By B.C. Manion
There was a feeling of pent-up excitement in Kelly Keene’s fifth-grade classroom last week as the children awaited the arrival of Vice President Joe Biden.
It was a big moment, not only for these children, but for Pasco County Public Schools, as well.
Biden is the highest-ranking government official ever to visit the school district, and that created a buzz all over the campus at Oakstead Elementary in Land O’ Lakes.
When the vice president arrived, it didn’t take long for him to establish a comfort zone with the kids.
He moved easily through the classroom.
He sat at a small desk to field some questions. He walked around the classroom to answer others. He leaned over to get closer to the kids.
He touched a student’s hair. Squeezed a child’s shoulder. Looked directly at the youngsters, as they posed their questions.
When Biden felt a little too warm, he politely asked the kids if it would be all right with them, if he took off his jacket.
The children had plenty of questions for the vice president. And, they obviously relished their time with him, as they snapped photographs to preserve the moment.
This is one of those days — the students said after Biden’s departure — that they never expect to forget.
Here’s a look at some of the things the kids wanted to know, and excerpts of the vice president’s answers.
Q. Do you like what you do?
A. I do like what I do. My daddy used to say, “It’s a lucky person who gets up every morning with both feet on the floor, who knows what they’re about to do – knows what their job is – and is happy with that and thinks it makes a difference.”
I like what I’m doing because I hope it makes a difference. I get to do things that help people.
Q. Were you excited to become vice president?
The answer is yes.
When the president first came to me and said, “Joe, I’d like you to be my vice president, I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I will be happy to help you anyway that I can, but I never thought about being vice president.’ I thought it would be better for me to stay where I was, in the Senate.
“He said, ‘Think about it. Talk to your wife.’
“I talked to my wife. She said, ‘You should be vice president.’
Q. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
A. If I get a chance to do anything in the world, I like to spend the time with my kids. My kids have become my best friends.
Q. What is it like being vice president?
A. Well, it’s kind of cool. You get to meet a lot of people. I used to do a lot of things with foreign leaders, you know, what they call heads of state. I’d go and visit Prime Minister (Vladimir) Putin in Russia and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu of Israel. I spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and China and Iraq and all around the world.
In my career as a senator, I spent a lot of time dealing with war and peace and terrorism and all of those kinds of things.
Just since I’ve been vice president, they just told me the other day how many miles I’ve traveled in Air Force 2. I’ve traveled over 445,000 miles just since I’ve been vice president.
Q. What is the best part of your job?
A. The best part of my job, I guess, is that I get to go home every night and have dinner with my wife.
When I was a senator for 36 years, I used to commute every day on Amtrak, on a train. Every single day, I’d get up every morning, and I’d get a 7:30 train and I’d go for an hour and a half, and I’d arrive in Washington at 9 o’clock and I’d leave Washington somewhere between the 6 and 7 o’clock train, so I’d get home as early as 7:30, or usually, 8:30 or 9 o’clock every single day.
Now, we live in Washington, D.C.
Q. Do you work directly for the president?
A. I do. Let me tell you what my normal day is. What I do is every day when the president and I are both in Washington, every day I start off with a meeting in the morning with the president. It has a fancy name, it’s called PDB, presidential daily briefing.
What that means is that our experts on terrorism and on things relating to our security, we meet every day in the Oval Office.
They tell us what happened over night.
And then there’s a second meeting. We talk about the economy.
Every day, I’m sitting next to the president on average 5 to 6 hours a day, when he’s in Washington and when I’m in Washington.
Q. Does the Secret Service follow you everywhere?
A. Yes. They follow me everywhere and they do that for my protection.
By the way, there are almost as many women who take care of me in the Secret Service. They can shoot just as straight as a guy.
They are always with me, and they make my life a lot easier.
Q. How often do you get to visit schools?
These days, I don’t get to schools as much as when I was a senator.
I made sure … to visit every single solitary high school in my state once a year and I went to a lot of grade schools.
I did that for two reasons. First of all, you guys are smarter than you think you are and you guys ask the best questions. And, sometimes, when you ask questions, I can figure out what your parents are thinking, too.
Lots of times, you sit at the dinner table and you hear your mommy and daddy talking about stuff, and you kind of wonder about that.
Q. Do you like sports?
A. My dream was that I thought I could be a flanker back for the New York Giants. I was a pretty good football player in high school. Not as good in college. I love football.
I also was pretty good in baseball. I always liked basketball, but my mom wouldn’t let me play three seasons, so I had to choose.
