Flashback: Extensive coverage of Joe Biden and the Biden family

With news out that Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential nominee, here are highlights of the Iowa Independent’s extensive coverage of the Delaware senator on the Iowa campaign trail during the 2008 caucuses.

In a thought provoking exchange in late November, a caucus-goer asked Biden what had changed in him and in his approach to presidential politics between 1988, when he lost a bid for the Democratic nomination to then-Sen. Michael Dukakis, and 2008.  This time, he said, “it’s OK to lose,” reported Lynda Waddington:

Sen. Joe Biden (Photo: Lynda Waddington)

“You mentioned on Tim Russert a couple of weeks ago that maybe the last time you ran — and I am paraphrasing — that you were maybe a little to arrogant, maybe a little too confident,” said the man who also confessed that he had voted Republican since the mid-1970s. “How has that changed now?”

The man also suggested that Biden consider Arizona Sen. John McCain as his running mate, but Biden quickly dismissed that notion by saying that although McCain is one of his closest friends, and has been for 35 years, the two possess a fundamental divide when it comes to foreign policy.

“What’s different between now and then?” Biden asked as he summarized the question for those who couldn’t hear. “Look, I want to make it clear to you. I don’t think that I’m the guy Diogenes found — the only honest man. That’s not the case I’m making. I’m not making the case that, you know, I’ll never tell a lie. What I’m saying is that I promise you I’ll tell you what I think. I promise you. I promise you I will tell you what I think is needed — and I’ll make the case for it. This is because some things are worth losing an election over.”

Biden went on to discuss the May vote to fund the troops in Iraq. Despite campaign advisers cautioning him that his vote would be construed as being in favor of the war, Biden was the only Democratic presidential contender to give approval to the measure and has stated, on many occasions, that he made the right choice.

“This is the key difference between 22 years ago and today,” he said. “Today, I know exactly why I want to be president. I’m not saying I know I’m right about everything, but I know why I want to be president. I know what I will try to do. The difference between then and now is an easy call. That vote was worth losing an election over.

“I respect the fact that you thought that vote was in support of the war and that I shouldn’t have done it. But as long as there is one single, solitary soldier in harms way that I know I can protect — that I know I can materially increase their chance of surviving — I will do it.”

The difference this time around for him, Biden said, “is that it’s okay to lose.”

“I really mean that,” he added. “I want to be your president. But if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘I guarantee you, Joe, that Barack or Hillary or John or Chris will do a better job than you as president’ — I give you my word that I’d say “thank you, God, I can go home.’”

Biden said he is running because — “honest to God” — he feels he is the most qualified.

At a November event in Iowa City, Biden put his own spin on the post-partisan message that has become central to Obama’s campaign:

“I also reject, categorically, the notion that there are fundamental lines of division based on ideology that separate this country. It is not true,” Biden argued. “The country is neither liberal, conservative, or centrist, but rather, it’s pragmatic. The American people are looking for pragmatic solutions to concrete problems they face every day.”

We also interviewed several members of the Biden family during the caucuses.  Beau Biden, the senator’s son, was profiled by T.M. Lindsey in late December.  He discussed, among other topics, his upcoming deployment to Iraq as a member of the National Guard:

Although Beau is somewhat reluctant to talk about his service, except as a means of establishing credibility when addressing veterans, he did open up a little to the Iowa Independent. “I’m very proud of my service with the National Guard and proud to be associated with the men and women who serve in our military,” Beau said. “There’s no other service I’m more proud of.”  Like his son, Sen. Biden has steered away from talking about Beau’s impending deployment, unless asked point-blank. “I don’t want him going,” Sen. Biden told Radio Iowa in August. “But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference.”

And we spoke to Jill Biden about life on the campaign trail.  Lynda Waddington published a lengthy profile of the senator’s wife over the Thanksgiving holiday last year:

“It’s a little challenging in that I’m always changing hats,” she said. “I’m grading papers in the car between campaign stops… It’s a little hard to transition some of the time, but life is never dull.”

Jill, spouse of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, has been an educator for 27 years. She has taught as a reading specialist, as a high school English teacher, in a mental health institution and, for the past 15 years, at a community college. Even now, in the thick of a presidential campaign, she continues to spend five days a week in the classroom before traveling to Iowa on weekends. She also proudly admits that she brought all of this on herself.

“Actually, this time, we went to Joe and asked him to run,” she said. “After Bush won again I was flabbergasted. I mean, I didn’t know anybody at all who voted for Bush. I just didn’t think he could win again. I was so disappointed in the fact that John Kerry didn’t win and that Bush’s policies were going to continue.

“We talked as a family before Joe even knew about it and we went to Joe two years ago and said, ‘We think you are the only one that can pull together the red states and the blue states and build consensus on issues that are important. We think you should run.’ And, he did.”

Waddington also profiled Hunter Biden as part of the same series, and T.M. Lindsey snagged an interview with Jill, Hunter, and Beau Biden together in Johnson County last October.