Joseph Biden

Joseph Robinette Biden was born on November 20th, 1942 to Irish-Catholics Joe Biden Sr. and Jean Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He overcame his stuttering that he suffered through childhood and attended Archmere Academy where he was a natural leader among the students. After high school, Biden became a student of the University of Delaware and considered himself as a lazy student. When Joe received his B.A., Syracuse University College of Law was his next stop where he had great trouble since he was accused of plagiarizing portions of articles for his review but was later cleared for these charges. He married Neilia Hunter in 1966 during his stay at Syracuse and afterwards moved to Wilmington, DE and began practicing law. Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council and served from 1970 to 1972. Becoming a senator from Delaware was his next target and like Barack Obama he ran under the slogan “change”. In an upset, Joe Biden dethroned Incumbent J. Boggs of Delaware and became the fifth youngest senator ever at age 30. Unfortunately, Biden’s wife and daughter died in an automobile accident while his two sons were seriously injured but later recovered. He then considered resigning but was persuaded not to do so. In 1975, he married Jill Tracey Jacobs a local teacher of Wilmington. At Widener University School of Law, he has since 1991 taught a seminar on constitutional law. In 1988 and in 2008 he unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic Presidential Nominee. He has and is very active in his role as senator being a member of both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. In 2008, he was nominated by the Democrats to be their Vice Presidential Candidate.

Like his running-mate Barack Obama, Joe Biden has voted and promises to vote accordingly to his party but not as often as Obama has. Similar to Obama, he opposes offshore drilling, supports labor unions, is against President Bush’s tax cuts, supports a path for illegal immigrants to become citizens, restricting gun laws, is for abortions, and stem-cell research. Unlike Obama, Biden voted for the U.S. to stay a member of NAFTA and is for free trade. One setback is Biden is known for speaking his mind whether or not it is the appropriate time to do so. However, Biden is on the same side as Obama on the major issues such as the environment and taxation.