As Vice President Joe Biden mulls another run for president, it’s worth looking back at his two past bids — launched in 1987 and 2007.
Biden’s first campaign was derailed rather quickly in September 1987 after a plagiarism scandal culminated an admission he lifted — nearly verbatim — a speech originally given by a British politician.
And his 2007 bid is likely most remembered for the gaffes the free-speaking Delaware senator let fly, including one in which he inartfully described his then-Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Biden’s proclivity to let his mouth get out ahead of his brain has been seen as either an asset or a liability, depending on who you listen to.
“Where you look at Joe Biden then or look at Joe Biden now — he’s a kid from Scranton,” said John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent. “He speaks the language of the bartender or the plumber or the mailman.”