Joe Biden, known as a peoples’ person, a reformer, an unifier and a healer, rose remarkably from humble beginnings to become the oldest American president in US history on Wednesday, reaching the pinnacle of his political career spanning nearly five decades. The 78-year-old six-term Democratic senator, who triumphed over Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 presidential election, ran twice unsuccessfully for president – in 1988 and 2008.
The presidential dreams that the veteran leader from Delaware had harboured since childhood seemed all but over for a third time until he won South Carolina’s Democratic Party primary on February 29 last year, forcing most rivals out of the race and making one of the most dramatic comebacks in American political history.
Biden, who has spent five decades in Washington and served two terms in the White House as former president Barack Obama’s vice president, capitalised on that experience to portray himself as a tested leader and a better alternative to Trump.
While accepting the Democratic nomination in August, Biden pledged to restore the “soul of America”, and be an “ally of the light, not the darkness.”
Biden defeated 74-year-old Trump in the bitterly fought presidential election, becoming the oldest person ever to occupy the White House.
In his victory speech, Biden pledged to unite the country as he called it ‘a time to heal in America’.
“I sought this office to restore the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation, the middle class and to make America respected around the world again, and to unite us here at home,” he said.
Biden has a strong track record of being an ardent advocate of a strong India-US relationship both as a Senator from Delaware for over three decades and then as deputy of President Obama for eight years.
During his presidential campaign, Biden had said that India and the US were natural partners.
From playing a key role in the passage of India-US civil nuclear deal during a Republican administration to setting up the goal of a USD 500 billion in bilateral trade, Biden has strong ties with the Indian leadership across the aisle and has a large number of Indian-Americans within his close circuit.
Biden has named at least 20 Indian Americans, including 13 women, to key positions in his administration, a new record in itself for this small ethnic community that constitutes one per cent of the country’s population. As many as 17 of them would be part of the powerful White House complex.
Biden’s inauguration as the 46th US president is already historic as for the first time ever a woman, Kamala Harris, would be sworn as the vice president of the country.
Harris, 56, is also the first ever Indian-origin and first African American to become the vice president of the United States.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1942 to a Catholic family, Joe Robinette Biden Jr studied at the University of Delaware and then earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. His father worked cleaning furnaces and as a used car salesman.