Some sixteen years ago, two future U.S. presidents stood on the same debate stage, engaged in a spirited discussion. Barack Hussein Obama, a young and talented United States Senator based in Illinois, was one of them. The other future president was Joseph Robinette Biden, a more experienced United States Senator based in Delaware.
Like millions of other white Americans, Joseph Biden was flabbergasted by the sudden, inexorable ascent of Barack Obama, an American black man with roots in Kansas and Kenya. When asked by a publication about Obama, a distinguished graduate of Columbia University and Harvard University Law School, Biden said this: “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.”
Like millions of other black Americans, I was offended by Joseph Biden’s ill-advised assessment of the first black man with a legitimate shot at securing the United States presidency. Because it sounded as if Joe Biden subscribed to a jaundiced view of all black men before he met Obama.
Not long after justifiably being excoriated for his comments, Joe Biden quickly apologized by saying this: “Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that the Democratic or Republican Party has produced since I’ve been around. And he is fresh. He is new. He is smart. He is insightful. And I really regret that some have taken totally out of context my use of the word clean.” Even back then, way before wokeness put the fear of God into white people across the country, Biden exhibited a propensity for reflection and growth.
Obama defeated Biden for his party’s nomination in 2008, becoming the first black person to occupy the role of Democratic Nominee. He chose Joseph Biden as his running mate, understanding that Biden’s familiarity with certain members of the electorate could ease the anxiety felt by some people who may not have been comfortable supporting an “exotic” candidate. Biden grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a scion of blue-collar parents. The thinking was that Biden could act as an emissary for Obama in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, states otherwise referred to as the vaunted blue wall.
Obama won the race for president going away, accumulating nearly seventy million votes, ten million more than John McCain, the Republican challenger from Arizona. Despite his dramatic and sizable victory, Obama won significantly less than the majority of white voters in 2008. During his victory speech, President-Elect Obama reached out to those voters: “I am your president too,” he said.
In 2009, the United States of America was mired in a historic recession, bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs per month. People were falling into darkness, suffering mightily because there was not enough money to pay bills, with many forced to choose between buying food or purchasing medicine. And since there was no healthcare reform to speak of at the time, the unemployed lost their health coverage, and America became sicker in addition to becoming poorer.
Americans needed Obama to succeed at his new job, because our survival depended on his performance. Unfortunately for Obama, there were individuals occupying seats in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate who wanted Obama to fail, and these individuals represented millions of like-mind voters, hateful people who would see the country burn before allowing a black man to thrive. Mitch McConnell, the putative leader of the Republican party, expressed the views of millions through a few words: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
McConnell’s superseding goal was a byproduct of two distinct motivations, equal parts political aggression and racial animus. Republicans hated Obama because he was a Democrat, animosity that was compounded by their reactions to Obama’s skin color. It was difficult for many white Republicans to reconcile a black man with the powers bestowed onto Obama by the American presidency.
Republicans reacted irrationally to every policy proposal Obama put forth, often referring to him as a radical socialist. During Obama’s first State of the Union address, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina broke protocol by heckling Obama as he spoke, calling him a liar in front of millions of television viewers. Other conservative luminaries, specifically Glen Beck and Donald Trump, delved into conspiracy theories, questioning Obama’s views of white people, and doubting his legitimacy as president.
Tragically, Obama could not always count on the goodwill of some conservative democrats, individuals who represented a significant number of constituents who were still suspicious of Obama. If not for the presence of Joe Biden, I am unsure if most of the people’s business could have gotten done.
Republicans in the age of Obama were especially nasty and obstreperous, willing, on multiple occasions, to hold the fiscal and economic health of the country hostage to prove a point to the first black president, to put him in his place.
I had not even heard of the debt ceiling before 2011, when Republicans seemed intent on allowing the country to breach the ceiling, potentially initiating a cataclysmic economic event three years after former President Bush, another Republican, watched helplessly as the American economy fell off a cliff.
Obama tapped Biden to lead the talks. During negotiations, republicans in the United States Senate and House of Representatives coupled Biden’s demographic characteristics with his nearly forty years in the federal government, deeming him as acceptable. Biden and the Republicans crafted a deal a few days before the breach, precipitating a downgrade of our credit rating, the first such occurrence in the history of this country. If not for the steady hand of Joe Biden, it could have been a lot worse.
When it came time for Obama to run for his second term, Joe Biden had his back, as he often equated Obama’s courage to hardened steel. Comparing Obama to a metal alloy was not hyperbole, because Obama was a kind of Superman, carrying the hopes and expectations of millions on his spindly shoulders.
