Biden and the gushing women...
Biden greets volunteers in Springfield, Ohio. | AP Photo
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- Given the reception Vice President Joe Biden received at a field office here Tuesday, it's a wonder that he and the president are not faring better in the polls with seniors. It's clear that Biden, at least, appears to be faring well with senior ladies.
Biden walked in for the surprise visit carrying a stack of large pizzas for the 80 or so volunteers – mostly women over 50 – who were gathered there, phone banking. The shrieks began within seconds: “Oh Jesus!” “Joe Biden’s here?” “Oh my God, oh, my God!”
“Oh Lord, please don’t let me faint,” Patrice Toliver said, a phone to her ear. She was in the middle of speaking with a voter, and was frantically trying to explain what was happening. “He’s coming into headquarters right now!” she exclaimed.
As Biden came closer, she abruptly hung up on the voter and stood still and silent and wide-eyed, seemingly shell-shocked.
“You’re the reason we’re going to win Ohio,” the vice president told the group.
One woman replied, “No, you’re the reason!”
Biden then began working the room, taking pictures, giving hugs, shaking hands, stroking faces.
“He’s so freakin’ personable!” said 74-year-old Ellen Wallace as she watched him greet people. “It’s unbelievable. He’s just a magnet.”
One woman approached him and without so much as a hello, gushed, “I have a cup o’ Joe every morning.” This reporter could not hear his reply, but a colleague insisted that Biden then experienced a rare moment of speechlessness.
The volunteers were seated at tables lined up in four long rows, and as he approached the third row, where a group of four women sat, he told them a few things about his mother.
“The good Lord created two perfect women: the Blessed Mother and my mom,” he said.
Biden went on to tell a story he told at the Democratic National Convention about being bullied and smacked around by a neighborhood boy when he was growing up in Scranton, Penn. He said that when he told his mother what happened, she pushed him to confront the boy and punch him in the nose. “’Joey do it,’” Biden recounted her saying. When he did, the boy ran away crying, Biden said.
The story prompted a man standing nearby, Springfield resident and OFA volunteer Rodney Hillard, to say, “Joe, that’s how you did it at the debate, you showed that Paul Ryan.”
Biden smiled, then said, “You all learned what the word ‘malarkey’ meant, right?“
One woman who scored a “huge hug” from Biden, Roxandra Antoniadis, said afterward that she will never forget it.
“It was the thrill of my life!” she said. “He’s magnificent.”
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/10/biden-and-the-gushing-women-139412.html?hp=l1_b1
= new reply since forum marked as read
I think it would just FEEL like a staged photo-op -- probably uncomfortable. And though that's essentially what this was, I bet those people felt like an old friend had just come by to drop off pizza and jaw awhile.
I remember a story when he was running for Prez in 2008. He was on his way to some fundraiser or something, and a couple of people at the side of the road were holding anti-Biden signs. They didn't like Joe. So he had the car pull over, got out and talked to these guys. I don't remember if he converted them enough to vote for him in the primaries, but I've no doubt their opinions were changed after meeting Joe and seeing what a "real" person he is.
I doubt any of the other candidates would have done that -- except maybe for Mike Gravel. 
I love Joe. 
I read the "Oh lord please don't let me faint" as please don't let me fart!
So I'll be right behind you at LensCraffers.
I'd love to see it, too -- and from day 1 he has said he wouldn't rule it out, so who knows?
Good to see you! "WiffenPoof"??? I'm sure there is a story behind that.
in this together. Over the years he's had a lot more person-to-person contact commuting on Amtrak than probably most of those in Washington have. I'm sure he's met so many people from all walks, and heard so many stories, he feels that connection between us all.
I would guess that when you go to DC, you really live in that rarified bubble.
I've got it all figured out, haven't I?
That is all. 
(Sorry for the D&D allusion.)
R&
Who can resist the power of that smile?
(Not Lyin' Ryan, that's for sure.)
caused a few hearts to flutter, too!
I'm a little bit in love with the man myself. Even if he is technically 33 something years older then me. And has a wonderful wife and I have a great husband. He is my political crush because he is just a really, really good and decent man. The ladies of Wonkette refer to him as "Old Handsome Joe" and that pretty much sums it up.
And he rocks a pair of aviators like no one else:
And as a mother, I love a guy who talks like that about his mom. 
