The Long Alliance, page 47
“I am president. I am not king”: “Transcript of President Barack Obama with Univision,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2010, https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/10/transcript-of-president-barack-obama-with-univision.html.
Preface
“We won!”: Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things (New York: Gallery Books, 2021), 248.
The younger Bush ended up hiring an array: Mark K. Updegrove, The Last Republicans (New York: Harper, 2017), 295.
“the ability to pick up where we left off and keep on going”: Jonathan Chait, “In Conversation with Barack Obama,” New York, December 9, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/in-conversation-with-barack-obama.html.
focus on government experience: Gabriel Debenedetti, “A Biden Style of Government Is Emerging: Lowest Drama Possible,” New York, December 20, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/joe-biden-cabinet.html.
The list grew: Debenedetti, “A Biden Style of Government Is Emerging: Lowest Drama Possible.”
He was in Milwaukee: “CNN Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden,” CNN, February 16, 2021, https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/se/date/2021-02-16/segment/01.
Chapter 1: 2003–2004
she’d run every one of his races: Ben Schreckinger, The Bidens (New York: Twelve, 2021), 16.
She got up and found a Sharpie: Jill Biden, Where the Light Enters (New York: Flatiron Books, 2019), 149–50.
he tried coming up with a list of Republican senators: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep (New York: Random House, 2007), 354–55.
he’d been profiled in the New York Times: Fox Butterfield, “First Black Elected to Head Harvard’s Law Review,” New York Times, February 6, 1990, https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard-s-law-review.html.
he’d gathered about a dozen close allies: Michelle Obama, Becoming (New York: Crown, 2018), 211–13.
Shomon refused … Axelrod, urged him to think: David Mendell, Obama (New York: Amistad, 2007), 182, 157.
who spurned the advances: Mendell, 168–72.
“I don’t oppose all wars”: Barack Obama, “Transcript: Obama’s Speech Against the Iraq War,” NPR, January 20, 2009, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99591469.
The first one featured a slogan … about union jobs: Mendell, Obama, 229–31.
the revelation that Hull was accused: David Mendell, “Hull’s Ex-Wife Called Him Violent Man in Divorce File,” Chicago Tribune, February 28, 2004, https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-0402280192feb28-story.html.
wasn’t far behind: “Public Attitudes Toward the War in Iraq: 2003–2008,” Pew Research Center, March 19, 2008, https://www.pewresearch.org/2008/03/19/public-attitudes-toward-the-war-in-iraq-20032008/.
Mary Beth Cahill, had been trying to convince: David J. Garrow, Rising Star (New York: William Morrow, 2017), 930.
he told Axelrod he wanted to tell his own story: David Axelrod, Believer (New York: Penguin Books, 2015), 156.
“Tonight, our country stands at the hinge of history”: “Democratic National Convention, Day 4 Evening,” C-SPAN, July 29, 2004, https://www.c-span.org/video/?182721-2/democratic-national-convention-day-4-evening.
They caught a bored-looking Hillary Clinton: “Democratic National Convention, Day 4 Evening.”
Here was retired general Wesley Clark: “Democratic National Convention, Day 4 Evening.”
Obama had seen Harold Ford Jr. flop: Mendell, Obama, 269–70.
Gibbs replied by sending Obama copies: Mendell, 270.
He read the speech as it printed: Axelrod, Believer, 156.
another consultant dove in on the first of more than a dozen rounds: Garrow, Rising Star, 930–31.
Russert caught Obama off guard by asking: Meet the Press, “Transcript for July 25,” NBC News, July 25, 2004, https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5488345.
The strategist tried reasoning with the candidate: Axelrod, Believer, 158.
Obama walked into the FleetCenter: Mendell, Obama, 2.
he took Gibbs’s tie: Garrow, Rising Star, 936–37.
Axelrod walked him up to the edge of the stage: Axelrod, Believer, 159.
“It is that fundamental belief … all of us defending the United States of America”: “Illinois State Senator Barack Obama 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Speech,” C-SPAN, July 27, 2004, https://www.c-span.org/video/?182718-3/illinois-state-senator-barack-obama-2004-democratic-national-convention-keynote-speech.
