Saturday, September 06, 2008

Crisp vs. Biden

I have a telephone interview set up with Joe Biden when he is in Montana this weekend. Got any good questions?

I won't ask him this, but I did have a thought as I was finishing my Outpost delivery route Friday morning. Bill O'Reilly was saying that the presidential campaign had shifted entirely from issues to a race about personalities with three strong biographies playing a role: those of Obama, McCain and Palin. He said he wasn't sure about Biden's story.

For once, I don't think O'Reilly was being snarky. I think he actually had a momentary mind blip. But Biden's story struck me during the conventions as really the most compelling of the four. To lose a wife and child in a car accident is about as terrible an event as most of us can imagine. And to raise two small boys as a single dad is an enormous responsibility.

I mean to take nothing away from McCain when I say that if I were offered a choice between losing my family and spending 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war, it would take me about two seconds to stick my hands out for the shackles and say, "Let the coercive interrogation begin."

2 comments:

jcurmudge said...

It's even tough to lose an 80 year old wife of 56 years and a 52 year old son.

John Clayton said...

"Plagiarism. The transgression was many years ago, but to those of us who work with words, it rankles still. What do you have to say to us?"