After a lifetime of tragedies and dashed hopes, will he finally triumph? And what would it mean if he does?
With the US election nearly upon us, Joe Biden has such a significant lead nationwide and in the battleground states that in normal times he would be virtually assured of becoming the nation’s 46th president. But these are far from normal times and the Democratic camp is on edge. They remember Hillary Clinton’s seemingly commanding lead four years ago that turned to dust on election day.
And this time there are also serious concerns over whether the incumbent will admit defeat and surrender the presidency. Donald Trump has refused to give that guarantee and has questioned whether postal ballots should be counted. “I feel good about where we are,” Biden tells Evan Osnos. “But I know that it’s going to get really, really ugly.”
It is not just the Democratic nightmare of 2016 and Trump’s dark threats that keep Biden’s supporters up at night – there is the candidate himself, He will soon turn 78, and would be the nation’s oldest president. The contender “has parted with youth grudgingly”, Osnos notes drily, pointing to his “reforested” hairline and his “becalmed” forehead.
As this strange campaign has unfurled under the shadow of a pandemic, his frailty has sometimes broken through the surface gloss. When Biden walked out under the lights for his first debate with Trump in Cleveland on 29 September, he looked thin and sickly pale, a pallor only enhanced by the bright orange glow of his opponent.
Biden’s first run for president in 1988 collapsed under the weight of his own flaws. The second collapsed on take-off in 2007