Average Joe' Biden Rents $4 Million Home

[Teresa]

Average Joe' Biden Rents $4 Million Home



By: Chris Gonsalves    

Joe Biden may portray himself as a lunch-bucket Democrat with working-class roots, but when it comes to the holidays, the vice president-elect parties like a Kennedy.

Biden and his family caused a stir Wednesday aboard the high-speed ferry from Hyannis, Mass., as the Delaware senator made his way to his traditional Thanksgiving getaway, a rented $4 million home on the eastern end of trendy Nantucket Island.

"We always go over for Thanksgiving the last 33 years," Biden told the Cape Cod Times as he made his way to the ferry dock, a stone's throw from the famed Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.

Biden said he typically traveled to and from the island retreat unnoticed. But all of that has changed since the election.

"There was a lot of state troopers and Secret Service involved in this with bomb-sniffing dogs," Philip Scudder, vice president of Hy-Line ferry told the local newspaper.

A Coast Guard cutter followed the ferry for the one-hour trip to Nantucket. Meanwhile aboard Hy-Line's Gray Lady ferry, the senator's handlers kept him separated from other passengers in a small section on the ferry's upper deck.

Popping the collar of his tweed jacket, the 66-year-old Biden read the newspaper, took family photos, and sported iPod earphones for much of the trip, according to the Cape Cod Times.

Once on Nantucket, the Bidens will celebrate Thanksgiving at a 5,280-square-foot home on scenic Polpis Road near Sesachacha Pond. Biden rented the house from local builder Larry Maury, son of well known Nantucket entrepreneur John Maury.

According to Forbes Magazine, Nantucket boasts the highest median property values in Massachusetts. In addition to its quaint and historic waterfront villages, the island is also famous as a seasonal playground for the rich and famous. Some of Nantucket's notable part-time residents include NBC's Chris Matthews, comic-couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, heiress Teresa Heinz and husband Sen. John Kerry, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, designer Tommy Hilfiger, and retired GE CEO Jack Welch.

About 30 miles off the southern coast of Massachusetts, Nantucket is adjacent to the island of Martha's Vineyard, another popular, high-end New England getaway and a favorite haunt of former president Bill Clinton.

On the campaign trail, Biden rarely failed to bring up his working-class, Roman Catholic roots and the hard times his family faced. Biden, who grew up in a tough part of Scranton, Pa., helped the Democrats reach blue-collar workers in traditionally Republican areas where President George W. Bush clinched previous elections.

But if the pricey vacation seems, to some, discordant with the vice president-elect's work-a-day background and sensibilities, to other island regulars his trip seemed positively ordinary.

"It's nice to see he's your average Joe," said Dan Lyons of Orange, Conn., who was traveling to Nantucket with his family for an extended holiday retreat. Lyons then cajoled his 6-year-old daughter into saying Biden's name.


http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/biden_nantucket_holiday/2008/11/27/155858.html?s=al&promo_code=722E-1

[sixdogsmom]

So what is the point?

[Catwoman]

Uh, unless you're on Mars, I think the point is that this new administration got elected on the promise of "change you can believe in"...I think all I'm believing at this point, with all of the examples that this incoming adminstration has been setting (Super O daring to stand at a podium bearing the sign "Office of the President-Elect", Biden doing his usual way spendy activities, the Black Widow Spider putting their kids into trendy, expensive private schools, etc.), is that what we're seeing is more of the same.  And, the day that our press begins to skewer this idiot that keeps making these unbelievable gaffs in public...the idiot that our good public elected...I'll begin to believe that change is actually in the air.

[greatguns]

Unless you've been on Mars, you surely don't believe anyone in Washington politics live in the same manner as most of us or live on the same income as we do.  It is a fact, deal with it.

[Catwoman]

No, I am not sophomoric enough to believe that anyone in DC lives as we do...but I DO expect people to live up to the campaign promises they ran on...which, I realize, is unrealistic, given the amount of deceit and double-speak the politicians use...so, yes, the process of 'dealing' comes into play.

[sixdogsmom]

I think the article says that the family has rented this house for several years now. It doesn't take much of a house in that part of the world to be worth 4 million, and the vacation was not a 'gift' from a lobbyist ala Keyton Five.

The school that the Obamas have enrolled their children in also had as students Chelsea Clinton and the George W. Bush twins. Hmmmm.

I for one am happy that the incoming administration is keeping us apprised as to what is going on as people are being vetted and hired to work for we the people, and I am certainly happy that Senator Obama is pointing out that he is not yet the president. He is having regular news conferences to try and pump some life in this failing economy. Our sitting president has not had a news conference since August.

[redcliffsw]

We'll see if Obama can pump enough life into the economy.  How long will it be until he quickens the tax and spend process to inject money to the so-called failed economy? 

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.
-Benjamin Franklin

[srkruzich]

I think the article says that the family has rented this house for several years now. It doesn't take much of a house in that part of the world to be worth 4 million, and the vacation was not a 'gift' from a lobbyist ala Keyton Five.

The school that the Obamas have enrolled their children in also had as students Chelsea Clinton and the George W. Bush twins. Hmmmm.

I for one am happy that the incoming administration is keeping us apprised as to what is going on as people are being vetted and hired to work for we the people, and I am certainly happy that Senator Obama is pointing out that he is not yet the president. He is having regular news conferences to try and pump some life in this failing economy. Our sitting president has not had a news conference since August.

Well renting a 4 million dollar house is a far cry from a average joe. 
Also, guess the public school system isn't good enough for obamas kids now!  Hmm speaks volumes about our government schools.

T

[Catwoman]

[ Our sitting president has not had a news conference since August.
[/quote]
Our President has had numerous news conferences...I have watched them personally on MSNBC, CNN, etc...it's just our mainstream media that seems to have a real news black-out on the man.  Hmmmmmmmm.

[sixdogsmom]

CW, there is a difference between a news conference and a prepared statement. President Bush has delivered many prepared statements in the last few months but has not had a news conference since August. I have seen just about every one of these prepared statements on CNN.

Steve, I suspect that school choices had to be coordinated with the secret service just as a choice of churches was. These days are a far cry from the days of Jimmy Carter and public school for Amy Carter. Even then I'll bet that the secret service was fit to be tied over that choice.