For Senator, Another Comeback

[BeyondGeography]

By Eli Saslow and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 24, 2008; Page A01

As they watched Joseph R. Biden Jr. step on stage in Springfield, Ill., yesterday, a 65-year-old with white hair jogging to the lectern, many of his longtime friends and colleagues experienced a touch of deja vu: Once again, Biden had resurrected a career that appeared destined for decline.

Nearly eight months ago, Biden withdrew from the 2008 presidential race after winning less than 1 percent of the delegates in Iowa's Democratic caucuses. It was an ignoble failure for one of the most prominent and senior members of the U.S. Senate, and friends worried openly about Biden's psyche. Biden worried only about what he would do next.

That's how it has always been with Biden, Barack Obama's long-awaited choice for vice president. Setbacks are followed by successes, and the cycle repeats. A tragic car accident, brain aneurysms, a plagiarism scandal, two failed presidential runs -- nothing has permanently derailed him.

......"If you were to say, 'Who is the unluckiest person I know in the world?' I'd say, 'Joe Biden,' " said Ted Kaufman, Biden's chief of staff for much of his first 22 years in the Senate. "If you were to say, 'Who is the luckiest person I know in the world?' I'd say, 'Joe Biden.' "

...In what would become a pattern over time, the adversity -- combined with Biden's resolve -- morphed into an asset. "You'd have to have a heart of steel not to want to help this guy," recalled Kaufman, who often accompanied Biden on his daily commutes between his sons in Wilmington and his new job in Washington. "You'd go for a period where everything seemed okay, and then, he'd come in some days, and you'd want to cry for him. He looked as if had just happened. He'd get this despair."

...after his anemic showing in the Iowa caucuses, he gathered his campaign staff to break the news that he would drop out of the race. His aides were dejected, a former Senate chief of staff recalled. But Biden told them not to worry. Better things would come, he said.

And sure enough, when Obama introduced his running mate yesterday at Illinois' old statehouse, to the strains of Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising," Biden came running up the steps.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/23/AR2008082302289.html?hpid=topnews

[annabanana]

1. I'll tell you the truth. I think Biden was talked into it.

I believed him when he said he wasn't seeking the job. I expect at this stage of the game, moving to Washington wasn't at the top of his wishlist.

[madaboutharry]

2. Obviously we can't get into the man's head, but

I really do get the sense that Biden wants to move on from the Senate. He looked pretty happy yesterday.