Vice President Biden’s receipt of the Medal of Freedom capped a long career comeback from an embarrassing and unsuccessful presidential run, as he now leaves office as a national Democratic icon.
“We believe he is more than deserving of the honor and are happy for Joe and his family,” said Travis Williams, communications director for the Democratic Party in Delaware, Biden’s home state.
It was the culmination of Biden’s journey from the boastful politician who committed plagiarism, exaggerated his academic achievements and measured his IQ against that of a voter during his first presidential campaign in the 1988 cycle to a sort of beloved national uncle after eight years as vice president.
While President Obama celebrated Biden as “the best vice president America has ever had,” other admirers praised him as a man who suffered terrible personal losses yet persevered cheerfully in public service.
Biden wasn’t without his controversies even as vice president. He was mocked, and sometimes criticized, for being overly affectionate with women posing for pictures with him.
For all the bipartisan affection for Biden, he could sometimes land sharp elbows, such as when he told a racially diverse audience during the 2012 campaign that the Republicans were going to “unchain Wall Street” and “put y’all back in chains.”
Yet Biden also gave one of the eulogies for Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist, when the South Carolina Republican senator died at 100.
Then there was the time Biden drew headlines for asking a wheelchair-bound state senator to stand up. “Oh, God love you,” Biden said when he realized his mistake. “What am I talking about.”
Many political observers believe Biden’s legacy will easily transcend the goofs and gaffes.
“He was very politically immature, I think he was personally mature,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “After spending time in Washington, he grew. The political caught up with the personal.”
“Not everybody who works in Washington matures as they get older,” Bannon added. “Some people in Washington get less more mature and more careless the longer they are there.”
“Don’t agree with him on much,” said a Republican congressional staffer, “but you can’t help but like the guy.”
As president and vice president, Obama and Biden were a case study in how opposites attract. Biden was gregarious while Obama was aloof. Obama preferred speaking about philosophical and wonky subjects, Biden retailed politics and old stories. Obama was eloquent, Biden occasionally inarticulate but usually empathetic.
Biden was first elected to the Senate before he was 30 (his birthday came in time for him to be constitutionally eligible to serve when he was sworn in) and had been in Washington for 36 years by the time he assumed the vice presidency. Obama was just four years into his first Senate term when he became president, not even five years removed from being an Illinois state senator.
Obama was a foreign policy neophyte who became president in no small part because a speech opposing the Iraq war while he still held that state Senate seat. Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was considered one of Capitol Hill’s top experts on the subject. His vote for the Iraq war was one reason his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential bid went nowhere.
Complementing each other, the Obama-Biden team worked well. By all accounts, they grew close personally. There were few, if any, leaks from the vice president’s office seeking to create an identity separate from the president. Biden offered Obama advice, even when the president seemed unlikely to take it, and served as a liaison to Congress.
“Barack Obama was pretty indifferent to members [of Congress], he would have preferred not to deal with them if he could avoid it,” Bannon said. “Biden got a long with politicians, enjoyed being with them.”
This included Republicans, keeping lines of communication open with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when things grew tense.
Little of this seemed possible nearly thirty years ago when Biden lifted passages from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, Robert Kennedy and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey in campaign speeches, claiming erroneously to be descended from coal miners. He also had a dust-up with a voter at odds with his current reputation for glad-handling.
“I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect,” Biden told the voter. “I went to law school on a full academic scholarship.” It wasn’t true. Neither were claims to hold multiple degrees and to have graduated in top half of his law school class. He was out of the presidential race before 1988 even started.
It might have derailed Biden’s career. Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., ended up losing his seat and his master’s degree for plagiarizing portions of a research paper at the Army War College just a couple years ago. Instead Biden worked his way back.
Admirers say a better representation of Biden’s character is how he handled the death of a wife and daughter in a car accident while a new senator, causing him to travel back to Delaware from Washington on Amtrak to tend to his young family. His son Beau died of cancer in 2015. Biden mourned in the national spotlight.
Biden didn’t run for president in 2016 and most Democrats believe he would have lost the nomination to Hillary Clinton if he had entered the primaries. But some can’t help but wonder if he might have competed better in the general election, winning some of the Rust Belt states that narrowly went for Donald Trump and put the Republican over the top in the Electoral College.
“He would have won Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,” Bannon said. “Probably not Ohio.”
“Not a bad legacy to have.”
