esrosedotblog

Long term readers of the blog will remember that I am a big fan of Joe Biden and, for awhile, promoted him for President.

Not because he was born just a few miles from my birthplace in Scranton PA. But that helps. A coal kicker.

I still have the coffee cup; "Cup of Joe"..

It has his picture on it and it holds my tooth brushes.

So I see him every morning first thing.

Number game: He is 74 today and was the 47th Veep.

Labels: Joe Biden

It is no secret that I am a great admirer of Joe Biden.

I was so pleased to see this in the NYTimes today.

Biden Looks Back, Aspirations Intact

I still use my "Cup of Joe" coffee cup for my tooth brushes and, at night, my partials.

This might seem disrespectful but it is not. It is a way to keep Joe Biden in my life at a daily level with the mundane and common elements where he belongs.

He is still slugging.

The Clintons could do worse than try for Biden's support.

He has been good at keeping them guessing. His late announcement that he would not run threw them off their stride.

Joe is a Scranton boy. Tough. Resilient.

He has been through a lot but the lost of his son Beau did him in more than anything else could. Family man.

When he finally leaves the highest office he has served I will miss him. He is younger than me by seven years. A lad.

He has fought the good fight and has won. At least in my heart.

Labels: Joe Biden

We have been waiting to see if Joe will run.

Joe Biden Will Not Run for President in 2016

I will keep his coffee cup active though. It holds my tooth brush and I look at him every day.

I consider Joe Biden a hero.

Labels: Joe Biden

It would seem a mistake for Biden to wait so long to declare himself.

I have been waiting. But now, I think, he has missed the window.

The trick would have been to let Hillary get hurt in the runup to the primaries and then step in as the guardian angel. Or something.

Hillary Clinton Debate Performance Chills Biden Movement

Even I would not think of tarnishing what was, apparently, a total win for Ms. Clinton. Articulate, clear, forceful. The ideal candidate for her party. An elder stateswoman.

Who has the energy and vitality to win. Look at that smile. Watch her work the crowd. See her bump Bernie around.

No room for Joe in this mixup it would seem.

But time is still on his side.

Perhaps he knows himself well enough and is making the right moves for himself.

He is of an age, as I am, an I can attest to a real diminishing of one's taste for battle. That is why they put old Generals in their own tent way back from the action.

And in the end, this is the NYTimes headline. An attention getter and an opinion swayer. This cannot be too great for the Biden fans. What Joe thinks is unknown. He is still holding his own council.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden

It is nice to know what's up with the Democratic primary.

Joe Biden: No Money, Weak Polls, but Still Clinton’s Toughest Rival

It is a stretch for a lot of professional Democrats but not for me.

I have always liked Biden over all the others. Once, even, over Obama.

I have a Cup of Joe cup in the bathroom holding my toothbrush.

If you ask me, I support Ms. Clinton. But if Biden got into the race, I would be one of those in the article who would drop her and run to Joe.

In a heartbeat.

It is a comparative thing.

Clinton sure beats all the GOoPers in my estimation.

Only Joe outclasses her in all respects.

I think that Biden is taking his time to decide for a lot of reasons. His son's death shook him to the core. I do believe that. On the other hand, I can see how he could turn that grief and pubiic concerns into a positive energy. It would take some care. But I am sure it could be done.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden

Here he comes, rising in the polls without even declaring or making an effort.

Bloomberg Poll: Joe Biden Now Top Presidential Choice for 1 in 4 Democrats

It is impossible to dislike anything about him.

He is totally attractive in the way that Hillary Clinton is not.

I worry about the age part. But perhaps it is his time. He sure looks good.

I think he would make mincemeat out of any GOoPer.

He is quite adept at the cut and thrust. An old fashioned hard hitter.

It is very good for him too.

He needs to get back on his game after his son's untimely, even tragic, death.

He even has a wife who is a total asset. Poor Clinton cannot say the same. Bill is still a liability with his gadding about and fingers in questionable pies.

Labels: Joe Biden

There is no doubt that Joe Biden is taking a run for the highest office seriously.

I would have liked to see this last night.

Biden says he's unsure he can commit fully to be president

It is a sad thing. But he is an honest man and we have to accept that.

I would support Biden in a moment, the moment he says that he can shoulder the responsibility.

And his candor is clearly one of his greatest assets. He has always worn his heart on his sleeve.

The loss of an oldest son or any son or any child at any age has to be profound. It is not supposed to work that way.

I get to go before my kids.

When it reverses the process the balance of our natures is upset.

I wish Joe well and I am there when he calls.

