Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max The Biden and Kennedy clans have some things in common. The only two Catholic presidents in American history. Charisma that led to early-in-life campaign success. The mixing of business and family. Grim tragedies that shadowed their political paths. Irish grief that followed. The instances of alcoholism and addiction that afflicted fellow family members. The press started comparing the two families all the way back in the 1970’s. JOE BIDEN sometimes welcomed the allusions and played up the idea that he was Kennedy-esque. As RICHARD BEN CRAMER wrote of Biden in “What It Takes” — his book on the 1988 presidential race — “in his mind’s eye, his race looked like John Kennedy’s … a young man’s race.” But while the Kennedys were glamorous, rich, and Ivy League sophisticates, the Biden’s present themselves less as “Camelot” and more as “Leave it to Beaver.” Aspirational but relatable. That’s part of the message of the new book “Growing Up Biden,” by VALERIE BIDEN OWENS , Joe’s sister, longtime campaign manager, and “best friend” as he frequently notes. “Joe and I respected John and Bobby particularly but that was it,” she said in an interview Thursday. “It wasn't like ‘We're the Kennedy’s or the Rockefeller’s or anybody.’ You know, we're Biden’s and our job was to take care of one another.” Or as she recalls her Mom once putting it: “Damn it, we were Bidens before we ever heard of the Kennedys.” Biden Owens told West Wing Playbook that she decided to write the book in the hope that other families will see themselves in hers. “We were just a regular, ordinary – in the best sense of the word – middle-class American family who grew up in the mid-20th century,” she said. “Our specific stories are different,” she added. “Certainly my story is different because my brother's president in the United States. But what I've seen is that the basic threads that put the fabric of family together… commitment, and love, and loyalty, and heartbreak, and disappointment and loss – they're the same threads that run through most American families.” The tight-knit siblings and other family members are a force in the Biden presidency even as they largely stay behind the scenes. Biden’s brother JIMMY BIDEN picked the Oval Office’s rugs, sofas, and decorations, according to the book. And while Biden Owens does not have an official role in the White House, she says she still talks to her brother “frequently.” In fact, some in Bidenworld think Joe would be better served by having her in the administration. She was his longtime campaign manager going back to 1972 but says her role now is just “sister.” And although Joe is president, she said the sibling dynamics remain the same. “Biden’s still ‘the oldest.’ I'm still ‘the only’ [as in, only girl]. Jim’s still ‘the joker.’ Frank’s still ‘the baby,’” she said. Family tragedy also hangs over Biden’s presidency. Joe frequently cites his son BEAU, who died in 2015 of cancer. And Biden Owens says that she and Joe both still talk to him. She recalled that during Biden’s disastrous finish at the Iowa caucuses, she told him: “Hey Beau, what the hell were you doing?” “Look, Beau is my child,” she said, referencing that after the death of Biden’s first wife she moved into Joe’s home and helped raise Beau and HUNTER BIDEN for several years. “I don't want to overemphasize this, like I go into seance and go pray and hum. But when you love somebody, they stay in your heart when they're gone,” she explained. The family ties are so strong that Biden Owens even has some of the same Biden-isms. “Honest to God,” she said at one point. “My Biden word of honor,” she added at another. “Literally, Biden word, literally,” she also noted with self-awareness. After a long, winding (but interesting!) answer, she apologized: “I'm afraid it’s too Biden-me and I'm talking too much” — a line familiar to anyone who has watched her brother stop himself in the middle of answering questions at press conferences over the past few years. The mannerisms don’t just reflect an intimacy that Biden Owen still has with her brother but a protectiveness she feels towards him. She can, at times, be relentlessly on message. Most questions about Joe prompted the words “character” and “decency.” She also said this week that the 79-year-old Joe should run again in 2024. Biden Owens wrote that she had nerves about the 2020 campaign given how ugly she expected it to be. “Part of me wanted to say to those urging him on, 'Look, he’s done enough. Leave him alone,'" she wrote. But even with the prospect of a DONALD TRUMP rematch, Biden Owens seems unwavering this time. “Joe’s not going to walk away from a bully. He's not going to – because he's afraid? No, Joe's doing a good job. A great job. He's done what he said he's going to do. And so he's gonna keep on doing it.” TEXT US — Are you VALERIE BIDEN OWENS’ daughter, MISSY? We want to hear from you (we’ll keep you anonymous). Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com or you can text/Signal/Wickr/WhatsApp Alex at 8183240098 or Max at 7143455427.
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