Officials and attendees of the super-secretive Hythloday Society were pleasantly surprised when Vice President Joe Biden accepted an invitation to personally receive his Hythloday Award and address attendees at the award banquet.
According to a member who is also a NewsSkunk contributor, Biden was reported to be very gracious and offered to acknowledge each of the Society’s executives individually at the beginning of his speech. At a pre-speech meeting, a cautious Biden made sure he could pronounce each person’s name correctly and asked three times if any of them was wheelchair-bound.
Biden smiled brightly as he received a standing ovation in front of a crowd of 150.
Although known for his penchant for gaffes, Biden’s presentation did not contain any noticeable errors. Those who attended purely for comedic reasons – which reportedly accounts for a high percentage of Biden speech attendees – probably walked away disappointed. Still, there was a low level of snickering throughout.
The speech was fairly dry and utilized many statistics, but none of the “let me tell you a story, Man,” tangents which often lead to Biden gaffes. He did start on one story about shopping at a Montgomery Ward store, but a technical snafu caused the microphone to emit a static discharge, and, after shaking off the shock, Biden picked up where he had left off from his script.
Biden used the speaking opportunity to outline some policies that he believes in, possibly a preview of policy positions he would be articulating during his upcoming presidential run.
Biden said that the Obama administration deserved “heaps of praise” for saving the American economy from the worst economic conditions since Teddy Roosevelt’s fireside chats. Biden said that he was proud of his personal involvement, which included being the watchdog over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) program, a $787B+ program which he said experienced almost no waste, fraud, or abuse. He also took credit for the highly anticipated “Recovery Summer of 2009,” which he followed up with the highly anticipated Recovery Summer of 2010, 2011, and 2012, also.
When it came to foreign policy, Biden turned to Iraq, with a shout-out to Hythloday Society Treasurer Malik Aziz, an immigrant from Iraq who has lost eleven family members to violence. Biden said that although Iraq has converted to a democracy with free and fair elections, has stopped threatening its neighbors, and has a growing economy, he hoped that they would still consider his original 2006 plan to divide the country into three ethnically-cleansed regions, one Kurdish, one Shiite and one Sunni, and live peacefully side-by-side, sharing oil revenues among them. Aziz shot up from his seat, raised a fist, and triumphantly shouted, “Hythloday!” Many in the crowd yelled the same. Biden acknowledged the crowd by waiting for “Hyth-lo-day” chanting to calm down and then said in a low voice, “Thanks, People.” In a follow-up interview with Aziz, NewsSkunk learned that his eleven family members had died in Southside Chicago.
Biden extended his remarks to talk about the Obama administration’s success in deficit mitigation, job creation, the environment, US prestige around the world, delivering affordable healthcare, and a whole host of other areas. While his listing of successes went way over the allotted time, the Hythloday members did not seem to mind. Biden thanked the crowd for his Hythloday award, posed for a picture while holding his award statue, and waved to the audience as he headed off the stage.
Biden is the first winner to personally accept the Hythloday Award, which in Greek means “dispenser of nonsense.”
