Joe Biden

Does Joe Biden have a date with destiny? The answer to that question may actually begin with a news story that happened in June 1987. It was a great month for Joe Biden, the U.S. senator from Delaware. Sixteen years ago, I traveled as a correspondent on the senator's launch of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. The journey started in the Amtrak station in Wilmington; continued to Washington, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Boston; and the cities of Nashua and Manchester in New Hampshire.

Whatever other legacy he might leave, at least Ronald Reagan has established that a man need not be an original thinker to get by as president of the United States. But the Reagan standard does not apply in the case of Sen. Joe Biden, a man who would be president. It's one thing for a politician to give impassioned expression to the thoughts of his ghost writers, which Reagan has done with marked success. But it's something else to poach the ideas of other people's ghost writers, a pattern Biden seems to have followed.

The choice of Joe Biden as candidate for veep made me recall a conversation with him at the 2004 Democratic convention. The Delaware senator was fuming that his party's nominee, Sen. John Kerry, wouldn't go on the offensive. Biden wanted Kerry to attack Bush failings on national security. "He has to talk specifics," Biden argued passionately. "When you talk in generalities, people say, 'Blah.' " The candidate shouldn't just cast blame, the senator added, but should spell out his own plans.

CONGRATULATIONS to Jefferson Hospital physician Howard Krein , who is engaged to Ashley Biden, daughter of Vice President Joe Biden . Krein is an otolaryngologist - ear, nose and throat doctor - who studied medicine at Jefferson and has practiced there for four years. The surgeon and medical professor did not return our request for comment yesterday about his happy news. The couple got engaged in September, after dating for about a year, the Associated Press reports.

RE THE letters "Why So Much Emphasis on the Ethnicity of the Super Bowl Coaches?" To all those people who didn't understand the media's need to congratulate Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy on their accomplishment - the first two African-American coaches to make it to the Super Bowl, I have two words for you: Joe Biden. Some things never change. Vita Nelson Philadelphia

OUR SON, born and reared in the Philly suburbs, sent us the article about Joe Biden's visit to the Northeast. I'm from North Carolina. We lived in the Philadelphia suburbs for 34 years and heard more racist rhetoric there than I ever heard growing up. After reading the article, I say, "So much for the City of Brotherly Love!" Evelyn Peck, Jacksonville, Fla.

The Wall Street Journal, normally no admirer of Barack Obama, nevertheless is proffering some advice for the embattled president: Drop Joe Biden from the ticket and replace him with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Bye Bye Biden?" intones the alliteratively gifted Journal. The not entirely implausible premise is that Clinton might help Obama in some key states and among some groups that are critical but questionable for the president's reelection hopes. Clinton, the Journal argues, would be a game-changer, altering "the thinking of a majority of . . . Democrats" - while not so incidentally attracting the enthusiastic support of the still-popular former President Bill Clinton.

WHY DOES having 36 years in the Senate make Joe Biden more qualified to be vice president? This tax burden chose a job with summers off, and a Cadillac health plan for life. On the taxpayer's dime. Career politicians are disconnected from the real world. I'll take a fresh face any day. Biden has been taking from the system for years. When is he going to get a real job and put something back? Mike Franklin, Marlton, N.J.

RE BYKO'S Jan. 22 column on Obama: It's not about black or white history, it's about qualifications. I have no problem with a black president, but not one who was put in there because he's black. Community organizers are important, but that does not qualify you for president. One Senate term and no work-related experience scares me. He'll be challenged. Even Joe Biden expects it. And the only experience he'll have to fall back on is "gathering" people in Chicago to unite in whatever cause he was promoting.

Sen. Joseph R.Biden Jr. (D., Del.) was quoted on Sept. 11 as insisting that "there are some things worth losing your temper about. " Amen. Critics who worry that Sen. Biden's confrontational stance on such issues as United States foreign policy on South Africa is lacking in substance would do better to target the Reagan administration's policies, which are evasive and utterly devoid of substance. So while the New Republic says, "Shut up, Joe Biden," I for one say, "Give 'em hell, Joe!"

