WestVirginiaRebel Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Politico: Joe Biden was gearing up for the 2012 campaign when Ted Kaufman mailed him a quote, in one of his periodic attempts to gently steer the high-maintenance muscle car that is his best friend and surrogate brother. The passage came from the soon-to-be Pope John XXIII, circa 1945, and was meant as a reminder that Biden, while on the brink of another four-year term, was reaching an age of reflection and reckoning. “I must not disguise myself from the truth,” the quote began. “I am definitely approaching old age. My mind resents this and almost rebels, for I still feel so young, eager, agile and alert. But one look in the mirror disillusions me. This is the season of maturity.” Biden’s reply, scrawled on the original missive, came back fast, as if he had just been sitting there waiting for a chance to argue the point, in the form of another quote, this one from the poet Dylan Thomas. “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Biden may rage, but by any reasonable reckoning, night is falling on his singular four-decade political career. At 71, he is in the second year of a second White House term, restless in his role as second fiddle to Barack Obama, especially now that he is once again being upstaged by Hillary Clinton, Obama’s presumed Democratic heir. The tickled-alligator grin is still famously affixed to Biden’s face, but there’s a lot more going on behind those Ray-Bans these days. Joe Biden in winter is still basically a happy warrior, but the past couple years have been a struggle for both relevance and leverage—a fight largely hidden from public view, between the presidential dreams he can’t quite relinquish and the shrinking parameters of a job he described to me as derivative, borrowed and “totally reflective of the president’s power.” ________ Soon to be an historical asterisk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valin Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 OH GOD! The question is who is quietly waiting in the wings while these Joe and Hillary beat the crap out each other? Who is the savior of the Party, carrying the torch on into the XXIst century? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickydog Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 That wail could be asked of both parties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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