介绍:
瞌睡乔将于下下周五（11月20日）度过他的78岁生日。在过去半个多世纪的漫长岁月里，他经历了可以称得上是命途多舛的大半辈子。这条PBS的18分钟的视频，对他参选2020年总统之前的人生，进行了全面的回顾。
Biden's long and painful path
to Democratic presidential nomination
LISA DESJARDINS: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first child in a vivacious, tight-knit Catholic family.
JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: "Every single person, my dad used to say, no matter who they are, Joe," is entitled to be treated with dignity, a word I think that is probably used more here in Scranton, at least in my experience, than anywhere else.
LISA DESJARDINS: Soon, tough times.
His dad's business failed, and he ultimately moved the family to Delaware for a job.
Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University, was a speechwriter for Biden in the '90s.
TONY ALLEN, President, Delaware State University: He tells the story of his father losing his job, and the family having to move to Wilmington.
JOSEPH BIDEN: My dad, who fell on hard times, always told me, though: "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up.Get up."
LISA DESJARDINS: In high school, Biden thrived as an athlete, but classmates called him Dash for his stutter.
Author Steven Levingston: STEVEN LEVINGSTON, Author, "Barack and Joe": He was subjected to a lot of bullying.
And he didn't want that to define him.
So, he worked really hard, staring in the mirror, and working his lips, and trying to make sure that he could speak.
LISA DESJARDINS: He stayed in Delaware for college, and, on a spring break trip, he met aspiring teacher Neilia Hunter.
They married two years later.
Biden got a law degree, and almost immediately jumped into local politics in the state's largest county.
TONY ALLEN: Joe Biden started his political career as a New Castle County councilman.
LISA DESJARDINS: The 20-something councilman soon had three small children.
He also had growing ambition.
And, in 1972, Biden ran for U.S.
Senate, an utter longshot.
SAM DONALDSON, ABC News: Let's take a look now at some of the very close Senate races.
Delaware is the first state, J.
Caleb Boggs, who is the incumbent Republican, being challenged by Joseph Biden.
LISA DESJARDINS: By just 3,000 votes, in the end, he won.
Biden was an instant national headline.
MEN AND WOMEN (singing): Happy birthday to you! LISA DESJARDINS: Days after the election, he turned 30, and celebrated with his wife.
But one month after that, tragedy -- a car crash took the lives of wife Neilia and their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi.
Their sons Hunter and Beau were injured.
And Biden, who initially considered resigning, was sworn into the Senate from beside Beau's hospital bed.
MAN: So help you God.
JOSEPH BIDEN: I do.
MAN: Congratulations, Senator.
JOSEPH BIDEN: Thank you.
If, in six months or so, there's a conflict between my being a good father and being a good senator, which I hope will not occur, we can always get another senator, but they can't get another father.
NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: Terrible tragedy.
LISA DESJARDINS: Nina Totenberg is the justice correspondent for National Public Radio.
NINA TOTENBERG: I have a dim recollection of him being sort of a zombie for a little while, just sort of walking through the steps that you take to survive.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden commuted on Amtrak some four hours a day to be home with his kids at night.
NINA TOTENBERG: Joe Biden was a complete newbie.
He was close to college age.
And the people who really had power in the Senate in those days were the Dixiecrats, the old bulls.
And he quickly discovered, I think, that if you wanted to get anything done, you had to go through them, and he was very effective at it.
LISA DESJARDINS: Things started moving quickly.
In 1975, Biden was placed on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee and, a few years later, on the Judiciary Committee.
He met teacher Jill Tracy Jacobs.
And, despite some proposal rejections, they married two years later, with the blessing of young Hunter and Beau.
JOSEPH BIDEN: I'm ashamed of the lack of moral backbone to this policy! LISA DESJARDINS: Still commuting to Washington by train, in the 1980s, Biden's life and profile grew.
Daughter Ashley was born.
And 1987 marked his first campaign for president.
JOSEPH BIDEN: It is the obligation of this generation to care for and protect the future of our children.
LISA DESJARDINS: Almost immediately, Biden ran into trouble.
He had taken to quoting a British Labor Party leader in his speeches.
But at an August debate in Iowa, Biden did not attribute the following quote: JOSEPH BIDEN: Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife, who is sitting out there in the audience, is the first in her family to ever go to college? LISA DESJARDINS: Back on Capitol Hill, Biden faced questions about the alleged plagiarism.
JOSEPH BIDEN: I saw that, and it was a connect.
I mean, I could tell how that man felt.
LISA DESJARDINS: Within one week, he would drop out of the race, just as he faced another test.
JOSEPH BIDEN: There will be other opportunities for me to campaign for president.
But there will not be many other opportunities for me to influence President Reagan's choice on the Supreme Court.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden, now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, oversaw the confirmation hearing of Judge Robert H.
Bork to the Supreme Court.
It was sharp from the beginning.
