In a Campaign of Joes, Jill Biden Stands Out

By Lev Weinstein, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 16, 2008 6:22 PM CDT

(Newser) – The McCain-Palin team's affinity for Joe Six-Pack and Joe the Plumber gets the press, but the Democrats have their own champion of the average Joe (and not just because she's married to one) in Jill Biden, writes Jonathan Van Meter in Vogue. The prospective second lady—college professor; political wife who avoids the spotlight; mother of three who rocks “skinny, non-mom jeans”—“could turn out to be the campaign's secret weapon.”

“If the Obamas' Achilles heel is that they are still seen as a bit too exotic or too cerebral for some Americans,” Van Meter writes, “then Jill Biden is unimpeachably easy to relate to: She is the athletic girl-next-door who grew up to be the pretty teacher everyone has a crush on.” Adds Joe’s sister Valerie, another in the family’s coterie of strong women: “There's nothing edgy or unpleasant about Jill, but she's not a pious little milquetoast. She's funny, she is fierce, she's irreverent.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

Jill Biden introduces her husband, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden, at a campaign rally in Media, Pa., Sept. 16, 2008. (AP Photo)

Michelle Obama and JIll Biden look at breakfast menu at Yankee Kitchen Family Restaurant in Boardman, Ohio, Aug. 30, 2008. (AP Photo)

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Michelle and I put our arms around each other and she said, 'I love you,' and I said, 'I love you, too' and it wasn't phony! I think that's very unusual for two women to click so quickly. - Jill Biden on Michelle Obama

Jill was sitting out by the pool in a bikini—fuming. Unable to stand it any longer, she got up, found a Magic Marker, and wrote the word no across her stomach and then paraded through the meeting. - Van Meter on Jill's reaction to Joe being wooed to run in 2004

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