During the Democratic-primary debates, Senator Joe Biden questioned Barack Obama’s experience. Now in accepting Obama’s offer to fill that experience gap as his vice presidential choice, the 35-year veteran of the U.S. Senate promises to bring credentials, not cronyism, to the Democratic leadership of our nation.
Those who would argue that a 35-year veteran of Washington-insider politics is no image of change, are, as usual, distorting the picture.
Joe Biden, like such admirable Republicans as Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar, has been no part of the Bush Administration’s old guard. He has not been enslaved by political alliances or obligations to lobbyists.
Biden would, like his running mate, reach across the aisle in practical compromise. He wages no declarations of war on opposing ideas. He has maintained his integrity, favored diplomacy over military action, and never resorted to euphemisms like “sectarian conflict” for “civil war.”
In his efforts to resolve the Iraqi stalemate -- spelled “victory” in John McCain’s dialect -- Biden has more than compensated for his original vote of trust in the Bush Administration’s call to war.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden has dealt with the Iraqi fiasco in advocating a three-part federation along ethnic lines. His experience of the area and its people includes recognition of the difference between Sunni and Shiite and the history of their perpetual conflict with one another. Biden understands the interests of the Kurds who were mercilessly persecuted by Saddam Hussein. The Delaware senator's familiarity with the area extends beyond a walk through the Baghdad marketplace under hovering helis.
No denizen of D.C., Biden returns to his home in Delaware by train every evening and has done so since taking office. He has only one house, and it’s a home—a family-based home where he has raised two sons after the loss of their mother and sister in a tragic accident. His second wife, Jill, has subsequently added more blessings to his well-earned happiness.
Though he may not have experienced torture under military captivity, Joe Biden has known tragedy as surely as John McCain did and his heroism wins no less applause for taking place on the home front.