I first met then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware in 1988, during what would be his first of two unsuccessful campaigns for President of the United States (1988, 2008). He had withdrawn from the Presidential campaign in late 1987, after a controversy regarding the plagiarism of remarks by British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinook. Plagiarism concerns also plagued Biden's law school career, while he at times claims graduating at the top of his class, he in fact ranked 76th in a class of 85.
Then Joe Biden had a lot less hair (pre-transplant), a lot more energy and wit (in the moment), and was perhaps slightly subdued by his recent White House campaign implosion. He was intelligent, charming and appeared to genuinely want to serve the people of Delaware, as well as America. Before leaving the U.S. Senate in 2008, he would become the 19th longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate.
Biden was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, narrowly, on a post-Watergate 'reform' and transparency platform. He was the first sitting U.S. Senator in 1976 to endorse the upstart candidacy of former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter for President in 1976. Early in his Senate tenure, Biden focused on government accountability, improving the environment, and arms control.
In December 1972, Biden tragically lost his first wife and daughter just a few weeks after his Senate election to an automobile accident. Sons Beau and Hunter Biden were also injured in the crash, though not critically. Biden wrongly claimed for years that the driver of the tractor-trailer which hit his wife's station wagon was driving drunk. The truck driver was not charged with any type of impairment according to the Chief Prosecutor of the case. And when that driver passed away in 1999, his daughters continued to fight to restore his reputation. Biden would eventually publicly apologize through a spokesman and reportedly made a private apology call to the family as well.
Son Beau honorably served in the U.S. Army as part of the Delaware National Guard, most prominently as an Army Judge Advocate, including a seven-month combat deployment in Iraq during 2008-2009. He later served as Delaware Attorney General for two terms before succumbing to brain cancer in 2015. Joe Biden has repeatedly publicly claimed that his son Beau was lost in combat in Iraq, as recently as 2023 -
"My son was a major in the U.S. Army. We lost him in Iraq," President Biden told U.S. Marine troops stationed in Iwakuni Japan, while Biden was in the country in 2023 for the G-7 Summit.
Beau Biden passed away due to brain cancer at the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda in 2015. President Biden has also said on several prior occasions that Beau's cancer was related to burn pit exposure in Iraq, though there is no evidence that exposure would have occurred during Beau Biden's combat duty.
More recently and prominently, President Biden's memory and multiple statements regarding his son Hunter are drawing scrutiny as Hunter Biden has apparently been under review and investigation by the I.R.S., F.B.I., and U.S. Justice Department for five years now, and recently completed a negotiated plea deal.
During Biden's third run for the White House in 2020, his campaign was limping through the early caucuses and primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire. A strong showing in South Carolina, credited to U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn made Biden's third run suddenly credible. Former President Barack Obama began efforts behind the scenes to winnow the Democratic field and coalesce behind the experience and at least 'perceived' centrism that former V.P. Biden's candidacy represented. By June 2020, other Democratic candidates had either suspended their campaigns or outright endorsed Biden as the presumptive nominee. The Covid19 pandemic allowed Biden to run the bulk of the rest of his campaign from the confines of the Biden home basement in Delaware.
At the front end of my sixth decade, I have admittedly lost a step or two from my 30s and 40s. I first met Biden during his latter. At 80, even the best of us is not at the top of our game. Like it or loathe it, the job of the U.S. President is one of the most physically and mentally taxing in the world. The many challenges facing our nation, as well as this planet, deserve better than a win by default or simply biding one's time. Democrats, as well as Republicans, deserve better options at the top of their tickets in 2024.
