I've been a fan of Joe Biden for a long time, and I think Barack made the right choice when he picked him as his running mate UPDATE: It's Official! Below is my Joe Biden story, adapted from an earlier diary that I wrote while I was working on his presidential campaign. I've edited it down to take the focus off of my personal experiences and highlight why Joe deserves to be on the ticket - even if it's the reverse of what I was hoping for a couple of years ago.
If you don't know Joe's story, better people have summed it up. He's faced loss in a way that few of us have, and he has amazing courage. And while I came to the conclusion months ago that I was wrong, and that Barack Obama is the candidate and future president we need right now, it doesn't mean I've lost any affection for Joe. All of this still rings true to me, so here goes ...
I went up to Iowa for seven weeks in 2007-2008 to work for Joe Biden. It was a great experience - Iowans are amazingly nice, and the Iowa Caucus experience is something every American should take part in. After a month of campaign work in Iowa, I took three days off for Christmas. Things didn't go as planned. I got caught in a blizzard on my way home, and after an hour and a half of steady driving, I hit a patch of ice and did four doughnuts on I-35 South near Lamoni, IA.
It felt like the steering wheel left my hands. I was gliding on air. The person who broke really hard in front of me kept on going - I was all alone under a full moon. Any oncoming traffic and a part of my truck would have been ripped off. Somehow I kept the thing on the ground ... but I ended up in a ditch.
There was a statewide towing ban in Iowa at the time; if I had traveled a few more miles I would have been in Missouri and Triple A would have kicked in. I was still reeling from the whole experience - I was barely able to keep the thing on the ground. But I was alive and mostly well.
Right after I was pulled out, I saw a sign that said "Kansas City - 110." As I crossed into Missouri, I saw the exact same mileage. I wondered if I was crazy, or in some Hell reminiscent of "Groundhog Day." At this Sisyphusian moment I had a bit of an existential crisis - why do I keep working for campaigns? I felt like I was ready to go home. If there had been more oncoming traffic, or if the wind had been a little stronger, I wouldn't have walked away from that spinout. Why did keep on keeping on?
I grew up driving a 18 hour delivery route for the family business, but this was the hardest drive of my life; the next day, I barely made it to my Aunt's in St. Louis. When I got there, I asked myself - why go back to the long odds in Iowa, carrying the weight of political and spiritual exhaustion? I didn't know if I was doing the right thing, but I felt like I was investing my blood, sweat, money, and tears in America. I don't know if I'll ever receive dividends, but I still work on campaigns because it's all I can do for now. I tried running once, but for now - I'm doing all I can do for the country I love. And I felt like I was doing that with Senator Biden.
Maybe I'm doing it because of President Bush. The greatest tragedy of the Bush Presidency (aside from Katrina, Iraq, and 9/11) may be our missed opportunity to unite the world through peace. Foreign policy has always been my touchstone for evaluating leaders, and while Bush's behavior in Kyoto (along with many other foreign policy foibles) foreshadowed the coming disaster, we hoped and prayed that Bush was uniting us to overcome a perfect storm. Instead, he was fomenting one. We've blogged and lamented about the storm. We've had our hearts broken and our optimism foiled by Hurricane George. But some of us have come together in spite of Bush (or, in a backwards way, because of him).
The massive failure of policy-makers and so-called experts during the march to war made me very interested in finding out about the specific policy failures, and it made me very cynical about politics. Researching the Iraq War and Occupation after-the-fact was what first introduced me to Joe Biden. In addition to probing the differences between the Biden-Lugar resolution and the eventual Iraq War Resolution from Rep. Hastert, I learned about Joe's earlier work to curb presidential power. Most people here are aware of the "War Powers Act," but in 1995 Biden introduced the "Use of Force Act" which would have curbed the aggressive use of force by the executive. Because of Bush and McCain's warmongering with Iran, I wish the bill would have made it out of committee Hell, but I digress.
Biden impressed me with his grasp of the dangers of the unitary executive. I also knew from the language and intent of the Biden-Lugar resolution that in spite of Biden's war vote - a vote I completely disagreed with for a war I protested against - President Joe Biden would not have gone to war in March of 2003. Biden wouldn't have gone to war because he wouldn't have had the respect and support of the rest of the world - something the Biden-Lugar resolution mandated. I was very sad to learn later on from a Daschle staffer that two heroes of mine - Paul Wellstone and Russ Feingold - voted against the Biden-Lugar resolution; though I understand the motivation behind voting against all resolutions that could cause war, it was clear to most observers that Bush, despicably, was going to get some sort of movement on Iraq. Biden-Lugar, at least, would have provided a credible alternative to war. Unfortunately, when Joe Lieberman and a few other turncoat Democrats appeared in the Rose Garden with Bush to support the Hastert resolution, Biden-Lugar sank and all was lost.
