It’s the day when we encourage our countrymen to rid themselves of shameful feelings,  self-hatred, and fear and wave the flags of their sexuality in the faces of those who might judge them, and stand proud.  On National Coming Out Day, we celebrate those who are marginalized by feelings they cannot help.  Feelings of love, attraction, and human nature. Feelings we can all identify with.  I’m attracted to Joe Biden.  There I said it.  Today I will not hang my head or pretend that Obama is the one about whom I fantasize.  Yes, when he busted out with Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” I was caught up in the moment, but it’s Joe’s beaming smile, the shine of his forehead, the command of his wink, and the point and shoot finger that get me every time.

He’s known for his gaffes, for his stumbling of words.  The right plays him for Lear’s Fool, mumbling nonsense.  But just as in Lear, Joe’s words provide the insight and clarity among all of the mumbo-jumbo careful political speak that we now enjoy.  Maybe it's because he’s older, really a veteran of government in the way that neither Obama, nor Romney, nor Ryan can identify with.  He’s served on the committees, helped laws pass down, and argued and cooperated with the right as he believed back when that was the way to get things done.  In this age of separatism and partisanship, Biden seems a dinosaur.  

Though he’s often portrayed as a buffoon, Biden’s history as one of the big players in foreign policy serves as a unique position among those looking to be elected this November.  Joe’s voice is among the top, along with Leon Panetta and Hilary Clinton, that advise the President directly.  It was his experience that Obama counted on four years ago to silence the idiocy on the right that suggested that the Vice President’s job was a showpiece, a joke, or a statement which Sarah Palin might ever be qualified to make.  

Four years ago, the right exhaled when Palin stepped off the stage after debating Biden.  He’d been in the awkward position of having to put up with her rehearsed talking points, the folksy mannerisms, and not pounce so hard on her that it made him look mean.  I don’t think he needs to worry about that this time around.  Although Biden had an inborn sense of graciousness that couples well with Obama’s decorum, I think it would be a service to the American people to watch him take apart the fabrication that is Paul Ryan.   He has nothing to hold him back: after last week’s lackluster performance by Obama, the democratic base needs a feisty showing.  I think that Biden is the man for that job, and the one in November.

And if he gets it done, it will indeed be a big fucking deal.  

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need a cigarette.