Tag: WhiteHouse

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.

Promise Me Dad #2

With “Promise Me Dad” being written by Joe Biden, I was expecting some commentary on the political climate when he was in office. My most recent reading of the book delivered on that point.

The reading began by following the developing story of Joe’s son Beau and his tumor. The chapter follows the hopelessness that Joe and the rest of his family were feeling as the first diagnosis was presented and the first surgeries started. Joe admires Beau’s sense of confidence, determination, and stubbornness during the treatment and begins to use that determination to drive him forward politically.

But the duties of a Vice President do not leave Joe alone, and Joe is called to represent the president at a funeral for two police killed on the job, and later an unarmed black teen killed by police. Joe meets with the families and sympathizes with them after dealing with death in his own family. He makes genuine connections with the families in the tragedies and the grieving families look to him as a trusted figure.

Image result for Joe Biden police

However, other politicians use this time of grieving to strengthen their stances on various issues as the eyes of the nation are looking at these terrible incidents.

Promise Me Dad #1

Today I started reading “Promise Me Dad” by former Vice President and personal hero Joe Biden. The book is a biography that documents Joe Biden’s life in the office and with family after his eldest son was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Image result for promise me dad

The book kicks off in the back of an armored limo as Joe and his wife travel to Air Force One for their flight to the yearly thanksgiving in Nantucket. Biden fondly reminisces of the first Biden family Nantucket thanksgiving, making the reader feel like part of the Biden family.

Joe talks about the trip and how the thanksgiving was a much-needed escape from the busy life as a Vice President. This work-less fantasy is cut short however when the secret service sets up a communications room upstairs in the cabin. This is a small price to pay for time with his family, however.

The thanksgiving is a wonderful time for the Biden family but Joe is becoming more and more focused on his eldest son Beau, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Beau cannot stand the worried attention from his father and assures him that he is fine and, “Getting better every day.”