Biden against all odds

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By Christina Bellantoni

Did ya know that Joe Biden was once terrified of public speaking? Yes, that Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware and former presidential candidate. The one who talks - a lot.

It may be hard to believe, but the man House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dubbed "Mr. Sunday Morning" for his frequent appearances on political talk shows struggled as a child to overcome a debilitating stutter.

It got him excused from speaking during morning assembly at his Catholic high school and led his classmates to tease him with "Bu-bu-Biden."

"It was like having to stand in the corner with the dunce cap," Mr. Biden wrote in his 2007 book, "Promises to Keep." "Even today I can remember the dread, the shame, the absolute rage, as vividly as the day it was happening."

After trying everything from reciting poetry to shoving pebbles in his mouth, he conquered the fear in the same way he's tackled everything in his life - with determination.

"I would memorize long passages of Yeats and Emerson, then stand in front of the mirror in my room ... and talk talk talk," he wrote. And of course he later realized, "What had terrified me in grade school and high school was turning out to be my strength ... I found out I liked speaking in public."

Mr. Biden, 65, opens his book explaining one of his father's favorite phrases, which "has echoed through my life."

"The world dropped you on your head? My dad would say, 'Get up!'"

He used the philosophy when it seemed he'd been hit with things from which he'd never recover - the tragic death of his young wife and infant daughter, a scandal that crippled his first White House bid, and a brain aneurysm that nearly killed him. He's adopted it now, nearly six months after ending his second presidential run, as he has transitioned almost seamlessly into the self-appointed role of Democratic foreign-policy point man.

Foreign-policy fighter