Biden criticizes 'notion that somehow because I am a man I don't know how to raise two kids on my own'
October 6th, 2008 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families"Joe Biden did more for the equality of the sexes with his honest display of paternal emotion during the vice presidential debate than Sarah Palin's presence on the executive ticket has or will ever do.
"Biden visibly teared up when he rebutted the idea that 'just because I am a man' he didn't understand what it was like to wonder whether or not a child would 'make it' in recovering from a life-threatening medical situation.
"At the time, he was likely recalling the tragic automobile accident that killed his wife and daughter and severely injured his two sons. It was an authentic, moving and powerful moment. It was, in fact, the strongest expression of real paternal love we have seen from a public official in recent memory and maybe ever.
"By bringing that reality to a national political stage, Biden demonstrated that -- for all of us, not just feminists -- the personal is political, that women alone do not have the sole responsibility for caring about the future of our children and that the concern of fathers is a largely untapped pool of political energy."-- Leah McElrath Renna, Huffington Post
As we've previously discussed, Biden is an admirable single father who raised his two sons after his wife and baby daughter were killed in a tragic car accident in 1972. During the Vice-Presidential debate he teared up when talking about the accident and his struggles as the single father of two inured little boys. To watch this segment on video, click here.
My wife says, "We're all contradictions," and here's another one. Unwittingly Biden has perhaps done more than any other politician in modern history to separate fathers from their children, and to marginalize fathers in modern American life. Most of the victims of the harm Biden has caused are the same single fathers he movingly defended during the debate.
The harm I refer to, of course, is the Violence Against Women Act.
In my co-authored column, Biden Selection is Bad News for America's Fathers (New York Daily News, San Jose Mercury-News, 9/2/08), I wrote:
When Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama announced his selection of Senator Joe Biden (D-Del) as his vice-presidential candidate, one of the two pieces of Biden legislation he saluted was the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. Biden, who has long been the principle architect of federal domestic violence policy, spearheaded VAWA’s two subsequent re-authorizations and calls VAWA "What I'm most proud of in my entire career.”
Biden means well, but he has consistently misunderstood the domestic violence issue and his legislation has harmed many innocent men. Given recent legislation Biden has proposed, as well as the promises made in the Democratic National Committee’s platform, an Obama-Biden victory would be bad news for American fathers.
Biden says one of his main achievements has been “training police and prosecutors to arrest and convict abusive husbands instead of telling them to take a walk around the block.” While it is true that in past decades police sometimes didn’t take DV seriously enough, under Biden’s leadership, arrest and prosecution policies have lurched sharply in the other direction. The modern trilogy of mandatory arrest, the primary aggressor doctrine, and “no drop” prosecution policies has trampled the rights of the accused...
VAWA has helped provide an easy avenue for disgruntled women to kick decent, loving fathers out of their homes and exclude them from their children’s lives via restraining (aka “protection”) orders. In the wake of VAWA, there has been an explosion of such orders.
When a restraining order is issued, the man is booted out of his own home and can be jailed if he tries to contact his own children, even though he has never been afforded the opportunity to defend himself in court. The hearings held two weeks later to make the orders permanent are often just a formality for which no more than 15 minutes are generally allotted.
Many prominent family law professionals, including leading members of the State Bar of California Family Law Section, are cautioning that restraining orders are too easy to obtain, are often used as child custody maneuvers, and that there are scant protections for the falsely accused...
Biden was a single father who successfully raised his two sons after his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972. Yet, paradoxically, Biden says in family policy, “Moms and kids come first.” For nearly two decades Biden has put fathers last. VAWA has greatly weakened the institution of fatherhood, and has harmed fathers and the children who love them and need them.
Read the full article here.
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October 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
The National Organization of Women, opponents of a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting, have endorsed Barrack Obama and Joseph Biden.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I respect the apparent success he had raising his children in the aftermath of that tragedy, however, much like most of the other stuff that occurs during debates, I found his show of "emotion" wholly contrived... as much I did the winking and "youbetchas" from Palin.
