I feel like a Kremlinologist.
Vice President Joe Biden was in Delaware yesterday to give a speech at a Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast in Wilmington on repairing the breach between police and the African American community. And the News Journal, in their story on the Vice President’s speech today, showed the following pictures of the former Attorney General and future alleged gubernatorial candidate Beau Biden, who was present for his father’s speech but did not speak himself.
Photos are courtesy of Jennifer Corbett of the News Journal. The side profiles of Mr. Biden are concerning.
As Nancy Willing says, “does anyone really believe his health is not an issue?”
I hate that I have to study every picture of Beau Biden after his rare public appearances to judge how his health is. I hate that I have to wonder about his health at all. As someone who had to endure a health scare last year, I understand how important privacy is. But then again, I am not a supposed candidate for Governor. Nor was I in public office when I got sick. Just tell us. We are adults. We can handle it.
Maybe there is nothing wrong, and the thinning hair is just normal. He is Joe Biden’s son, after all. Still, we have a right to know. And full disclosure is required before any campaign begins.
Not running. Just freezing out the field so Tom Gordon can have a clear shot. Geezer suggested that in another thread a while back and it still makes the most sense to me.
I might have to vote for Ken “The Legacy” Simpler if that happens.
He has a visible scar on his head and it’s obvious his head was shaved. Dude looks 10 years older over the course of a year. What a shame. As an elected official we should know a little bit more about what’s going on with the guy.
Yet again Delaware amazes me. The Vice President of the Free World’s son allegedly almost died and not a peep nationally.
Obama’s half brother fucks a goat allegedly….breaking news
Guy hasn’t answered a question in public for a year and a half. Every so-called pronouncement is via a spokesman.
Call his putative run for governor what it is: Fiction.
Donviti – he is no longer a public official……
nor has he filed to run for the Governor’s position ( I don’t believe)
a technically, right now, as of today, he is a private citizen and as such doesn’t owe anyone anything…
should any of the two situation above change – well then it may be a different story
Aoine – Sort of.
He has announced that he is running for governor. We don’t have to wait for him to file to expect some accountability. While he isn’t technically a candidate, it is pretty much meaningless since he cannot technically file for the run until early 2016, once filing fees have been set.
I’m not sure what the standard is, but he is still a self-proclaimed public figure, even if he is currently out of office.
When he makes an announcement that he will be dropping out of public life (that will be a rough day), we can all leave him alone.
you are right and I stand corrected, but he is the VP’s son…that alone should get some news
You hate to have to pour over photos like some obsessed fan……yet you do it anyway.
He is a daddy, a husband, a fellow human being with emotions, and opinions and feelings just like any of us. And if he’s facing something ominous, he should get the opportunity to deal with it the way he wants to, and if it’s “nothing” and something he wants to put behind him, who are we to dig it up? It is his personal life, and any speculation about running for governor is down the road. But where he is on the road right now is a time that we need to leave him alone to face whatever it is, on his terms. What’s wrong with extending some compassion, and kindness? Sure seems simple to me. Leave him alone. Two years from now IF he runs for Gov. and IF you don’t think he’s up to it, then don’t vote for him. For now, be nice…
Sussex Native and Sussex Anon…
I’ll stop as soon as Beau Biden either fully discloses his medical condition (including what happened in Houston) or retires from public life. So long as he wants to remain a declared candidate for CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE, I will persist, no matter what you Know Nothings say.
This Know Nothing, knows some things and suspects some things but I am not obsessing about it.
Which is nice, because I don’t hate myself for doing it.
This state has a tradition of politicians being accessible on the campaign trail. If he does run, he can’t “hide” forever. And since he hasn’t filed and isn’t on the campaign trail “meh.” Until he actually files, its not worth obsessing over.
He really could be grappling with a serious illness and is trying to beat it and is just buying time to see if he does indeed recover. Or he could be in denial and his friends and family are just helping him along knowing its bad. Really bad. Or, he could just look aged. Who knows? One thing for certain, I don’t think he is going to check in with an obsessed blogger for guidance. Not when you have million dollar attorneys throwing window dressing jobs at you and a father who is part of the “other” Democratic Party. The one that doesn’t answer to any of us peons.
The right to privacy outweighs any perceived right know, until and if Biden becomes a formal candidate for public office and citizens must make informed decisions. Until then, as SussexAnon pointed out, it has the appearance of an obsession.
I hope he gets back to his old self, and I hope he doesn’t run for governor, because then all these questions become relevant again.
old sussex county native: I totally agree, Mr. Biden has not officially filed. Enough, be respectful of his situation & the privacy of his family.
All the best, Mr. Biden!
