(image jamie citron twitter)
Vice President Joe Biden visitied Provincetown, Massachusetts at the tip of Cape Cod for a fundraiser on Sunday morning at the base of the Pilgrim Monument.
Politico reports:
Vice President Joe Biden thanked gay rights advocates Sunday for advancing not just their own civil rights, but also the “civil rights of every straight American.”
“You are freeing the soul of the American people,” Biden said to loud applause during a stop in Provincetown, Mass., according to a pool report. Biden honed in on the LGBT issues during his campaign speech at the Pilgrim Monument and Museum, which is located in a prominent gay community in Cape Cod. “If I had to use one adjective to describe this community it'd be courage," Biden said. "You have summoned the courage to speak out, to come out. We owe you.”
Naom Scheiber at The New Republic says Biden is positioning himself for a 2016 run:
First, Biden is going to extravagant lengths to ensure his boss's reelection while putting his own ambitions on hold, in the hope that the Obama brass will reward this selflessness when the time comes. There is, quite simply, no speech Biden won't deliver if it advances the White House cause, no attack on Mitt Romney he won't wage, no annual convention of Pacific Islander flight attendants he won't attend on the president's behalf. “To some extent, he's put himself in a challenging position [for 2016] by playing by the rules of the Obama political operation and not doing a lot of the prep work, particularly around fund-raising, you would ordinarily be doing by now,” says the adviser…
…Step two of the master plan is leveraging Biden's deep ties to traditional Democratic constituencies, such as labor, trial lawyers, and African American, Jewish, and gay groups and donors, the last of which were thrilled by his plug for same-sex marriage this May. The vice president cultivated some of these ties for decades as a senator, but has strengthened them significantly during his punishing tour of Holiday Inn ballrooms over the past four years. “Biden has a special call on a lot of people's loyalties, starting with the president,” says the adviser. “That's why you've got to take him seriously. And he's serious.”