Dump Biden for Clinton If President Obama really wants a second term, Hillary Clinton needs to be on the ticket. Joe Biden was Jon Corzine's biggest supporter, pushing hard for Corzine to get Timothy Geithner's job. Do you really think our Treasury secretary should be somebody who "doesn't know and doesn't remember" what happened to billions of dollars? Joe Biden did. When Biden was Delaware's senator, he blocked all attempts at tougher financial consumer protection laws.

He alluded to his Pennsylvania roots several times, he told homespun stories, and, for about 90 minutes, Vice President Biden charmed a pep-rally-friendly crowd Friday at Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown. He defended the Obama administration's performance on the economy, mentioned the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq, and delivered a populist speech on controlling skyrocketing tuition costs. But if his visit had the trappings of a campaign appearance in a potentially pivotal region - and once again the presidential and vice-presidential candidates may qualify for "frequent visitor" passes to Pennsylvania by November - the crowd was no less welcoming of the star attraction.

Should President Obama dump Joe Biden as his running mate and replace him with Hillary Rodham Clinton? Arlen Specter was asked that hot-potato question, circulating in some Democratic circles, in a meeting Tuesday with the Inquirer Editorial Board. His answer showed that the former 30-year senator hasn't lost his knack for blunt talk - nor, perhaps, his bitterness over what he feels were slights from Obama during his own failed 2010 reelection campaign. He suggested that maybe Obama was the one who should be dumped.

The Wall Street Journal, normally no admirer of Barack Obama, nevertheless is proffering some advice for the embattled president: Drop Joe Biden from the ticket and replace him with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Bye Bye Biden?" intones the alliteratively gifted Journal. The not entirely implausible premise is that Clinton might help Obama in some key states and among some groups that are critical but questionable for the president's reelection hopes. Clinton, the Journal argues, would be a game-changer, altering "the thinking of a majority of . . . Democrats" - while not so incidentally attracting the enthusiastic support of the still-popular former President Bill Clinton.

CONGRATULATIONS to Jefferson Hospital physician Howard Krein , who is engaged to Ashley Biden, daughter of Vice President Joe Biden . Krein is an otolaryngologist - ear, nose and throat doctor - who studied medicine at Jefferson and has practiced there for four years. The surgeon and medical professor did not return our request for comment yesterday about his happy news. The couple got engaged in September, after dating for about a year, the Associated Press reports.

While in China last week, Vice President Biden mistakenly said we own 85 percent of U.S. Treasury securities, while the number is actually 54 percent. But who am I to criticize? Sitting in front of a live microphone can be dangerous. I know because I do it for 20 hours each week for my nationally syndicated Michael Smerconish Program. And over the span of the last decade, plenty of dumb things have rolled off my lips. Such as when I was interviewing famed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, the man whose rendition of "Amazing Grace" could make an atheist cry. His beautiful singing graced many 9/11 hero funerals and became a fixture at important Yankees games.

Back in June, while launching the Campaign to Cut Waste, Vice President Biden said, "The president and I are committed to changing the way government works, and we are stepping up the hunt for misspent dollars. " Well, even Elmer Fudd could make short work of this hunt - and he can start in Biden's backyard. As it turns out, one of those changes in how government works is that the Secret Service is being charged rent by an officeholder it's protecting. And guess who that landlord is?

VICE PRESIDENT Joe Biden now has a Flyers jersey to match his wife's. Biden told a group of friends and family Monday night at the Water Works that Jill Biden is a huge Flyers fan and hangs a Danny Briere jersey on their door in either Wilmington or D.C. for good luck during games. Restaurant owner Michael Karloutsos presented Biden a custom Flyers jersey with his name and the No. 2 Monday night, after Biden and about 20 friends and supporters dined at the restaurant following a cocktail fundraiser for Biden's son, Beau Biden , Delaware's Attorney General.