When Joe Biden Called Himself an Honorary Greek

Vice-President Joe Biden, a longtime Senator and veteran campaigner, knows his audience.

Back in 2012, according to a press pool report, Vice President Biden, on the campaign trail as President Obama ran for his second term, spoke to a Greek-American supporter at a lunchtime stop in Ohio, showing his Greek side and his love for Greece. The pool report noted:

Approaching a table of men he knew to be Greek, the VP said, “I’m Joe Bidenopoulos.”

“Ask George,” he said – unclear who George was, maybe someone at the table –“who’s the most Greek Irishman he’s ever known.” It surely sounded like Biden was suggesting that he was.

The vice president also got a snack at a restaurant, a Greek diner in downtown Warren.

In past years Biden has also called himself “Greek” on different occasions, including when he said that he was an “honorary Greek” at a White House reception celebrating Greek Independence Day.

Expanding on his love for Greece and its history, Biden said he “feels like an honorary Greek, not just today but every day,” explaining that was because the US and Greece shared so very much in common.

“Both literally and figuratively, we stand together,” Biden noted as he stood by the side of Demetrios, Archbishop of America. “It is a union forged throughout our history.”

He then added that the relationship was a “strength stemming from the very core of our existence. Greece and America share common goals, a common philosophy and common values, going back to the scholars of Ancient Greece.”

Vice President Biden then added “It was once said that “except for the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in origin.” This famous quote so well placed by Biden at the celebration was made originally by the English Catholic politician, historian and writer John Dalberg-Acton, the First Baron Acton.