During 2004, I began talking about politics again in a little place called The Soda Shop on Main Street in Davidson, NC. I befriended a blogger/writer and retired Hill staffer who was covering Plamegate with a focus on the lack of integrity on the part of Judith Miller and other reporters. We'd talk shop, and we'd talk about people I could work with in politics. Sen. Biden came up as someone my friend had admired since 1972 ... and someone who would allow me to pursue my interest in foreign relations. I applied for an internship with Sen. Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ended up in Washington that summer.
The internship in Sen. Biden's office was one of the best experiences of my life. To me, nothing is like waling into our nation's Capitol building. You feel the power of luminous ideas flowing in and out of neo-classical marble. You feel that if you had to die for these ideas, you could, and the world would be at peace. It's people like Barack Obama and Joe Biden that give that Capitol building its majesty and presence.
I started the internship on my birthday, and had the rare opportunity to visit many of the intergovernmental organizations with offices in DC, from the UN to the World Bank to the Organization of American States to the Inter American Development Bank ... and so on. I studied the upcoming German Bundestag elections using my rudimentary German language skills, and I looked at how the rest of the world was responding to Bush's America. I experienced the good and the bad of globalization, but most of all I experienced its perceived inevitability. I ran into senators; I intimidated Rick Santorum into giving me an elevator; on the reverse, Ted Kennedy trapped me in an elevator the second day of my tenure as I was too afraid to ask him to step aside to let me get off at my floor.
I saw Iraq from every angle. I went back and forth between wanting a withdraw, wanting us to restore stability and essential utilities, and wanting Iraq to work. And I started running in to the Senator, the Boss, Mr. Biden. I wasn't a fan of his vote on the Bankruptcy bill, butI found it odd that Biden was called a sell-out or (D-MBNA) when the second poorest senator wasn't a co-sponsor of the bill and didn't have anything to show for it.
The Biden I saw learned our names, gave the time of day to anyone who asked, commuted home daily to be with his family, didn't wear the $10,000 suits I would see on Bill Clinton later that year, talked straight, and walked the line. He doesn't drink, and he never cowered from his beliefs. If Biden were on the take, or if he were a true Beltway insider, he'd find a way to be higher on the richest Senator list. He's never met with a lobbyist, and he didn't invest in stocks to avoid conflicts of interest.
On Father's Day, 2005, after taping a segment at the CBS studio around the corner from my apartment, I was chatting with the Boss when I saw a yearning in his eyes, an intense desire to go home and spend time with his kids. That look almost knocked me down. I told him he should quit talking to me, he thanked me, and we parted ways. That moment did a lot for my opinion of Joe Biden, and the story about him commuting home every day to take care of his kids for twenty years ... that's not malarkey. He lives for his family with an earnestness that almost precludes him from serving as president.
I was planning to ask him about the Bankruptcy Bill at our intern Q&A with the Senator, but I talked to my writer friend from home about it before I committed to that question. He told me that there was no utility in asking a Senator why he voted for something that looked like it helped his state when I had the chance to pick the brain of one of the world's top foreign policy experts. Either way, I never got to ask a question, but I did hear more straight answers than I expected.
The Q&A was almost as impressive as a reception the Senator hosted early on in the summer, at which diplomats representing most of Europe came to honor one of Biden's staff members who worked on a NATO portfolio. At a time when Bush turned the world into a place where you were either us, Poland, or against us, the respect that these ambassadors had for Senator Biden amazed me. I was able to talk with a few of the ambassadors and representatives, and they described an admiration for Senator Biden built on a his knowledge of the intricacies of American-European policy and the relationships he has built and maintained over the years. After seeing Sen. Biden in action like that, I couldn't imagine him as anything but the next President of these United States.
So, as a progressive, as a liberal, as a pragmatist, as a blogger - why did I support Joe Biden? Aside from the amazing experience in his office, Irish-Catholic verisimilitude, and the like? Why not Obama, who shares both my experience as an organizer and who channels the "Kennedy thing," that je ne sais quoi of change?
Well, it wasn't a pragmatic choice. Biden didn't have the fame or the media coverage he had 20 years ago. And sure, much of it was because I'm a foreign policy wonk who thinks that any United States President at this critical a moment in world history has to be qualified to be Secretary of State as well. We've experienced eight years of what "experts" and "consultants" can do for a foreign policy. Part of my support had to do with the fact that, in 2002, Biden had the second best tack on the war of our presidential candidates. I've seen his diplomatic finesse at work, and I believed.
