An ex-business partner and I were recently reminiscing about an encounter we had with then-Senator Biden at MBNA’s new corporate offices in downtown Wilmington in 1996. (MBNA was then the world’s largest independent credit card issuer.) Biden was running for re-election, so he was glad-handing anyone within reach, and we were, unfortunately, in the line of fire having just left a meeting and walking through the lobby. Flashing a toothy grin, dripping with condescension and insincerity, he grabbed my hand and said, “Good to meet you, hope you’ll vote for me in November. Like your tie.”
Fighting the urge to go and wash my hands and thinking of his disastrous 1987 presidential campaign and history of political sleaze, I said to my partner, after Biden had pressed his flesh, “Damn, I hope that oily bastard is never elected President.”
