Biden’s old-school decency is why he should win
It was the toothy grin that got my attention.
My friend Greg and I had just finished up a bike ride along the C&Ocanal and had gone in search of a late lunch in Georgetown.
Greg is a double above-the-knee amputee, having lost (given, he says) both legs in anIEDexplosion in Iraq.
Finding accessible sandwiches is not as easy as youmight think.
“Do you mind if we sit right here, close to the entrance?” I asked the maître de at a patioed place onMstreet.
The waiter brought us water and menus and as I glanced down to consider the possibilitiesmy eye caught another.
Sitting adjacent to us, tucked even further away, were the then-Vice President of the United States and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.
He was seated facing me and was grinning like, well, you know.”Well, hello, Mr. Vice President. You really should meet Colonel Greg Gadson,” I called, gesturing grandly, likeGregwas a prize on “The Price is Right.”
I was only expecting a wave in return. But both Bidens immediately abandoned their table and came over to ours.
“Where were you over there?” Biden asked Greg.
Turned out that Beau Biden, who’d famously deployed while serving as Delaware’s attorney general, was in Iraq at the time. There was some conversation about geography, duties.
Their lunch arrived and they went back to their table. On their way out, they stopped to chat a littlemore.
“You look familiar,” Biden said to me. “I work for MSNBC, where you make appearances on the ChrisMatthews show.”
“Oh, you’ve seen some combat of your own, then!” he joked, referring to the former television host’s often bombastic personality.
Whatstruckmeabout the encounterwas that there was no show. No one was watching. The Bidens engaged because they wanted to acknowledge a veteran. They wanted to be just people, wishing otherswell.
I’d been around Sen. Biden plenty, as he was a regular guest on theMatthews show. Part ofmy job at the time was to “produce” live shots —mostly “trains on time” stuff.
When Biden would come to the live position there was always the notorious high-beam grin, and chit-chat. Sometimes he’d tell me I looked like his pretty wife, which still makes me a bit smug.
More than once I reminded Biden that his microphone was on. Because, well, you never knew if something might be a “big ‘effin’ deal.”
One day Iwas tapped by the desk to do a sit-down, one-on-one interview with Beau Biden. I imagined he would be disappointed at being handed off to me, an unknown producer and would meet his obligations then bolt.
But he sat back in his chair for probably an hour, providing one solid, competent answer after another. Beauwas a rock and a gem at the same time. I get a lump in my throat thinking of whatmight have been.
In his book, “Promise Me, Dad,” the former vice president explainshowBeau, in his final days battling brain cancer, repeatedlymadehis dad promise hewould beOK.
It took a while. But I think the 78-yearold candidate is running now because he thinks he can more or less reunite America, correct a number of horrible administrative wrongs and live out that promise to his dying son.
May he win in November for all of those reasons. I also hope he finishes health care, repairs international relations and sorts out immigration law.
I hope he doesn’t Tweet. And I hope he gets a dog.
But mostly I want Joe Biden to be America’s next president because of his downright old-school decency. That’s really all Iwant right now.
Someone with a square shoulder, a kind word and an instinct for what people need in their darker moments because that is wherewe are right now.
Biden has proven countless times his ability to shine a restorative light on Americans as individuals and on all of us, as a nation.