Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics

Most politicians focus on their laundry list of policies and some sappy stories about their families or campaigns. Biden fills his book with his experiences in the Senate. Where most other books skim over the details of legislating, he actually does a pretty good job relating the type of work and meetings he engages in while doing his Senate duties. In particular, his focus on the Violence Against Women Act and Bosnia provide good examples of what he had to do to achieve his goals. This makes the book particularly useful, since it might indicate his priorities as vice president and how he would act once in the Naval Observatory.

I got some interesting reactions when I told people I was reading Joe Biden's autobiography. One fellow history buff, who's on the same page as me politically, commented that it must have been "dull".

Surprisingly, "Promises to Keep", despite the achingly generic title, is readable, and not in a large-print, wide-margins, only-197-pages-long kind of way. Biden's co-writer, channeling the same style as Mark Salter, who wrote the similarly engrossing John McCain bios Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir and Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him, mixes in enough personal drama and political dogfights to make this book impressively complex.

Many political biographies tend to be poorly-written ghosted affairs, such our current president's A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House. It might therefore sound like faint praise to say that "Promises to Keep" is above average. However, it helps to remember that this book was published last year, when Biden still harbored Presidential (as opposed to vice-presidential) hopes, and clearly he wanted to compete with Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. Whether talking about the death of his first wife, the courtship of his second, or his signature political concerns in the Balkans and the Supreme Court, Biden (and his co-author) neither skimps on detail nor dulls the reader's mind with irrelevant facts. "Promises" was meant to be different, and it succeeds.

Auditioning for President and writing very early in the campaign, Biden makes much of his early days in the Senate, when he claims bipartisanship and civility among rivals was the norm. He has lots of anecdotes about former Senators and Presidents -- his encounters with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are surprising in that he seemed to relate better (on a personal level, at least) with the Republican. I couldn't find Barack Obama's name anywhere within.

Interestingly, although Biden won his Party's VP nod and appears to be, along with Obama, comfortably ahead in the polls (as of this writing), he's not been getting a whole lot of press lately. There's nothing outrageous in his memoir and he seems alone among the four principal candidates this November in that he hasn't been subjected to any attack ads. But don't overlook Joe Biden this election season, and give his book a try too.

Politicians love to write books about themselves. It strokes their ego and gives them yet another opportunity to tout "see-how-great-I-am."

Promises to Keep is different. Biden's decency is ever present. From the Bork hearings to Iraq, and through the tradegies of his personal life, Biden steadfastly remains a man of personal and moral conviction. You may or may not agree with his polictics, but after reading this book, only the most cynical would find him "just another politician."

Even if you are only mariginally interested in politics, read Promises to Keep. In a plain, but not patronizing way, Biden educates the reader on the inner-workings of Washington.

Joe Biden maybe our next Vice-President. If elected, he will have President Obama's ear, for that reason alone Promises to Keep is a vital book for any voter to read.

I had reservations about reading this book given Biden's gift of gab and whether or not the political talk would bore me. However, I overwhelmingly enjoyed this book! He has an incredible life story, from the tragic accident involving his wife and child to his brush with death in the hospital. This is a great book to read if you would like to know more about the man who may become our next vice president.

Puts understanding behind Biden's philosophy. Interesting commentary re what he felt was needed to run for President when he first ran vs Obama's background. Biden has a much better chance of becoming President (his ultimate goal) after serving as VP for 4-8 years & believe this is his plan. Overall good reading and somewhat incitefull--- I would recommend it.