From a child from a humble family who endured ridicule for his stammer to the president of the United States. Joe Biden this Sunday becomes the first person over 80 to occupy the White House after a long political career.
About to reach half of his term, Biden escape from gerontophobic criticism and he strives every day to prove that he is fit to lead the government of the first world power.
He is the most likely Democratic candidate in the 2024 election, a term that would begin at age 82. Even if he will have to discuss it with his wife, Jill Biden, according to what was declared a few days ago.
Born into a humble Pennsylvania family who moved to Delaware, Biden is the epitome of the American dream so often told by Hollywood, where anyone can make their dreams come true if they put in enough effort in the land of opportunity.
“His is an inspiring story, that of the working-class guy who goes to college (the public one in Delaware) and works his way up to the top of the American system,” Stephen J. Farnsworth, PhD in Political Science, told EFE . and professor at the University of Mary Washington.
He also had a hard life, marked by family tragediessuch as the death of his first wife and youngest daughter in a car accident, just when he had just been elected senator.
In 2015, his eldest son also died, two tragedies that imbued his character with a quality that always accompanies him: resilience.
Failed attempts
When Biden took office in January 2021, he became one the oldest president to take office. He succeeded on his third attempt, after running for election in 1988 and having to withdraw early in the trial for plagiarizing a speech.
He also aspired to those of 2008, but withdrew in the primaries in front of a powerful Barack Obama. However, that seasoned senator (who has represented Delaware for more than 35 years) was chosen by Obama to accompany him, as vice president, in his two terms.
Obama himself summed up the reason for his election in his memoirs: “We couldn’t be more different.” The then young candidate and his brief stint in the upper echelons of politics needed someone savvy to reach the white working class voter and he found that figure in Biden.
It’s been eight years in the supporting role, though he’s come to prominence on numerous occasions for another of his defining characteristics: his mistakes.
Inconvenient moments
With a loose tongue, Biden has publicly acknowledged that he struggles to control his words: “I never say anything I don’t mean, and sometimes I say things I feel like I shouldn’t say.”
“Communication isn’t its greatest strength, even if some of the criticism is unfair and a little hostile, but that’s the nature of politics,” says Farnsworth.
The political scientist also recalls that Biden stuttered as a child. After the success of the film “The King’s Speech” (2010), which touched him deeply, Biden himself publicly said that this condition caused him numerous ridicule during his childhood.
He left the nickname “Joe Impedimenta” with tricks like “putting the cadence when speaking”. That’s why he spent so much time reading poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Butler Yeats.
For history there are phrases like the one he said to Obama at the enactment ceremony of the health care reform law (the “Obamacare”): “This is a big fuck deal”.
OR high profile oversights like when he mistook his sister for his wife or when, more recently, he called a congresswoman who had been dead for weeks at a public event.
the conciliator
After the incendiary years of the Donald Trump administration, Biden has tried to have a consensus presidency, despite the economic crisis.
Upon his arrival, with the recent storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters, he was seen as the healer of a highly divided and tense country. The division has not diminished, even if the aggressiveness in the speeches has.
In these two years of government, Biden has opted for a foreign policy of rapprochement with traditional allies. He brought the United States back to the Paris Agreement on climate change, resumed negotiations with Iran, broke all rapprochement with Pyongyang and was outspoken against Vladimir Putin, with substantial aid to Ukraine.
The economy has been his main Achilles heel, with galloping inflation that lowered its popularity. To control it, he enacted an ambitious climate law, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act.
He prides himself on the strength of the job market and on being the president who has created the most jobs.
After reaching the White House and after a failed policy by Trump to end the pandemic, the Biden government launched the American Rescue Plan, which included an intense vaccination campaign. A few weeks ago, the president judged that the Covid-19 pandemic was over.
He also advanced an ambitious infrastructure plan with Congressional support.
Immigration continues to be one of its pending lawsuits Well, despite having left behind the intolerance of Trump and his famous wall on the border with Mexico, for the moment he has not been encouraged to approach the demands of the collective.
Despite their advanced age, those who have successfully approached are young people, as underlined by Public Policy expert Meena Bose, professor at Hofstra University.
“His success has been to focus on issues that matter to young people, who have a very high electoral turnout, to show that he understands their problems,” the expert told EFE, citing as examples his fight to protect abortion or student debt relief.
Source: EFE agency
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Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.