WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd November, 2020) Democratic challenger Joe Biden, with more than 40 years of experience in Washington and two failed presidential runs under his belt, is a politician par excellence and the establishment favorite, who is looking to oust the ultimate outsider from the White House.
LIFETIME POLTICIAN WHO NEVER QUIT
"He is the nicest person I think I've ever met in politics. He is as good a man as God ever created," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said during an interview with The Huffington Post that aired in 2015. "If you can't admire Joe Biden as a person, then you got a problem."
Fast forward to 2020, and the relationship is much different. Biden's once lifelong friend is leading a congressional probe into the former vice president and his son Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine.
The image of Joe Biden portrayed today is much different than how he was perceived just five years ago, especially among his rivals - and this is not only because of the divisiveness of the campaign. Part of the problem is that the former vice president is contrasted with one of the most unusual politicians in world history. Hence, certain aspects of Biden's personality - probably both good and bad - have been covered over or drowned out.
He has proven to be an ambitious politician who never quits, evidenced by the fact he jumped into the 2020 campaign despite losing presidential bids in 1987 and 2008.
Biden, who served as vice president in the Obama administration and was a senator for 35 years, has a long track record of working with both parties. In fact, Biden has come under fire from liberals for his history of reaching across the aisle, most notably when he worked with southern senators in the 1970s who supported segregation. Although he detested some of their views, Biden said, "at least there was some civility... we got things done."
Despite the animosity that has obviously peaked between the former vice president and his rivals, some Republicans in the Senate have recently signaled that they could work with a Biden administration, citing the way he operated as a member of the chamber for decades.
Biden also has been admired for the way he coped with tragedy in his personal life. In 1972 his wife and one-year-old daughter were killed in a car accident in Delaware and his son Beau succumbed to cancer in 2015.
On the surface, Biden might seem to fit the profile of a typical establishment politician and even strike some as boring. However, ironically, in the four election cycles that preceded the 2016 race, Biden would have been considered the more colorful of the two major candidates.
In fact, for all their stark differences - and there are many - Biden and Trump actually have at least one trait in common. Not unlike Trump, Biden has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth - sometimes due to simply misremembering a term or Freudian slips. Other times, however, he goes off script, and "speaks his mind too plainly," as they say. His former boss, President Barack Obama, would often have to perform damage control.
"I think Joe, sometimes, engages in rhetorical flourishes," candidate Obama said on the campaign trail in 2008 after learning that Biden predicted a world crisis would test his administration within the first six months.
a Primary event, he mistook his wife for his sister and more recently mistakenly called Trump "George," referring to one of two previous Bushes who held the presidency.
In 2010, after introducing Obama during a healthcare bill signing ceremony he was caught dropping the "F" bomb, saying, "This is a big f_____ deal." In 2008, he told a crowd that Hillary Clinton "might have been a better pick than me," referring to Obama selecting him to be his running mate. In 2009, he told a House Democratic caucus, regarding the Obama administration's $900 billion stimulus package, that even if they do everything right, "there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong."
As vice president he went "off script," during a speech at Harvard and slammed Gulf state allies for funding and arming radical groups in Syria, just as the Obama administration was ramping up support for the opposition.
Biden even once referred to himself as a "gaffe machine."
On foreign policy, Biden has more often than not toed the party line, yet there are instances when he has shown the courage to go his own way. In fact, he was often the "voice of reason" in Obama's White House. The question is whether, if elected, he will walk lockstep with the establishment and rely on hawkish advisers or think independently.
For example, Biden opposed the intervention in Libya, was adamantly against Obama's Afghan surge and was critical of the strategy to arm extremists in Syria. However, Biden also voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a decision that Trump has used time and again as ammunition as the president sells himself as the peacemaker.
Among the many sharp differences between Trump and Biden is the style and substance of their foreign policies. Trump has often been criticized for neglecting advisers while relying on his "gut" instincts to make major decisions. The former vice president, on the other hand, has more than 2,000 foreign policy advisers in 20 working groups developing policies on issues such as arms control, intelligence, and homeland security, Foreign Policy reported in August.
Biden has vowed to uphold international treaties that Trump exited or violated including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement and will ensure the US rejoins the World Health Organization (WHO). Biden has also committed to renewing the New START treaty, which is now the only remaining arms control pact between the US and Russia. The former vice president also wants to return to the Obama administrations' policy of normalizing relations with Cuba.
Biden, however, seems to share some general inclinations with Trump including a tough stance against China and support for Israel. Biden recently was critical of Trump for failing in his attempt to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Biden on the campaign trail has also used inflammatory and belligerent rhetoric towards Russia, and has hurled personal insults at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has repeatedly said he wants to work with Russia, but relations between the two countries have hit an all-time low. But many expect the US policy towards Russia to be even less favorable under Biden. Things likely could be even worse if the Democrats win the White House and both chambers of Congress as a result of the November 3 election.
Like Trump, Biden has had to deal with his share of scandals, most notably over his threat as vice president to withhold aid to Ukraine if they did not fire a prosecutor that had been investigating a gas company, Burisma, his son Hunter worked for. Biden has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but Trump has repeatedly raised the issue, especially recently as the president finds himself down in the polls.
Biden repeatedly claimed that he had nothing to do with Hunter's business dealings. However, a former business associate of Hunter's, Tony Bobulinski, has come forward recently saying he has evidence that the former vice president was involved with a business venture involving Hunter a Chinese energy company.
In addition to the Hunter-Burisma scandal, Biden has been plagued by a history of plagiarism. In 1965, Biden failed a course in law school fur using five pages from a published article without proper citation and under fire in 1987 for lifting phrases from a British politician without attribution.
This tendency continues to apparently haunt the vice president. Last year, Biden's campaign acknowledged that it used verbiage, without attribution, from various nonprofits in crafting climate and education plans.
Biden has also been caught in well-documented lies. Footage was unearthed showing Biden claiming he graduated in the top half of his law school when he actually ranked 76th out of 85. Time magazine called the revelation the "final blow" to Biden's 1988 presidential run, coming on a series of other inconsistent statements.