Really, that's what it comes down to for all of us. We fight over candidates because for those of us that are die-hard supporters, we believe in our choice. It's not a rational choice. It's not usually a logical thing, it's a primal thing. It's a connection. Deep down, I think we know that most of the Democratic candidates have the potential to be great presidents, but we believe in our pick. Joe Biden is somebody worth believing in.
I believe in Joe Biden because he's a straight-talker. I think many of us - especially myself - can appreciate the infrequent lapses in tact that come with honesty. I believe in Joe because he's the best of both worlds to me - experienced, but not a D.C. resident for life. He grew up middle class, he experienced unimaginable hardships, and he's not nearly as wealthy as he should be at his station. I believe in Joe because I've grown up, and it takes more than a saxophone and shades to impress me. I believe in Joe because he's made the sacrifices for his family that my family has had to make as my grandfather, grandmother and great-grandmother got sick and passed away over the last decade.
I believe in Joe because he acts like a man and stands up for his character and his loved ones - when he failed in 1988, he took the blame, he packed up and left Iowa gracefully, he survived a near-death experience and he became a better person. When he messed up at the beginning of 2007, he took responsibility, learned from the mistake, and became a much better candidate because of it. More than any other candidate, he's the opposite of Dubya - instead of being a blue blood that pretends to be a normal guy, he's a normal guy that has to act like a senator. Instead of acting smarter than he is, you know he dumbs it down for the Sunday morning pedantry of MTP, FTN, and others. He builds character, he takes responsibility without putting out fifty press releases about it, he learns from his mistakes, and he knows how to make our friends around the world care about us again.
I believe in Joe because of all the times he's ended up being right (a few of the Democratic contenders agreed with me, though that's purely tongue-in-cheek). He was right on Iran, he was right with Biden-Lugar, he was right when he put 100,000 cops on the street and supported community policing programs, and his belief in the 50-State Strategy reaffirms my belief in him.
I don't know what's going to happen with the next presidency. I'm not sure how big the grassroots movements for things like universal health care and fair trade are going to have to be so that the right representatives get elected to congress. I'm not sure what kind of leadership that's going to take, or if a vice-president can make such big decisions for the entire Congress and the entire nation. Some things are too big for any person.
I am sure, however, that Joe Biden will be able to help Barack Obama reunite our countrymen and our allies around a sober, responsible, but courageous foreign policy. I believe President Obama and Vice President Biden will build the political capital needed to pass progressive domestic reforms at home while growing our economy by exporting green technologies to neighbors like China and India that globalization draws ever closer. With and Obama/Biden victory, I believe my grassroots side will have the freedom to pursue change. I believe that they can win North Carolina and I'll be able to cast a vote for them as a Presidential Elector.
I admit, I could be wrong about much of that. As I said, to a large part our presidential picks are predicated on passion more than reason, gut feelings as much as or more than good policy (though my confidence in Biden's ability to build an interdependent peace is as based in reason as it is in passion). So in light of that, without pretension, I believe in Joe Biden most of all because we see the same Washington. We see the same potential in Americans in spite of our flawed humanity and in spite of our flawed selves. Though Biden could get away with being arrogant if he wanted to, I wish I had his humility and his interpersonal acumen, though I don't think I could pay the price he paid for it.
Our political picks are our paladins, but they all fall short. Joe admits when he is lacking, and because of that he is able to be my standard-bearer. He is a choice that reconciles my persistent pragmatism with my long-shot idealism. He has an epic, tragic story that has made him a fighter - the perfect pitbull to pit against John McCain.
I kept on working for Joe because of all of this. I went back to face a tough election night because the man engenders trust. In March 2007, my support was wavering after the "clean and articulate" mistake. I went to see Joe speak in South Carolina, and afterwards he took 13 of us out to a Huddle House for dinner. It was classy, but it was also very middle-class. And when he demonstrated his ability to be eloquent and a leader while eschewing condescension and treating his fellow Americans with dignity, I was back on board. I went back to Iowa because Joe led by example. Whenever he was knocked down, he would get up. Like anyone who has been in the public eye for 35 years, he has made some very visible, very human mistakes. But he's never acted otherwise, and he doesn't think he walks on water or makes the sun rise. He's the most admirable public servant I've ever known.
I'll end with my shorter Obama story - the one time I met our next president, we talked faith. I humbly asked him to remember First Corinthians - his campaign had the faith and the hope, but I wanted to make sure he wouldn't forget the love. Barack Obama simply replied, "it's the most important part."
Well, I'm showing the love, Senator Obama - thank you for your choice. Show your love today, 'cause we're gonna win this thing! We've got the best candidates for the best country in the world, and that's no hyperbole. Obama/Biden '08!