Biden plays a unique role amidst tragedy

[Gothmog]

Biden is our national grief counselor

Link to tweet

Speaking to those who’ve endured unimaginable loss, Biden said, “Find a purpose, something that matters, particularly if it’s something connected to the loss you just had. . . . I get up in the morning and I think to myself every morning, is [Beau] proud of me? Am I doing what he wants? And I’m sure that it’s the same way with you and a whole lot of other people.”

He added that “at a moment there will come a time when you think of the person you lost, and it takes a long while. But you’ll get a smile before you get a tear, and that’s when you know you’re going to make it. And so many people have gone through what I’ve been through without the help I had.”

Often chided for gaffes, Biden, we see, can be downright profound when discussing loss. Wrapping up, he explained, “Sometimes it’s really dark, but there is hope. And think about what it means for those family members you have left — they need you. They need you. And look, folks, that’s why I think that it matters the stories of these people, for the public to understand that this is not just a statistic. This is — this is who we are, who they are. I mean, it’s a — and it really is about, you know, sort of reweaving that social fabric that holds a society together— honesty, decency, hope, leaving nobody behind, giving hate no safe harbor.”

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R

[Hekate]

2. Joe is a mensch

[bigtree]

3. he's alright, the speech was okay

...he was given a live slot for reading his speech in the midst of Trump's visit.

That doesn't make him the nation's 'grief counselor.' The hype is getting ridiculous.

How about Cory Booker who also gave a speech today? Is he our grief counselor too?

What about Beto in El Paso?

on edit: This taped interview certainly does not make Biden the 'nation's grief counselor.' The hype is absurd.

[Cha]

5. Sez you. Oh what sour grapes you have, bigtree.

[Gothmog]

16. Hey Cha

[emmaverybo]

51. Really! But we aren't eating them. NT

[highplainsdem]

6. Please read more carefully. The tweet was about Biden's CNN interview a few nights ago,

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287229037

It was a great interview that moved a number of DUers to tears.

And today's speech was much more than "okay."

[George II]

8. ooopsie! That interview on Monday was amazing, showed the human side (as if we didn't know)....

...of Joe Biden.

And today's speech has been hailed as one of the best in several years, definitely the best of this primary season.

[Cha]

14. Mahalo for explaining that so well

to the poster, highplains

[George II]

7. What, "alright", "okay"?

[Skya Rhen]

9. Joe has been a national grief counselor for decades - this is a real expertise that he possesses,

which is well-documented - and the title is well-warranted...


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/25/joe-biden-2019-profile-grief-beau-car-accident-224178

Snip...

There is no person in American politics today whose life has been so shaped by loss and grief. The long arc of Biden’s career is all but bracketed by tragedy.

Snip...

“Joe Biden,” Delaware Senator Chris Coons told me earlier this week, “has almost a superpower in his ability to comfort and listen and connect with people who have just suffered the greatest loss of their lives.”

“He does use his knowledge of the process of going through these things no one should really have to go through to try to help others do the same,” said Jeff Nussbaum, one of his former speechwriters.

“That tragedy of losing someone, especially a child—if you haven’t had that happen to you, as much as you can feel sympathy, you can’t begin to put yourself in their place unless you actually have been there,” said Fred Sears, who’s been friends with Biden since high school. “And he was. And has been.”

[emmaverybo]

52. Thanks for the quotes, Skya Rhen. Reading reviews of his book on Amazon, I found he had comforted

many. He also gave a very beautiful speech on grief to soldiers. His wisdom speaks to me.

[lapucelle]

10. Give the man his due. It was a moving speech. N/T

[Cha]

13. Mahalo, lapucelle..

[lapucelle]

23. I praised Kamala Harris on a couple of threads today for raising money for anti-gun organizations

and sending lunch to Beto's crew in El Paso. I bumped and rec'ed because folks should be aware of Kamala's willingness to put politics aside on dark days when we especially need to be united. After all, we are stronger together.

Kamala's photo isn't in the lower left corner of my posts in the primaries thread. That doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a tip of the hat.

Biden's speech was outstanding. It's a shame that anyone would try to diminish it in an attempt to score political points.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287231142#post9

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287231142#post2

Mahalo!

