How This Got to Be a Biden Moment

[DonViejo]

By MARK LEIBOVICH
WASHINGTON — President Obama had just finished taking the oath and the Marine band played “Hail to the Chief” and the cameras panned to children waving little flags. Inaugurations are momentous things.

And then, after the benediction, I opened an e-mail from my friend Matt, who had extracted another unalienable truth from the proceedings:

“Biden is a testament to the transforming power of successful hair plugs.”

Well yes, he is, though the hair plugs are not a new Biden phenomenon. What’s telling here is that at a spectacle so potent and on a stage so crowded, the eye would be so naturally drawn to the goofball understudy. In that sense, Matt represents a cultural wave.

“Transforming” is the key word. In a few short months, the motor-tongued, muscle-car-loving heartbeat-away hell raiser has been transformed from gaffe-prone amusement to someone whose star shines as brightly as his teeth. He is the subject of viral C-Span videos, sitcom infatuations and an “autobiography” of his Onion-inspired alter-ego, “Diamond” Joe Biden, “The President of Vice.” (In his spare time, Mr. Biden also helped avert the fiscal cliff, is spearheading the White House plan to reduce gun violence and might even run for president in 2016.)

We might sit at the dawn of the second Obama term, with Hillary in waiting, Republicans in therapy and Congressional approvals in sub-cockroach and colonoscopy territory. But for whatever reason, the perfect flower of this peculiar moment grows from the earthy core of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/style/a-biden-moment.html?pagewanted=all

[djean111]

1. Don't really care for the article.

For some reason, it seems to diminish Biden.
Sort of feels to me like an attempt to make him seem inconsequential ahead of 2016.
Maybe I am just too cynical, but around DU I read about possible prez contender, and this article says crazy uncle to me.

[Frustratedlady]

2. I agree. I've met Joe and he's a warm, sensitive person.

As for the hair plugs, he had head surgery for aneurysm on his brain. I don't know if the front of his head was involved, but if not, who cares? The guy has been through a lot in his life and certainly doesn't deserve criticism.

[lunatica]

3. The hair plug reference was a put down

I didn't bother to go to the link. I have no problem if anyone gets hair plugs, but I have a problem with people who use it to subtly put someone down.

[JDPriestly]

4. Same here. A lot of older women die their hair, and sometimes it looks pretty strange.

Why shouldn't men be able to do what they want. Maybe people feel more confident when they do these things.