Biden Never Thought

I wasn't at all sure what to talk about today, hence the late-published blog. I was doing a routine search on Google for '"Joe Biden" gaffe,' finding it hilarious how often the media will jump to the word "gaffe" no matter the level of stupid that comes out. Most recently, it was about us not interfering with Isreal's sovereign right to blow up Iran. I think that was the spin...

I was going to play the old "compare the facts" game, finding a not-too-surprising 206,000 results for the aforementioned search string. Then, I decided, I'd search for '"Joe Biden" brilliant,' with 302,000... results... ...?

I shook it off as best I could. Without knowing the man, I have difficulty judging his level of brilliance, but I don't doubt it. What I DO doubt, however, is that many people or articles linking the ideas of "Joe Biden" and "brilliance." Even mentioning him in the same article is unlikely. So I clicked on the first result, a blog from the NY Times. And in it, I found a gem. A gem I should have found months earlier (when this blog really should have started). A gem that, without a doubt, will survive EVERY edit of the coming Vice-Precedence book. The blog quoted Biden thus:

“All the years you covered me, I never, quite frankly, thought about the vice presidency.”

Cue the sigh of ecstasy. Yes, there was more to the quote. But I'm a writer. That said, I assure you - there is no further context needed. Certainly, it's not as stinging as John Nance Garner's quote (perhaps simultaneously the most famous and most bastardized in the history of the office) "The Vice Presidency isn't worth a bucket of warm shit," but it, like the best quotes about the office, stands out as evidence that no man expects it to happen, no man looks forward to it, most of them accept it as fact, and, which is yet to be seen, most of them, eventually, regret it.

That said, this week, Biden got back from Iraq, talked about health care and talked about economic stimulus, specifically in the state capital of my home state, New York. I wish I'd have been home this week. The interview WILL happen. I promise you.

That, and much more to come next week.

- Jason C. Klamm