Promise Me Dad #4

Facing the responsibilities of a job and your co-workers can be a challenge when dealing with a serious illness in the family. This situation is made harder when you’re the Vice President and the co-worker is one of the most powerful men in America

In my reading of the book today, Joe speaks more about Obama than his son Beau’s illness. But just because his work is distracting him from his issues, doesn’t mean the issues of his boss and his country can be forgotten as well.

Joe uses the skills and mentality he has developed with Beau and his time in government to give advice to Obama. The two talk about how important hope is, and how to give others hope, you must give it out yourself.

In politics, anger and frustration come with every new challenge or problem. When you work closely together on some of the worlds most complicated issues, like Joe and Obama, you’re bound to clash. This happens with Joe and Obama, but the unwavering respect they have for each other keeps them off Twitter and into a daily private meeting where they talk out issues, like men.

Image result for joe and biden meeting

The ideas of perseverance are incredibly present in the book. The dynamics of balancing sickness and political changes that can impact the world tend to weigh down on people. Joe talks about the sometimes hopeless nature of the people around him politically and his family, both which rely on him to persevere and keep the ship sailing.

Promise Me Dad #3

In my previous blog post, I discussed the point in “Promise Me Dad” by Joe Biden where the politics and Joe’s famous sympathetic and emotional connection collided. Today’s reading dove even deeper and more recently into this dynamic.

The book is not beginning to get into how Joe met Obama. Their relationship starts with Joe out ranking Obama politically, but Obama’s powerful speeches quickly earned massive respect in Joe’s eyes.

Obama also had a subtle, respectful, power to him in everyday conversation and mannerisms. This allowed Joe and Obama to become good friends and close political collages.

The book also begins to touch on Obama asking Joe to be his vice president. Joe gives a very strongly rooted no in the beginning but Obama asks him to talk it over with his family. Joe’s family is so pro running for the vice presidency that it leaves Joe almost astonished and confused on what to do.

Image result for joe biden and obama poster

This reading stirs up a sense of nervousness in me because the theme of change is presented so quickly on the matter they I often felt lost on what I would do in Joe’s shoes. Of course, the entire book is one of change, and for me, hearing about how much change both good and bad that has happened in Joe’s life was shocking. The change he experienced in his family was crushing, but the fact that he was dealing with an incredibly difficult problem while running an incredibly powerful office was mind-blowing.