My Joe Biden moment
I attended the opening of the Ernest F. Hollings Library in Columbia, SC last Friday. It was a well attended event, what with VP Joe Biden in attendance to give the keynote address. Cool new library, sure, but the chance to catch a glimpse of the sitting Vice President of the United States. I have to admit I was a little star struck.
If ever anyone needed an overview of the impact that Fritz Hollings has had on South Carolina and United States politics, they needed to be at this event. Joe Biden gave a heart felt speech about how his three decade relationship with Hollings shaped his career in the United States Senate and led to his subsequent successful inclusion on the 2008 Presidential ticket. I thought it was an excellent speech - incredibly laudatory of Fritz Hollings.
Hollings speech took me a little by surprise, but was apparently “vintage Hollings.” In a classy act of bi-partisanship, he invited Senator Lindsay Graham from the front row to the stage. He then proceeded to lay into the President about how the United States was in a trade war and needed to enter a period of much stronger protectionism. In front of Harris Pastides, President of the University of South Carolina, he railed against pushing for too much innovation (because it did not create jobs) and how we needed to get back to making stuff (job creators). I am not sure many of the people in the audience agreed with what he had to say, but it sure made for some pretty entertaining moments. 950 people in the audience laughing; Pastides, Biden, and Graham looking like they wanted to crawl under their seats.
I got to shake Joe Biden’s hand and I told him it was an excellent speech. His comment: “Can you image what Hollings would have said if I had been mean to him.”
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