Indeed this is what led him to meet his first wife, Neilia Hunter … when he and some buddies decided to attend the famous Florida spring-break beach parties, found them dull, and took a side trip to Nassau. There in Nassau Biden ran into the first love of his life.

This sobered Biden up, he worked hard to bring up his grades, thus allowing him upon graduation (1965) to enter Syracuse University Law school … where he would live close to Neilia. Indeed, the two would marry the next year.

But he had a much harder time of it academically in law school, ranking only 76th out of 85 of the graduating students in 1968. He had also managed to fall into trouble at school, having presented in a paper (without any acknowledgement) that included a lengthy section from a law journal, not only getting caught in the process … but leaving behind the record of an event that would be repeatedly brought out by his political opponents in future years.

1969 was a big year for Biden, his first son, Beau, being born that year, Biden passing the bar exam, and then taking up the practice as a public defender.

He and a law partner would subsequently go on to form their own law firm … although Biden would quickly discover that corporate law did not interest him and criminal law did not pay well. Thus it was that in 1970 he ran as a Democratic Party candidate … and won a position on the New Castle County Council. Here he distinguished himself by opposing various highway projects, claiming that they would disrupt Wilmington neighborhoods.

He would hold that position for another couple of years … when he then decided to run for the position of U.S. Senator! Now that's ambition, especially due to the fact that he was only 29 years old when he took up the challenge … and lacked serious campaign funding.

But he and his family were willing to work very hard to get him elected. And … he was running against veteran Senator Caleb Boggs, who at that point had wanted to step down from the position … but had been urged to run again by his fellow Republicans. This difference in attitude about the election itself would make all the difference in the world. As a largely unknown candidate, at first Biden ran well behind Boggs. But given all the hard work that Biden and his family put into his campaign, he quickly closed the gap in the polls. Thus by election day he was able to gain 50.5% of the vote.

Then soul-crushing tragedy hit in the short time between his election in November and his taking office in Washington in January. On December 18th, on a Christmas shopping trip, Neilia pulled out from an intersection and was hit by a passing tractor trailer. Both Neilia and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed, and their sons, Beau (now 3) and Hunter (2) were hurt badly.

It is easy to understand the anger Biden was feeling against God … and his numbness when he thought of his approaching responsibilities as U.S. Senator. He thought about simply quitting ... even life itself.

But Senate leader Mike Mansfield worked hard to get Biden not to quit but instead to take up his calling as U.S. Senator.  And so he did.  But as it was, Biden would be sworn into office, not in Washington but at the hospital bedside of his son Beau.

Once in office Biden conducted himself as a freshman senator ought … and also got reelected – repeatedly (six times, with about 60% of the vote each time!). Thus he rose up the Senatorial political ladder. He was also the first Senator to support Carter's bid for the presidency. The two would go on to work closely together in the latter part of the 1970s.

But he would also gain invaluable support from Jill Jacobs, whom Biden met on a blind date arranged by his brother in 1975. She would become a major source of emotional support for Biden. Two years later, she and the senator would marry.
His service as a US Senator. Biden's climb up the Senate's seniority ladder was slow but steady, gained through repeated reelection to the Senate by his Delaware voters. He took on the attitude of being a political centrist … for instance during the 1970s strongly opposing school bussing, ordered by the Supreme Court to force racial integration, but supporting voting rights, job creation and housing assistance in support of the Black community

In early 1987, Biden announced that he was undertaking a run as a Democratic Party candidate for the US presidency. With the spotlight on him, some unflattering incidents in his earlier life were brought to public attention: instances of plagiarism in his law school days, major exaggerations about his standing at graduation, and other false claims he had made in order to make himself look like a stronger candidate.
The stress of all this was most likely the cause of medical issues that hit Biden in early 1988. At that point, he suffered serious life-threatening brain aneurysms and a pulmonary embolism, hospitalizing him in February and in May of that year. In any case, the medical issues forced him to drop out of the race … and even kept him out of the Senate for seven months.

Biden would try again for the 2008 presidential race, announcing his candidacy in January of 2007. In competition with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he stressed his own lengthy experience in the realm of foreign affairs … especially in contrast with the lack of much of any kind of serious experience by Obama. But Biden just could not get the support to become a serious candidate, receiving only one percent of the startup Iowa caucus vote in January of 2008. Thus he withdrew from the race.

But Obama recognized in Biden the "balance" he would bring to the Democratic Party ticket … helping to appeal to "Middle America" – which Obama felt was rather "suspicious" of what exactly it was that Obama represented. Actually, Biden got very little attention … the Republican Vice President and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin getting all the (mostly negative) press attention.

Nonetheless the Obama-Biden ticket defeated the McCain-Palin ticket in the November 2008 elections, and on January 20th, 2009 Biden was sworn in as US Vice President.

As Vice President Biden was called on to continue his foreign policy work … sort of a backup to Obama – and sometimes in competition with Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But he was also charged with the task of overseeing the huge infrastructure program that Obama had decided would pull America out of the 2008 financial crisis – which actually did not develop … at least certainly not for a long time. And as such, Biden was also given the responsibility of using his Congressional contacts to help get the federal "debt-ceiling" raised so as to be able to open the way to yet more federal spending.

Then in 2012 Obama asked Biden to continue as his vice-presidential running mate in Obama's reelection campaign. Some stress between the two occurred during the campaign when Biden announced himself in favor of same-sex marriages … well in advance of Obama's move on the matter, forcing Obama to have to announce himself early in this matter – an issue Obama was actually trying to hold off from (Obama knew that it certainly would not improve Obama's stand among Catholics … with their Church's strong opposition to such marriage). Biden was forced to apologize and promise not to issue any more such statements … and was then excluded from further Obama campaign strategy sessions.

In his second term as vice president (2013-2017) Biden found himself less useful to Obama as a line of contact with (a Republican-controlled) Congress. Biden busied himself in matters much less strategic than was the case in his earlier term of service … quietly finishing out his term while setting out plans to undertake his own presidential run the following year (2016).

The next couple of years Biden busied himself teaching (University of Pennsylvania), writing a memoir (Promise Me, Dad),210 and doing a lot of public speaking … not only keeping himself visible before the public eye but making him quite wealthy from speaker's fees and a writing contract.

But Biden had never taken his eye off the presidential position, and as the 2020 election season came around, he was ready to announce his candidacy (April 2019) … even though if elected he would take office at the age of 78 – an unheard-of age to be taking on such a responsibility. And he would be running against the very aggressive Trump (himself not much younger), who had the reputation of knocking down anything that got in his way.

But run Biden did, finally securing the Democratic Party presidential candidacy … and then going on to win the election.