Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics

iread has the title wrong, it's not "A Better Place", its "Promises to Keep". Here's my review: Throughout history we've preferred voting for presidents based on our perception of their domestic policies rather than any strength or weaknesses we perceived they had regarding foreign policy. In fact, in my lifetime, only Nixon and Bush 41 had solid foreign policy credentials. No one doubts...more

iread has the title wrong, it's not "A Better Place", its "Promises to Keep". Here's my review: Throughout history we've preferred voting for presidents based on our perception of their domestic policies rather than any strength or weaknesses we perceived they had regarding foreign policy. In fact, in my lifetime, only Nixon and Bush 41 had solid foreign policy credentials. No one doubts that in the 2008 election, the voters' perception of foreign policy capabilities will be paramount. Given this reality, only two candidates from either party, Senator Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson, even have foreign policy leadership experience (McCain has some experience, but not in a formal leadership role), and none of these gentlemen are in the top tier of candidates running for their party's nomination. As a Republican who is disgusted with my party and especially its 2000 - 2008 Presidential candidates, I purchased this book to see if I could support Biden as a swing voter. Biden provides the standard autographical detail of his childhood; the rest of the book serves as a short resume' of accomplishments that are expanded upon in story form to allow us to get know Biden's character, experience, and skill-sets. Biden does not attempt to list all his accomplishments or his experiences as a long-time Senator so those looking for an exhaustive biography need to go elsewhere. His narratives on the role he played in the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Judge Bork nomination to SCOTUS are especially riveting and easily worth the time and money invested in this book. I was especially enamored with how he felt America should react in Bosnia given the UN and Europe's apathy, which I'm sure was a conscious decision by Biden to include in this book given so many Americans' frustration regarding the UN and therefore signaling that a Biden presidency would never wait for the UN to act if it was in America's interest to act quickly, with not just rhetoric, but actions by Biden in Bosnia as evidence. He also makes a subtle argument in writing about Bosnia on how a President can fail to act (Clinton initially) because of a lack of foreign policy experience yielding little confidence in their judgment; no doubt to convince us not repeat the same mistake we did with our current President and his complete lack of foreign policy experience and inability to even properly judge options available to him. What has also intrigued me about Biden has been the consistency of his position regarding Iraq in this decade. Biden spends more time in the book however on his dealings inside Iraq (he's made eight trips) and with the White House than he does in his dealings with other Senators as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He also does a nice piece on his trips to Afghanistan. What's missing that I wished would have been included was his experiences during the Clarence Thomas and Alberto Gonzalez nomination hearings, along with President Bush's repeated attempts to circumvent the Constitution and how the Judiciary Committee has reacted to Bush's actions. One can only conclude that any discussion on these topics will only serve to either split swing voters who are considering supporting him, making it clear the objective of this book is not to serve as a memoir, but instead act as a bid for a Biden Presidency, which I was aware of going in and so should all readers. Overall, I recommend reading this book because I believe our country has a strong consensus that we require a strong President on the foreign policy side and Biden's years of foreign policy leadership are greater than all other candidates from both parties combined. In a debate late this summer Biden made the claim that the next President will have little margin for error, making the quality of our vote imperative. Given that challenge, evaluating Biden is a responsibility I'm taking seriously and advocate you do as well, this book should provide solid progress down the path of our evaluation.    hide