Always a Bridesmaid?

If the depth of one’s experiences were the sole criteria for choosing presidential candidates, Sen. Joseph Biden would almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. The Delaware Democrat has spent 35 years in Congress—a tenure that began with the end of the Vietnam War. But experience isn’t everything, and Biden’s campaign for the White House is lagging badly in the polls. He’s not giving up though. Last week while promoting a new book, “Promises to Keep,” Biden talked to NEWSWEEK’s Sam Stein.

NEWSWEEK: In your book, you write a lot about some of the personal hurdles you’ve overcome, but I’d like to get a sense of how your wife and daughter’s death [in a 1972 auto accident] affected you as a politician.
JOSEPH BIDEN: Talking about my wife and daughter’s death is the hardest thing. It wasn’t until the very end that I wrote about it. How could I write about these events of my life without talking about the most consequential one? It is still difficult to talk about. But what it did teach me was how incredibly resilient human beings are. From my perspective, it sensitized me in a way I’ve never been sensitized before.

In your book you note that many of the problems that you discussed in running for the Senate in 1972 are still with us today. Why is it that our political system—with you in it—has not progressed during the past 35 years?
In many ways it has progressed. The things I most wanted to see happen did not happen, like public financing of elections. But there are a lot of other things that have happened. We have a crime bill that worked and actually reduced crime. We are more enlightened in the way we’ve dealt with nuclear weapons in the world, though with this administration we might revert back. We made real progress in making the world safer. But then along came [President George W.] Bush. And the lesson that taught me is that nothing is permanent. 

One of the striking things that I drew from your book was the similarity between your run for the presidency in 1988 and Obama’s run for office 20 years later. Fair comparison?
There are definitely similarities. One thing is, I’m waging the same campaign today, but it’s a lot harder to wage it when you are over 60 than when you are in your mid-40s. You are granted, when you’re young, an enthusiasm. You’re granted a sense of idealism, but you are also perceived as not being quite ready. And he suffers from that perception, as I did.

In a recent NPR interview, you said that, in retrospect, you weren’t ready for the presidency in ’88. Is Obama not ready now?
I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. It’s awful hard, with only a little bit of experience to have a clear sense of what you would do on the most critical issues facing us today: what to do about promoting America’s place in the world. It is not something that lends itself to—the trite phrase is—it’s not something that lends itself to on-the-job training. You have to have a clear notion of what you want to do. When power is handed off from George Bush to the next president, the next president will be left with virtually no margin for error.

In your book, you seem a bit peeved at your treatment by the press. Regarding allegations of plagiarism during your 1988 campaign you write, “These reporters who kept calling, none of whom had any personal experience of me, were starting to see the emergence of a pattern … a character flaw.” Is the media too lazy?
First of all, let me say, and I’m not trying to be a wise guy, I have never complained about what was my mistake. … The part that disappointed me about the press, with the exception of a couple of people, is that no one actually went to my law school [to check the facts]. Reporters are in a very difficult business. Because if someone breaks a major story, you don’t have time any longer to go do what happened 40 years ago. … I have never thought anyone in the press did anything personal. I never took it that they were out to get Joe Biden. I think it was the nature of the medium. So one, I do think there is a combination of not having much time. And two, some reporters, like some of my guys, are lazy.