Joe Biden: I’m not Darth Vader

The introductions of Joe Biden and his speech itself focused a lot on his biography — growing up in working class Pennsylvania (though, he said in the bio video, his neighbours considered themselves “middle class,”) losing his wife and son in a car accident shortly after being elected to Congress and being sworn in at his other injured son’s hospital bedside (the same son, Beau, who is now attorney general of Delaware and is soon deploying to Iraq with the Delaware National Guard”), and his ability to pick up and go on. There was also emphasis on his role in writing the Violence Against Women Act.

Biden devoted a good share of his speech to praising Obama, and the rest on attacking his “good friend” McCain:

“John McCain is my friend. We’ve known each other for three decades. We’ve traveled the world together. It’s a friendship that goes beyond politics. And the personal courage and heroism John demonstrated still amaze me. But I profoundly disagree with the direction that John wants to take the country. For example,

“John thinks that during the Bush years “we’ve made great progress economically.” I think it’s been abysmal.
And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time. Give me a break. When John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no relief for 100 million American families, that’s not change; that’s more of the same.”

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“These times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader…”

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He also had what was supposed to be a laugh line but the delivery was a bit flubbed:

“…no longer will the eight most dreaded words in the English language be: “The vice president’s office is on the phone.”