"I admired Joe Biden when he was a United States Senator.  I thought his selection as Barack Obama’s Vice Presidential pick was perfect for our country.  I have admired Joe Biden’s decency, honesty, and his demonstrated courage in the face of the most difficult of personal adversities.  Joe Biden has been one of our most successful and impactful Presidents – certainly one of the most productive in the past 60 years – and I have admired the job he has done under the most difficult of circumstances.

I have never admired Joe Biden more than I do today.  Voluntarily ceding the nomination and forgoing a chance to serve for another four years in the job that he did so well in and spent a lifetime dreaming of attaining, is as noble an act as ever recorded in America’s political history.  Joe Biden’s selflessness; his putting country and party above his own personal desires, places him in the category of every great political leader since George Washington set the standard some 225 years ago. 

While the nation’s gratitude may be blurred by the politics of our current times, history will record and all will long remember Joe Biden not just for what he did as President, but for what he gave up, so that we may continue as that “shining city on a hill.”