[Cha]

39. Mahalo for doing that, lapucelle!

Yes, this isn't a contest.. everyone should be thanked for contributing to the healing of the unbearable tragedies in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

[Gothmog]

15. The speech was amazing

Biden is the best candidate to take on trump

Link to tweet

[JI7]

17. it's not hype, it's what people who have experienced horrible loss and met Biden have said

[bigtree]

19. 'national grief counselor'

...not Beto, who's actually dealing firsthand with the grief?

[JI7]

20. you don't think Biden has ever dealt firsthand with Grief ?

[bigtree]

28. lost on you

Link to tweet

[JI7]

29. nothing is lost on me. this isn't a competition

both men have helped people. one doesn't take away from the other.

[bigtree]

33. I agree with that

...but Beto is in the moment, on the scene, in the community doing the work that's closest to most of our hearts.

That's much more meaningful to me than this tape, or Biden's campaign speech, which was, nonetheless, an address that most of us can stand behind. That's not insignificant, just not as defining or meaningful for me right now, even after a day's reflection.

I don't need a bunch of stuff for it. Just accept that not everyone sees your candidate in the same light as you might and move on.

[Cha]

38. You need to take your own advice, bigtree. "Just accept

that not everyone sees your candidate in the same light as you might and move on."

That wasn't a campaign speech as you accuse.. Biden wrote it from his heart.

[R B Garr]

40. Speaking of accepting and moving on, you should take your own

advice. Biden is an ex Vice President of the United States. He has stature because of his former title. Continuing trying to diminish him is futile.

[bigtree]

41. I gotta block you again

...maybe help stop this stuff directed at me that you're littering the thread with.

[Cha]

43. RB Garr isn't ".. littering the thread.."

[lapucelle]

50. I'm no expert, but is isn't it usually the case that people who agree with the OP

are not posters who "litter the thread"?

[Cha]

53. Or hijack it for

their own purpose? Why.. I believe you're bloody well right!

[R B Garr]

44. "Littering the thread" "ruffled feathers" "sweating"

Those are your words and I was asking you to explain your reasons for such personal exaggeration. Like I said, I just saw a nice thread about Biden.

[Cha]

47. Good on ya, RB!

He can't hear you!

[emmaverybo]

54. Oh, dear. You throw out sour grapes on a thread, imply that unlike Beto (who is doing a great job)

Biden has not dealt first-hand with death—despite losing his young wife and baby, and then one of his two surviving sons years later—but can’t take mild pushback?

[bigtree]

55. you too

....bye.

[Cha]

56. Haha! I hope I'm included in that

beautiful, reality based group.

[emmaverybo]

61. I can't capture my squeals of laughter and delight at your comment with any smilie I know. So

I will leave it at

[Cha]

62. Oh Cool, emmabverybo..

I'm glad you saw that!

I think I am.

[lark]

34. Exactly - to praise Biden is not to diminish Beto. Both stood up wonderfully and I'm proud of them.

I'm also proud of Kamala for raising money for the cause. WE need all hands on deck here folks, this issue should unite, not divide us as Democrats and people who care.

[MustLoveBeagles]

48. Exactly

[Docreed2003]

31. A truly real and heartfelt moment

Sadly it will be lost in all of the coverage, and maybe that's how it's should be, in the sense that Beto didn't do this for votes...this was a real, heartfelt moment of shared humanity.

[Cha]

21. Yes, ".. national Grief Coiunselor.."

as one who has gone through so much grief from losing his own family members.

Link to tweet

[Demsrule86]

24. No ...not Beto.

He isn't going anywhere nationally ...hope he runs for the Senate.

[Demsrule86]

25. Did Beto lose a loved one? Biden lost his wife and daughter in a car crash and later his

adult son died of cancer. I can think of no worse grief than burying your children or your spouse for that matter...and yes Biden comforted the nation yesterday...and showed us that we will be rid of the monster in the white house...something no other candidate can do.

[JI7]

30. Beto's father died while riding a bike and being hit by a car

once again. this isn't a competition. why the need to attack others. appreciate what both have done to help others.

also this shooting was in his community.

[Demsrule86]

36. Losing a child is in a whole different category...but Biden had every right to speak as does Beto.

[JI7]

42. follow the conversation when you reply

i defended Biden and beto and said it wasn't a competition.

