Biden's book is an inspiring read for ANYONE on the political spectrum

This is probably a book that gets overlooked by all the Obama reads floating around out there, but it's definitely worth checking out.

It's Promises to Keep by Joe Biden, the Vice-Presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket. It came out when he announced he was running for President last year, his second attempt for the highest office in the land.

He soon dropped out after a few debates in the primaries...however little did he know that he would soon be joining Barack Obama on the Dem ticket for the White House! Fate works in mysterious ways.

He's an impressive man, but also a bit of an average Joe (aren't I punny?)...he's a regular fella like you and me. Got in fistfights as a kid...played football and baseball...drinks a beer. Calls it the way he sees it. I don't know of a political figure out there that represents the average American more than Joe Biden.

Here's an excerpt from his book:

To me this is the first principle of life, the foundational principle, and a lesson you can't learn at the feet of any wise man: Get up! The art of living is simply getting up after you've been knocked down. It's a lesson taught by example and learned in the doing. I got that lesson every day while growing up in a nondescript split-level house in the suburbs of Wilmington, Delaware. My dad, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr., was a man of few words. What I learned from him, I learned from watching. He'd been knocked down hard as a young man, lost something he knew he could never bet back. But he never stopped trying. He was the first one up in our house every monring, clean-shaven, elegantly dressed, putting on the coffee, getting ready to go to the car dealership, to a job he never really liked. My brother Jim said most mornings he could hear our dad singing in the kitchen. My dad had grace. He never, ever gave up, and he never complained. "The world doesn't oew you a living, Joey," he used to say, but without rancor. He had no time for self-pity. He didn't judge a man by how many times he got knocked down but by how fast he got up.

Get up! That was his phrase, and it has echoed through my life. The world dropped you on your head? My dad would say, Get Up! You're lying in bed feeling sorry for yourself? Get up! You got knocked on your ass on the football field? Get up! Bad grade? Get up! The girl's parents won't let her go out with a Catholic boy? Get up!

It wasn't just the small things but the big ones --- when the only voice I could hear was my own. After the surgery, Senator, you might lose the ability to speak? Get up! The newspapars are calling you a plagiarist, Biden? Get up! Your wife and daughter -- I'm sorry, Joe, there was nothing we could do to save them? Get up! Flunked a class at law school? Get up! Kids make fun of you because you stutter, Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-Biden? Get up!

In addition to going into detail about his personal life and heartbreaking tragedy, the book has many fascinating accounts of his behind the scenes dealings with many prominent world leaders and politicians.

You might also say he criticized the Bush Administration...only a little though, I promise.

As you can see from the excerpt, it's an inspiring read and forces you to contemplate the character of who we want to elect to the White House (including the Veep) this fall. S