Washington: Third time lucky is an apt phrase to describe the remarkable rise of Joe Biden, a veteran in US politics for around five decades, from being one of the youngest senators in history to the oldest American president.
The 77-year-old six-term Democratic senator, who triumphed over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s 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, 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 presidential 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, President-elect 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. (PTI)
