I didn’t campaign for Joe Biden when he came to Iowa to meet us in 1988, 2008, or 2020. I lived in Indiana in 1988 and found better choices the other two years in Iowa. He did poorly each cycle, barely registering on the scoreboard in 2020. That year he went on to be elected president and served faithfully and with dignity the four years ending today. As the Irish might say, Slán leat, Joe Biden. You served us well and we’ll be missing you as we cope with tomorrow.
If the Iowa Democratic caucuses said anything about U.S. presidential elections, it was never about us, it was about all of us. Joe Biden was a president for us all, and I’m thankful for that.
When I took this photo, Democrats had reached the high point in an arc that began after the turn to this century. We experienced grueling defeats in 2010. Barack Obama and Joe Biden swam against the Republican tide as Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare. Let’s hope the next four years don’t make it worse.
What I admire about Biden is that after the death of his son Beau, he did not follow Obama into presidential politics. PBS reported in October 2015, “The vice president’s 46-year-old son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May, and Biden stated publicly over the summer that he did not know if he could emotionally commit himself to a run for office.” It was his turn to run, but family matters more to this son of Scranton, Pennsylvania, so he stepped back. He lived to regret that decision, yet he persisted over time and made us proud.
Slán leat, Joe Biden. We already miss you.
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