If that offends anybody, too bad. I call'em as I see'em.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
These politicians all pander to whatever group they are talking to at that given moment. What makes Biden so special? To single him out as this "maverick" (hahaha) that has single handedly raised his kids is actually counterproductive to the issue. A lot of men raise their kids, probably with just as much love and compassion as Joe VAWA. Men raising their children should be the norm, not the exception.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
It is disingenuous for Biden to say he raised his children as a single father in the way most of us think of it. Biden is a product of wealth and privilege. He had a house full of staff to clean the home, and take care of his children while he was off taking money from lobbyists and increasing his own fortunes just like so many other professional politicians do regardless of party affiliation.
He has damaged so many lives with VAMA and many other bad laws that increase government intrusion into family matters. He often accuse conservatives of wanting to put cameras in our bedrooms while ignoring efforts by his liberal pals to put cameras in every other room and government fingers on our thermostats.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Biden has destroyed millions of men's lives. Biden raised his children alone and denies that to other men to pander to NOW. Biden is the Champion of NOW and all its lies and man hating.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
When Joe Biden's career really got going in the early 1970's feminism was a growing force. It is pretty clear in hind sight that Biden was trying to ride that wave for his own political benefit. While many changes needed to be made biden realized that he needed to "outbid" his political opponents in order to curry favor with organized women's groups and their followers.
Biden's lack of ability to reflect on the DVAW legislation he spearheaded and to give any type of nuanced responce to his critics tells me that he is still basically in the thrall of the women's movement. Don't look for anything from Biden that will try to correct the flaws in his landmark legislation or to ever help men for the sake of doing what is fair.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Biden's tears are manufactured. As far as his ability to raise children as a single parent, I'll have to know more about how he was employed at that time. If you can easily afford day care, and you've got a flexible schedule, and can afford to hire assistants to handle various aspects of your responsibilities, ANYONE can be a great single parent. When you've got to make tough choices concerning the balance of time you have working vs with your children, or have to make day care and education compromises, or you go through a court battle to just be allowed regular contact with your children, THEN you've got some experience in this area. Until you've dealt with some indifferent bearuocrat/ micro-tyrant over some insane issue, you don't have a common frame of reference.
Much like the Hollywood "Single mom by choice", (e.g. Murphy Brown), Yeah, being a single parent is easy when you are beyond a certain degree of wealth, and have few obligations for your time.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
"As we've previously discussed, Biden is an admirable single father who raised his two sons..."
Hogwash!!! Wow, talking about putting lipstick on a pig!!! Biden is a massive hypocrite who can't see past the end of his nose, or more accurately, his own self-interest - as it regards fatherhood. Biden, with his misandrist legislation, has single-handedly done more to destroy the institution of fatherhood (along with untold numbers of lives), than any other person in America, in my opinion.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Biden could wipe his tears and then sell his boys out if a feminist demaned it... he suffers from political greed and chivalry. These are two powerful vices that have blinded many a man.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Biden always interjects his dead wife and daughter into debates, and pretends to get choked up over them. Why do you think that Palin mentioned them before he did? It was so it would be harder for him to knock her off balance with that tactic. For him a phony display of emotion is just another way to get elected.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Those were mere words. Like with women, Biden's actions should be scrutinized. VAWA has ruined so many mens' lives. Passing that vicious, sexist law is an action.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Ironically, Biden's comments have been hailed by some feminists as a "feminist moment", despite that whenever such stories are mentioned here many of those feminists rail against them.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I have read accounts of Biden saying it was his sister who raised his children while he was getting started in politics. This is the same sister I have read accounts of Biden saying used to beat him when they were young adolescents.
Biden apparently talks many good games but who knows what the truth is? Certainly not the voting public. After the VAWA nonsense, he'd never get my vote or my nod of approval on anything family related.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
When biden super funded the women are always the victim mentality, It opened up the door for police jurisdictions to start to compete for these funds by "manufacturing statistics".
