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<blockquote data-quote="Copabanana" data-source="post: 667459" data-attributes="member: 18958"><p>The New Yorker Magazine</p><p></p><p>Biden, Alone in a Crowd</p><p></p><p>When Vice-President Joe Biden arrived to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opVaEC_WxWs" target="_blank">tape</a>“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” on Thursday, it had the makings of an ordinary, slightly decorous affair. Two nights earlier, the guest, Jeb Bush, had put in a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/jeb-bush-breezes-through-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert" target="_blank">serviceable performance</a>: hands clasped, a look on his face that was only slightly terrified. Bush didn’t know how Colbert would play it, so Bush maintained the wary, affable bearing of a dad plucked from the audience to go onstage at a magic show.</p><p></p><p>But with Biden Colbert wasn’t going for laughs. Biden, of course, has been grieving for his son, Beau, who died on May 30th of brain cancer, while discussing, with more openness than most politicians, the emotional costs of a potential run for President. Colbert asked Biden how he kept a “soul” in Washington, and Biden replied with an old line about Amtrak—“I commuted every day for thirty-six years”—before turning serious. He admitted that the culture of falsity in D.C. baffled him. He wondered “why in the world would you want the job if you couldn’t say what you believe.” Colbert offered condolences, and asked him for a story about Beau. “I never once—my word as a Biden—never ever heard my child complain.” He recalled a conversation shortly before Beau died, when Beau said, “Dad, I know how much you love me. Promise me you’re going to be all right.”</p><p></p><p>Biden was looking down, eyes wet, staring at his hands, kneading them. He went on, “I don’t know what it was about him. He had this enormous sense of empathy. I’m not making this up. I know I sound like a father.”</p><p></p><p>In 1972, Biden’s first wife, and their daughter, were killed in a car accident. Colbert, a fellow Catholic, asked Biden how his faith had helped him, and Biden might’ve been tempted to draw a gentle distinction between himself and politicians who wield their faith like a weapon. (Earlier that day, Bobby Jindal, a low-polling governor of Louisiana, had said, “It’s clear Donald Trump has never read the Bible.”) Of his own faith, Biden said, “I go to Mass, and I’m able to be just alone. Even in a crowd, you’re alone.” These days, he said, his wife, Jill, sometimes sticks notes on his bathroom mirror to read while he shaves; not long ago, she put up a quote from Kierkegaard: “Faith sees best in the dark.” He said, “The faith doesn’t always stay with you.”</p><p></p><p>Biden looked down again, elsewhere for a moment. He patted one hand with the other, and looked up at Colbert, eyebrows raised, as if seeing him for the first time. Colbert was asking a question about “what lessons would you give other people,” and Biden mentioned, as always, an expression from his mother: “As long as you are alive you have an obligation to strive, and you’re not dead until you see the face of God.”</p><p></p><p>He marvelled at people who have suffered and “don’t have anything like the support I had.” Then he leaned into Colbert, and said, “I’m not going to embarrass you, but you’re one of them, old buddy.” For a moment, Colbert looked genuinely stumped; he smiled, closed his eyes. When Colbert was ten, his father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash. Biden went on, “Losing your dad when you’re a kid . . . It’s like asking what made your mother do it every day? How did she get up every single day?”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Copabanana, post: 667459, member: 18958"] The New Yorker Magazine Biden, Alone in a Crowd When Vice-President Joe Biden arrived to [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opVaEC_WxWs']tape[/URL]“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” on Thursday, it had the makings of an ordinary, slightly decorous affair. Two nights earlier, the guest, Jeb Bush, had put in a [URL='http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/jeb-bush-breezes-through-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert']serviceable performance[/URL]: hands clasped, a look on his face that was only slightly terrified. Bush didn’t know how Colbert would play it, so Bush maintained the wary, affable bearing of a dad plucked from the audience to go onstage at a magic show. But with Biden Colbert wasn’t going for laughs. Biden, of course, has been grieving for his son, Beau, who died on May 30th of brain cancer, while discussing, with more openness than most politicians, the emotional costs of a potential run for President. Colbert asked Biden how he kept a “soul” in Washington, and Biden replied with an old line about Amtrak—“I commuted every day for thirty-six years”—before turning serious. He admitted that the culture of falsity in D.C. baffled him. He wondered “why in the world would you want the job if you couldn’t say what you believe.” Colbert offered condolences, and asked him for a story about Beau. “I never once—my word as a Biden—never ever heard my child complain.” He recalled a conversation shortly before Beau died, when Beau said, “Dad, I know how much you love me. Promise me you’re going to be all right.” Biden was looking down, eyes wet, staring at his hands, kneading them. He went on, “I don’t know what it was about him. He had this enormous sense of empathy. I’m not making this up. I know I sound like a father.” In 1972, Biden’s first wife, and their daughter, were killed in a car accident. Colbert, a fellow Catholic, asked Biden how his faith had helped him, and Biden might’ve been tempted to draw a gentle distinction between himself and politicians who wield their faith like a weapon. (Earlier that day, Bobby Jindal, a low-polling governor of Louisiana, had said, “It’s clear Donald Trump has never read the Bible.”) Of his own faith, Biden said, “I go to Mass, and I’m able to be just alone. Even in a crowd, you’re alone.” These days, he said, his wife, Jill, sometimes sticks notes on his bathroom mirror to read while he shaves; not long ago, she put up a quote from Kierkegaard: “Faith sees best in the dark.” He said, “The faith doesn’t always stay with you.” Biden looked down again, elsewhere for a moment. He patted one hand with the other, and looked up at Colbert, eyebrows raised, as if seeing him for the first time. Colbert was asking a question about “what lessons would you give other people,” and Biden mentioned, as always, an expression from his mother: “As long as you are alive you have an obligation to strive, and you’re not dead until you see the face of God.” He marvelled at people who have suffered and “don’t have anything like the support I had.” Then he leaned into Colbert, and said, “I’m not going to embarrass you, but you’re one of them, old buddy.” For a moment, Colbert looked genuinely stumped; he smiled, closed his eyes. When Colbert was ten, his father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash. Biden went on, “Losing your dad when you’re a kid . . . It’s like asking what made your mother do it every day? How did she get up every single day?” [/QUOTE]
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