Joe Biden Remembers Richard Ben Cramer

“It is a powerful thing to read a book someone has written about you, and to find both the observations and criticisms so sharp and insightful that you learn something new and meaningful about yourself.”

Source: youtube.com

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement remembering the journalist Richard Ben Cramer who covered his failed presidential campaign in 1988 in his pivotal book “What It Takes: The Way to the White House.”

Cramer, who proved that biography is a pivotal component of political reporting, devoted scores of pages to Biden’s life and developed a close relationship with the then-Delaware senator. He died Monday at the age of 62.

“Jill and I were terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Richard Ben Cramer,” Biden said in a statement released Tuesday. “It is a powerful thing to read a book someone has written about you, and to find both the observations and criticisms so sharp and insightful that you learn something new and meaningful about yourself. That was my experience with Richard. He was an unmatched talent who set an enormously high bar for political journalism. I will miss him. And Jill and I will keep his family in our hearts and our prayers.”