Joe Biden is the 47th Vice President of the US. He is 66 years old and was yes born in Pennsylvania (though I personally suspect he was actually born in Kenya, I’ve asked for his long-form birth certificiate, still no word. What are they higding?). He is also a true-blue Democrat.
The most interesting thing about Joe Biden is, sadly, the death of his wife and daughter in 1972. He nearly quit the Senate to care for his family, instead he began a decades long tradition of taking the Amtrack home every night from Washington DC so he could be with his two sons. He gave standing orders to be interupted, even on the senate floor, if his kids called. In rememberence of his wife and daughter he doesn’t work on the day of their death. On certain things I don’t like Joe Biden’s positions, but personally, that just smacks of character. He strikes me as a very good family man.
There are two media stories about him, he is a foreign policy expert and he makes gaffes. I think both are overblown. He’s run for President twice, the first time he was derailed when he gave a speech that borrowed heavily from someone else without crediting it to them. In fairness to him he had repeated the speech many times and had credited the person many times before, so I think that too was overblown, but regardless, he was selected to hold the number 2 spot.
Joe Biden was basically a “safe” choice. Obama needed a white guy with lots of experience (obama’s weakness), specifically in foreign policy (Obama’s other supposed weakness). Obama needed the guy to be well vetted to avoid surprises (Biden’s been a Senator for 3+ decades, he’s got few surprises left), good at campaigning and able to make Obama himself look safer. Joe Biden is as American as apple-pie with a compelling personal story, decades of service and a foreign policy buff, it was a perfect fit for Obama.
On policy Biden is a loyal democrat second and a loyal Obama-man first. So any problems I have with his policies can be found there.
Wikipedia
The Wikipedia page on Joe Biden.
Biden’s Page at Govtrack.us
I love this site. Call me a political dweeb, but I just love all the statistical information they’ve got.
Politifact
After you get done reading biased news, here’s politifact.com. They don’t report on his eating habits, they report on the facts and document everything. I disagree on a lot of their final rulings, but you’ll learn more in an hour reading their reports than watching a month of anyone else. Conclusion: He’s got the full spread from pants on fire to truth.
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