Being Veep ain't easy
But Joe was one of the best.
Issue #477 The Choice Friday, January 26, 2024
When Sen. Joe Biden agreed to take the number two job working as Vice President for Barack Obama, it wasn’t exactly an easy decision. He admitted once that it was his elderly mother, Catherine Finnegan, who cast the deciding vote giving him essentially no option but to accept the offer. From People magazine in an interview with Conan O’Brien:
The president said his mother, Catherine Finnegan, was the first person he called after Obama asked him to consider being his vice president during the 2008 campaign.
"I called her and I said, 'The President asked me to consider being Vice President. I don't want to do that.' I said, Barack, 'I don't wanna be Vice President.' Finally, he said, 'Well, damn it's only you’."
It was his mom, Biden says, who ultimately convinced him to accept.
"I looked at my mom who was living with me because my dad had passed, and she said, 'Joey, let me get to something. Remember I called you and I asked you about what kind of guy he was and you said he was honest and smart?' I said, 'Yeah.' 'Let me get this straight, honey. The first black man has a chance to be President, he says he needs you, and you told him no?' "
And when she put it that way, well, yeah. No, of course, he wasn’t gonna refuse. What was he thinking?
What Biden was thinking was that he had also been in the running for the Democratic nomination in 2008, and he was pretty close to being as pissed off that he had lost to this young upstart with so much less experience than him as was Hillary Clinton. Clinton was another extremely experienced politician - although not nearly as seasoned as Biden - who also felt that it was her turn. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, felt the same way and had no problem letting it be known that Obama really should take a back seat and let the grownups take charge this time around.
So when Obama decisively swept both Biden and Hillary aside, although the rift between Hillary and Obama was the one that got the most press because she had been the front runner for so long - until she wasn’t - there wasn’t a whole lotta love there. After all, the campaign trail can be brutal. Things get said, things get done, and some of those things are hard to take back.
Plus, presidential candidates are among the most egotistical individuals on Planet Earth. You pretty much have to be an egomaniac to think you’re entitled to run the most powerful nation on Earth. They have egos large enough to cast a shadow over the moon. So when those egos get damaged, there can be aftershocks.
But here’s the point, because we like to keep these posts on The Choice somewhat brief and to the point; compared to Biden, Obama had virtually no political experience at the national level. He had barely scratched the surface of the Senate before he decided to run for President. Biden had been in national politics practically since grade school, going back decades. It’s not hard to understand why he felt he deserved the top job more, and why he wasn’t anxious to take a back seat to this upstart.
But he did.
For eight years, Biden worked tirelessly alongside President Obama, providing him with the kind of indispensable experience and guidance that he could not have gotten anywhere else. Biden locked his ego in a dark room, threw away the key, and committed himself to making Obama the best President he could be.
Maybe you know of another instance where a highly qualified white man with more experience for a particular job voluntarily takes a back seat to a lesser-experienced Black man to help him succeed in the job that he wanted and thought should be his, but I’m pretty sure that’s a rare thing. I mean, like, really rare.
But that’s what Biden did. And as we move forward into the 2024 campaign season, I think it’s worth remembering, especially for Black people. Biden didn’t just make good speeches about the importance of diversity and equality; he gave the best of himself toward that cause when it mattered most.
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