The Friday before the 2016 Presidential Election, I was at the same coffee shop that I had been going to almost every day for years. At one point I looked up from my laptop and noticed someone with an ear piece standing outside the window. After working for a while longer, I remembered that Vice President Biden was speaking in Madison that morning, campaigning for Hillary Clinton and Russ Feingold, who was running for his old Senate seat again.

A little while later, I noticed that Secret Service had actually stopped letting people in without Press credentials and there were many reporters inside and outside the cafe.

The next thing I remember is the motorcade coming around the corner and stopping right in front of Colectivo. I just found the moment in Slack where I was in the middle of a conversation when I said:

brb, joe biden is here
i think he’s literally walking into Colectivo
he is

First Russ Feingold came in. I had been sitting in the front of the cafe when all this started, so I was one of the first people to shake his hand when he walked in the door. (It probably didn’t hurt that I had a huge Russ Feindgold bumper sticker on the cover of my laptop 🙃)

Then Joe Biden came in and shook everyone’s hand. He noticed someone with a Green Bay Packers phone cover and told a story about how he got out of school early on Mondays if the Packers won. Then he walked into the middle of the restaurant and announced, “I’m Joe Biden and I work for Russ Feingold.”

I think about this day a lot when I encounter people that are less than enthusiastic about the idea of a President Biden. He wasn’t my first choice in the Democratic primary, but he is qualified to be President, he’s a good person, and he would make things better for most people instead of worse. In a lot of ways, he’s the opposite of our current President.