Joe Biden, once considered too young to serve, now seen as too old to win
Joe Biden’s life and political career has careened between unexpected triumph and unimaginable tragedy, leading him to the White House.
WASHINGTON — So ends the half-century career of a flawed but resilient politician who won the White House in a razor-thin election and lost it four years later in a debate: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
Biden, 81, now eases into a lame-duck presidency for the next six months, as the party he once commanded abandoned him in the span of a few weeks for an as-yet-unnamed candidate to carry the fight against Donald Trump.
Biden’s collapse began with a June 27 debate against Trump, when he turned in a disastrous performance from which he couldn’t recover. An elderly president with his mouth agape, he struggled to complete a sentence or finish a thought. One by one, Democratic leaders who watched in alarm broke their polite silence and openly called on him to step aside.
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Stunning as his fall may be, Biden may be better prepared than most to deal with repudiation. Few presidents in history have endured as much tragedy and disappointment as the 46th.
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