Joe Biden

Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption by Jules Witcover

Tier 5

This book was published in 2010, just two years into Obama’s presidency. As such, it can only serve to look back on Biden’s life and career up to that point. There are very interesting periods in Biden’s life, and Witcover does a passable job covering those events. But the things that particularly interest me about Biden—his Vice Presidency, his decision not to run in 2016, and his eventual election and administration—are, obviously, missing. This isn’t the author’s fault but rather mine. I picked a bad book and read it and regret it.

Now, I do not mean to dismiss the career of Joe Biden leading up to his presidency. It is fascinating. He was elected to the Senate at 29, and then, tragically, just weeks after his election, his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. His two other sons were in the car at the time but survived with minimum injuries. He nearly resigned. His career almost ended at that moment, and he went through a period of dark reflection.

This sounds like the kind of story someone writes for a movie or TV show. It seems so extreme and, on the nose, as to be almost unbelievable. But it happened. And he fought through it and went on to have a long and successful career as a Senator. He was extremely popular in Delaware and the Senate. He had a career that would’ve warranted a biography in its own right by the time he ran for president in 1988.

And, as luck would have it, there is a book about that. It is one of the great books ever written. Not political books, not campaign books, not history, but books. I can’t think of more than a few books I’ve ever read that are as compelling and well-researched as What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer. Now, let me warn you, this book is massive. It’s over a thousand pages and does not solely detail Joe Biden (who dropped out of the race early on), but if you like presidential biographies or history in general, it is a must-read. Unfortunately, it did not fit the prompt for this project, so I read this book.

Two significant moments that should be mentioned about Biden’s pre-2008 career are the Robert Bork nomination hearing and his decision to drop out of the aforementioned 1988 Democratic primary.

First, Bork. Robert Bork was a hateful man who presaged the coming polarization of the Supreme Court. Ronald Reagan nominated him to fill a vacant seat, and Biden won wide acclaim for his handling of the nomination hearings. He did not resort to personal attacks on Bork. Instead, he focused on the ideological differences he had with him—Bork’s strong originalism and interpretations of the Constitution were the bulk of the hearings. In response to Biden’s work, Bork was rejected by the Senate.

Unfortunately for Biden, this success was short-lived. In 1991, during Clarence Thomas’s nomination hearing, he failed to cover himself in glory. I highly recommend you read this long story about Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Ultimately, Biden should’ve done more to support Hill and Thomas’s other accusers. He is on record as regretting his actions there.

Both of these mark a turning point in the history of Supreme Court nominations. The polarization and scrutiny not only of nominees' judicial rulings but also their personal lives begin with these two hearings, and Biden is at the center of each.

His failed run for the presidency in 1988 is a fascinating tale. He was the early favorite on the Democratic side. He was young (by presidential standards, at least), moderate, a good speaker, and had a strong track record as a Senator. The money poured in and he seemed a good bet to carry the nomination. Then came the plagiarism. He ripped off a speech by a British Labour leader, Neil Kinnock. In the past, when he made this speech, he credited Kinnock but failed to on this occasion.

Then, there was another accusation that he had borrowed from JFK’s inaugural address (how do you steal from a speech that famous?). And two years before that, he used something Hubert Humphrey had said. Biden blamed his staffers and pointed out that it was common practice for politicians to use material from other speakers. It seems this is true, particularly before our 24-hour media cycle. I am sure other politicians regularly borrowed lines and stories. But this was the first election that genuinely lived in that media atmosphere, and the Biden campaign could never pull out of its tailspin.

There was a further revelation about plagiarism accusations at Fordham, and it is clear that Biden likes to embellish his life. He got caught and bowed out of the election. One does wonder how things might’ve been different without this scandal. George H.W. Bush was not the strongest candidate, and parties rarely win three consecutive elections. The Dukakis campaign in the general election is legendary for its mistakes, and maybe Biden would’ve faired better. Or maybe not.

I don’t have much on his current administration as we’re still living in it. As I have repeated many times in this project, we need time to reflect on these things. I will say that I wish we had some younger candidates for these offices and leave it at that.

Biden is an interesting person who likely became president too late. This is down to his own mistakes, but it’s hard to avoid the truth of that statement. Witcover’s book does an adequate job of detailing the moments in his career I have highlighted and some others beside it. Still, I wouldn’t recommend it. The author is far too forgiving of Biden’s mistakes and allows his politics to shape the narrative. It's an indifferent book, and if you want to learn more about Biden or campaign politics, read Cramer’s master book on the ’88 election.