{"id":9551,"date":"2015-05-31T18:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T18:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9551"},"modified":"2015-05-31T18:57:50","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T18:57:50","slug":"vp-biden-suffers-another-shattering-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9551","title":{"rendered":"VP Biden suffers another shattering loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Joe Biden&#8217;s standing among Americans has had its ups and downs.<\/p>\n<p>The vice president is known as a garrulous guy, seemingly without a care in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The reality, which was driven home yet again this weekend, is that he has suffered more heartache than most of us.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Biden&#8217;s son, Beau, died of a brain tumor. He was 46 years of age. He is survived by his wife and two children.<\/p>\n<p>And a grieving father.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/joe-bidens-2012-advice-to-grieving-families-is-all-the-more-poignant-now\/ar-BBkrnXo<\/p>\n<p>As the essay by Ezra Klein notes, Joe Biden&#8217;s own political career almost ended before it really took off. In December, before he took office in the\u00a0U.S. Senate,\u00a0to which he was elected, the senator-elect&#8217;s wife and daughter died in an auto accident. His two sons, Beau and Hunter, suffered serious injury. Sen.-elect Biden was just 29 at the time he was elected and would celebrate his 30th birthday before being sworn in, making him constitutionally\u00a0qualified to serve in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>He wanted to quit. His friends talked\u00a0him into staying the course. He took his oath next to his son Beau&#8217;s hospital bed.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Biden would marry again. Jill Biden\u00a0became\u00a0his children&#8217;s new &#8220;mom,&#8221; and the couple brought more children into the world together.<\/p>\n<p>Klein&#8217;s essay recalls a startling speech Biden made in 2012, in which he\u00a0said how he came\u00a0to understand why someone would want to take their own life. They&#8217;d been &#8220;to the mountain top,&#8221; he said,\u00a0 and they knew\u00a0they wouldn&#8217;t ever get there again.<\/p>\n<p>The vice president has been to several mountain tops in his most eventful life. As of today, though,\u00a0he is suffering the level of grief that isn&#8217;t supposed to happen. He&#8217;s having to bury a child &#8212; yet again.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, the strength that lies within some of us.<\/p>\n<p>As Klein noted in that remarkable 2012 speech: &#8220;There will come a day \u2013 I promise you, and your parents as well \u2013 when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye,&#8221; Biden says. &#8220;It will happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Biden&#8217;s standing among Americans has had its ups and downs. The vice president is known as a garrulous guy, seemingly without a care in the world. The reality, which was driven home yet again this weekend, is that he has suffered more heartache than most of us. Vice President Biden&#8217;s son, Beau, died of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9551\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">VP Biden suffers another shattering loss<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[566,1672,2469,2505,4883,5103,5142],"class_list":["post-9551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-news","tag-beau-biden","tag-ezra-klein","tag-jill-biden","tag-joe-biden","tag-tragedy","tag-vice-presidency","tag-vox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}