In Defense of Joe Biden
After 50 years of public service, he is finally the right guy at the right time ...
I was never a big Joe Biden fan.
Back in the ‘80s, when he was cutting his teeth as the can’t-miss politician from the tiny state of Delaware with the blue-collar chops and million-dollar smile, he came off to me as the guy in the room who had a lot to say, but little of it sounded near as smart as he seemed to think it did.
He could be plenty pleased with himself.
While well-intentioned, hyper-earnest and almost always on the right side of the fight, he could still be a little embarrassing to watch. He was the tall, good-looking guy who strutted around the room pretending he was in on the joke, while everybody else was snickering about the punchline.
The political prodigy was sworn into the United States Senate in 1973, at the flowering age of 30. He was eager, vibrant and clearly in a full-blown sprint fueled by his sky-high ambition to one day soon be the President of the United States.
It was only a matter of time.
It took 15 years, but his first run for our nation’s top office ended in 1988 before he ever really got out of the starting block. Biden did himself in because he felt the need to embellish his record. He stole and used words that weren’t his own. This was a dead give-away that even he knew deep inside what so many already did: He really wasn’t the smartest guy in the room and didn’t have what it takes to be the President of the States.
At least not yet. And maybe never.
By the time 2008 rolled around, he was no longer the promising young man from Delaware. Now a lion in the Senate, he still had the good looks and all that ambition, and even if his opinion of himself was still plenty high, it was also plenty clear to many that he still didn't have what it takes to truly soar.
Once again, a presidential bid ended with the blink of an eye when he finished an embarrassing fifth in the Iowa Caucuses, garnering less than one, measly percent of the vote.
The sprinter had blown out both hamstrings.
Biden took the cold slap on the face with dignity, and said simply: "I ain't going away. I'll be going back to the Senate as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and I will continue to make the case I've been making."
Even if the once promising young man was now a presidential has-been to most everybody else, his self-belief and stubbornness were becoming endearing features, and had actually started to look good on him. Say you want, but the dude had a blast furnace inside him, and like him or not, he was still ready to burn and burn and burn ...
The team player
Seven months after Biden bowed out in Iowa, an upstart candidate who could take all that heat, and by now had proven he could also navigate the thin air at the top of the world, made good and damn sure that Biden would be true to his word and wasn’t “going away” when he unexpectedly tapped him to be his running mate.
Barack Obama, the strapping, witty, engaging young man Biden had long ago fancied himself to be, was smart enough to know that he needed some of the senior senator from Delaware’s fire to blast through the campaign’s finish line.
Biden had the fire, Obama had the cool, and John McCain and Sarah Palin didn't stand a chance in the 2008 election.
Biden was finally in the national spotlight, but to stay there, he needed to quit feeding his own furnace so that he could adequately stoke the ambitions of the young man from Chicago who had taken the world by storm.
The stories of the unlikely and sometimes uneasy relationship between the two ambitious Alpha Males are many, but they undeniably formed one helluva political powerhouse.
Biden put the work in, mostly bit his tongue, and discovered the hidden treasure buried deep inside him that maybe he really didn’t know it all. By expertly filling the role as Obama’s loyal wing man for two terms, Biden proved that maybe, just maybe, he did have what it takes to soar atop the national stage after all.
This time, nobody could argue that he hadn’t earned the right to try.
Then, just like that, and after all his sacrifice, 2015 came bombing in like a nightmare and blew his star out of the sky.
He tragically lost a son, and maybe even the confidence of the rocket man who had resuscitated his political career.
Joe bowed out, Hillary Clinton got the nod, and the rest is just too damn painful to type about.
While the world burned, so did Joe Biden. Because he always did.
Nobody knew better than the veteran campaigner that the country he had faithfully served for close to five decades deserved so much better than this.
Lies, racism, dereliction of duty and complete incompetence weren’t going to stand.
Democrats who once feared a Biden run, now feared he wouldn’t throw into this fight. Poll after poll showed he was the guy who could end the carnage and win back the heart of America.
Turned out, nobody feared a Biden run more than the arsonist who was burning down our democracy. The orange, rotten bastard did everything he could to wound the old lion before he could sink his claws into the race.
Instead, he got the lion, the claws, and mauled in an impeachment. Real stable genius there.
Biden went on to win the presidency and save Democracy by more than seven million votes ...
Closing kick
Two years after defeating the monster, Biden is powering along these days seemingly oblivious to the outside noise. Polls don’t like him, but he could care less and pays attention to the needs of the people, not the numbers.
He has learned a thing or two.
More good bills for more good people have passed under his leadership than just about any president before him. Bridges are being built and made stronger both metaphorically and physically.
He is as likely to be seen huddling with Mitch McConnell as he is Chuck Schumer. There’s work to be done on behalf of every American. That’s the job of a president who is truly seeking to unite all the states.
Unemployment is at its lowest level ever since the president began his political life 50 year ago. These are stunning numbers coming off a pandemic that killed more than one million Americans, and left countless others sick and emotionally debilitated.
He has picked up where his old boss left off, and made good and damn sure the murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin, is reckoned with by standing with Ukraine and building back NATO stronger than it has ever been.
There will be no asking for Russia’s help with elections in his administration. There will be no love letters written to North Korea.
He can’t talk like he used to, but has showed us he’s more than happy to let his good work do that for him.
When he confidently stood atop the world’s stage and presented the State of the Union as strong and getting stronger last week, he was ready for the barrage that came from America’s enemies on the Right, and casually swatted them away with an easy wink and smile.
Fact is, they never had a chance. The old lion has seen a few things …
There’s a real irony that as Joe Biden has finally realized his dream, and grown into his part as a great statesman and one helluva president, people are saying he’s too old for another run.
Well, I’m coming around to the opinion, that while it took close to a lifetime, Joe Biden is finally exactly where he should be, and not a minute too soon.
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can also find his work here. Follow @EarlofEnough)
In Defense of Joe Biden
Loved your piece about ‘wish Biden was younger.’ My husband just said he’s too old, but I’ll vote for him.