As Axelrod later recalled: Axelrod, Believer, 160.
he was more taken by its focus on everyday Americans: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad (New York: Flatiron Books, 2017), 57–59.
Ryan, imploded amid news: John Chase and Liam Ford, “Ryan File a Bombshell,” Chicago Tribune, June 22, 2004, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-06-22-0406220247-story.html.
he only agreed to pay for a campaign SUV: Mendell, Obama, 256.
this kind of attention was probably mostly confined: Barack Obama, A Promised Land (New York: Crown, 2020), 52.
thirty-nine cities in five days: Mendell, Obama, 286–87.
“Must’ve been a pretty good speech”: Valerie Jarrett, Finding My Voice (New York: Viking, 2019), 130.
Chapter 2: 2004–2006
he was already planning: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, 356.
Biden held off on saying anything: Jules Witcover, Joe Biden (New York: William Morrow, 2019), 363.
A reporter asked him: Garrow, Rising Star, 964.
They could get a simple Italian dinner … no dinner scheduled: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad, 57–59.
he was at first worried: David Remnick, The Bridge (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 427.
finance and agriculture panels: Garrow, Rising Star, 960; Barack Obama, A Promised Land, 60.
he had started informally and secretly discussing: Jarrett, Finding My Voice, 131.
reporters overheard his daughter Malia: Mendell, Obama, 303–4.
Teddy had joined him that year: Schreckinger, The Bidens, 25.
Biden ran for president with even more explicit attempts: Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 258.
privately loved finding out that the desk he’d been assigned: Remnick, The Bridge, 423.
Obama and Clinton met at her office in Russell: John Heilemann and Mark Hal-perin, Game Change (New York: Harper, 2010), 24–25.
his advisors assumed he’d be able to grow close: Mendell, Obama, 299–300.
“I am absolutely convinced … with the election process”: “Obama First Speech Ohio Electoral,” C-SPAN, January 6, 2005, https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4931976/obama-speech-ohio-electoral.
developed a practice of carving out time: Samantha Power, The Education of an Idealist (New York: Dey Street, 2019), 152.
Obama would be on any nominee’s short list: Mendell, Obama, 305.
national polling showed that the nation was still roughly split: “Public Attitudes Toward the War in Iraq: 2003–2008,” Pew Research Center.
Schieffer kept at that topic … “I’m not sure”: Face the Nation, CBS News, June 19, 2005, https://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_061905.pdf.
“Joe Biden is a decent guy, but man”: Axelrod, Believer, 167.
Obama handed a staffer a note: Remnick, The Bridge, 427.
he looked at Samantha Power: Power, The Education of an Idealist, 153.
he griped, it was often on bullshit: Garrow, Rising Star, 969.
His proposal … signed off in January: Garrow, 983.
He wrote in the popular Daily Kos: Barack Obama, “Tone, Truth, and the Democratic Party,” Daily Kos, September 30, 2005, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/9/30/153069/-.
As Obama saw it: Matt Bai, The Argument (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), 235–38.
Obama framed the modern American economic challenge … more funding for research: “Commencement Address: Barack Obama,” Knox College, June 4, 2005, https://www.knox.edu/news/president-obama-to-visit-knox-college-speak-on-economy/2005-commencement-address.
arranged private debates among aides: Power, The Education of an Idealist, 154.
They should wind down the war by splitting Iraq: Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Leslie H. Gelb, “Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq,” New York Times, May 1, 2006, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/opinion/01biden.html.
Reid, meanwhile, had been convinced … stuck with the Nevadan: Harry Reid with Mark Warren, The Good Fight (New York: Berkley Books, 2009), 299.
Reid told Obama he should think: Barack Obama, A Promised Land, 67–69.
Obama replied, “I don’t know”: Reid with Warren, The Good Fight, 300.
He’d assumed Reid would be with Clinton: Remnick, The Bridge, 461; Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 36.
Daschle, for one, said something similar: Brian Abrams, Obama (New York: Little A, 2018), 5–6.
