Joe Biden Does Himself Proud

Having watched Senator Biden deliver his acceptance speech, I have to say I was quite impressed and felt that he struck just the right chord to bring the delegates to their feet.

The introduction by his son Beau Biden, attorney general of Delaware, was quite moving. Beau was clearly proud of his father (as he should be) and his summary of the triumphs and tragedies of the Biden family gave the Senator a really good buildup. I thought his introduction was better than any of the prior ‘family members introducing the speaker’.

After accepting the nomination for Vice President Biden brought the audience both there and at home to tears with the introduction of his mother and the discussion of how she taught him to always strive for success and to always stand up for what he believed in.

I wish that my dad was here tonight, but I am so grateful that my mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, is here. You know, she taught her children-
all the children who flocked to our house-that you are defined by your sense
of honor, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. She believes bravery lives in
every heart and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

Moving in to his main speech he aptly brought to mind the problems that many people in America face and did so by subtly reminding voters of his connection to his family, riding home on the train every night for 36 years.

I’ve never seen a time when Washington has watched so many people get knocked down without doing anything to help them get back up. Almost every
night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I look out
the window at the homes we pass, I can almost hear what they’re talking about
at the kitchen table after they put the kids to bed.

Like millions of Americans, they’re asking questions as profound as they
are ordinary. Questions they never thought they would have to ask:

Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?

Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car?

Winter’s coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills?

Another year and no raise?

Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care?

Now, we owe more on the house than it’s worth. How are we going to send
the kids to college?

How are we gonna be able to retire?

He then very effectively moved into discussing how Senator Obama would help solve these problems because of how he came up from humble beginnings.

Barack Obama gets it. Like many of us, Barack worked his way up. His is a great American story.

You know, I believe the measure of a man isn’t just the road he’s
traveled; it’s the choices he’s made along the way. Barack Obama could have
done anything after he graduated from college. With all his talent and
promise, he could have written his ticket to Wall Street. But that’s not what
he chose to do. He chose to go to Chicago. The South Side. There he met men
and women who had lost their jobs. Their neighborhood was devastated when the
local steel plant closed. Their dreams deferred. Their dignity shattered.
Their self-esteem gone.

He moved deftly from one subject to another, demonstrating how he feels the Republicans have failed and how the Democrats will succeed in solving the problems.

Probably my only criticism of the speech is not really a criticism at all. Listening to Biden list the problems of the last eight years, you would think that we had hordes of starving orphans wandering dazed through the burned-out hulks of what used to be great cities. When it came to foreign policy, I wondered if we were less popular than Hitler in 1945.

Listening to him discuss how the GOP was responsible makes you think that they wanted these problems to happen.

Similarly, when he spoke of how Senator Obama would solve the problems, I was wondering if he’d announce plans for Obama to part the Potomac River on his way to the inauguration ceremonies.

But that kind of overly-soaring rhetoric is part of a convention and part of an acceptance speech so I took it with a grain of salt. I don’t think Biden will fall too deeply into the Al Gore syndrome but for tonight I was willing to overlook it.

I think though that the way he delivered the speech is a sign for why Obama chose him as a running mate. Even as he was attacking Bush, McCain and the Republicans he did so with a smile and charm. McCain was his ‘good friend’ who was simply wrong on the issues. This I think will bode well for the Democrats in November.

So, overall, I give high marks to the Biden speech. He showed why he is so popular in Delaware and why he will most-likely be the next Vice President of the United States.