but stoic. “I ain’t going away,” he told


the small rally of family and supporters. “I’ll be going back to the Senate as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Commit- tee and I will continue to make the case I’ve been making.” He vowed to hold Congress


to its commitments. “I will be their worst nightmare if they do not,” he said.


Obama to Rescue O


ne might have thought that Joe Biden’s gold- en years were now


settled. A cozy dotage in the Senate; quality time with the grandkids on the beaches of Nantucket and Rehoboth; a prime listing in the annals of stock congressional old-tim- ers — white-haired white men who passed some laws, gave some speeches, maybe made a dash of history. Instead, Biden was rescued


from that singular Washing- ton fate. Another path, an improbable path, a fantastical path, appeared, a path that would eventually lead Biden directly to the Oval Office. It was a path few really thought Joe Biden would ever, should ever, be on. The path was paved by an


unlikely source — the preter- naturally sleek and self-pos- sessed Barack Obama, who, after a prolonged and tense battle with Clinton and Ed- wards, had secured the 2008 Democratic Party nomination and was searching for a run- ning mate. There were some incongru- ous elements to the Biden vice


62 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2024


Biden was gray where Obama was green. Biden was white — extremely so — where Obama was Black.


president selection. Barack was cool-headed and circum- spect, while Joe was a “gaffe machine,” to time-travel, and borrow Biden’s self-descrip- tion from December 2018. The two men had hardly


bonded in the Senate; al- though they shared simi- lar positions, Obama found Biden tedious, long-winded, and somewhat ridiculous. But Biden had some unde-


niable attributes. He had 36 years of Senate experience un- der his belt, while Obama had not even completed a single term.


The twin factors that wor-


ried the Obama campaign were addressed by a Biden pick. Biden was gray where Obama was green. Biden was white — extremely so — where Obama was Black. On Aug. 23, 2008, Obama announced that Joe had been selected as his running mate, and Biden took his first step on that implausible road to the presidency. Once politically united,


Obama and Biden made a sur- prisingly good team. Biden was pleased as punch to be on the ticket, and


OBAMA DNC CAMPAIGN/JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES


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