Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose

by Joe Biden

Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for. —Immanuel Kant

I regarded these requests as the fruits of a life well lived: our grown children actually wanted to be with us.

somewhere along the way I had begun to look up to my own sons. They were good and honorable men who shared a belief in public service and had acted on it.

There was also something appealing to Jill about having the vice president’s official residence as a base in Washington, which would mean we would have one home just a few minutes away from Hunt and his three daughters, and another a few minutes from Beau and his two children. It would eliminate the four-hour commute I had been making every day the Senate was in session for the last thirty-five years and

Even at this level they are thinking about the job and proximity to their kids.

The president wanted my read on everything that was happening, and he wanted me around.

everybody who comes into contact with a president is hungry for something—sometimes nothing more than an acknowledgment, or simply to be put at ease, but most of all to be heard. There

On major decisions that had to be made fast, I had learned over the years, a president was never going to have more than about 70 percent of the information needed.

Martin Niemöller, a Protestant pastor who was thrown into a German concentration camp at the end of the war. First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The thing I wanted Finnegan to feel was the same visceral jolt that had animated so much of my own career in public life. “Look, honey,” I said to Finnegan as we walked back through the gate and back into our own time. “This can happen again. This is happening in other parts of the world now. And you have to speak out. You can’t remain silent. Silence is complicity.”

if the voters craved authenticity, I was at the top of the chart.

I didn’t know what to ask for, but the simple act of prayer calmed me.

Tip O’Neill, the twentieth century’s most colorful and successful Speaker of the House, famously said, “All politics is local.” I’ve been around long enough to presume to improve on that statement. I believe all politics is personal, because at bottom, politics depends on trust, and unless you can establish a personal relationship, it’s awfully hard to build trust. That is especially true in foreign policy,

Lowering energy costs for the average citizen in the Northern Triangle could reduce inequality, promote economic growth, and even help cut down the levels of violence.