Love him or hate him, Joseph R. Biden has displayed a remarkable ability to bounce back from some of life’s harshest setbacks. He lost his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident shortly after being elected to the U.S. Senate representing the State of Delaware. He lost a middle-aged son to cancer in 2015 – which led to his decision to nit run for President in 2016. In many respects he is an unlikely President, but then again – perhaps not.
Backstory
Joseph R. Biden was born 20 November 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Joe grew up with a pronounced stutter, which affected his self-image and standing amongst his peers. Despite being a poor student, he was a good athlete and popular amongst his classmates. He was elected Class President in his junior and senior years at High School, graduating in 1961. Joe completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 at the University of Delaware in Newark – without any distinction. Biden graduated from Syracuse University Law School in 1968, and he was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969.
Unexpected Triumph, then Tragedy
Joe Biden ran against three-term Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs in the autumn of 1972. He campaigned with minimal funds, employing his sister, Valerie Owens. Other Biden family members filled key roles in the campaign staff. The Biden team was given little chance of wining. A few months before the election, Biden trailed Boggs by almost thirty percentage points. On 7 November 1972, Joe Biden was elected as a Senator for the State of Delaware, beating Boggs by 1.4 percent of the vote. He was only 29 years old, which made him the sixth-youngest Senator to ever be elected.
Tragically, his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi died in a car accident 18 December 1972, and his sons Beau and Hunter were critically injured. Joe Biden was sworn in as a Senator at the hospital January as he did not wish to leave his sons. He was persuaded not to resign by Senator Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. Biden went on to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009.
His young family’s tragedy became the pivotal event of his life. The accident filled him with deep anger and doubt in his religious faith. He wrote that he “felt God had played a horrible trick” on him, and he had trouble focusing on work, and anything outside caring for his surviving sons.
The Long, Lean Years
Joe’s grief brought him close to his sons. He explained this bond in a commencement 2015 speech at Yale University in 2015, when he was serving as Vice President of the United States in the Obama Administration. Speaking of Neilia, he said “The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through [after the fatal accident]. But by focusing on my sons, I found my redemption.”
Joe met his second wife Jill Tracy Jacobs in 1975. They were married in 1977. They had a daughter, Ashley Blazer, a few years later. Joe credits Jill with renewing his interest in politics and in life.
Biden suffered a brain aneurysm and a pulmonary embolism in February 1988 – both life threatening ailments. He suffered a second aneurysm in May 1988. Somehow, he pulled through each crisis, missing seven months of Senate duty.
Clay Feet?
In 1968, Biden earned a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law. He placed 76th in his class of 85. He finished later than anticipated after failing a course due to an acknowledged “mistake” when he plagiarized a law review article for an essay that he wrote during his first year. He was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969.
Joe courted controversy for over a decade by characterizing the driver of the tractor trailer that hit his wife’s car as being drunk. The driver was never charged and there was no evidence that he had been drinking. Biden later apologized to the driver’s family in 2008.
Biden admitted making several false or exaggerated claims about his early life: that he had earned three degrees in college, that he attended law school on a full scholarship, that he had graduated in the top half of his class, and that he had marched in the civil rights movement. These claims came back to haunt him in his 1988 Presidential run. On September 23, 1987, Biden withdrew his candidacy, saying it had been overrun by “the exaggerated shadow” of his past mistakes.
A Late Bloomer?
Joe Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. Barak Obama selected him as his running mate in 2008 and appointed Joe as Vice-President. Biden’s debating skills aided the campaign. He once quipped regarding the ambitions of Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11.”
Biden served as Obama’s Vice President from 2009 to 2017. The Obama-Biden team appeared to be a sincere partnership, even friendship. His son Beau passed away from cancer at age 46 in 2015, leading to his decision to not run in the 2016 Presidential election. Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2017 in recognition of his value contribution of the course of his political career.
Joe Biden was elected President of the United States 4 November 2020 at age 77. Because of mail-in voting his victory was not official until November 7, 5 days after conventional voting began and the 48th anniversary of his Senate election over Boggs. Biden is the oldest President, the first to have a female Vice President, the first to have a Black person as Vice President, the first President from Delaware, and the second Roman Catholic President after John F. Kennedy.
Character Traits
Joe Biden publicly credits his Roman Catholic faith for his resilience. It is probable that this personal assessment underestimates the support offered by his second wife, Jill. His social skills also had to be honed to a high degree by over coming his stutter. The degree to which this challenge bothered him can be seen in how kindly he treats children with stutters, taking the time to encourage them that eventually they would learn to overcome their stuttering. By all accounts these private meetings are sincere. Joe no doubt had to overcome his own doubts at every stage of his life. He was athletically gifted, but never shone as a student. His speech impediment was a barrier to social, scholastic, business, and political success – but he overcome this limitation, and became an accomplished orator.
Biden’s oratory is perhaps his greatest strength as a politician. Political writer Howard Fineman once noted,
Biden is not an academic, he’s not a theoretical thinker, he’s a great street pol. He comes from a long line of working people in Scranton—auto salesmen, car dealers, people who know how to make a sale. He has that great Irish gift.
Political columnist David S. Broder observes that Biden has grown over time:
He responds to real people—that’s been consistent throughout. And his ability to
understand himself and deal with other politicians has gotten much, much
better.
Journalist James Traub described Biden as “the kind of fundamentally happy person who can be as generous toward others as he is to himself.”
Biden has been noted for his empathetic nature and ability to communicate about grief. In 2020, CNN wrote that his Presidential campaign aimed to make him “Healer-in-Chief”, while The New York Times noted his frequent history of being called upon to give eulogies, as he did at Republican Senator John McCain’s funeral.
The Measure of the Man
Joe Biden started his political career with few advantages, and the detriment of a speech impediment. He developed into an accomplished orator who demonstrates a refined ability to press emotional buttons – at the right time. He can be alternately self-aggrandizing and self-effacing. Perhaps the winding path to the Presidency developed his best self. As did the unnamed son mentioned in Rudyard Kipling’s timeless ode to tenacity If, Biden “has learned to meet with triumph and disaster and to treat those two imposters just the same.”
Joe Biden is a survivor. He has been practicing these skills virtually all his life.
