A THREAD CONTAINING THE CONTENTS OF A LETTER I SENT IN 2015 TO MY GUY, @joebiden:

Dear Vice President Biden,

When I was about 12 years old, my 5th grade class in Massachusetts was given a project where we each had to write a personal letter to a national politician.

It was a way for us to learn about the mechanisms of American government, and hopefully inspire our future-voting citizen selves with a sense of personal connection to our civic leaders. My choice was a still-young, optimistic, left-leaning Senator from the state of Delaware.

That Senator – or at least a representative in his office – wrote back to me.

His name was @JoeBiden.

[NOTE: I told you story this when I met you in NH in 2019, and you chuckled at this part and said, "I probably did, didn't I?"]

I remember the following year when he ran for President for the first time, a quixotic gambit where he ended up bulldozed by Michael Dukakis, who in turn ended up bulldozed by George Bush I.

I ended up giving a speech at my junior high school in support of Dukakis.

I still wince at the image of that awful tank, and the racist ads the Republicans ran which helped them win.

And I remember thinking: "Even though he lost, he's still my guy."

When he ran again in 2008 – twenty years later, an eternity in politics! – I found myself admiring – this time as an adult – his can-do candor, that rough-around-the-edges, high school track coach demeanor that seemed to me the most prudent, most optimistic way to present...

...practical ideas about government to an electorate that had drifted far to the right and who actually seemed to buy into the "government isn't the answer, it's the problem!" attitude the GOP so cynically perpetuated.

He had some of the FDR-esque, populist moxie that modern candidates, who so often feel they've been assembled by corporate focus groups, lack. Again, he didn't win, but I voted for him in the Democratic primary and I felt so proud to do so...

...even when everyone around me saw only a two-way race between the inevitable-feeling, establishment candidate Hillary Clinton and the upstart, surging Barack Obama.

And I remember thinking: "Even though he lost, he's still my guy."

In August of 2007, I was touring through Ireland for the first time when candidate Barack Obama finally announced his pick for the VP slot, and when I heard the news while sitting at the table of a lovely Irish family who had prepared a massive feast.

I quite literally jumped out of my seat and probably spilled a bunch of food everywhere, exclaiming "Joe Biden – he's my guy!"

And though I know in my heart a run for 2016 – almost thirty years after I wrote that letter – would have been another quixotic, last gasp of a run...

...a big part of me wanted to vote for him one more time, if even only in the primary. It's a sad sign of the times that running for the Presidency requires near-infinite gobs of money and a machine-like infrastructure...

...and given the recent tragic loss of his son – this is a man who knows deep tragedy, and people who know tragedy contribute such a valuable perspective to the world – the timing again just wasn't right.

And so a phrase from the very end of his speech will have to stand in for what might have been a very accomplished, not to mention very entertaining, Biden Presidency:

"This sounds corny, but we found purpose in public life.

[Beat.]

We found purpose in public life."

It doesn't sound corny at all, Joe. Thanks for giving us something to believe in. You'll always be my guy.

Sincerely,
J. McCool
October 21, 2015

AN UPDATE FROM THE FUTURE (!!!):

To paraphrase the President-Elect of the United States (quoting the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney–imagine a POTUS who reads poetry?!), we're going to watch hope and history rhyme.

We finally made it to the top, @JoeBiden.

You're my guy!