Kennedy said Obama didn’t have the luxury: Barack Obama, A Promised Land, 67–69.
On the car ride back to Washington: Axelrod, Believer, 185.
Russert played the tape: Meet the Press, “Transcript for October 22,” NBC News, October 22, 2006, https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15304689.
Chapter 3: 2007–2008
When long-serving senators ran for president, he warned: “Edward E. (Ted) Kaufman,” United States Senate Historical Office, Oral History Project, August 17– September 27, 2012, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/oral_history/KaufmanEdwardE.htm.
“the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”: Adam Nagourney, “Biden Unwraps ’08 Bid with an Oops!” New York Times, February 1, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/us/politics/01biden.html.
Biden tried to clean his message up further: Nagourney, “Biden Unwraps ’08 Bid with an Oops!”
Axelrod would remind him: Abrams, Obama, 19.
handing out at events copies of the text of his 2002 speech: David Plouffe, The Audacity to Win (New York: Penguin Books, 2009), 104.
he said that Ronald Reagan had been more transformative: Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, The Presidents Club (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 507.
“Hello, Chicago!”: Michelle Obama, Becoming, 246.
“that on-the-job training for a president can be a dangerous thing”: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, 133.
George Stephanopoulos opened: “TRANSCRIPT: The Democratic Debate,” ABC News, August 23, 2007, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Decision2008/story?id=3498294&page=1.
Biden spent his first restless years in the Senate trying to establish himself: Kitty Kelley, “Death and the All-American Boy,” Washingtonian, June 1, 1974, https://www.washingtonian.com/1974/06/01/joe-biden-kitty-kelley-1974-profile-death-and-the-all-american-boy/.
he’d temporarily been given a seat on the Senate floor between colleagues from the North and the South: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, 109–10.
he dipped his toe in national waters by backing: Schreckinger, The Bidens, 60.
Biden entertained serious pitches from party operatives: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, 135, 139.
Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell’s retirement meant he had to run the hearings: Mark Gitenstein, Matters of Principle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 23, 31.
his private polling showed him climbing in Iowa: Gitenstein, 13.
“I’m angry with myself for having been put in the position—put myself in the position—of having to make this choice”: Jon Margolis and Elaine Povich, “Biden Admits Errors, Drops Out,” Chicago Tribune, September 24, 1987, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-09-24-8703120482-story.html.
He’d surveyed Delaware voters: “Edward E. (Ted) Kaufman,” United States Senate Historical Office.
Jill walked in on a priest delivering last rites: Jill Biden, Where the Light Enters, 119–20.
“I made a mistake, and it was born out of my arrogance”: Evan Osnos, Joe Biden (New York: Scribner, 2020), 47.
Richard Ben Cramer wrote about the “connect,” or the “Biden Rush”: Cramer, What It Takes, 254.
“Yes.”: “South Carolina Democratic debate transcript,” NBC News, April 27, 2007, https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18352397.
“Get the fuck out of the car”: Jeff Connaughton, The Payoff (Westport, CT: Prospecta Press, 2012), 192.
Obama was, Biden had said, on “everyone’s Number Two list”: Witcover, Joe Biden, 374.
“I was the Barack Obama!”: Witcover, 387.
once split the cost of a private jet from Washington to New Hampshire: Witcover, 383.
He would spend the rest of the year planning his party’s new vision for the new era as the committee’s chair: Brian Katulis, “Biden Reboots U.S. Foreign Policy,” Liberal Patriot, January 21, 2021, https://theliberalpatriot.substack.com/p/biden-reboots-us-foreign-policy.
Chapter 4: 2008
In public, Obama’s publicity team dismissed the effort: Alexander Mooney, “McCain Ad Compares Obama to Britney Spears, Paris Hilton,” CNN, July 30, 2008, https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/30/mccain.ad/index.html.
his research aides quickly found that the clip backfired and offended the women voters they were targeting: Plouffe, The Audacity to Win, 280.
