Give this to Joe Biden: His dedication to family is real, is deep, and is inspirational.
When candidates were asked by debate moderator George Stephanopoulos to describe their greatest career setbacks and how they coped, Biden had the first turn to answer. He changed the question’s focus, saying professional setbacks aren’t as important as personal ones. With dignity, and somehow without seeming to play for teary sympathy in a maudlin and crass politicization of tragedy, Biden spoke of losing his wife and infant daughter in a car accident, and then of losing his grown son to cancer.
What made his response dignified was that he didn’t linger on the pathos of those devastating occurrences, but stated them succinctly and matter-of-factly while moving quickly to the main points he was making in sincere response to the question. I wish I had a transcript immediately available to do it justice, but his message was that the way to overcome misfortune is to “find purpose,” and then to act according to it. In his case, he said, his “purpose” was to immerse himself in public policy.
What made his answer powerful is that Biden actually has lived it. Granted, Biden is, from where I sit, wrong on almost every issue, and his career is replete with examples of him stooping to political cheap shots and hackery. Unlike some other politicians, though, Biden also has risen to some occasions, has shown patriotism, and has legitimately thrown himself into his work in a way showing a basic consistency of overall principle even if full of numerous, mini-hypocrisies for short-term political advantage.
Meanwhile, when Biden talks of family, it comes across as very real because, by all accounts, it is. Yes, of course most people love their families. But anyone who has spent time around political Washington for the past half century knows that Biden is particularly animated by his dedication to his family. Sometimes this has led him to blind spots about some pretty serious faults his sons showed through the years. Even the blind spots are very human. Insiders, not just in Washington politics but from nonpolitical Delaware circles, praise Biden’s warmth and familial devotion.
In addition to his unusually awful family tragedies, Biden also recovered, more than 30 years ago, from a terrible brain aneurysm that he was very lucky to survive. The man keeps bouncing back. He’s almost irrepressible.
None of this makes Biden a great choice for president. It does make him a man with real virtues amid his flaws.
