Watch Old Handsome Joe Biden Kick Sixteen Kinds Of Ass In His DNC Speech

"Typical" tends to be a pretty weak word, indicating something unexceptional, something you can take or leave. But in the case of Old Handsome Joe Biden, saying he gave a typically awesome OHJB speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night is actually pretty high praise. This guy gets us fired up, and this was one high-octane speech. Biden brings everything we've come to expect of him, and then a little more, from his tribute to his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015 -- and may we have a hearty "Fuck Cancer!" right here -- to his roaring endorsement of Hillary Clinton's qualifications and character as our next president, to his searing attacks on Donald Trump. It was typical Old Handsome Joe, and if you missed it, you need to watch it now. If you watched it Wednesday night, you need to watch it again simply to appreciate how masterfully this man delivers a good old-fashioned barn-burner of a political speech.

Here's the thing about Joe Biden: Like Tim Kaine, he's a Catholic Progressive in the Dorothy Day tradition, and that means living his faith, right down to turning his own suffering into a commitment to care about other people. After talking briefly about Beau, and invoking Hemingway's observation that "the world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong at the broken places," Biden called attention to

the countless thousands of other people, who suffered so much more than we have, with so much less support.

So much less reason to go on. But they get up, every morning, everyday. They put one foot in front of the other. They keep going. That’s the unbreakable spirit of the people of America. That’s who we are.

That is so typical of him, in the best possible way. Perhaps President Clinton can appoint him chair of a national commission on empathy.

And like a good vice president, he's also mastered the art of the political barb. Of Donald Trump, Biden said,

Just listen to me a second without booing or cheering. I mean this sincerely, we should really think about this. His cynicism is unbounded.

His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase that I suspect he’s most proud of having made famous, "You’re fired." I mean really, I’m not joking. Think about that. Think about that. Think about everything you learned as a child, no matter where you were raised. How can there be pleasure in saying, "You’re fired"? He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. That’s a bunch of malarkey.

Enjoy that speech one more time, and savor it. We can't wait to see OHJB out campaigning for Hillary. And we think this Tim Kaine kid has a touch of Biden in him, too.

[ Time / Rolling Stone ]