If it is to be Ms. Clinton, so be it. But I will not be as engaged as I was before. My electoral enthusiasm will be one of those things that pass with time.

My God. Look at that charisma.

Actually, look at the two of them. This is Colbert's first week and he has astounded with his gravity and clear ability to carry the new show to some success.

Labels: Joe Biden

The old song comes to mind.

"I'm bidin' my ti-ime, cause that's the kind a guy I am.......

Hillary Clinton’s Woes Pushing Joe Biden to Reach Out to Those Who Could Back a Campaign

I am a proud owner of a coffee cup that says "Cup of Joe" with his picture on the side.

I still have the ache to see him get into the fray.

But he is a cautious man. He can read sign on the trail.

He has gotten so close so many times.

What is there not to like about the man?

The NYT article has a great picture of him slouched against a pillar in the Oval Office or somewhere.

Joe.

Labels: Joe Biden

From the beginning, the Clintons have these glitches in their ethical behavior.

I have always noted these and marked them as weaknesses.

Now more than ever.

Clinton’s team went from nonchalant to nervous over e-mail controversy

Do you think the GOoPers are going to let this sit?

I hope joltin' Joe Biden jumps on this one.

Son of a bitch, this irks me.

Labels: clintons, Joe Biden

I am hoping that Joe Biden decides to run in 2016.

See the afore mentioned doubts about Hillary. (Why do we call her that? Is it demeaning to her? Probably. Is it because we like her? No. Is it that to say "Clinton" again just puts too much into the formula?)

I was for Joe Biden long before I was for Obama. I slowly came around and the fact that Joe got to be VP made a lot of the pain subside.

I am really OK with whatever he does.

I like him so much that I want him to be happy. The last of the "happy warriors".

There isn't a whole lot to say about it is there? Joe will have gaffes.

He will seem sort of out of touch at times. But he is a strong human being who is smart and has been a great Vice President. He is not a clone of a thousand advisers. He is who he is. The last of the real guys after Obama.

And there are many other considerations.

Read this: Why the White House Won't Help Joe Biden Be President.

Sad, if true. But it is the time of transition. Obama can not run again so all his "troops" are looking around. It would seem that they are not thinking about joining Joe.

Labels: Joe Biden

Even though he is not an 'I told you so' kind of guy.

Iraq Crisis Offers Timely Vindication

And just as he is thinking of running for Pres again.

You know, I think, that I have a Joe Biden coffee cup in my bathroom. It holds my toothbrush. I am a loyalist.

I would have voted for Joe in the first place. I was for him before I was for Barack.

He has always been world-wise.

I think that Biden's curse is that he is genuinely a nice guy. He has the hunger but not the blood lust of politics. He is no Clinton. Either one of them.

At his best, he is a humble servant of the people. Not easy to do and to balance that with the kind of ego that prompts elective careers.

I have stood for public office enough times to know how this is a bind. Easy to succumb to grandiosity. Not easy not to abstain from "I told you so."

If he runs I am with him. All the way.

This is the opening salvo in my primary campaign. You have been warned.

Labels: Joe Biden

This is a great time line detail of Obama's conversion on gay marriage.

How the President Got to "I Do" On Same Sex Marriage"

It is hard to read without some teary eyes.

As much as I have loved Obama I have always felt, and still do, that he is retro on the rights of gays. Too often it has been a political football but fundamentally, I believe, if he had not had moral objections to my rights as a gay man he would have been out front on this issue from the beginning.

In this regard, Obama has been a grave disappointment.

And while he has now come out (so to speak) as in favor of my rights he is still not unequivocal.

The man to admire on this issue is Joe Biden who led from the heart and through a so called gaffe pushed the Administration into beginning their slow and reluctant embrace of true equal rights.

My view of Obama on this matter is partly one of racial resentment. I do believe that blacks are, by and large, more inclined to look down their noses at gays from a high moral perch and fail to see any similarity between their own situation and ours.

Of course there are many exceptions but in general I believe it is true. I do not think that it is a matter of "now we have ours, fuck you" but more that many blacks retain a strong stream of fundamentalist religious belief that is awash with homophobia. I know a few stories of gay black men and they are witnesses to this.

In the end, it does not matter except in time but time is the great divider between those of us who have achieved a measure of freedom as a result of affluence or education or sheer cussedness. Today, as this process has slowed down way too much, young men and women still suffer for their identities. Ignorance and intolerance still abide in enough hearts that the President could have made a difference. Still could. If he would get off his own moral perch or, perhaps, his own fear of his own sexual identity, the last bastion for most black men who need to conserve their pride in their own manhood. Insecurity is a powerful force.