In his first debate match-up against Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for President, Obama struggled to score points against the egregiously mendacious Romney, causing millions of Obama voters, individuals whose lives are consistently under threat, to fret openly. In the ensuing days, Romney appeared to be pulling ahead of Obama in the polls, triggering chitter about Obama possibly losing to Mitt Romney, the rapacious corporate vulture who had championed a caustic verdict on the struggling Detroit automotive companies: “Let Detroit go bankrupt,” he said.
Approximately one week after Obama’s misstep, it was time for Joe Biden to debate Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate. Democrats were concerned about the matchup because Biden could be an undisciplined speaker, prone to embarrassing verbal gaffes. Paul Ryan was decades younger than Biden and reputed to be smarter, advertised by Republicans as a genius on fiscal policy, the next big thing in the world of national politics.
During their debate, Biden and Ryan sat across from each other. Biden flashed his trademark smile as he verbally disemboweled Paul Ryan in front of millions of people, resoundingly ending Ryan’s presidential aspirations in less than two hours. Obama, taking a cue from Vice President Biden, snatched Romney’s heart out of his chest during their next two presidential debates.
A few months later, as Election Night 2012 progressed, it quickly became apparent that Obama and Biden would secure a second term in office, thus angering the republican racists and conspiracy theorists; they would have to spend another four years stewing and flecking spittle as Obama created a distinguished record as the forty-fourth president.
Eight years after Obama secured his second decisive victory, former Vice President Biden became the democratic nominee for president of the United States. He was seventy-eight years old at the time, the oldest man to ever seek the exalted office. Moreover, Covid-19 was raging through our society, prompting a departure from traditional campaigning practices, putting Biden at a disadvantage against Donald Trump, the disgraceful opponent. Because, unlike Joe Biden, President Trump did not take the health of his supporters into account when traveling across the country to campaign.
As he eschewed protective masks and other health precautions, Trump gleefully expressed his distinctly awful nature, ascribing the moniker “Sleepy Joe” to Biden as he taunted him for running a comparatively safe campaign. Throughout the campaign season, Trump projected confidence, thinking that Joe Biden, slowed somewhat by his advancing chronological age, was beneath him. And yet, Sleepy Joe Biden came out on top, as he secured seven million more votes than the disgraced ex-president.
President Biden wasted no time tackling the pressing issues of the day, using his hard-won capital to pass legislation to combat Covid-19 and the faltering U.S. economy. And as Biden quickly approached eighty years, he did not seem to slow down, as he shepherded hundreds of pieces of legislation, many of which are bipartisan, through the U.S. Congress. By the midpoint of his first term, Biden was being compared to Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson, two historical presidents who remain famous for passing consequential legislation packages.
Skeptical critics and pundits still focused on Biden’s age, calling him out of touch because he focused his stump speeches on the danger Republicans pose to democracy. Nervous democrats like Gavin Newsom, the ambitious governor of California, were expecting the democrats to incur huge losses during the midterm elections, potentially blunting Biden’s ability to pass additional useful legislation for the American people. However, President Biden, as if he were a hamster on a spinning wheel, kept his focus on democracy and the sanctity of our election process.
On the eve of the midterm elections, Biden called on Obama to speak to constituents in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, fickle battleground states that vacillate between Republicans and Democrats. Biden’s strategy yielded historical dividends, as democrats pulled off a historic upset by limiting their losses in the United States House of Representatives, keeping their majority in the United States Senate, winning the majority of the available governorships, and overtaking republicans in four separate state legislatures.
Six months remain before the next presidential election, quite possibly the most important in the history of this country. Biden and Donald Trump are set for a historic rematch. Both men are older, however, most of the political pundits are laser-focused on Biden’s age.
Earlier in the year, when Robert Hur, a Department of Justice lawyer tasked with investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, released a report in which he suggested that Biden’s memory faltered, bespectacled political pundits pounced, with many suggesting Biden was physically and mentally unfit for a second term. Biden’s polls and odds cratered in the lead-up to his pivotal State of the Union address, prompting calls for him to step aside for a younger Democrat, an individual who would most likely lose the election to Donald Trump.
Biden used his State of the Union address to flummox his critics, projecting sharp mental acuity and physical vigor. Formerly giddy Republicans were catatonic, anxious democrats were calmed, and the political pundits were forced to grudgingly bestow their respect. Once again, Joe Biden, the often-underestimated man from Scranton, Pennsylvania, had proven his vociferous doubters wrong.
As the election approaches, Biden appears to be getting sharper and stronger. You can tell that the man loves speaking with the voters and explaining his ideas to improve the lives of all Americans. And unlike Donald Trump, Biden seems to have united democrats behind him. Former President Barack Obama will be conscripted to campaign for Biden, fulfilling a promise he made to Biden last year. Biden and Obama, two underestimated men because of race and age, will work together to defeat Donald Trump a second time, ensuring a democratic legacy that will span generations.