Joe Biden: Breaking a 44-year presidential mold 
by Bill Jones

As I watched the continuing Presidential Election 2020 saga Wednesday evening, I heard one network anchor declare that former Vice-President Joe Biden, with 253 electoral votes (at that point) awarded by some networks and 264 by others, was “standing on the doorstep of the White House.”

At that moment, something occurred to me that I haven’t heard, seen, or read anyone – on TV, in the newspapers, on social media, or anywhere else – point out during this entire election cycle. That is the historic nature of a potential Joe Biden presidency.

I’ve been a political buff since my teen years in the 1960s. My junior year in high school, in the spring of 1968, I wrote my term paper for Miss Luyben’s American Government class on the race between Hubert Humphrey and Bobby Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination. (I slanted my conclusion to favor Humphrey and felt guilty when Kennedy was assassinated only weeks after school was out – in fact, I still feel guilty over 50 years later, because I loved and admired RFK.)

So I’m very familiar with the names and party affiliations of the presidents over the past 60 years – and what they did before becoming president. And tonight it suddenly occurred to me that Joe Biden would be the first president in almost half a century (well, 44 years, anyway) to bring more than 4 years of congressional experience with him to the White House. Take a look at the congressional experience of the last seven presidents:

• Donald Trump (2017-2021) – None
• Barack Obama (2009-2017) – almost 4 years in the Senate (January 2005- November 2009)
• George W. Bush (2001-2009) – None
• Bill Clinton (1993-2001) – None
• George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) – 4 years in the House (1967-1971), almost 20 years before becoming president
• Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) – None
• Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) – None

Before that, however, you had a succession of four consecutive presidents who had spent significant time in Congress:

• Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977) – almost 25 years in the House (January 1949-December 1973), including almost 9 years (January 1965-December 1973) as House minority leader
• Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974) – 6 years in Congress
  • almost 4 years in the House (January 1947-November 1950)
  • over 2 years in the Senate (December 1950-January 1953)
• Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) – almost 24 years in Congress
  • almost 12 years in the House (April 1937-January 1949)
  • 12 years in the Senate (1949-1961), including 2 years as Senate majority whip (1951-1953), 2 years as Senate minority leader (1953-1955), and 6 years as Senate majority leader (1955-1961)
• John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) – 14 years in Congress
  • 6 years in the House (1947-1953)
  • 8 years in the Senate (1953-1961)

Now along comes Joe Biden, who spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate (1973-2009), representing the state of Delaware. Included in those 36 years were 8 years chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee (1987-1995) and 3½ years chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (June 2001-January 2003; and 2007-2009).

I’m not sure why we quit valuing congressional experience in our presidents. Obviously, it’s not a perfect predictor of presidential success. But then no presidency – no matter what we might like to think about our favorites – has ever been an unalloyed success. People – not gods – occupy the Oval Office, and people are far from perfect, even the best of them.

Yes, LBJ had loads of experience in Congress and still got us mired in Vietnam. But he also, with the aid of his veep, Hubert Humphrey, another wily congressional veteran, pushed an enormous amount of substantial legislation through Congress. He knew how to work both sides of the aisle, making deals and persuading members of Congress to compromise for the common good.

Presidents from Carter through Trump have tended to be wary of Congress, viewing the denizens of Capitol Hill – whether from their own party or the other – as adversaries rather than allies. They have often tried to work around Congress rather than with Congress. The result is usually predictable – little or nothing gets done.

Joe Biden has pledged to be a president of ALL the people, not just those who voted for him. He has even told us he plans to work with Republicans to see where they can meet in the middle (compromise) so both parties can achieve some – though not all – of their agenda.

Oh, in this day of extreme polarization, we’ve become cynical. We don’t believe the parties can work together. It appears that the Senate is going to stay in Republican hands, and we Democrats remember that the last time a Democratic president began his first term, Mitch McConnell said that his primary goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. He failed in that goal, but he succeeded in blocking much of President Obama’s agenda, and a vast majority of his judicial appointees.

So it’s logical that we question whether anyone can work with Mitch McConnell and his recalcitrant Republican majority in the Senate. But maybe the old Senate workhorse, Joe Biden, is just the one to cut through the BS (though Joe probably would say it, not spell it) and persuade his adversaries across the aisle that it’s in their interests to work together with Democrats for the good of constituents both red and blue.

As both senator and vice-president, Joe Biden gained a reputation for working across the aisle to get things done. I was not a big Ronald Reagan fan (well, I did enjoy his old movies), but I remember something that I really admired about him. On his Oval Office desk, he kept a plaque that read as follows: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.” That’s the way Joe Biden has operated – working to get things done, not worrying about who gets the credit.

Presidents have to work with Congress, whether they want to or not. It seems logical that a president who has ample experience in the ways and processes of Congress would be more likely to achieve success. If, when all the counting, lawsuits, etc., are said and done, Joe Biden emerges as President-Elect Biden, we’ll begin to find out whether 36 years of experience in Congress might just be a good thing in a president.