Would you like to share a DU memory?

[DFW]

89. July 2008. I had been on DU for 2 or 3 years, just getting used to being trashed on occasion.

Usually, "bullshit, there's no way you know those people (I did)," and "what makes you so special (nothing) that Howard Dean would tell you that? (He and I talked regularly)" and "why would someone like that tell something like that to someone like you (maybe because he didn't have your phone number?) "

On the morning of the day Obama was to announce his pick for VP, I was in Cape Cod, Mass. The announcement was scheduled for around 4 PM that afternoon. My nephew called me up from northern Virginia at about 7:30 in the morning and told me it was Joe Biden. I asked if he was sure. When he told how he knew, I realized he was 100% sure, but I also knew it would be a few years before I could reveal WHY he was so sure.

Not sure how to post the news, I crafted a carefully worded OP, saying I had it on pretty good authority that it would be Joe Biden, and had anyone else heard the same thing?

You'd thought I had cursed the name of Mao at a Chinese prison that carried out executions.

I got an onslaught of angry posts telling me why it would never be Biden, why it would be anyone BUT Biden, and who was I of all people to know such a thing, and, of course, the inevitable LINK?!?!?!?!?!?

When Obama's pick of Joe Biden was announced later that afternoon, exactly ONE poster came back to apologize, understanding that I still couldn't explain HOW I knew, but at least acknowledging that I really did know.

Years later, I figured there would be no more fallout for the "guilty" parties, and I revealed how I had known, but almost no one was left at DU who had trashed me at the time.

For the curious, here's how I knew. (If you don't care, feel free to stop reading here )

My nephew was 18 at the time, but was somewhat small for his age. he had a young face, and had a young and wiry physique. In addition, he is somewhat reserved, and has strong Asian features. My brother's wife is from Japan. He used to go to a local indoor swimming pool in northern Virginia very early in the morning, before he went to his summer job, interning with Matt Angle at the Lone Start project in Washington. At 6:30 AM, the only other people at the pool were two female office staff of then-Senator Joe Biden's office. They looked around before talking, but saw only some 12 year old (they thought) Asian kid, who never said a word, and probably didn't understand English in the first place. The kid, was my 18 year old nephew, who understood every word, of course. They felt free to excitedly discuss, out loud, the fact (still secret) that their boss had been picked by Obama to be his Vice-President. After all, it was still a secret if the only other person who heard the news was some young Asian kid who didn't understand English, right? He never said a word, and let them leave, still thinking their secret was safe.

So, right after he got home, my nephew called me up and gave me the news. For all my good intentions, I have been rarely so trashed for a thread on DU, and if there's anyone left here from those days who was one of those who gave me grief, no, I STILL don't have a link!!