Maybe I am wrong about this. I am not a shrink and I do not even know Obama. But I know straight men, straight black men, and he is not atypical of a particular strain who still cannot deal with this issue without a personal quirk getting into the way.

Thank God for Joe Biden who stood tall and still leads from his heart as well as his head. Or maybe a little more of the heart. A commodity which is in short supply in Washington DC.

Labels: Barack Obama, gay marriage, Joe Biden

COSTCO JOE

I love Joe Biden.

Watch him shop.

Labels: Joe Biden

RUDE TRUTH

I haven't called upon the rude one for awhile. I mean the "Rude Pundit" whose language and attitude sends a lot of people over the side.

Delightful.

Here he dissects the Veep debate and dissects Ryan while praising Biden.

Joe Biden Throws Paul Ryan Off His Lawn

A tidbit.

Mostly, though, think of the debate this way: In 2008, Joe Biden, who smiled at Sarah Palin the way one does at a particularly precocious toddler, had to hold his fire for fear of seeming sexist or bullying to the then-governor. He got to unload on Ryan. And all those years in the Senate, all those years confronting presidents, all of it came to bear last night as he beat down Ryan viciously and mercilessly. Ryan is the perfect product of Republican America, someone who grew up in the Reagan era in a protected bubble, who learned at the knee of conservatives and worked for people like Sam Brownback, a man whose philosophy is a synthesis of cruel social conservatism and bastardized Ayn Rand. In other words, he is everything Joe Biden has fought against. Of course Biden was gonna cut off this puffed up punk at the knees. That Ryan asshole brought up a fatal car crash in front of the guy who lost his wife and daughter in one. Shit, when it was done, you half-expected the Vice President to brush his shoulder.

It is probably Biden's last time on the big stage. Give the bright-toothed guy his victory lap.

Labels: Joe Biden, republican whack jobs

MIT INTERVIEWS

It is that season again.

It started late this year.

In other years I would have already talked to 7 or 8 kids. I remember interviews in the heat.

Not today. It was nice but not hot.

Outside at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. No purchases necessary. So far at least.

I had one of the nicest interviews. The kind that makes me want to continue being an MIT Educational Counsellor.

Great guy. I would like to be his friend. We went over. I didn't know that we had done an hour.

I hope he makes it.

But there is not any room for anything else today. I will not see a movie. Probably not comment on the great job Joe Biden did last night.

I have a Joe Biden cup. "Cup of Joe". He is a long time favorite. Just not when he was running for President.

I am so happy for him.

And, as someone pointed out today, he did not use the word "literally" one time. A miracle. Although it doesn't bother me at all. It is a quaint tic which I have come to love.

Labels: Joe Biden, Re-election of Barack Obama

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE

Joe Biden gives them hell. Take a few dips into this 30 minute speech.

They "booed" him when he wanted to finish his speech!

The windup is just the greatest.

Labels: Joe Biden, Re-election of Barack Obama

UNLEASHED

This from today's Times

In Toledo, Biden Makes a Working-Class Appeal

They have turned Joe loose.

Today he named names and quoted quotes and held Mitten's feet to the fire.

There is nothing subtle about Biden and he is a joy to watch and hear. The videos of this speech are not available yet, but I mean to listen.

UNLEASHED II

Yesterday morning on the way home from the gym, I was driving along, nothing going on when, suddenly, I saw a dog, a big dog, running right toward my right headlights!

So close I could draw you a picture.

WTF!!

I was on automatic and swerved just so to miss him then realized I had swerved into the opposite lane and at that speed, doing some pretty curvy jiving with the car which, out of my vast store of reflexive moves, I did just the right thing to set things aright and get back into my lane. The Volvo's handling helped a lot. I always felt in control and hugging the road.

Wow.

I get the vision of it here and again during the last two days. Not too often but often enough to reprogram again for weird street events. Ready at all times>

Still a mystery, what was driving the pooch's death wish?

I didn't see anything in hot pursuit.

Labels: dogs, driving, Joe Biden

HEARTFELT

I am heartened when I find a politician who speaks from the heart. Joe Biden. Look.

You Can Beat it Just Like I Did.

See what Branden Brooks did with his life because Joe Biden took some time.

Labels: Joe Biden

I LOVE JOE BIDEN

The oil tool from Texas Rep Joe Barton apologized to BP this morning for the "shakedown" they had endured at the hand of the President.

It caused a shitstorm. Even the GOPers ran in the other direction.

Labels: Administration Obama, Joe Biden

REMEMBRANCE

I love Joe Biden. He embodies the kind of patriotism that I remember as a kid and still feel myself.

Labels: holidays, Joe Biden