Biden Thanks DE Delegation

…and gets a little emotional while doing it:

“I just want you to know that this is a great honor, this is a great honor being nominated vice president of the United States and I’m proud of it,” Mr. Biden told the small breakfast gathering. “But it pales in comparison to the honor I’ve had representing you.”

At this point, the extraordinarily loquacious senator paused, speechless and lost in his thoughts. He wiped away a tear with his handkerchief and went on.

“My private life has been lived in the public arena because you all got me started so young,” he said, alluding to his election to the Senate at age 29 and the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident before he was sworn in.

“I didn’t always comport myself, looking back, the way I would have wanted to when bad things happened to me,” he continued, leaving unsaid the episodes he was referring to. “The press, the national press – I don’t care what they think. I wish we could have done this in private because you know, I don’t know if I would have made it through a lot of tough times in my life without you guys. I mean it sincerely.”

He referred to the people of Delaware as a small family a number of times and told a story about attending church services one Sunday the year he was first elected, 1972. He told the pastor afterwards that everyone had been very nice to him “except for one jerk over there.”

As the breakfast was ending and Biden was leaving, he said the Vice President’s official residence is at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, and it has a big lawn (which it does).  So he is inviting us all over after he wins. Psst, delawaredem…he doesn’t mean you, he means just the Delaware Delegation.   Nope.  If I know Joe Biden, he means everyone.