Joe Biden, The Candidate: A History Of A Long And Winding Political Career

Joe Biden is officially the Democratic party’s presidential nominee. We look back at Biden’s political career, from his election to the senate at age 29, to his first run for president, and beyond.  

Phil Freedman, news director for The News Journal. Editor of the book "Joe's Journey."  (@Phil_Freedman)

Steven Levingston, nonfiction editor for the Washington Post. Author of "Barack and Joe." (@SteveLevingston)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

Jennifer Senior, New York Times opinion columnist. (@JenSeniorNY)

New York Times: "Meet Young Joe Biden, the ‘Wild Stallion’" — "There’s a reason that a certain kind of journalist makes a quadrennial habit of reading 'What It Takes,' Richard Ben Cramer’s gonzo classic about the 1988 presidential primary. It’s catnip to prose snobs."

Financial Times: "Inside Joe Biden’s race of a lifetime" — "He has been trying to win the White House for more than 30 years. Can he beat Donald Trump in 2020?"

Slate: "When Joe Biden Was the Candidate of the Young" — "A little more than a week before Election Day 1972, readers of Wilmington, Delaware’s major newspapers were greeted with a series of advertisements from 29-year-old New Castle County Councilman Joseph R. Biden Jr. Biden was running for U.S. Senate against an older, much more established candidate, the two-term Republican incumbent Sen. Cale Boggs."

Politico: "55 Things You Need to Know About Joe Biden" — "Joe Biden’s life in politics has been marked from its inception by its seismographic lurching from success to setback. Victories were followed by unthinkable personal tragedy."

BBC: "Will Joe Biden's political record come back to haunt him?" — "But his last viable opponent, Bernie Sanders, is keen to highlight the former US vice-president's political baggage from a long career as a Washington insider - and tar him as out of touch with the mainstream of the modern Democratic party."

Politico: "Opinion: I Observed Joe Biden at Close Range for 20 Years. Here’s How He Wins—and Loses" — "Through my friendship with John Marttila, who ran Joe Biden’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1972 and remained a close adviser until his death in 2018, I had many opportunities to be in Biden’s presence over the past 20 years, usually at fundraisers in Boston and holiday parties at the vice president’s residence."

Washington Post: "Trump said Biden ‘hurt God.’ Biden has spent his life drawing from his Catholic faith." — "When Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, his welcomer-in-chief was then-Vice President Joe Biden."