"Manufacturing statistics" is when a violent women, who lacks restraint, hits a man, then calls the police, and they arrest the man.
(male arrests for the girls keeping the numbers back at the precinct, so they can cash these manufactured statistics in for more VAWA monies).
This is a perversion of our legal system!!
Our society's overall violence has gotten worse because our billions of dollars to address violence are impotent, until we start to recognise womens violence.
Children are now learning unrestained violence from their mothers.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I really only got interested in Joe Biden as a person when I learned as perspicacious noted above, that he was abused by his sister when was growing up, and forbidden to defend himself.
You do not have to be Dr. Sigmund Freud to see how Biden's childhood abuse deformed his attitudes about gender relations and masculinity.
A man who allows himself to be beaten up by his sister should not be writing laws that intentionally ignore female violence.
Frankly, Sarah Palin scares me. But a little bit less than Joe Biden.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
please tell me how any man on here could vote for biden??????
October 6th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
roy if anyone should scare you its obama.....the media won't even talk about his background.......its not until recently that he puts his hand over his heart during the national anthem!!!.....think about that....what kind of man represents the united states from his background
October 6th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
john -- "please tell me how any man on here could vote for biden??????"
McCain is going to show you why in the next 30 days.
I'm sorry. I really liked the punk rock band Dead Presidents.
But I cannot vote for one.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
john,
We are probably as far apart politcally as is possible. But that's fine. (Though I would shoot you in a heartbeat.) Just do not ring my doorbell with your wingnut stuff.
Then, we can talk like civilized people.
So, I think the better question is --- how can America use Obama to represent itself to the world, after eight years of a brain-dead presidency?
Obama does not scare me at all.
I grew up in southside Chicago. B-ball every day with my black friends.
It's the boys on Wall Street that scare me.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
And by the way ,,,, the national anthem!!!..... is a very poorly composed piece of music.
I put my hand over my heart when I go to a Rolling Stones concert and they play "Can't Get No Satisfaction."
Now that is a very proper national anthem for America!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Joe Biden Talking out of both sides of his mouth. Fully supports VAWA and then says he can raise his own kids. Biden is the consumate politician, and that's not a compliment.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
"VAWA has helped provide an easy avenue for disgruntled women to kick decent, loving fathers out of their homes and exclude them from their children’s lives via restraining (aka “protection”) orders. In the wake of VAWA, there has been an explosion of such orders."
Glenn, I've grown to like you...but I must ask, isn't there also a similar danger with claims of Parental Alienation Syndrome? With any knew precedent, act, or bill, there are risks that some will misuse it. Just a thought.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
A body politic that is indeed a contradiction. Interesting how his testimony in the early 90's detailed how he was bullied and abused by his sister, and punished by his mother if he retaliated. Link to story for anyone interested.
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0503roberts.html
Stockholm syndrome anyone????
October 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am
How can anyone be opposed to an act which is opposed to violence against women? Isn't that what the "Violence Against Women Act" is all about?
I am opposed to our congress being allowed to give false marketing labels to laws it passes.
Laws should be identified only by statute numbers, and should stand or fall in the minds of the public who read these laws based on what the laws actually say, not based of carefully chosen marketing labels slapped onto the laws by politicians who are selling them for their own reasons.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:53 am
If I recall correctly, most of the “raising” was done by his sister- the one who used to beat him up when they were kids. Leaving your children in the dubious care of such a woman is not my idea of being a good dad, and even if she wasn’t abusive towards the children, Biden wasn’t exactly a poor old single dad against the world. He was already a professional politician so I doubt he did much worrying about money, cooking, or cleaning,and of course he had their aunt to do the “mothering” part.
Still, it is good to see a public display of emotion in the more emotionally oppressed
October 7th, 2008 at 1:59 am
"By bringing that reality to a national political stage, Biden demonstrated that -- for all of us, not just feminists -- the personal is political, that women alone do not have the sole responsibility for caring about the future of our children and that the concern of fathers is a largely untapped pool of political energy" - Renna
The above in no way helps men. The writer is just putting a feminist spin to this incident ("the personal is political") in spite of the "not just feminists.." part. Also, she tries to divert the issue to give us more of the "fathers need to become more involved!" stuff, which is generally intended to be an implication that fathers are somehow lacking in that area, due to some fault of their own.
