Biden a smart guy who has lived his family values

[PatSeg]

Tragedy didn't keep new senator from serving nation


By MIKE PRIDE
Monitor editor

It was three minutes to show time at the Havenwood retirement community the other morning, and most of the chairs stood empty. As organizers hustled the excess seating off the floor, they asked the two dozen people who had gathered to move up front. Rather than a town meeting with Sen. Joe Biden, they said, those present would have a roundtable discussion.

Biden has been a politician long enough to have a story and a strategy for every occasion, and he did not disappoint.

snip

It is worth listening to the way presidential candidates talk about their lives. What they leave out can be revealing, but so can what they put in - and the lessons they take from experience.

Biden's is a familiar American story, with tragic and frightening twists. Like many in his generation especially, he rose to prominence from humble beginnings.

snip

As for real fortune, Biden prides himself, at least publicly, with being one of the poorest members of the Senate and the only major presidential candidate who is not a millionaire. As of last March, his net worth was $100,000 to $150,000. He says he didn't know when he entered public life that the point was to make a lot of money.

snip

The core of his presentation was about foreign policy, on which he is the most experienced and perhaps wisest of all the presidential candidates.

But my guess is that for the small crowd that came to meet Joe Biden, the impression he left was personal. Beneath all his smooth talk and name-dropping, Biden is a paragon of family values - the genuine article, not the cheap imitation that often mucks up American politics. Reliance on family has borne him through tragedy, fear and grief.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071201/OPINION/712010307

[K Gardner]

1. "The message he left was personal" - as it seems to be with most Biden fans

Excellent article, thanks !

[gateley]

2. I get that "personal" feeling from him even in a venue like the debates.

A friend of mine who recently rode with him from one event to another (and Biden was talking about football, other non-issue topics) put it this way:
There's no on/off switch.

I've no doubt his background, as does everybodys' has shaped him into who he is today. He's a good man.

[PatSeg]

3. He connects with people

He comes across as "real", not just another politician. There is no reading between the lines with Biden.

[cascadiance]

4. So I shouldn't "read between the lines" his support of the bankruptcy bill...

... and his fighting to keep any sorts of amendments that would have protected our middle class from getting shafted by financial crisises not brought about by irresponsible actions on their own. Some of those ammendments might have helped for Katrina...

I guess he does support family values. Values of MBNA and the rest of the credit card company family that is...

[1corona4u]

5. LOL....

funny.

[ginchinchili]

6. All I see is "ignored." Wonder what that's about?

Must be the drooler.

[LongTomH]

7. Edwards / Biden 2008

How's that sound for a bumper sticker? :thumbsup:

[PatSeg]

8. Oops, think ya got it backwards!

:hi:

[tammywammy]

9. It's hard to not respect Biden

I do like him.

[PatSeg]

10. I've encountered that attitude from a lot of Obama supporters

:toast: