President Obama offered Joe Biden financial help to pay for his son's medical bills.

Courtesy of CNN:

 As his eldest son faced the prospect of resigning as Delaware's attorney general amid health concerns, Vice President Joe Biden received an offer that floored him: financial support from his boss, President Barack Obama. 

In the never been told before story, Biden recalled how concerned Obama had been. 

Describing in an interview with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger one of his weekly lunches with Obama, Biden said he told the President he was worried about caring for Beau's family without his son's salary. 

"I said, 'But I worked it out.'" Biden recalled telling Obama. "I said, 'But -- Jill and I will sell the house and be in good shape.'" 

Obama, Biden remembered, pushed back vehemently on the thought of Biden and his wife selling their home in Wilmington, Delaware. 

"He got up and he said, 'Don't sell that house. Promise me you won't sell the house,'" Biden continued, speculating Obama would be "mad" he was retelling the story. 

"He said, 'I'll give you the money. Whatever you need, I'll give you the money. Don't, Joe -- promise me. Promise me.' I said, 'I don't think we're going to have to anyway.' He said, 'promise me,'" Biden recalled.

That is one of the kindest things I have ever heard.

In fact it made me a little emotional. 

And it just makes me respect our President all the more. 

Lindsey Graham on Joe Biden: "He's as good a man as God has ever created."

Courtesy of Newsmax:  

"I called him after Beau died, and he basically said, 'Well Beau was my soul'," Graham said, his voice trembling, adding that Biden gave a speech at Graham's retirement party from the Air Force Reserve "and said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me." 

"He's THE nicest person I've ever met in politics," Graham said. "He's as good a man as God has ever created." 

I have to admit that I did not think that Lindsey Graham could ever do, or say, anything that would ever make me feel something positive about him. 

But I was wrong.

Final image of the day.

Courtesy of the Obama Diary:

Long after the last partisan battle has been fought over Obamacare, long after Barack Obama has settled into a comfortable post-presidency, and long after the last joke has been made about some Joe Biden verbal misstep, people will remember the moment when the always-in-control president struggled to control his emotions. They will remember the moment when president and vice president embraced in front of the altar and exchanged heartfelt kisses on the cheek. And they will remember how their hearts ached at this intimate glimpse of one family’s pain. In an age when so many political moments are scripted, this was real. In a country whose presidents and vice presidents have rarely been close, this was genuine closeness. In an administration that prides itself on being hip, this was decidedly old-fashioned love.

I have to admit that I did not watch much of the funeral on TV yesterday, I have attended too many of them in my life. 

However I have seen clips of the event and as expected there have been a lot of feels. Especially in response to the President's tearful and moving eulogy.

I started this day with a photo of the President frolicking with a baby, and I end with a picture of our President comforting a friend.

Both of them tell us something important about the man that we elected to lead this country. And it is something that no partisan attack or conservative lie can ever diminish.

Ted Cruz mocks Joe Biden the day before he buries his son.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden will bury his son, Beau, who died after a battle with brain cancer. That didn’t stop Senator Ted Cruz, who is running for president, from using Biden as a punch line for a bad joke on Wednesday night. Cruz was speaking to a group of Republicans in Michigan.

"Vice President Joe Biden," @TedCruz says to faint laughter. "You know the nice thing? You don't need a punch line." #JoeBiden

— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) June 3, 2015

Later Cruz made a minimal effort at damage control: 

It was a mistake to use an old joke about Joe Biden during his time of grief, and I sincerely apologize. The loss of his son is heartbreaking and tragic, and our prayers are very much with the Vice President and his family.

Today is the funeral of Beau Biden, and many prominent politicians were in attendance, including the President and Michele Obama, as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Somehow I doubt that Cruz made an appearance.

Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, has died of brain cancer.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, the vice president said. He was 46. 

"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," Vice President Biden said in a statement released by the White House. 

"We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter," he said. 

Beau Biden had announced last year he planned to run for governor of Delaware in 2016. 

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. After getting a "a clean bill of health" in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president's office said. 

He sought aggressive treatment and had been hospitalized this month at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. 

His family was with him when he died. "Beau embodied my father's saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did," the vice president said. "In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."

I had another post scheduled for this slot, but I simply could not let this unfortunate event pass without comment.

Here is the statement from President Obama:  

Michelle and I are grieving tonight. Beau Biden was a friend of ours. His beloved family - Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter - are friends of ours. And Joe and Jill Biden are as good as friends get. 

Beau took after Joe. He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware's Attorney General. Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched - and he lives on in their hearts. 

But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family.

 Just like his dad. 

Joe is one of the strongest men we've ever known. He's as strong as they come, and nothing matters to him more than family. It's one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill - to who they are - that Beau lived a life that was full; a life that mattered; a life that reflected their reverence for family. 

The Bidens have more family than they know. In the Delaware they love. In the Senate Joe reveres. Across this country that he has served for more than forty years. And they have a family right here in the White House, where hundreds of hearts ache tonight - for Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter; for Joe and for Jill; for Beau's brother, Hunter; his sister, Ashley, and for the entire Biden clan. 

"I have believed the best of every man," wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, "And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher." 

Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. 

Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth.

No parent should have to bury their child, and I think that all of us who are parents, regardless of our political points of view, are grieving with Joe Biden right now.

So with that in mind I am going to include Sarah Palin's remarks as well courtesy of Facebook:

Our family's prayers are with the Biden family tonight on the loss of their son, brother, husband and father, Beau Biden. He was a veteran of the Iraq war and was awarded the Bronze Star in recognition of his service, and continued his service in public office as well. We enjoyed the short time we got to spend with his beautiful family during the VP debate in 2008. Rest in Peace, Beau. 

Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” 

- Sarah Palin

Joe Biden has dealt with more loss in his life than I think most of us could bear, yet he still manages to walk through life with that huge smile plastered to his face while treating the people he meets as if he really cares about each and every one of them.

And that just might be because he does.

On behalf of myself, and all of us here at IM, I want to send our condolences to the Biden family.

Update: I think this is a much better picture to illustrate Joe Biden's love for his son.