The Vice President is pure emotion. These are some of the tearjerkers from his 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep .
Joe Biden wells up when his opponent in his first senate race, long-time Republican senator J. Caleb Boggs, calls to concede
"Election Day was like a dream; the weather cleared, and we got the big turnout we needed. By the time I got to the suite at the Hotel du Pont for the election night party, I was pretty sure we stood a shot to win the Senate seat from Boggs and the Republicans...
"I'd won by 3,000 votes our of 230,000 votes cast statewide. I was still upstairs in the suite with my family and Neilia's parents when Senator Boggs called to concede. 'Good race, Joe,' he said.
"And when he said it and I knew I'd won, it felt like nothing like I thought it would. It was supposed to feel great. I was supposed to be elated. But when Senator Boggs started to talk, I could feel myself filling up, like I might cry. I could feel the back of my throat constrict. It was like my old stutter was back. I didn't think I'd be able to talk. So Boggs spoke again: 'You ran a good race, Joe.'
"'I'm sorry, Senator' was all I could say. 'I'm sorry.'"
Source: Photo / via: images.politico.com
In a car crash, Biden's wife and daughter are killed, and his two sons are badly injured; Biden writes that he understood suicide as "a rational option"
"In moments of fitful sleep I was aware of the dim possibility that I would wake up, truly wake up, and this would not have happened. But then I'd open my eyes to the sight of my sons in their hospital beds — Beau in a full body cast — and it was back...Most of all I was numb, but there were moments when the pain cut through like a shard of broken glass. I began to understand how despair led people to just cash it in; how suicide wasn't just an option, but a rational option. But I'd look at Beau and Hunter asleep and wonder what new terrors their own dreams held, and wonder who would explain to my sons my being gone, too. And I knew I had no choice but to fight to stay alive.
"Except for the memorial service, I stayed in the hospital room with my sons. My life collapsed into their needs. If I could focus on what they needed minute by minute, I thought I might stay out of the black hole. My future was telescoped into the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. The horizon faded from my view. Washington, politics, the Senate had no hold on me. I was supposed to be sworn into the Senate in two weeks, but I could not bear to imagine the scene without Neilia."
Source: Photo / via: historyguy.com
After the crash, older senators take the time to check in on Biden — "a rare thing in the Senate," writes Biden
"My colleagues all knew my story, what the newspapers liked to call my 'personal tragedy.' I could see that some of my new colleagues didn't know what to say to me, but others went out of their way to engage me in the business of the United States Senate and to make me feel included in its community. Senator Mansfield asked me to come by his office at least once a week to see how I was handling my Senate duties. He tried to make it seem like he did this with all the freshman senators, but I knew better. He was taking my pulse. Senator Hubert Humphrey [pictured above] would grab me on the Senate floor with his fast-talking enthusiasm and tell me I was going to have a great career. He would also stop by my office unannounced, which is a rare thing in the Senate, and sit down on my couch to talk about how I was doing, how the boys were doing, how my family was doing. There were times he'd end up literally in tears because he felt so bad for me, and I'd find myself consoling him."
Biden's young sons inform dad that it's time "we should marry Jill"
"One morning the next year, Beau and Hunter walked into my bathroom while I was shaving, and I could tell they had something serious they wanted to talk about. Beau had just turned seven; Hunter was six. And they were having trouble getting started. 'You tell him, Hunt,' Beau said to his brother. 'No. You tell him.' Finally, Hunter spoke up: 'Beau thinks we should get married.'
"'What do you mean, guys? Beau?'
"'Well,' Beau said, 'we think we should marry Jill. What do you think, Dad?'
"'I think that's a pretty good idea,' I told them. I'll never forget how good I felt at that moment.
"'But, Dad,' Beau said in all earnest, 'd'ya think she'll do it?'
"They were observant, my sons."
Source: Photo / via: wwwimage.cbsnews.com
