Candidate for the 2008 Presidency

Candidate for 2008 Joe Biden

Biography

Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the incumbent senior U.S. Senator from Delaware. Biden is currently serving his sixth term and is Delaware's longest-serving Senator.

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and was raised in an Irish Catholic family the first of four siblings. The family later moved to Delaware. In 1961, Biden graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware and, in 1965, from the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. He then attended Syracuse University College of Law, graduated in 1968, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969. In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. III (Beau), Robert Hunter, and Amy.

In 1969, Biden began practicing law in Wilmington, Delaware, and was soon elected to the New Castle County County Council, where he served from 1970 to 1972. The 1972 U.S. Senate election presented Biden with an unusual opportunity. Popular Republican incumbent Senator J. Caleb Boggs was considering retirement, which would likely have left U.S. Representative Pete du Pont and Wilmington Mayor Harry G. Haskell, Jr. in a divisive primary fight. To avoid that, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was invited to a meeting to convince Boggs to run again with full Republican support. Boggs ran, but without much enthusiasm, which combined with the new 18-year old voters, and a serious underestimation of Biden's campaign abilities, resulted in the very surprising Biden victory.

He took office on January 3, 1973, at age 30, becoming the fifth-youngest U.S. Senator in United States history. He has since won additional terms easily, defeating James H. Baxter, Jr. in 1978, John M. Burris in 1984, M. Jane Brady in 1990, and Raymond J. Clatworthy in 1996 and 2002, usually with about 60 percent of the vote.

Biden's wife and infant daughter died in an automobile accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC.

In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one child, Ashley, and are members of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1988, Biden was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms which kept him from the U.S. Senate for seven months.

He is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the 110th Congress. Biden has served in that position in the past, and he has served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Election 2008

On January 31st 2007 Biden announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He had regularly discussed the possibility in interviews for months before announcing.

2008 marked the second attempt by Biden to win his parties nomination, the first was in 1988 when a plagiarism scandal doomed his candidacy. Biden known for his candid and straightforward answers also opened up his 2008 candidacy by making comments about fellow Senator Barack Obama that received heavy criticism.

Speaking in the New York Observer Biden said "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, ... I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Biden apologized and since then he has been praised for his performance in democratic debates.