No introduction is needed for a man named Joe Bidon. He is the 46th and current President of the USA. The full name of this highly talented politician is Joseph Robinette Bidon, Jr. He was the 47th Vice-president of the US from the year 2009 to 2017 under the administration of Barack Obama. During the years 1973 to 2009, he represented Delaware in the senate of US. It is interesting to know how he rose and earned a name for himself.
Joe Bidon’s early life, education and early career
He was born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and then moved to New Castle County, Delaware when he was 10 years old. He graduated from University of Delaware in 1962 and studied law at Syracuse University and earned a degree in 1965. He returned to Delaware after receiving the law degree and started working as an attorney. Soon after that, he turned to politics and served New Castle County as a council during 1970-1972. He was elected to the US senate when he was just 29 in 1972. He was the 5th youngest senator at that time. He wanted to give up his political career. However, he was convinced to become a part of the senate in 1973. He got reelected six times to become a senator. Till now, he has served as a senator for the longest period. Joe Bidon was also an adjunct educator at the branch of the Widener University of Law, Wilmington, Delaware from 1991-2008.
Joe Bidon’s marriages
In 1966, he got married to Neilia Hunter and the couple had three children. A tragedy knocked at his door after a month of achieving this success. His wife and daughter were killed in an accident and his sons were injured seriously. In 1977, he married Jill Jacobs, a teacher and they had a daughter.
Joe Bidon’s political interests and services to the nation
He has served the nation in numerous fields including criminal justice, foreign policies and drug policy. He was the head of the Senate’s foreign committee twice from 2001-2003&2007-2009. He was also the head of the Committee on the Judiciary during 1987-1995. During this time, he played a vital role in resolving critical and sensitive issues. In the 90s, the serious issue related to Kosovo conflicts, he was vocal about protecting the Kosovars from the offensive by Serbian President, Slobodan Milošević. He also came up with a partition strategy to maintain peace and unity in Iraq after the Iraq war in 2003-11.
As a member of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, he was a lead senator while formulating the law, which is responsible for establishing the drug czar office. It monitors the national drug-control policy.
Vice-Presidency and Presidency
In 1988, he stood for democratic presidential nomination but pulled out his name it after his stump speech of campaign was found plagiarized from Neil Kinnock, a Leader of British Labour Party. His presidential campaign in 2008 did not gain any speed and he took out his name from the race.
In 2008, Barack Obama gathered a number of delegates for the democratic presidential nomination. During this time, Joe Bidon was amongst the contenders for Obama’s vice-presidency. On August 23, Barack announced the selection of Joe Bidon as Vice Presidential nominee running mate for Democratic Party. On August 27, both of them secured the nomination in Democratic Party and on November 4, the ticket of Obama- Joe Bidon won. During this time, Joe Bidon was also reelected for his senate seat in the US. After taking the pledge as a Vice President on January 20, 2009, he resigned from the senate post. Both were reelected for the second term in November 2012.
Joe Bidon Working as a vice-president
He played a significant role in administering the nation as well as a prominent advisor to Barack Obama. He acted as a vocal supporter for his initiatives. He also worked on various remarkable assignments for the country’s welfare. His son died from brain cancer in 2015 and due to the grief, he dropped out of the presidential election in 2016. However, he became a part of the campaign for Hilary Clinton who lost to Donald Trump.
Joe Bidon Cordial Relationship with Barack Obama
On January 12, 2017, Obama amazed him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom proving that both of them share cordial relationships. He also addressed “his brother” when he presented a rare honor. In the same year, Joe Bidon and Jill Bidon established a charitable group namely, Bidon Foundation which is involved in a number of causes.
Presidential election 2020
After leaving the office, he remained active in politics and a vocal critic of Donald Trump. Joe also was alleged to inappropriately touch women including kissing and hugging. He denied all these allegations and mentioned that he had never disrespected any man and woman at any time during his lifetime. Despite all these allegations, he continued to remain popular among people. Meanwhile, the speculations that he would contest for presidency in 2020 started to grow. In April 2019, he announced his candidacy and joined a crowded democratic field.
Joe Bidon became a front-runner and chose a moderate platform as compared to other candidates such as Bernie Sanders. The party performed poorly in the first debate in June 2019, which raised several questions about Joe Bidon’s candidature and the support somewhat got affected adversely. Sanders seemed the party’s nominee after the first three nomination contests in 2020. People were concerned about Sanders electability and in late February, Joe Bidon won in South Carolina. A number of candidates dropped out and Sanders and Bidon became the only contestants.
The spread of Covid-19 affected the campaigns and Sanders dropped out making Joe Bidon the presumptive democratic nominee. The depressing response of Donald Trump to the pandemic led to more popularity of Joe Bidon amongst people as the country’s economy also suffered. In August 2020, Joe Bidon and Kamala Harris contested as running mates. On November 7, Joe Bidon secured 270 electoral votes and the presidency was captured. He earned 307 votes whereas Donald Trump earned 232. He won by more than 7 million votes making Harris First African American to serve the country as a Vice-President.
