Carolina brunstein
11/03/2020 20:00
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/07/2020 17:10
Former vice president and "friend" of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, used his experience and restraint to present himself as the ideal Democratic candidate to confront the populism of the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, in elections conditioned by the crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, which hit the country's economy violently.
A
stalwart of American political life for decades
, Biden, 77, went through endless ups and downs during his long career in Washington.
And now he will take over the reins of a deeply divided and challenging nation.
When he installs himself in the White House on January 20 - if he succeeds despite the judicial offensive that Trump promises - he will find a country worn out by a pandemic that left more than 236,000 dead and marked by racial tensions and an immense political and social gap. .
The former vice president
must show a delicate political waistline
to reconcile the absolutely opposite positions between that tide of enthusiastic citizens who came out this Saturday to celebrate his victory and those who, instead, prefer Trump and his inflammatory speech and subscribe to the accusations of alleged fraud In the elections.
Joe Biden and his vice, Kamala Harris, prepare to assume power in the United States.
Photo: AFP
"I will be the president of all Americans," Biden repeated during his campaign, and this very Saturday when the media around the world proclaimed him the winner.
The mission will not be easy.
But Barack Obama's former vice appears to have the necessary experience.
In his third presidential nomination, his victory over Trump was the culmination of a long political career.
After running for the White House in 1987 and 2008, "Middle Class Joe" seems to have been vindicated in his fervent belief that he could change the tone in America: from anger and suspicion to dignity and respect. .
Biden
is low-key but not shy.
He was relentless in his criticism of Trump for handling the pandemic and in 2018 told students at a Florida university that if the mogul were his high school classmate he would "hit him like hell."
Obama's friend
Biden insistently wields his eight years alongside his "friend" Obama in the White House, as the highlight of a long political career in the US Senate (1973-2009).
He also usually remembers his humble origins in Scranton (Pennsylvania) - his father was a car salesman - in the heart of the industrial belt, which in 2016 turned its back on the Democrats and opted for Trump with just over 40,000 votes.
Thus, he appealed to two sectors that were key in defining Tuesday's elections: the African-American community and white working-class voters, whose confluence allowed the comfortable victories of Democrat Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Joe Biden, along with then-President Barack Obama, in an image from January 2017. Photo: AFP
Internal fights
In the Democratic primary this year, Biden had to face
an
unsuspected
internal adversary
just a decade ago: the dazzling rise of the most left wing within the party played by Senator Bernie Sanders, who accused him of lacking the courage to confront to the established powers, such as the financier of Wall Street, and of not wanting to carry out the structural changes that the country requires.
The former vice president, for his part, was in charge of reinforcing his image as a
moderate pragmatist
, in contrast to Sanders' ambitious proposal to implement a universal health system in the US, he reversed proposals such as banning hydraulic fracturing ( "fracking") for the exploitation of oil and has been accommodating his positions to the more traditional sector of his party.
"Virtual" charisma
Charisma is another of his strengths, as he demonstrated in warm and spontaneous interactions with citizens during the campaign.
Although the pandemic forced him to redesign the strategy and stay away from the big events practically until the final weeks.
Thanks to his less public exposure, he was able to control one of his main brands, which have been the subject of criticism and even ridicule from his Republican rival:
his frequent
verbal
gaffes
.
"I'm a blunder machine. But, by God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can't tell the truth," he joked at the end of last year when comparing himself to Trump.
But he has also been at the forefront of his party, spurring changes that he is now proud of: In 2012, he claimed he was "absolutely comfortable" with gay marriage, forcing Obama to accelerate his explicit support for those unions and contributing to its final legalization by the Supreme Court in 2015.
Family tragedies
Biden entered national politics at age 29 when he was surprisingly elected senator from Delaware in 1972.
But just a month later a tragedy ripped apart his world when
his first wife, Neilia Hunter, and their one-year-old daughter were killed in a
car
accident
while shopping for a Christmas tree.
His two sons were seriously injured but survived, although the eldest, Beau, died young from cancer in 2015.
The Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, and his wife Jill, in a campaign event.
Photo: AP
These tragedies helped cement empathy with American public opinion.
In 1975 Biden met his second wife, Jill Jacobs, a teacher whom he married two years later and had a daughter named Ashley.
She was now a great supporter in his campaign.
He no longer has the same strength as during the eight years he was vice president of Barack Obama and although he retains an advertising smile,
his step is more fragile
.
His elections in his long career earned him
criticism from his fellow Democrats,
including who will now be his vice, Kamala Harris, who recalled that as a senator he opposed a system against segregation in schools that consisted of taking black boys to schools. predominantly white.
He was also criticized for helping draft a 1994 law that many Democrats believe led to the imprisonment of a disproportionate number of black citizens.
Biden recently acknowledged that this initiative was a mistake.
Other episodes in the Senate also overshadow his campaign, such as his support for the Iraq War in 2003.
But the message he struggled to make clear during the campaign was based largely on his association with the still-popular Obama and his ability to negotiate with many world leaders.
"I know these guys," he remembered.
His statement of moderate policy at a time of division was balm for an electorate exhausted with scandal and chaos in the Trump White House.
Biden now celebrates.
But the most difficult seems to be about to begin.
Look also
Joe Biden, a huge win with a cap named Trump
Elections in the USA: What if Trump entrenches himself in the White House?