accuse the public Joe Biden of being made up. I think that in the debate on Thursday, the real Biden and the real Palin will come through. In Palin's case, that maverick reformer facade can only hide the inexperienced novice and socially misguided person inside up to a certain point.
Joe Is A Friend Of The Jewish Community:
As for Obama's ability to get support from Jewish voters, I say that besides a recognition of the fact that all of the doubt and concern among Jewish voters is based on false stories and manipulation from the right wing, Jewish voters should also look to the kind of person that Obama picked as his running mate and then look at the kind of person that McCain picked (yikes!).
Years ago I saw Joe Biden show up rather unexpectedly and with little fan-fare at a charity event for the Jewish Community Center in Wilmington and speak to the group and talk with everyone and shake hands and listen. I was only in my twenties when I first saw him there and I thought "Wow, that's Joe Biden right there." I was able to walk right up and meet him. And he was effusive in his support for the local Jewsish Community. Joe is a good friend and supporter of the Jewish Community in Delaware and he is widely known to be so. I've seen him place support ads in the Jewish Voice newspaper wishing the Jewish Community a happy and blessed new year for Rosh Hashanah. I've seen Beau Biden's family at the exercise facility at the Jewish Community Center. Joe's daughter-in-law is Jewish, which Joe has publicly spoken about in the past.
I thought I'd bring this up because I read the entry about the Obama-Biden campaign's Rosh Hashanah wishes that were sent out, and I wanted to note that I've seen first hand from Biden that this is not just political lip-service.