Take A Minute To Read This: This is the Joe Biden you rarely see [View all]

[WeekiWater]

This week, Joe Biden is set to announce his candidacy for president. Forgive me for getting ahead of the punditry clutter with this story.

Meetings in the Oval Office with President Obama and Vice President Biden to discuss Democratic House races were always thrilling. Notably, the body language was instructive. The president would sit straight in his chair, cerebral and analytical, absorbing the analysis I presented as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The vice president would hunch forward with his arms outstretched, as if waiting to dive into one of the districts and campaign there himself.

At one such meeting in 2011, I was struggling to concentrate. My dad, who was living in Arizona, had just received a diagnosis of lung cancer. The prognosis was not good. On the way to the White House, I stopped to pick up a “get well” card. My plan was to ask the president to sign it. My dad was a fervent Democrat, and perhaps one of the only Democrats in the retirement community of Ahwatukee Foothills in Phoenix.

After the meeting, I asked the president to sign the card. To my chagrin, he nodded no, then went to his desk, pulled out a drawer, grabbed a piece of stationery, and wrote a personal note. As I left, Biden asked me to join him in his West Wing office. I thought we were going to review maps of competitive districts. Instead, he said, “Your dad’s condition is going to one of the hardest things your mom will go through. I’d like to call her.”

The Hill