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International Desk: Joe Biden, scarred by tragedy and in the twilight of a long career, is finally being elevated as the Democratic presidential nominee, betting he can win over Americans tired of his polar opposite: Donald Trump.<\/p>\nInternational Desk: Joe Biden, scarred by tragedy and in the twilight of a long career, is finally being elevated as the Democratic presidential nominee, betting he can win over Americans tired of his polar opposite: Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
If Trump brought brash and bombast to the White House, wrecking everything from convention to international treaties along the way, Biden offers reassurance: a self-proclaimed unifier with blue-collar roots and a personal rapport with voters.<\/p>\n
With his white hair, engaging smile and air of a longtime senator, he is the avuncular figure calming a nation on the verge of a nervous breakdown.<\/p>\n
While Trump derides the 77-year-old Washington insider as \u201cSleepy Joe,\u201d Biden wagers that after the Republican\u2019s turbulent reign, Americans wouldn\u2019t mind some rest after all.<\/p>\n
Trump succinctly summarizes his own politics as \u201cwinning, winning, winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden, who rides into the Democratic National Convention beginning Monday with newly-announced running mate Kamala Harris, claims to be reaching for something deeper: \u201ca battle for the soul of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking families need someone on their side\u2026 because they certainly don\u2019t have anyone on their side with this president,\u201d Biden said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to change in the Biden-Harris administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Long road \u2013<\/p>\n
Trump is 74, but Biden will turn 78 shortly after the November election, which would make him the oldest president ever to take office.<\/p>\n
Elected one of the youngest US senators ever, serving for three decades before his eight years as vice president under America\u2019s first black president, Biden is like living history.<\/p>\n
Along with those successes have come humiliating flops, notably his failed 1988 and 2008 White House bids.<\/p>\n
Even this time, his run looked doomed after state primary losses to fiery leftist Bernie Sanders in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.<\/p>\n
But Biden roared back in South Carolina with overwhelming backing from African-American voters, a crucial base of Democratic support.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Human side \u2013 Biden\u2019s message is built largely on his association with the still-popular Obama and his moderate politics in a divisive time.<\/p>\n
But where he stands out is in showing a painfully human side, a stark contrast with Trump\u2019s all-conquering, never-doubting style.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s first wife, Neilia Hunter, and one-year-old daughter, Naomi, died in a car crash in 1972 while Christmas shopping, just weeks after Biden had won election to the Senate from Delaware.<\/p>\n
The accident left his sons Beau, 4, and Hunter, 2, badly injured, and the 30-year-old Biden was sworn in to the Senate beside their hospital beds.<\/p>\n
Biden met his second wife, Jill Jacobs, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, in 1975 and they married two years later. They have a daughter, Ashley.<\/p>\n
Both boys recovered from their injuries and Beau followed his father into politics, becoming attorney general of Delaware and contemplating a run for state governor, before dying of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.<\/p>\n
For all his status, Biden\u2019s perseverance has struck a chord with many Americans in more humble jobs.<\/p>\n
In early April during an online Q&A with supporters, he returned to the theme, quoting Britain\u2019s World War II prime minister Winston Churchill: \u201cIf you\u2019re going through Hell, keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The other son \u2013<\/p>\n
Biden retells these family stories so often that, despite his obvious grief, they have become part of a political brand.<\/p>\n
His younger son Hunter is another matter.<\/p>\n
With a checkered career as a lawyer and lobbyist, Hunter Biden got a lucrative salary serving on the board of a Ukrainian gas company accused of corruption while Biden was vice president.<\/p>\n
Trump, believing he\u2019d found a candidacy-killing flaw, last year pushed Ukraine to investigate Hunter\u2019s past, a zeal that eventually led to the president\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n
He survived the scandal, and while he weaponized the Hunter Biden issue it has cooled to a simmer.<\/p>\n
Now Trump has honed in on what he insists is Joe Biden\u2019s frail mental state, touting his own capabilities including how he \u201caced\u201d a cognitive test.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that led Biden to lash out this month when a reporter asked if he would take one also.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy the hell would I take a test?\u201d Biden snapped.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Uncle Joe\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr was born November 20, 1942 and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in an Irish-Catholic family. His father was a car salesman.<\/p>\n
Biden touts his blue-collar roots and recalls that he was hampered as a child by a stutter so bad he was cruelly nicknamed \u201cDash.\u201d<\/p>\n
He overcame the condition and eventually saw it as a blessing that allowed him \u201cinsight into other people\u2019s pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
As \u201cUncle Joe,\u201d he is known for his folksy manner. But he also has a propensity for public gaffes, and his often rambling delivery has raised questions over his mental agility.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s decades-long political career will make it easy for Trump to highlight errors and embarrassing moments.<\/p>\n
But longevity has also given Biden an advantage \u2014 there are few skeletons left in the closet. In a time of turmoil, his claim to experience may prove alluring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International Desk: Joe Biden, scarred by tragedy and in the twilight of a long career, is finally being elevated as the Democratic presidential nominee, betting he can win over Americans tired of his polar opposite: Donald Trump. If Trump brought brash and bombast to the White House, wrecking everything from convention to international treaties along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":61698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n