Joe Biden

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
In office January 3 – January 20, 2001
Preceded by Jesse Helms
Succeeded by Jesse Helms
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by Jesse Helms
Succeeded by Dick Lugar
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4, 2007
Preceded by Dick Lugar

Chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Deputy Chuck Grassley as co-chairman
Preceded by Chuck Grassley

Member of the New Castle County Council
In office 1970 – 1972

Born November 20, 1942 (1942-11-20) (age 65), Scranton, Pennsylvania
Political party Democratic
Spouse Neilia Hunter (deceased; m. 1966 – 1972), Jill Tracy Jacobs (m. 1977)
Children Joseph Biden III, Robert Hunter Biden, Naomi Christina Biden, Ashley Blazer Biden
Residence Wilmington, Delaware
Alma mater University of Delaware, Syracuse University College of Law
Profession Lawyer, Politician
Religion Roman Catholic
Website Senate office, VP campaign site, Senate campaign site

Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Delaware. He is both the Democratic vice presidential nominee for the November 2008 election and a candidate for re-election in the U.S. Senate.

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and lived there for ten years prior to moving to Delaware. He became an attorney in 1969 and was elected to a county council in 1970. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, and became the fifth-youngest senator in U.S. history. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, and 2002, and has served for the sixth-longest period among current senators.

Biden is a long-time member and current chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. His strong advocacy helped bring about U.S. military assistance and intervention during the Bosnian War. He voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution, but later proposed resolutions to alter U.S. strategy there. He has served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dealing with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties, and led creation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Violence Against Women Act. He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008, both times dropping out early in the process. Barack Obama selected Biden to be the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 U.S. election.

Early life and education of Joe Biden

Language English

Tags:

Joseph Robinette Biden

University of Delaware

Downtown Scranton

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. (1915–2002) and Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan (born 1918). He was the first of four siblings and is of Irish descent. He has two brothers, James Brian Biden and Francis W. Biden, and a sister, Valerie (Biden) Owens.

The Scranton area was in economic decline during the 1950s, and Biden's father could not find enough work. The Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware, when Biden was 10 years old, and he grew up in suburban New Castle County, Delaware. His father then prospered as a car salesman and the family's circumstances were middle class. One of his grandfathers was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. Biden suffered from stuttering through much of his childhood and into his twenties; he overcame it via long hours spent reciting poetry in front of a mirror. Biden attended the Archmere Academy in Claymont, where he was athletically, not academically, oriented and a natural leader among the students. He graduated in 1961.

Biden attended the University of Delaware in Newark. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in history and political science in 1965, ranked 506th of 688 in his class.

He went on to receive his Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968, where by his own description he underperformed. During his first year there, he was accused of having plagiarized 5 of 15 pages of a law review article. Biden said it was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and he was permitted to retake the course after receiving a grade of F, which was subsequently dropped from his record. He was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969.

Biden received five student draft deferments during this period, with the first coming in late 1963 and the last in early 1968, at the peak of the Vietnam War. In April 1968, he was reclassified by the Selective Service System as not available for service due to having had asthma as a teenager. Biden was not a part of the anti-Vietnam War movement; he would later say that at the time he was preoccupied with marriage and law school, and that he "wore sports coats ... not tie-dyed".

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Senator Joe Biden talks about his Scranton roots

Joe Biden

Links

Early life and education of Joe Biden