While Democrats from around the country strategised in Denver over how to win the White House for Barack Obama this summer, a high-level conclave of a different sort was taking place in a hotel room near by.
The Obama girls and then vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden's grandchildren held a sleep over during the August convention, Vice-president Joe Biden said last night.
The futon-level summit, held over popcorn, was proposed by 10-year old Finnegan Biden and Sasha Obama, then 7, and brokered by Michelle Obama and Biden's wife Jill. Also said to be present were Malia, 10, Biden grandchild Maisey, 8, and several of Biden's brothers' grandchildren.
According to Biden, who described the evening in remarks to a group of Democratic fundraisers last night, as many as nine children watched television together that evening. He described the "absolutely true story" of the negotiations leading up to the event.
"Pop, Pop, I got to talk to you," Finnegan told him, grabbing him by the coat as the family left the convention hall. "We need a sleep-over."
Biden said at first he thought she wanted a sleepover with him. He said he sleeps out in a tent on a lake with his grandchildren in Delaware.
"No, no, no, no, no, Pop," she said, according to Biden. "You know, Sasha is already talking to Bawack."
"I beg your pardon, baby?" Biden said he replied. "We want a sleep-over tonight. We want a sleep-over where Sasha, Malia" and their cousins. "Pop, can we clear out a room and take the beds out?"
Biden said he then spoke to Jill, who called Michelle, "and Michelle was already on it." He continued: "They cleared out the room, put down futons, they had popcorn and stuff. And they're, I don't know, seven, eight, nine little kids in there, black and white. And as I left, the TV was on and they were watching, I don't know, Mermaid or one of those programs that I've watched many times with my grandchildren...
"I didn't have any doubt after that why the hell I took this job, why I was running," Biden said about seeing the kids together. "Sounds corny, but I mean it."
