BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! Joe Biden’s first campaign for president in 1988 ended amid charges of plagiarism. He tried again in 2008 but withdrew after receiving less than 1% of the vote in the Iowa primary, behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who went on to become president.
Combined, the missteps
created an image of a politi- cal lightweight, a person who lacked confidence and depth. As Democrat pollster Geoff Garin put it at the time, “The basic rap against Biden is that he’s a candidate of style, not substance.” When the press uncovered
a pattern of plagiaristic, pil- fering behavior stretching the length of his career, Biden withdrew from the race, cha- grined and incensed in equal measure. By 2008, 20 years later,
Biden felt he had sufficiently rebuilt his reputation and gathered enough strength to run again, believing that he had grown as a candidate, a politician, and a man. After surviving brain sur-
geries for two aneurysms in 1988, he had gone on to chair the Senate Judiciary Com- mittee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, fashion some significant bipartisan relationships, and maintain a relatively high national profile. He saw himself as a well-
rounded and viable choice. Yet his opponents for the
Democratic Party’s nomina- tion in 2008 included a pow- erhouse trio. Hillary Clinton, despite her
viscid mantle of controversy and personal drama, was an American icon, with obvious intelligence, determination, and a new, gleaming Senate tenure which proved that, af- ter years as Bill Clinton’s first lady, she could capably forge a career independent from that
of her husband. At 60, she seemed estab-
lished but not elderly, a grande dame in her prime. Barack Obama, 46, and
brand new to the Senate with just two years under his belt, was nevertheless ostenta- tiously brilliant, charismatic, eloquent, and assured, greet- ed by the establishment as a once-in-a-lifetime political star. John Edwards, boyish at
55, was a senator from North Carolina who had spent a de- cade in Congress after a daz- zling legal career as a plain- tiff’s attorney. Like Biden, he also had endured the tragedy of losing a child. The media and the voters were gleeful about these three
cinematically exciting candi- dates.
Biden was grouped into
the second tier of hopefuls, which included New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, and spent his campaign sell- ing himself as a foreign policy expert and dodging criticism for being dull, daft, and out- of-date. When the Iowa caucuses concluded, Biden came in fifth with less than 1% of the vote, behind Obama, Ed- wards, Clinton, and Richard- son, and ahead of that impish bandit “uncommitted” and Dodd. With a teary Jill Biden by
his side, Biden withdrew from the presidential race, subdued
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BIDEN SEATING/RICK GERSHON/GETTY IMAGES / DEBATE/WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
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