This is the weekly campaign blogger post for Joe Biden. Next week we'll return to Iowa and Iraq, but today, I want to focus on Biden's personal story and his involvement with women's issues. These two things, along with his plan for Iraq and reputation as a bipartisan statesman, are my main reasons for supporting Joe Biden. If nothing else, please skip ahead to read about Biden's latest campaign proposal, to train 100,000 domestic violence lawyers.

Our families shape who we are and how we see the world. Hillary Clinton was Bill's top advisor, and I honestly believe that Mark Warner declined a national campaign for the sake of his school-aged daughters. As such, I see nothing wrong in discussing candidates' families. We've certainly heard a lot about Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, and even Elizabeth Kucinich. In that spirit of things, I want to show how incredibly central his family is to Joe Biden's identity. The last time I met him, I told him, "When I tell people about you, I like to say you can't go five minutes without quoting one of your parents or relatives." He laughed and said, "Yeah, you're probably right." His adult family life, however, has been perhaps even more formative than his blue-collar Catholic upbringing. He was elected to the Senate in 1972 when he was just 29, but a month later, his first wife and infant daughter were killed in a tragic car wreck. Doctors weren't sure if his two boys, Beau and Hunter, would make it. Biden, who was not in the car, wrote about the heartbreak in his recent autobiography. I believe it's the first time he's talked so openly about it. The loss of family devastated him, but the remaining family pulled him through.

The first few days I felt trapped in a constant twilight of vertigo, like in the dream where you're suddenly falling... only I was constantly falling. In moments of fitful sleep I was aware of the dim possibility that I would wake up, truly wake up, and this would not have happened. But then I'd open my eyes to the sight of my sons in their hospital beds - Beau in a full body cast - and it was back. And as consciousness gathered again, I could always feel at least one other physical presence in the room--and there would be (my sister) Val, or my mom, or (my brother) Jimmy. They never left my side. I have no memory of ever being physically alone.

Most of all I was numb, but there were moments when the pain cut through like a shard of broken glass. I began to understand how despair led people to just cash it in; how suicide wasn't just an option but a rational option. But I'd look at Beau and Hunter asleep and wonder what new terrors their own dreams held, and wonder who would explain to my sons my being gone, too. And I knew I had no choice but to fight to stay alive.

Both boys eventually made full recoveries, and by immersing himself in his new Senate job--which he almost resigned before he was even inaugurated--Joe himself was able to move on. He would head home to Delaware each night from DC, skipping Senate social functions: Mommy never came home, so Daddy had to come home every night. Sister Val--who has led all his campaigns from High School to the current presidential race--became the boys' surrogate mother. In an earlier Democratic debate, he said the only reason they went to private school was because that's where Val taught.

(Pictured L-R: Jill Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, Missy Owens) In the book's preceding chapters, he writes about his first wife almost as if he's still in love with her, so the memory is still painful for him. Can you imagine that happening to your own loved ones, and at just 29 years old? Joe was eventually able to remarry, and celebrated his 30th anniversary with Jill Biden earlier this year. Though they met on a blind date Joe's brother set up, Joe was first attracted to her when he saw her in a series of local park ads. Like Valerie, Jill is a teacher. You can read a Time magazine interview with her here. If you've read interviews with Mrs. Edwards or Obama, I encourage you to take a look at this one, too. Jill is as exciting and intelligent a woman as you will find. "For years, Joe has had to listen to me go on about the problems in our education system and I don't see how him becoming President would change that. So, I'm certainly going to continue talking about the issues that I care about."

I've never met Jill, but I did meet Valerie Biden-Owens once. I sat next to her at a New Hampshire Steering Committee dinner. I'll say this for her: as a person, she reminds me of my grandmother, and that's a very good thing. My Nonnie is not a woman you want to cross, but she inspires loyalty in all who know her. I can't tell you how much I love her. She and my mom speak on the phone several times a week, and she flew out to Texas from Arizona to help take care of my little brother and me when my father was in the hospital well over a decade ago. I got that same vibe from Valerie--immensely friendly, loyal, and open, but also fierce. No wonder she's made such a good teacher and campaign manager! She told us stories of her childhood, when she and Joe were best friends (which they still are). I'll share one such story here: Joe and Val joined a number of local children in building a clubhouse (maybe it was a tree house?), but once it was finished, the other boys told Joe: no girls allowed. "Aw, come on guys," Joe said, "Val's not a girl! She's.. she's... she's Val!" But the boys were insistent, so Joe said forget this, we'll build our own fort. He and Val walked off, started their own project, and before too long all the other boys came over to work on the second fort, too. As Valerie put it, Joe is not the kind of guy to say, "I'm your big brother and I'm going to protect you!" but he is the kind of guy to do it. I briefly met Val's daughter, and though we spoke for just a minute, she certainly seemed to be as charming as the rest of her family.

I also met Joe's sons Beau and Hunter (though not their sister Ashley) when they were in town for the Dartmouth debate last month. Both seemed as gracious as their father--I guess the apple doesn't fall from the tree. (See the end of last week's post for two brief stories about personal encounters with Joe's giving personality.) I don't know much about Hunter, other than that he's a lawyer, but a female friend of mine assures me he's cute. When their party got up to leave the pizza joint where I bumped into them, he made a point of leaning around the corner to say good night to my friend and me. Beau--Joseph R. Biden III--is the Attorney General of Delaware, as well as a Captain in the National Guard. He will likely be headed to Iraq next year, something the Senator doesn't like to talk about very much. (Would you?) As DE AG, Beau seems to focus on taking down child predators.

Beau's focus on child predators reminds me of his father's focus on women's issues. In his book, the elder Biden remarks, "I count my role in helping to end genocide in the Balkans and in securing the passage of the Violence Against Women Act as my proudest moments in public life. If I had accomplished nothing else (and if I accomplish noting more), for me those two efforts redeem every second of difficulty and doubt in my long career." Per Wikipedia, VAWA "provided $1.6 billion to enhance investigation and prosecution of the violent crime perpetrated against women, increased pre-trial detention of the accused, provided for automatic and mandatory restitution of those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. The National Organization of Women heralded the bill as `the greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades.' You can read about Biden's record on women's issues here, but I will briefly say that in addition to authoring VAWA, he has worked hard on issues like breast cancer, fair pay/wages, family planning, Child Advocacy Centers, and family leave. The Bankruptcy Bill is an unpopular bill around here--and I opposed it too--but his involvement with women's issues partly explains Biden's vote for that legislation: it got tough on deadbeat dads and strengthened alimony laws, something he had long fought for.

Women became an even bigger part of Biden's presidential campaign earlier this week, when he proposed the "National Domestic Violence Volunteer Attorney Network Act." That's quite a mouthful, but it's an important bite. The act would, among other things, fund domestic violence legal training for 100,000 lawyers. Why? Biden explained in a post today at Huffington Post, which some of you may have seen,

Once a domestic violence victim steps out from the shadow of an abusive relationship, what does she need? Lawyers. Domestic violence victims are in dire need for legal help for everything from obtaining protection orders to arranging child custody to instigating divorce proceedings.

A national survey by the National Network to End Domestic Violence found that in just one 24-hour cycle, more than 5,000 pleas for services, be it emergency shelter, transitional housing or legal aid, were unmet because of a lack of resources. This shortage means that thousands of victims of domestic violence go without legal representation in this country every day. And in fact, reports indicate that fewer than 1 out of every 5 low-income domestic violence victims ever sees a lawyer.

I'm not sure why violence against women is such an important issue for Biden. My guess is, if only subconsciously, it's because of the role women like Val have played in his life. That's certainly why it matters to me--of the 22 kids in my high school class, 17 were girls, sisters. I've got a mom, a birthmom (I'm adopted), and two loving grandmothers; I've got one surrogate sister and one half-sister. You don't mess with any of them. I'm a double major in Government and Native American Studies, and nothing appalls me more than the fact that one in three American Indian women will be raped at some point in their lives. That stat alone has me rethinking my decision not to go to law school, so thank God for folks like Joe Biden.

Update 10-18-07 7:28 pm: I added the two pictures and fixed some spacing mistakes.

Update 10-18-07 10:13 pm: Here is video from the speech that unveiled the domestic violence plan.