NINA TOTENBERG: Having watched the Senate Judiciary Committee over the years, this is the one time where senators who were on offense actually were prepared.
They asked good questions.
They knew a lot about Bork.
And Joe Biden led the charge.
LISA DESJARDINS: Bork failed his confirmation vote.
SEN.
HARRY REID (D-NV): The nomination is not confirmed.
LISA DESJARDINS: Just a few months later, in 1988, a health crisis.
Biden suffered two life-threatening aneurysms.
A full seven months of recovery later, he returned to the Senate floor.
JOSEPH BIDEN: I will not forget the sentiments expressed, the support given.
It means a lot.
Thank you very much.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden got back to work, and, as the '90s opened, a new test, the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
GEORGE H.W.BUSH, Former President of the United States: Clarence Thomas, seasoned now by more experience on the bench, fits my description of the best man at the right time.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden was still Judiciary chairman.
The committee learned about charges of sexual harassment against Thomas from his former assistant Anita Hill.
JOSEPH BIDEN: Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? ANITA HILL, Former Assistant to Clarence Thomas: I do.
LISA DESJARDINS: Other women came forward to testify, but Biden agreed with Republicans to limit the testimony to Hill alone.
The televised hearings gripped the nation.
ANITA HILL: His conversations were very vivid.
He spoke about acts that he had seen and pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes.
LISA DESJARDINS: It would all make a searing impression on some women watching, like Aimee Allison, the founder of the pro-women group She the People.
AIMEE ALLISON, Founder, She the People: I was an undergraduate, and I went to the common room in our dorm to watch the hearings.
I saw the way that she was being treated by the white men on the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Democrat and Republican.
Joe Biden was among them.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden stressed he would run a fair hearing.
JOSEPH BIDEN: I have not made my judgment, based upon this proceeding, because we have not heard all the evidence.
LISA DESJARDINS: But his handling of it, and the fact that other corroborating witnesses were never called, has raised sharp scrutiny.
NINA TOTENBERG: Just as the Republicans were really unprepared for the Bork hearings, the Democrats were unprepared for the fury and the determination of the Republicans, and that they would use any tactic to destroy the main witness against Thomas.
Biden thought: My job to be fair.
But his fairness, in the end, was in many ways unfair to Anita Hill.
JOSEPH BIDEN: This entire proceeding is ended.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden spoke about the hearings last year.
JOSEPH BIDEN: As the committee chairman, I take responsibility that she did not get treated well.
I take responsibility for that.
LISA DESJARDINS: Later, Biden used the Judiciary chairmanship for big policy pushes, including, in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act, which created a national strategy for combating and prosecuting domestic abuse and sexual violence against women.
He also led on a more controversial bill that was attached, the 1994 crime bill that imposed longer sentences for drug crimes and other offenses.
NINA TOTENBERG: It may have seemed and did seem entirely reasonable in the middle of a crime epidemic.
But, in hindsight, it resulted in locking up a generation of black and brown and poor white people.
LISA DESJARDINS: As the new century opened, with George W.
Bush elected twice, Biden again thought it was his time.
And he started dropping hints that he wanted another shot at the White House himself.
In 2007, Joe Biden had been a U.S.
senator for 43 years, ready to try once again for a different job.
JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: Friends, today, I filed the necessary papers to become a candidate for president of the United States.
LISA DESJARDINS: In early January, he announced he was running for president.
JOSEPH BIDEN: All right.
LISA DESJARDINS: But it was a rough start from the beginning.
In an interview with The New York Observer, Biden described his presidential opponent Barack Obama, saying: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American, who is articulate and bright and clean and is a nice-looking guy.
I mean, that's a storybook, man." Add to that stumble, he was battling a crowded, star-studded field.
Author Steven Levingston wrote the book "Barack and Joe." STEVEN LEVINGSTON, Author, "Barack and Joe": Joe Biden's 2008 campaign flamed out pretty quickly.
He never really got any traction.
LISA DESJARDINS: Biden dropped out in January 2008, after placing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.
He left the trail, choosing not to endorse either of the front-runners, his fellow senators, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
BARACK OBAMA, Former President of the United States: Hope is what led me here today.
LISA DESJARDINS: In late May, Obama emerged as the presumptive nominee, in need of a running mate.
Patti Solis Doyle was waiting for the news, too.
She was chief of staff to whomever would be picked for V.P.
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, Political Strategist: Obama and his team were really looking for someone who could partner in the actual governing, because there was so much to do.
They were looking for someone who could bring some of the demographic constituents that the then nominee did not have, in particular white working-class voters.
And, lo and behold, Joe Biden checked all those boxes.
STEVEN LEVINGSTON: Obama was just a junior senator who didn't have a lot of experience with legislation, getting things through Congress.
Biden was a master.
He was able to go across the aisle.
He could really help Obama legislatively.
LISA DESJARDINS: On August 23, Obama announced his choice.
BARACK OBAMA: Joe Biden is that rare mix.
For decades, he has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him.
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