Welcome aboard, Joe!

I'm happy that Barack Obama chose Joe Biden (though I'm a little pissed that I didn't get my "first to know" email until almost 8:00 this morning). I like that Joe is "colorful" (blabby) because he's as unpredictable as Obama is cool. I appreciate that Biden is smarter than I am, as I believe my leaders should be (I'm scarily certain I could beat many who served the current administration at Jeopardy). I enjoy listening to his realistic approach to foreign policy.

But one of my favorite things about Biden is his enduring support of Amtrak. If we are to reduce our demand on foreign oil, we have to drive less, and Biden believes that a better Amtrak is one of the secrets. Legend has it he makes travels roundtrip between DC and Delaware on the rails all the time.

We have clients in both Milwaukee and downstate Illinois, and everyone (except me) drives. It's not unusual for everyone to take his or her own car, too. Amtrak travels to both destinations, yet I'm the only one who avails myself of it. There are times when it's frustratingly off schedule, but then I've had to wait in conference rooms for coworkers who drove to the meeting but got waylaid by storms or highway construction. The waste involved with those individual cars heading to exactly the place makes me cuh-razy!