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MONTHLY ARCHIVES
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Joe and Jill and Barack and Michelle
August 26, 2008 11:49 AM
People...people who read People...are the loveliest people in the world...
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and the Robin to his Batman, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., the six-term senator who has joined him on the Change-Train, sat down with their wives for an exclusive interview with People magazine last Saturday.
A photog asked the two men to squeeze together for a shot.
"We're kind of insecure," joked Obama.
"I carry my wife's pocketbook," said Biden. "I'm fine."
(?)
Obama said that he told Biden he'd been picked by calling his Senate office and having him tracked down. "He said he was at the dentist's office," Obama recalled. "I realized only later that he was being a doting husband, looking after Jill during a root canal."
And how did Biden tell the Biden brood?
"My granddaughter, Maisy, turned 8 and we were having a little birthday party for her," recalled Jill Biden, the presumptive second lady. "We had just finished blowing out the candles and were cutting the cake. And Joe said to everybody, 'Hey, I have something that I'd like to announce.' And he said, 'Barack called me and asked me to be vice president.' And everybody -- I get so emotional when I think about it -- and everybody clapped and started hugging."
"Maisy was totally unfazed," Biden said. "She said, 'Pop, can I have some more ice cream cake?'"
Michelle Obama told the magazine that she "stayed out of this process. But when he told me his choice, I said, 'That's the right choice.' I was like (snaps fingers) 'Good!' And the thing that was important for me is the reputation that Joe Biden has of being a good man, he's a good guy, he loves his family. I like the fact that he's on the train every day getting back home. Those are the kind of values that I respect. And uniformly, people have said the same thing about Jill.
"So, you want people you can hang out with, that you trust, that you sit down and have a good conversation with, in addition to the advice, guidance and wisdom he brings," Mrs. Obama continued. "I think about it as a wife who's got to hang out with this crew, right?"
The interview kind of reads like it could be one of those goofy-guy/awesome-wife sitcoms slated for ABC's fall lineup. (Is "According to Jim" still on the air?)
Some excerpts:
PEOPLE: This is the first mate you've chosen since Michelle.
Barack Obama: That's a good point.
Michelle Obama: Barack is looking for people who will challenge him, who will tell him no.
Barack: That's exactly what you need [in a vice president].
Michelle: That's why he married me. (Laughs.) So, I'd tell Sen. Biden, don't pull any punches.
PEOPLE: Now, if Sen. Biden starts yelling at you about picking up your socks...
Barack: Then we're in trouble. Don't do that, Joe.
Joe Biden: Don't worry...
PEOPLE: Sen. Biden, are you ready to hit the basketball court with him?
Joe: Hell, yeah, man.
Jill: He plays with the grandkids; we have a basketball hoop. He can train with Maisy.
Joe: I can't keep up with Maisy! The one thing I want my kids to remember about me is that I was an athlete. The hell with the rest of this stuff.
PEOPLE: You were a college freshman when your new boss was born. Does that make you feel old?
Joe: I'm not old. There are still 44 senators older than me...
PEOPLE: Mrs. Biden, what should Sen. Obama know about your husband's habits?
Jill: He's pretty much a night owl, so they have that in common. He's on that Blackberry and his phones constantly. I won't let him drive the car because everything's ringing. I say, 'Pull over!' It's too dangerous. Or we go to the wrong places. (Laughs)...
PEOPLE: Have you had much time to get to know the Obamas?
Jill: Not really. It's always been at the debates, always sort of 'Hello, how are you? How many more of these do we have to do?' But Michelle and I spent some time together this morning and we're really looking forward to being together. (Hugs Mrs. Obama) If you think those guys have chemistry, I think we have chemistry.
Audience: AWWWWWWWwwwwww!
And....scene.
Roll credits.
Produced by David Axelrod.
Directed by Robert Gibbs.
Hair and Makeup: Tommy Vietor.
- jpt
August 26, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (79)
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I love the claims of "reverse racism" on here. It clearly shows that many white folks have absolutely no clue WHATSOEVER about what racism really is. Try living somewhere where you are a minority and you are faced with the reality of your skin color EVERY DAY of your life. It might actually open up your eyes a bit (and I am neither black nor white).
Posted by: Jun | Sep 18, 2008 12:35:04 AM
MaryLou: I agree with everything you stated. I can't believe that the people of this country would vote for a candidate that has a background like Obama. True, he was a racist, anti-american and white hater in his younger days and his wife Michele belonged to a racist organisation at that time. If John McCain belonged to a church like that for 20 years that would be the subject for a long time. McCain has picked a woman for his VP and I am hoping women voters will switch from Obama to McCain because he didn't choose Hillary.
Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 29, 2008 11:27:36 AM
Sammy: You said it right. Obama is a fake, liar and wants to fill the shoes of MLK. For a Harvard graduate he should be able to speak without copying the speeches of JFK, RFK and MLK. If elected Obama will be president in name only and Biden will be running the show. Biden stated himself that Obama is not ready to lead and he said he sticks by that story. Is that the kind of president we want for this country?
Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 29, 2008 11:21:56 AM
Just in. McCain picks a woman as his VP. Gov. Palin of Alaska. That's what Obama should have done. I am hoping the woman voters for Hillary will vote for McCain because it is about time for a women to be president or VP. I believe that Obama didn't pick Hillary because his wife Michele would be jealous of her like Nancy Pelosi. Hillary is a former first lady and now a senator and Michele has not held positions like that and she may never. Obama may not win in November. Only god knows who is going to win.
Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Aug 29, 2008 11:08:05 AM
Michelle has convinced her husband not to select Hillary because Michelle would be overshadowed. Basically Michelle is jelous.
With Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama could have made history - but instead, Obama chose not to do so.
Obama hogged history. So Hillary’s speech will likely produce no gain for Obama. Instead, it will lay the basis for a lasting resentment at Obama’s failure to select her as VP.
Obama can't win the votes of women, especially older women.
Hillary's speech the other night made Obama's chance of winning those women voters a lot harder, if not impossible.
Posted by: Al from NJ | Aug 28, 2008 9:20:38 AM
Donna -4:59, 11-27. No, I don't think of Biden as sexist. I was being a little cynical and dry humored with my previous posting.
Posted by: kat | Aug 28, 2008 1:25:52 AM
Oh yes, what a great combination the head Dems have give us! Steve Erkel and Bluto the bully for President! And, they wonder why we can't get anyone elected President! UNBELIEVABLE!
Posted by: Mary Anne | Aug 27, 2008 7:08:57 PM
Can we trust that Cindy McCain will not steal other's prescription drugs on the campaign trail?
Posted by: Barbara Smith | Aug 27, 2008 11:55:37 AM
Donna Hughes,
The obama campaign is making out Biden taking the train to be some heroic deed. It is not. It is an easy commute and he controlled the purse strings to make it easy.
Posted by: geevill | Aug 26, 2008 9:24:47 PM
Geevill,
the only reason you show up anywhere is to do a hatchet job on Joe. You try to take even a positive thing like him commuting on the train to Washington every day and use that against him.
Kat,
If you knew anything about Joe you'd know that he is certainly no sexist!
Posted by: Donna Hughes | Aug 26, 2008 4:59:55 PM
"Jill is dead gorgeous" --- Biden
I fully agree.
Posted by: lazy to think | Aug 26, 2008 3:41:37 PM
McCain has another problem. He has repeatedly voted against federal legislation banning domestic terrorism against patients, doctors, and staff of health clinics.
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 26, 2008 2:59:58 PM
But Biden early on broke the sitcom spell by making the sexist, politically incorrect remark about carrying his wife's pocketbook. We know he's referring a little subtly to Cindy McCain controlling the purse springs in the marriage. As a Robin, he'll definitely be breaking up stuff in the china shop and pulling hard hitters during the pleasantries. But there's a tough fight ahead in Bedlam. Or is it Gotham?
Posted by: kat | Aug 26, 2008 2:52:03 PM
And this is only Scheunemann. I've not even mentioned Charlie Black, who lobbied for dictators like Mobutu and Ferdinand Marcos. Both people *employed* by McCain.
Or how McCain has supported known terrorists like Guy Philippe or how his campaign is funded by Carl Lindner, who has also financed terrorist organizations in Colombia.
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 26, 2008 2:41:31 PM
The Democratic Party is on the skids. Why? Because they would be up in arms over any Republican candidate who sat in the equivalent of Rev. Wright's church for 20 years... or had a homegrown terrorist bomber associate like Ayers... or took a kickback from a slumlord like Rezko. Any future allegations against their Republican counterparts will ring with the falseness of hypocrisy.
Posted by: marylou | Aug 26, 2008 2:24:57 PM
Ordinary people have to take of their shoes when they board a plane but terrorists have a constitutional right to buy weapons in the US?
That makes sense,
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 26, 2008 2:22:08 PM
Cliff notes version of the Annenberg Challenge -For 3 years William Ayres worked with Obama (prior to his political career)to disturbute nearly $50 million in grant money to set up schools and such. They gave money to such people as Ayres fellow terrorist -a taxi driver -to set up a marxist teaching school
Posted by: geevill | Aug 26, 2008 2:21:30 PM
And now lets all join them Thursday for the big Rock Concert -- Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen --- hmm is Ludacris going to be there to pay final tribute to Hillary?
Posted by: susie | Aug 26, 2008 2:20:37 PM
The 2007 income, poverty and health insurance numbers are out.
Bye Bye McBush
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | Aug 26, 2008 2:18:40 PM
is this the kind of moral blindness we want to empower in this election?
Posted by: Sammy | Aug 26, 2008 2:18:36 PM
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