"Joe Biden did more for the equality of the sexes with his honest display of paternal emotion

[jillan]

during the vice presidential debate than Sarah Palin's presence on the executive ticket has or will ever do."


Biden visibly teared up when he rebutted the idea that "just because I am a man" he didn't understand what it was like to wonder whether or not a child would "make it" in recovering from a life-threatening medical situation....

By bringing that reality to a national political stage, Biden demonstrated that -- for all of us, not just feminists -- the personal is political, that women alone do not have the sole responsibility for caring about the future of our children.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-mcelrath-renna/joes-tears-the-political_b_131460.html


Interesting take on Biden's display of emotion. He was the one that reached out to women voters, not her.

[JI7]

1. i really think he did a lot towards securing women voters

Obama has already been leading and will win the voters.

but Palin's coldness towards him turned off any chance they would have with many women.

[justiceischeap]

2. Most women I know can really relate to a man who gets choked up

about his family. I told my roommates that was a major political score with women and I was right. (BTW, I'm a woman).

[NYC_SKP]

3. Best moment of the night, followed by a cold, heartless Palin. youtube here:

I'm referring to Joe's choking up, to which I had a deep reaction.

Imagine his breaking heart thinking about how injured his kids were, and his wife and daughter dead.

And Palin didn't say a word to him, she just went on with her maverick bullshit.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC1W1_sTgFE

[NYC_SKP]

4. And the text part of those moments HERE:

I understand what it's like. I'm much better off than almost all Americans now, I get a good salary as United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that's my total investment that I have. So I am much better off now. But the notion that, somehow, because I'm a man, I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone. I don't know what it's like to have a child you're not sure is going to make it. I understand, I understand as well as, with all due respect, the Governor or anybody else, what it's like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They're looking for help, they're looking for help. They're not looking for more of the same.

MS. IFILL: Governor?

GOV. PALIN: People aren't looking for more of the same, they are looking for change. And John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.

You know what Sarah? Fuck yourself, go to hell.

[jillan]

5. Matthews was asking what will be the one thing people will take away from this debate.

I say it's this moment, Joe's display of his own humanity and Sarah going right into her robotic response.

[NYC_SKP]

8. That was it for me, I really felt his heartache.

It wasn't til a second viewing that I saw how cold and mechanical she was immediately following him.

[amitten]

10. Agreed. n/t

[Blondiegrrl]

11. SQUAWK! SQUAWK! Sarah wants a cracker! n/t

[Up2Late]

6. What amazed me was how she was still so Robotic after that happened...

...right in front of her, that alone speaks volumes.

[Cha]

7. I don't know what she said before

that to give him an opening like that but Bravo~

[Blondiegrrl]

12. She was blathering on about how she's a MOM! (Did you know that?)

(Also ... NEWS FLASH! John McCain is a POW!) She said she was chosen for VP partly because her of "connection to the heartland," being a mom, being concerned about a son going to war, and having a special-needs child, blah, blah, blah. It was like she was trying to imply that she's more family-oriented than Biden.

[Cha]

14. Good for Biden standing up for

himself as Dad..as long as she was going to spread her shit on thick.

[Jennicut]

9. Joe won over the women way more then Sarah did by being genuine and real

I felt really bad for him during that moment but I also was happy that it showed people what a wonderful Dad he has been and how fathers are effected by what happens to their children just as much as women are. A great moment but she sure kept being robotic afterwards.

[jillan]

13. I rewatched parts of the debate last nite, and after Biden finished his emotional answer and Palin

went right into her talking points, Joe literally took 2 steps back from the podium.

He was probably thinking the same thing we all were thinking -
'What a heartless bitch'.

[progressivebydesign]

15. I married a single father with 4 kids. I was so moved by Biden's comments.

And this editorial you've posted really says it all. Politics IS personal.