Obama to Biden: "Ummmm, please shut up."

I don’t say a lot about politics on here, but I thought this story was worth a mention, because it speaks more about character in the little things than anything else.  (Coincidentally, I just read from Matthew 25 when Jesus tells the story of the master who gave a bit of responsibility to 3 servants)

Sometime in the last 24 hours, President Obama and Vice President Biden were talking to the press.  Someone asks Biden if he was going to swear everyone else in, because Biden had forgotten that he had more to do.  Then Biden immediately decides to make a joke, essentially selling out Justice Roberts from the Supreme Court and his little mess up at the inauguration and says “I don’t have as good of a memory as Justice Roberts.”  At this joke, the press laughed really hard, and it even received a few “ooohhhh”s.

But Obama’s reaction was stone cold. (this link is time sensitive and will probably not be there tomorrow, but eventually you’ll be able to check it out on you tube)  He didn’t laugh.  He didn’t smirk.  He simply and slowly reached out his arm, and touched Biden’s arm as if to say, “We don’t have time for your partisan, crappy jokes that have the intention of drawing attention away from yourself and onto others shortcomings.”

An absolutely amazing moment.  One of the things this little story did for me was helped me realize that though I might not agree with everything President Obama does, as I haven’t agreed with everything any other president has done in the last 20 years, I already respect him for being the person who he says he is, and this is a quality that has been non-existent in our nations capitol maybe since Washington in his two terms.

What do you think?  Was this character or just for show?