Richard Nixon was reelected President, the Vietnam War raged on, and elderly Southern segregationists ruled Congress’ committees in 1972 when a 29-year-old Delaware lawyer named Joe Biden was first elected to the United States Senate.
Fifty-two years later, Biden bowed out as President of the United States with a fiery Democratic National Convention speech, summed up by an accurate self-appraisal: “I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I gave my best to you.”
It was an emotional night. His were remarks interrupted by chants of “We love you, Joe” and “Thank you, Joe.” Yet it was only a few weeks ago that he was forced by age and longtime allies in his own party to withdraw his reelection bid. “I hope he will feel the love that is in this room,” said Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a decades-long friend, who had told Biden it was time to hang it up.
What a record it has been. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden botched the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing when law professor Anita Hill testified to sexual harassment by the Supreme Court nominee. But Biden picked as his running mate the first woman to serve as Vice President, now his chosen successor. He nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. And, while Patty Murray has fought to strengthen it, he wrote the Violence Against Women Act.
The 81-year-old Biden had a disastrous debate with Donald Trump in June, which demoralized Democrats and drove him from the race. But he continues to govern, building on the successes of the past few years. For instance, he emphasized that he put NATO back together in order to arm Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion. “I know more foreign leaders than anyone else alive because I’m so damned old,” he said last night. The guy delivers longwinded speeches, but he also delivers results.
Biden spoke a couple years back in Auburn at Green River College, spotlighting the high cost of drugs and particularly insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act has capped the cost of insulin to seniors and given Medicare overseers the power to negotiate drug prices. Sen. Ralph Warnock, D‑Georgia, reminded the convention that Biden tamed Big Pharma.
That’s only one of the accomplishments Biden will be remembered for. “Donald Trump promised infrastructure every week for four years and he never delivered a damned thing,” Biden told the convention. By contrast, he signed into law a bipartisan infrastructure bill backed even by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. A sizeable chunk of its spending – $1.6 billion – is going toward a refurbishing of the Columbia River bridge between Portland and Vancouver.
A bit of the drama of Biden’s withdrawal came through in his speech. “I love the job but I love my country more,” he said, underlining the task of preventing a second Trump term. The president’s speech seemed to have multiple objectives. Biden kept touting accomplishments, but also setting the stage for his successor.
Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her acceptance speech Thursday, but briefly took the stage on the convention’s opening night, to praise Biden for his “lifetime of service to our nation.” And Biden seemed to marvel that “a kid with a stutter from Scranton” – well down in his class at Syracuse University Law School – could occupy the Oval Office.
The tradition in American politics is for a departing president to appear at the opening night of his party’s convention, and then disappear, leaving the limelight to his successor. So it was this year. The Democratic Party’s electoral coalition is charged up over the newly remade ticket. A weekend ABC News-Washington Post poll showed 81 percent of Democrats satisfied and enthusiastic with the Harris-Walz ticket. A poll in May showed only 33 percent enthusiastic with Biden’s reelection bid.
The convention also showed off the party’s bench with such speakers as Senator Warnock and Representative Jamie Raskin, D‑Maryland, a member of the January 6th committee, which probed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In a fiery speech, Raskin described convicted felon Donald Trump as “a sore loser who does not know how to take no for an answer from American voters, American courts — or American women.”
A public figure on the stage for more than three decades — Secretary Hillary Clinton — delivered an oration far more compelling than any words spoken in her 2016 campaign. Of Joe Biden, she said: “He brought dignity and competence back to the White House.”
The president’s supporting cast carried on so long that it was past 11 p.m. on the East Coast when Biden took the stage at the convention and began surveying the cheering arena with misty eyes. But the forty-sixth president was worth staying up for.
This essay first appeared in Cascadia Advocate.
