We need to protect Joe Biden

So Donald Trump is about to become President, and a lot of people have been pretty upset about losing Obama. There’s been an outpouring of emotion begging him to stay for four more years and lamenting the loss of Michelle, of Malia and Sasha, of his Portuguese water dogs. Obviously everyone will miss Obama, but you know who we’ll miss more: Joe Biden.

Joe Biden has been the unspoken hero of the presidency for the last eight years. He’s the darling of social media for his well-meaning and accidentally adorable activities, like he made Obama literal friendship bracelets to celebrate their time together on his 55th birthday.

In a world full of politicians calling women ugly and fat and defending whether or not they’ve lied about literally everything, Joe Biden is a breath of fresh air. He’s a fundamentally pure human being who had made his way peacefully and quietly to the highest office in the land (well, adjacent to the highest office in the land). He’s the Vice President, yes, but as his Twitter bio proves, there are more important things in his life which come before all that.

It’s easy to see why Biden has become the subject of many a lighthearted but well-meaning meme.

But the best part about Joe Biden is that under his basic goodness and funny-nice-old-man vibes, there’s no hidden evil. There’s just more political goodness. After he appeared at this year’s Oscars to speak on the White House’s pledge to speak up to stop sexual assault 50,000 people signed up to the pledge, an 18 per cent increase overall. When he went on Jimmy Fallon to talk about the issue Biden said: “Any man who takes a drunk woman up the stairs in a fraternity house is a damn coward, man.

“There’s nothing manly about this. They should get knocked on their ass. We’ve got to change the way we think about this. And I’m convinced the vast majority of men understand, and it’s about time we speak up, and we intervene when we see it.”

In his latest endeavour to raise awareness of sexual assault on our college campuses Biden has appeared in a hilarious Funny or Die video which sees him infiltrating a frat party with Adam Devine to talk about consent as part of the It’s On Us campaign.

It’s enough to make you want to stroke his fluffy hair and chill out with him on Air Force Two and thank him for every single thing he’s ever done in the past eight years.

2016 has been a bad year for the world. We’ve lost a lot of good ones. But at least, for now, at least we still have Joe Biden.

@rosielanners