Tales from the Trail

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden went toe to toe with Republican rival Sarah Palin at their debate when talking about understanding the kitchen table issues families face, choking up when talking about the challenges they face.

When asked about his Achilles heel possibly being his lack of discipline, Biden turned the question around to talk about his “excessive passion”.

Palin has periodically talked about her challenges as a mother without health care coverage as well as raising a family of five, including her decision to have a child that would have down syndrome.

Biden made clear that his opponent did not have a monopoly on the family issue and understanding the challenges families face, welling up at the end.

“Look, I understand what it’s like to be a single parent.  When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder what it’s like if your kid’s going to make it.   
 
I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here.  I got to head down to Wilmington.  And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”   
 
I understand what it’s like.  I’m much better off than almost all Americans now.  I get a good salary with the United States Senate.  I live in a beautiful house that’s my total investment that I have.  So I — I am much better off now.   
 
But the notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand.”

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama doesn’t like sweets, prefers minty gum to bubblegum and leaves his luggage in everybody’s way when he arrives home on a break from the campaign.
That’s the scoop from the Democratic presidential candidate’s daughters from a family interview for television’s “Access Hollywood.”

  
Malia and Sasha Obama have joined their parents on the campaign trail a number of times in recent weeks. They spoke for the first time in the interview which began airing on Tuesday. 
“When he comes home and leaves his big gigantic bag in the mudroom, sometimes I trip over it,” said Malia, who celebrated her 10th birthday while the family campaigned in Butte, Montana, on Independence Day. 

“You always put your bag on my shoes,” seven-year-old Sasha scolded her father. 
The girls joined their mother in showing that the Illinois senator does not live up to his public imagine as a fashion plate. 

HOUSTON – Barack Obama is a man without a church.

The Illinois Senator and likely Democratic Party nominee for the November presidential election against Republican John McCain said on Saturday he had quit his Chicago church in the aftermath of inflammatory sermons that could become a political lightning rod.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, cut ties last month with the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Jeremiah Wright, who angered many with anti-American and racially charged sermons.

Just as controversy over Wright had died down, a Roman Catholic priest mocked Obama’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a guest appearance at Trinity United in ways sure to cause offense to some.