When he files, this becomes a story. Right now, it has the appearance of an article in a crappy tabloid magazine and is beneath this blog. He is a young man with a family and we all pray for his good health regardless of his ambitions. Some things are more important than politics.
Ah people, he’s an announced candidate. The filing is a technicality. The action of him being “in” is actively keeping others out. If his health is going to keep him from running, he should get out of the race. But to claim since he hasn’t filed he’s not “in” is just silly. He is a public candidate for Governor. It’s that simple.
I get that, but then why not go after his action (or lack thereof) or transparency (or lack thereof) as AG instead of focusing on his hair growth? If we elected Bidens based on hair, Joe would have never made it 🙂
To further Hmm’s point, and to answer Mike, if he won’t be transparent about something this obvious, how will he act with things we don’t see? Actually, we already know — how transparent was the investigation into the police in Derek Hale’s shooting death?
Right on, Old Sussex County Native
SIGH – one would think that there is enough out there to interest one in the political arena than with “what if’s” of the Biden clan.
look – we have the Bodenweiser trial coming up and the Phillips trial coming up
those juicy tidbits should be enough to keep you all engaged in titillating gossip for a while…..
I feel its beneath us to pour, like an obsessed tweenie, over the details of the man’s life. He is not a candidate for anything, self-declared or not. I’d start looking at him when and IF he files.
if we do look at him because at one time he did say he would run for GOV then should we have bloggers and journalists following his wife and children around too?? I mean, what they do would be under the microscope as well.
until then, it really is beneath anyone to be obsessing over photos and speculating…..
I just don’t get it……don’t mean to offend, but I don’t.
I also don’t get the Kardashian lifestyle attraction either…just saying…
DelDem–it’s okay. You’re not a kremlinologist, or the papparrazzi. It’s a simple “man crush”, and you can’t get enough, and you feel bad with what’s going on, if something’s going on, and helpless if anything is going on. You’ll be filled in when the time is right. But don’t let the man crush carry you to inappropriate obsessing, and with a hit blog like yours “stalking”! Let’s keep our crushes positive!!
Delaware Dem: This “Know nothing” knows a hell of a lot more than you think. My Dad got sick when I was 14, and went to great lengths to protect us kids while we were in school so we could focus on our grades. He did not want us to suffer while he was suffering so he kept his troubles to himself. Finally, when the time was right, he let us know he was dying. Three days before he left us. Oh yes, by your standard we could have anguished all along but in our case, it was a father’s love who protected us boys long as he could trying to keep things normal for us long as he could. Later in life, I worked in the field of oncology, and learned from YEARS of experience with the terminally ill, that everyone has their own way of handling it. Now I am not saying that Beau has something that bad — you just hit a nerve with me and your high-minded proclamation that everyone has to do things your way in regard to illness. I am beginning to think you know nothing — at least nothing about compassion and care for your fellow man. Never kick a man when he’s down. It’s creepy that you won’t let it go.
OSCN – Was your Dad a public figure? There are reasons why people choose not to go into public life. One of those reasons is that your life becomes… well… public.
It is fine to debate whether or not we should be interested in Beau’s health. At this moment, he might be keeping other people from running for Governor, so it has an impact. If Hillary had come out and said that she is going to run for President (she hasn’t) and was keeping from us a medical fact that might mean she cannot run, she would be depriving the country of a deliberative process by freezing out competitors. “I don’t want to run if Hillary is going to run because she is [a friend, a lock, a great fundraiser, etc]”.
This sort of situation lends itself to Geezer’s assertion that he has frozen the field so that a close friend can use insider information “pssst… I probably won’t REALLY run, so if you start now, you can be prepared and have the nomination when I drop out on June 1st”. This subverts the electoral process. I don’t like it when a party does it, I don’t like it when a candidate does it.
In the light of that, it is prudent to try to figure out whether Beau is REALLY running, or putting on some sort of kabuki theater while someone else picks my pocket. He says he is running, but he hasn’t spoken in public.
-Beau Biden (via email) April 17, 2014 emphasis mine
As far as I can tell, Beau isn’t living up to his own standard.
Liberalgeek would make a great blogger.
Indeed.
One more thought, triggered by the Starkey piece about Beau in Monday’s TNJ: This isn’t just about Beau’s refusal to talk about his future or his illness. He refused to talk about anything for the entire last year of his time in office, something that we wouldn’t normally accept without the explanation that he’s been sick.
So Beau has taken advantage of his apparent lack of health to avoid talking about subjects on which we have a right to know his position — while simultaneously refusing to say that he’s in poor health.
You, and he, can’t have it both ways.
Except apparently they, and he, can.
Yes, because of the big hearts (but correspondingly inactive bullshit detectors) of people like those above who feel instead of think.