The Families of Candidates Biden and Dodd Discuss Living in Iowa

While waiting for the Chris Dodd/Joe Biden remarks to begin at the Scott County Democratic Party "Red White and Blue" annual fund-raising dinner on Friday, December 14^th, I had the great pleasure of talking at length with Joe Biden's granddaughter, Finnegan Biden.

Finnegan is nine years old and in the third grade at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where her best friend, Sophie, "is taller than me." Finnegan's dad is Joe Biden's Washington, D.C. attorney son, Hunter, who was also present with wife Kathleen. Finnegan's mother, Kathleen, originally hails from Chicago. Finnegan has a sister, Naomi, age 14, and another sister, Maizie, age 7. (Finnegan did not express a desire for brothers...and I did ask.)

Finnegan told me that her unusual first name is a family surname, and I told Finnegan that she could "be a model," but she mentioned that both of her grandmothers are teachers, so perhaps Finnegan will follow in their footsteps after she graduates from third grade.

Or maybe Finnegan will follow her father into the practice of law? Finnegan, literally, can do anything she wants in life, it would appear, and has the world by the proverbial tail, a tribute to what has made America great for all the Finnegans who have gone before.

Finnegan resembled a small china doll as she skipped around the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds venue in Iowa, long blonde hair bouncing, happily unself-conscious in blue jeans, wheras all the Bidens (and the Dodds) were "suited up" elegantly on this cold snowy evening, in preparation for Dad's (and Granddad's) remarks. The Dodds and the Bidens all "clean up real nice," as Iowans might say, and both sets of families could not have been more cordial to the rural crowd, where the dress code ran from "glitter and lots of it" to blue jeans basic.

I asked Finnegan if she had to take a bus across the state (John Edwards has been using a Main Street Bus Tour and will arrive in Davenport, Iowa in the bus on Monday, December 17^th for a rally.) Finnegan shook her head no. (Lucky girl).