[sheshe2]

45. Wow.

bigtree
19. 'national grief counselor'

...not Beto, who's actually dealing firsthand with the grief?

I will tell you who is ACTUALLY DEALING FIRSTHAND WITH THE GRIEF! It is the survivors and the family of the loved ones that were slaughtered. The young mom and dad who died protecting their baby. Another mom called her other and said she was shot in the head and to care for her children. She is dead now. Yet here you are making it a competition between Beto and Biden. Who grieved better? For the love of the Gawd, please stop.

WTH? We get it. You hate Biden. He is not even my first choice, yet will defend and readily vote for the man.

[Cha]

58. That was Magnificent, she!

Thank You!

[sheshe2]

59. Hey, Cha.

Thank you. I am beyond heartbroken.

Don used their grief and loss as a campaign event. Thumbs up and grinning ear to ear. I am appalled that on a Democratic board that we would be arguing who grieved better, Biden or Beto. It was the families, Cha. A baby and her sisters without their mother. A baby lost both parents saving her life. The ones grieving lost someone close to them, a loved one.

This is not a competition and a disgrace to their lives to make it so.

[Cha]

60. Absolutely well said.. " This is not a competition and a disgrace to their lives to make it so."

Mahalo!

[Gothmog]

65. Watch this speech that Biden gave to miltary family members

Link to tweet

[Cha]

22. Mahalo for that, JI7..

[stonecutter357]

26. lol fail !

[Cha]

63. So

much

[Joe941]

57. Ok?! It was great!

[Cha]

4. Yes he does, Goth.. and I'm sure he'd

rather not be.. but here we are.

[Me.]

11. Yes, Here We Are

[Cha]

12. So we deal with it

the very best we can.

Mahalo, Me

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. K&R

[stonecutter357]

27. K&R

[Iliyah]

32. Yes, I have to say that all the Democrats that spoke out

was and still is 100% sincere in their convictions. Their word were and are the real deal. Their actions are real. Their "optics" were and are still are genuine and they care.

I only saw portions of VP's speech and was impressed. I watched Beto in interviews and I know he cares. I feel that same way with majority of the Democratic field.

[MustLoveBeagles]

49. +1

[sheshe2]

35. K&R

[Gothmog]

37. Joe Biden reminded all of us of what a presidential president would sound like

Link to tweet

In a fiery and blunt speech slamming the tenor, tone and words of President Trump as the nation reels from white nationalist domestic terrorism, former vice president Joe Biden reminded all of us of what a presidential president sounds like. His words were stirring. His delivery was passionate. And they were befitting a man who kicked off his campaign with a video decrying Trump’s shameful response to Charlottesville....

Sure, some of that authority has to do with Biden having served side-by-side with the still-popular former president Barack Obama. His voice providing comfort for those of us who long for the days when a grown-up was president of the United States, acted accordingly and wielded the bully pulpit of the Oval Office with moral authority. Instead, in Trump, we have a bully with a pulpit and no moral compass.

“Days before the mid-terms,” Biden said of Trump, “he fomented fears of a caravan heading to the United States, creating hysteria. saying ‘look at what is marching up, that is an invasion…An invasion’.” The Democratic front-runner continued through a litany of examples of Trump hurling red meat to his supporters. “At a rally in Florida, when he asked a crowd, ‘How do we stop these people?,’ meaning immigrants, and someone yelled back, ‘Shoot them.’ He smiled,” Biden recounted. And then Biden drew a straight line from Trump’s embrace of white supremacy to the hate-inspired violence we’ve endured.....

Biden wasn’t blind to the shortcomings of our nation and the men who formed it. He talked about them. But he demonstrated that the vision of America was perpetuated by Democratic and Republican presidents alike throughout its history. Ending his speech, Biden slipped off his prepared remarks in an emphatic way. “This is the United States of America! Period! May God protect our troops,” Biden said pounding the podium, ending a speech that everyone knows he believes in his bones.

[Cha]

66. Rec this post!

Link to tweet

Mahalo!

[oasis]

46. Biden stands strongly for the values we treasure.

[Gothmog]

64. One of Biden's greatest speechs of all time is this one on grief to military families

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

67. From Deadline White House

Link to tweet

[Demsrule86]

68. Thank you Gothmog...I am proud to support such a fine man. K&R