As Matt said before the New Year's close, we've come a long way in our six months. 2010 holds a lot for Vice-Precedence as a full project - not the blog alone. We're already hard at work on the first Vice-Precedence publication - more news to come on that - and Vice-Precedence proper is in the throes of an early first draft (without recycling every existing VP book, which is done frequently, we're taking this whole process from the beginning with - don't tell Wikipedia this - original research!). We've got a growing legion of fans on Facebook and the we're in the most interesting period for Vice Presidential news that there has ever been.
To start the new year off right, let's have a little moment with Folksy Joe Biden. As always, his folksiness has a purpose. This time, it's to help Joe's old standby - Amtrak (the preferred stock of which is owned entirely by the US Government).
In a recent essay on The Huffington Post, entitled "Why America Needs Trains," Joe-- I'm sorry, I think I might have to hug Joe right now, gimme a second. There. I hugged the monitor. That's as close as I'm going to get. He's like a kitten, that Joe! In this article, Biden argues that we, simply, ought to take trains more. Good argument for the environment, good argument for those who are presently afraid of planes or, possibly, more afraid of full-body scans - Joe is taking the safe route, but at least it's something he believes in.
He's been taking the Amtrak, famously, for almost 40 years. His entire term in the Senate, he traveled the route from Delaware to DC, 120 miles each way, so that he could be home with his kids. Even the cynics out there have to admit that that's a hell of a stretch for a little positive PR. And if he's willing to sit through 36 years of ass-numbing PR then, well, maybe Joe deserves what "The Joe Biden Problem" has finally given him - the VP seat.
Either way, Joe makes a good argument, and despite criticism that Biden is as secretive as Cheney, he's used his post TO DO THINGS. If he's trying to influence power behind the scenes, we can't be sure. What is obvious is what he's doing for the office - making it seem, if only in brief, that the VP is making an effort. Sadly, that's the most we can ask of a sitting VP. Make the effort.
- Jason C. Klamm, B.A.
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