"Fathers are a largely untapped pool of political energy." Huh??
October 7th, 2008 at 2:31 am
{Glenn, I've grown to like you...but I must ask, isn't there also a similar danger with claims of Parental Alienation Syndrome? With any knew precedent, act, or bill, there are risks that some will misuse it. Just a thought.}
Of course that risk exists! Congratulations: you're not assuming that what the government does works.
And why do you think that feminists want everyone to pretend that there's no such thing as parental alienation? Because they know that a heightened focus on it can result in false accusations of PA being pursued successfully in court, just like false accusations of DV and rape are successfully pursued all the time. The feminists know they're lying when they say there's no such thing as PA, just as it would be lying to say there's no such thing as child molestation.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:18 am
For people who don't know Biden personally (or any of the candidates) a lot of people seem to throw out judgements about them.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:04 am
The words against Joe Biden sound like half-truth.
The guy pushed federal legislation that funded "law enforcement agencies, legal aid programs, and abuse shelters" -(copied)
Those are local and state, not federal. I don't see that Joe Biden is responsible for more than giving money to the wrong people. Those people decided to use it for anti-male practices. Is that Joe Biden's fault? It doesn't sound like those people are accountable to him. Joe Biden doesn't tell people who to arrest. If Joe Biden is responsible for doing something wrong to a specific person, I want names and details.
Every politician plays the same games with money- some are worse than others- but I'd take a well-meaning (or even cynically compromising) politician over one who's just plain evil. Feminism did come from a good goal, when women couldn't vote. Things have changed and radical anti-male feminists are here now. But being an idealistic politician who supports feminism and started his career in the 70's doesn't neccesarily make the guy evil. (The way he sucked up to credit card companies is a lot more evil to me.) Screw McLame. Bush screwed everyone and so will he, he's no better- he's worse. I'm voting for obama.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:48 am
knew precedent,
oops! I meant new
October 7th, 2008 at 6:17 am
“For people who don't know Biden personally (or any of the candidates) a lot of people seem to throw out judgments about them.”
Such are the realities of the situation- if we had to know people personally to make judgments about them no one would ever make any judgments about any politician. This tactic is usually attempted when one is defending their own candidate, hence I suspect that if you stick around here long enough I will catch you making judgments about public figures that you don’t know personally. Furthermore, we do know, for a fact, that his sister helped to raise the kids. We also know that he was elected to the senate the year his wife died, so at around the same time he was left to raise the two boys he was getting a presumably good salary as a senator. We know also that his deceased wife (Neilia Hunter ) came from a very well off family, who, in all likelihood, would have helped Joe with the kids rather than see their grandsons living in poverty. When a politician as seasoned as Biden goes on about being a single parent he most likely knows that the majority of people picture a man who works in an office during the day and cooks, cleans and changes nappies at night, and unless he points out these differences its likely he is lying by omission.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:24 am
"For people who don't know Biden personally (or any of the candidates) a lot of people seem to throw out judgements about them."
THATS HOW ELECTIONS WORK they present themselves the voter makes a judgement.
"Those are local and state, not federal. I don't see that Joe Biden is responsible for more than giving money to the wrong people"
Part of making laws is ensuring that they are fit for purpose and can be implemented to protect the people they were designed for. He has supported a law whch is not even fit for purpose by implementing a law against one half of domestic violence perpetrators ie men while ignoring the other women and then attacking men for being present while being subjected TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. As well as the issue of using tax dollars to promote the idea that DV is all about men beating women. Biden has failed on all counts.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:30 am
pat starts by accusing everyone else of half truths....
“The words against Joe Biden sound like half-truth.”
and then proceeds to a statement far closer to the full version of a lie...
“Bush screwed everyone and so will he, he's no better- he's worse.”
