I am sure we'll be seeing plenty of diarys extolling the virtues of Barack Obama, who is our fantastic moderate President who has done quite a few consequential and progressive things in the last four years. I just want to make sure that we give some praise to Joe Biden, our awesome center-left Vice President who also has had good moments over the last four years.
First of all, Biden is a great debater. That was one of the reasons why Obama chose Biden in the first place. We sometimes forget that Biden was the one who said that line about Rudy Guiliani "A noun, a verb and 9/11". And Biden proved his mettle twice in nationally televised Vice Presidential debates. He made Sarah Palin look like the know-nothing fool she was without looking like a bully, which was not an easy feat. And more recently, he showed Obama how you can debate a shameless liar. He laughed at Paul Ryan while Ryan was trying to snow job the American people, and he plainly called it "malarkey". Biden also asked a very devastating question to Ryan that Ryan could not answer about whether Romney and Ryan would take us to war in the Middle East. Biden also made it clear that seniors could not afford the extra money they'd have to pay under Paul Ryan's plan.
Secondly, Joe Biden wears his heart on his sleeve. You can really tell how Biden feels about something, it is always plain to see as he doesn't hold back, and he always comes across as genuine. As he said in the debate against Ryan, he always means what he says. When Obamacare was passed by Congress, he couldn't restrain his joy and started a meme that still strong today. If nothing else, Biden will be remembered for saying that universal health care is a Big Fucking Deal. And it was, and it still is. In stump speeches, Biden was almost always energetic and often off the cuff. And his "bin Ladin is dead and GM is alive" line was a great and honest way to convey his approval of two of Obama's biggest achievements. The mainstream media would often play up his "gaffes" but what Biden said was the truth. He was right that Wall Street wanted to put American workers in figurative chains by keeping wages down and destroying unions. Biden was correct that the middle class was buried by the aftermath of the financial collapse and Republican obstruction to get the middle class back to full employment.
And thirdly, Biden led the President to take a historic and progressive stand. Earlier this year, Biden came out in full support of marriage equality. By making it public, and by Obama making a strong statement of his own that he supports marriage equality, Biden and Obama finished the work of making marriage equality a mainstream position, a work that countless many contributed to over a period of over twenty years. I believe that Biden and Obama helped give Democrats the courage to include marriage equality in the party platform and gave a great assist to the efforts of marriage equality activists in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington. Due to Obama's support of marriage equality, public polling had marriage equality having majority support of all Americans for the first time ever.
And finally, Biden has been a steady and loyal surrogate for Obama. One could also write of the great relationship that Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden have. I don't think you can overstate how beneficial it is to the President and his achievements that Joe Biden has the President's back. Biden is also a very compassionate man who clearly cares about people. I would like to think that some of that rubs off on Obama who campaigned a lot this time on people needing a hand up so they can achieve the greatness they have in them to do.
I look forward to four more years of Joe Biden being Biden. We can always feel good about there being four heroes in the White House: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden. I just hope that Biden gets some of the recognition that he deserves rather the SNL caricature that some people believe him to be.