The VP Debates

I watched the VP debates last night with eager anticipation and a measured sense of foreboding. On the one hand, I knew Senator Joseph Biden had a streak of remarks that would get him into some hot water. His comments several months ago that Obama was an "articulate" man was a thinly veiled discourse about race and intelligence. I was worried that he could've become a liability. On the other hand, I was not looking forward to Governor Sarah Palin especially after viewing her interview with Katie Couric. Goodness what a train wreck that was! But I certainly did not want to see it on national stage not because it would've revealed that she was as a political lightweight, or that it would be a huge embarassment on the national stage. It's the fact that if she did perform in the way she bumbled like she did with Katie Couric, then it would've sounded like someone's fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. The excrutiating piercing pain would've been unbearable for me to endure for 90 minutes. In all honesty, I really didn't want to see the debates at all precisley for that reason. But I did, and I'm glad I did for this stellar, and moving, moment of the night ...

One of my dissertation chapters was on the Violence Against Women Act (1994) which was lead and sponsored by Senator Joe Biden. After the failure of including gender in the Hate Crime Statistics Act (1990), Senator Biden took it upon himself to address this glaring omission to a national epidemic of violence against women which was, in his words, "a national tragedy." His office lead and developed a series of reports on the nature and scope of violence against women, and within four years, his Violence Against Women Act was passed, a comprehensive anti-violence legislation that he mentioned in the clip. My chapter on the legislation and his role was a different argument that don't want to reiterate. Let's just say that after last night, and particularly with this moment, I'm rereading Senator Biden and the Violence Against Women Act in a totally different light. Simply put, this moment was Biden's "personal is the political" -- a cornerstone of feminist politics -- and that was a phenomenal step forward and ultimately the highlight of the debate. Now, of course, someone will rightly point out that politics is a spectacle and that every response is a strategic calculation.

But can anyone deny the genuine power and sincerity of Biden's words? Especially if you know his biography and his legislative history?

I do not. And that is what makes Senator Biden such an interesting figure for my research, and as a political figure.