Jules Witcover - Joe Biden - (Notes)

The amazing thing about Joe Biden is that he is still here.  He was first elected to the US Senate in November of 1971.  He didn't turn 30 until after the election.  He has served 36 years in the Senate and 8 years as Vice-President.  At 78 he is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.  There has never been another story like his.

This book seems to be his preeminent biography just revised.

“Another neighbor, Joseph Fahey, later a county judge, said of Biden at the time: “He was pretty cautious.  He was a middle-of-the-road liberal.  He always favored working within the political process to make change (rather than engaging in street process).”  P. 43

Newly married while still in law school in Syracuse, Joe and Neilia had a dog named Senator, or “Tor” for short.  P. 44

One of Biden’s law professors, the one who gave him is only A in law school said that Biden might not be the best student in the class, but he had a presence and it was obvious that he was going to be somebody someday.  P. 45

Joe Biden upset 2-term Republican Cale Boggs, a good and decent man, to win a seat in the United State Senate in November of 1972.  He didn’t turn the constitutional legal age until after the election.  He had a motivated cadre of young voters working and knocking on doors for him.  This was the first national election that allowed 18 yr, olds to vote.  Biden was helped by his anti-Viet Nam stance.  His “kids” were different from McGovern’s kids who also ransacked the small state of Delaware.  His family including sister Valerie was the core of his campaign staff.  Family tragedy came just days thereafter.

Here is American history's best current irony.

We all know about how millennials have been propelling Bernie Sanders. He has that new generation of young liberal Democrats on his side vs. the aged Joe Biden, who appeals more to the over 60 voters.

In November of 1972, Joe Biden, in one of the greatest upsets in Senatorial history, upended 2-term Republican Senator Cale Boggs in Delaware. It was such an uphill battle against the popular Cale Boggs, who had also been that state's governor, that Biden was the ONLY Democrat who stood for his party's nomination. No other Democrat in the state thought the nomination to oppose Boggs was worth having.
Biden was propelled to the upset win by the youth vote! This was the first time 18 year olds voted in national elections, and Biden had his army of new, young voters saturating this small state. Viet Nam was a big issue, Biden spoke out against the war and Boggs, old man Boggs at 62, didn't say much of anything about anything until it was too late when saw that he might lose. The increasingly unpopular war helped to motivate Biden's youth surge.
Biden didn't turn 30 until later in November after the election, and when he assumed his Senate state on January 6, 1973, he was considered the boy wonder of the Senate, sometimes mistaken for an elevator operator in the Old Senate Office Building. When he went to his first briefing as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Kissinger looked at him and said, "Sorry, sir, staff members are not allowed at this briefing." When Kissinger apologized after a staff member passed a note in front of him informing him that he was the Senator from Delaware, mispronouncing his name "Senator Bi-den," the Senator responded, "No problem, Secretary Dulles."
Joe Biden was a smart aleck from the beginning.
Now here he is at 78 on the verge of his party's nomination for President. Nothing short of amazing!

In his first term Biden made friends with Southern Democrats including Mississippi’s Senator Eastland.  Some of today’s liberals would criticize him for that.  I do not.  He could work with people with whom he did not agree on issues like civil rights.

He had to ask Jill multiple times to marry him before she said yes. Joe asked Jill to marry him at least four times before she said yes, and there was a year between the first and last proposal when she finally said yes. Smart girl taking her time to learn as best she could what she was getting into.

Biden was the first US Senator to endorse Jimmy Carter and became one of his most active supporters.  P. 126

In 1980 Biden still supported Jimmy Carter but their relationship had cooled.  He spoke for Carter only in Delaware and Pennsylvania.  P. 144

Talk of Biden running for President started as early as Biden for President 84.  P. 147

Biden replaced Ted Kennedy as the leading Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in January of 1981 as the Republicans gained control of the Senate.  P. 148

Biden debated running for President in 1984 but decided against it.  P. 154

As he started to think about running for President in 1988, Biden tried to make himself into another Jack Kennedy.  Let’s get this country moving again.  He sounded progressive despite his moderate position on civil rights.  P. 160

I did not know that Biden had such a deep devotion to pollster Patrick Caddell.  P. 168

In kicking off his first presidential bid in June of 1987 for the election the next year, Biden talked about idealism and made the point that youth should be served. He was the youth champion in his early 40’s with JFK-like intimations.   It’s is fascinating to read this as he is the probable Democratic nominee this year at the ripe old age of 78.  P. 169

Though he passed on Scalia, Biden took up the fight against Bork. He had opposed elevating Rehnquist.   P. 171

Biden ended up withdrawing from the 1988 presidential race with his integrity being questioned.  Will the same thing happen in 2020?  P. 196

Biden began the Bork hearings on September 15, 1987, with charges of plagiarism plaguing his presidential campaign.  P. 197

He withdrew from the presidential race during the Bork hearings with the charges against him.  P. 216

He challenged Bork as a matter of his judicial philosophy with the fear that his seating would destroy the balance that then existed on the court.  He tussled with Bork in detail over the matter of the right of privacy in the Constitution.  Bork testified 31 hours before the Judiciary Committee and effectively eliminated himself.  Democrats owe a continuing debt of gratitude for keeping Bork off the court.

Because Biden stood strong against Bork, who failed 58 to 42 on the Senate floor, we got Kennedy and Souter and we owe Biden a big note of thanks for that.  P. 236

Biden’s opposition to Desert Storm given its swift resolution did not endear him to war hawks and made him sound like someone crying wolf.  P. 252

Biden was given great credit for his handling of the Bork hearings.  He was determined to come across as “fair” in the Clarence Thomas hearings even though it was clear he would vote against Thomas from the beginning.

Biden has been criticized in some quarters for the so-called Biden Crime Bill which passed Congress in 1994.  I am not going to try to understand this.  P. 307

After John Kerry secured the Democratic nomination for president in 2004, Biden suggested he consider John McCain as his VP in a unity ticket.  This doesn’t play well in retrospect.  P. 356

Both Kerry & Biden had voted for the war resolution in 2002.  P. 356

The gaffe police was always listening to Biden closely as over his comment on Obama at the start of his second campaign for president.  P. 376

In his second try for the presidency in 2008 Biden seemed to face an uphill battle against Clinton and Obama.  P. 386

Biden’s second try fizzled at the outset as he finished 5th in Iowa caucuses with only 1% of the total votes cast.  He was fighting uphill from the beginning with the star power of Clinton and Obama.  He never had a chance.  P. 390

As a prelude to Biden joining Obama in 2008, the author gives a splendid history of the vice-presidency. Pp. 394-403

In the current coronavirus pandemic Joe Biden has been speaking up criticizing Trump as he should.  It is a tragedy of the highest order that the country elected this inept and dishonest man when we have this great challenge facing the country.