Bush aside, there is no evidence that McCain is even as bad, much less worse, and needless to say, without a crystal ball pat can have no certainty as to what Johnny Mac will or wont do. Congrats on the hypocrisy Madam/Sir.
This is also interesting...
“If Joe Biden is responsible for doing something wrong to a specific person, I want names and details.”
If pat means “directly responsible” then that would also apply to Bush as well as he hasn’t directly killed any American soldiers or Iraqi civilians. If pat means to include indirect damage, then im sure this place is full of guys who can give examples of how the VAWA screwed them over.
“I'm voting for obama.”
You don’t say?
October 7th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I just registered to vote... the reason I registered was to vote AGAINST Biden.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I can't vote for McLame, because any guy with a 1,200 page health history (just the highlights) is not going to live much longer.
And I've grown really tired of The Shrub's Texas accent, and I already am tired of Sarah Palin's Alaskan accent with all the dropped "g's."
I don't want a hockey mom as President in these particular times. Maybe in the 1950's Sarah would have been ideal. Sweet, congenial, vaguely sexy in a trailer park kind of way.
But she clearly does not have the intellect or experience to preside over what happens after John McCain's funeral.
Why can't Clint Eastwood run for President? He was a mayor too!
October 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
How nice for Biden that he was ALLOWED to be in his chldren's lives when they lost their mother! That's NOT how it turns out for most loving fathers. Even when children (God forbid) lose their mother for some reason, fathers are usually NOT allowed to parent and care for their children. States would rather put children that have lost their mother into foster care, or in the custody of grandparents or other female relatives- ANYBODY EXCEPT THE FATHER!
Fathers usually face a huge, expensive and time consuming battle most of the time and will be treated like a criminal during the entire process.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I've said it before and hear it is again, 'He's just another sociopath'. It is crystal clear to me since he has absolutely no empathy towards fathers but panders willingly to whichever way the wind blows.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:21 am
"Those are local and state, not federal. I don't see that Joe Biden is responsible for more than giving money to the wrong people. Those people decided to use it for anti-male practices. Is that Joe Biden's fault? It doesn't sound like those people are accountable to him. Joe Biden doesn't tell people who to arrest. If Joe Biden is responsible for doing something wrong to a specific person, I want names and details."
Hogwash!. The scoundrel Biden is directly responsible. It's in his federal legislation that is directly mandating the way VAWA is run. Stop lying, or read the legislation and stop being ignorant.
And as far as another poster saying we don't know Biden, I say hogwash, again. Biden is running a gender feminist, hate movement through VAWA, and if he doesn't know it, then he has to be the stupidist human walking the face of the earth.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Biden has trampled the constitutional, due process rights of tens of thousands (if not more) of dads and men, using the gender feminist hate legislation known as VAWA. As long as VAWA is in place the methods of Joe Stalin are alive in America. What Joe Biden has done to innocent, American, male citizens under VAWA, makes Gitmo look like a civil rights association by comparison.
RADAR
http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARflyer-VAWA-Promotes-Civil-Rights-Abuses.pdf
If some people are so daft as to say they will vote for Obama and Biden after all the information that has been revealed about the corruptness of Biden's Domestic Violence law, then they likely are not very high I. Q. folks, or just hate men.
http://tinyurl.com/6z3fko
October 8th, 2008 at 3:58 am
"Joe Biden doesn't tell people who to arrest. If Joe Biden is responsible for doing something wrong to a specific person, I want names and details."
Joe Biden is directly responsible for initiating a taxpayer funded, domestic violence, hate movement funded by VAWA, that has committed tens of thousands of hate crimes under color of law against innocent men. You can start abating your ignorance by reading Glenn Sacks columns regarding domestic violence issues, then read up more at RADAR (link above). There is more at NCFMLA, http://www.ncfmla.org/dv_data.html
October 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[...] Post writer Leah McElrath Renna, whose comments on Biden I praised in this blog a couple days ago, was perhaps the worst, writing: When McCain uses dehumanizing phrases like [...]