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I can't wait to see what Joe Biden does next | Mary Elizabeth Williams |
Opinion | The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/joe-biden-obama-office

I can't wait to see what Joe Biden does next | Mary Elizabeth Williams

I can’t wait for Vice-President Joe Biden
<http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/joebiden> to leave office. I can’t wait
for that day, in just a few months, when he hands over the reigns of the
vice-presidency and moves the hell out and on.

But let me back up a moment – I’m a lifelong Democrat who voted for him
twice. I’m a fellow Catholic who’s been inspired by how Biden’s used his
faith to inform his compassion – but not to dictate how other Americans
conduct their private lives. I’m a hardscrabble north-easterner, and I’ve
spent the past eight years watching the man from Scranton blossom and
mature before our eyes.

It’s go time. Biden – much like Democratic predecessor Al Gore
<http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/algore> – is a man who seems destined
to do great things after his tenure in office.

Gore has used his post-White House incarnation to become a leading champion
of environmental awareness and action. Freed from the constraints of
running for and maintaining political office, he’s been able to effect
change with greater gusto. Biden has likewise already earmarked his next
big thing: an ambitious cancer “moonshot” initiative to, in his words
<https://medium.com/cancer-moonshot/inspiring-a-new-generation-to-defy-the-bounds-of-innovation-a-moonshot-to-cure-cancer-fbdf71d01c2e#.m4ogf3iie>,
“accelerate our efforts to progress towards a cure, and to unleash new
discoveries and breakthroughs for other deadly diseases”.

As a Stage 4 cancer survivor
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/29/mri-fears-claustrophobia-migranes-cancer-treatments>
whose life was saved by an innovative treatment, I couldn’t be happier to
be alive for this breakthrough moment, and to see what the future will
bring. (But if Donald Trump somehow actually becomes my nation’s 45th
president, I’ll be asking Biden if we can use that moonshot of his to
depart this planet for the real moon.)

Biden’s profound investment in spending the next phase of his career
advancing the prevention and treatment of cancer is heartbreakingly
understandable. Last year, his eldest son Beau died of brain cancer. In a
candid and emotional interview
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/sep/11/joe-biden-death-son-interview-late-show-stephen-colbert-video>
last fall with Stephen Colbert, the veep – who in 1972 lost his first wife
and baby daughter Naomi in a car accident – spoke on the subjects of loss
and making meaning of tragedy.
Joe Biden talks about death of son in emotional interview on the Late Show
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/sep/11/joe-biden-death-son-interview-late-show-stephen-colbert-video>

He said that as his son neared the end of his life, Beau had told him,
“Dad, I know how much you love me. Promise me you’re going to be all
right.” For Biden, “all right” has clearly come to mean something different
than it did when he ran for president in 1988, or as the inevitable
speculations about his ambitions for the White House have arisen throughout
his second term. Just as his earlier tragedy galvanized his public and
private sense of duty, this more recent loss seems to have done much the
same.

He’s also lately been laying the groundwork for his future as an advocate
for women and the LGBT community. This month alone he penned a heartfelt
declaration
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/09/stanford-sexual-assault-joe-biden-victim-letter-brock-turner>
of support to the Stanford sexual assault survivor, and he delivered
an impassioned
speech
<http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jun/16/white-house-summit-women-obamas-oprah>
on rape culture at at the recent White House Summit on the United State Of
Women. And last year, to celebrate marriage equality, his wife Jill reported
<https://twitter.com/jillbidenveep/status/614439317558181889?lang=en> that
“Joe is running through the halls with a rainbow flagged tied on like a
cape high-fiving everyone.” Bring it on, Uncle Joe.

Biden, the occasionally foul-mouthed
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2010/03/wtf_did_biden_just_say.html>,
frequently hot-headed
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/9/7/1419224/-Joe-Biden-I-am-hot-I-am-mad-I-am-angry>
caller of malarkey <https://youtu.be/JfcQWrfkmRI> and all around loose
cannon to Obama’s sophisticated good cop, is a career politician who has
spent much of his time looking like the guy you can’t believe has made a
career in politics. He’s a Democrat who’s made feminists chafe at his track
record toward Anita Hill
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/biden-anita-hill-women-senate-clarence-thomas-213864>
during the Clarence Thomas supreme court confirmation hearings, and at his
tendency to be what’s been described
<http://time.com/3713264/joe-biden-stephanie-carter-shoulder-rub/> as
cluelessly “handsy”. His history of generously borrowing other people’s
words has meanwhile earned him the description of “unusually creepy
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2008/08/what_kind_of_plagiarist_is_joe_biden.html>”
from Slate.

Yet in life, as we grow up and grow older, we can choose to make our
hardships and tragedies an excuse to become cynical and guarded, or an
opportunity to become kinder and wiser. This flawed loudmouth from
Pennsylvania has spent more than seven decades on this planet learning his
lessons, and making his choices. Maybe he could have, at one time, been the
president. But I think he’s got a much better job lined up next.


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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