Edwards, whose personal life would soon explode in sordid scandal, had made the same offer to Clinton, who also turned him down: Plouffe, 158–59.
he mused that the presidency wasn’t the best job in the world, but the ex-presidency was: Plouffe, 294.
I think Joe Biden might be the right guy: Axelrod, Believer, 281–82.
“Did you find our magic bullet candidate yet?” Plouffe, 285.
an initial list of twenty possibilities: Plouffe, 285.
Harry Reid floated Bush defense secretary Robert Gates and Ted Kennedy urged Obama to consider Kerry: Axelrod, Believer, 295–96.
removed longtime DC insider James Johnson: John M. Broder and Leslie Wayne, “Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties,” New York Times, June 12, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/politics/12veep.html.
When Biden again refused, Obama asked him to at least talk to his family first: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad, 59–65.
Let me get this straight, she said: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad, 59–65.
They back-channeled on a strategy to convince him: Jill Biden, Where the Light Enters, 154–55.
he told his mother he was going to meet the Queen of England and Jean replied, “Don’t you bow down to her”: Joe Biden, Promises to Keep, 11.
Does anyone even remember who Lincoln’s vice president was? Biden liked to ask: Osnos, Joe Biden, 55–56.
“smarter than their secretary of state”: Witcover, Joe Biden, 389.
“Absolutely, positively, inequitably, Shermanesquely, no”: Witcover, Joe Biden, 389.
At his final meeting with the vetting lawyer in his Senate office, Biden paused: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad, 59–65.
Most infamously, Wright had said “God damn America” for “killing innocent people”: Brian Ross and Rehab El-Buri, “Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11,” ABC News, March 13, 2008, https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/DemocraticDebate/story?id=4443788&page=1.
grappling as it did with the legacy: “Transcript: Barack Obama’s Speech on Race,” NPR, March 18, 2008, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88478467.
the two had actually first discussed the vice presidency in 1976: “Edward E. (Ted) Kaufman,” United States Senate Historical Office.
wondered about Lyndon B. Johnson until he read Robert A. Caro’s The Passage of Power: Osnos, Joe Biden, 60–61.
Mondale had gotten Carter to understand: Walter F. Mondale, The Good Fight (New York: Scribner, 2010), 171–76.
She gave the three finalists internal code names: Alyssa Mastromonaco and Dan Pfeiffer, “Obama’s Staff Reveals How a Vice President Is Selected,” Crooked Media, June 30, 2020, YouTube video, 49:54, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IODyGZdTeIU.
kicked off the meeting by counterintuitively explaining: Barack Obama, A Promised Land, 164.
This all sounded good, Obama said, but he wanted to make sure of one more thing: Jonathan Alter, “Biden’s Unified Theory of Biden,” Newsweek, October 3, 2008, https://www.newsweek.com/bidens-unified-theory-biden-91693.
he assured Obama: he was sixty-five: Osnos, Joe Biden, 99.
Jill and Beau picked the Davids up at the airport: Jill Biden, Where the Light Enters, 155–56.
he nevertheless amazingly kicked off the meeting: Plouffe, The Audacity to Win, 290–94; Axelrod, Believer, 297–98.
Plouffe thought Biden could do well: Plouffe, The Audacity to Win, 289.
To throw the press pack off the scent in the final days, Obama’s aides leaked that Chet Edwards, a Texas congressman, had been vetted: Mastromonaco and Pfeiffer, “Obama’s Staff Reveals How a Vice President Is Selected.”
Axelrod and Plouffe agreed to reaffirm to Obama that the choice was obviously up to him: Plouffe, The Audacity to Win, 294.
Biden picked up while in a dentist’s waiting room as Jill underwent a root canal: Jill Biden, Where the Light Enters, 156–57.
he wouldn’t, for example, wear any funny hats: Heilemann and Halperin, Game Change, 411.
Dukakis and a tank: Josh King, “Dukakis and the Tank,” Politico Magazine, November 17, 2013, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/dukakis-and-the-tank-099119/.
“Dad, this is hope and history”: Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad, 65–66.
Chapter 5: 2008
Biden’s boisterous swarm: Michelle Obama, Becoming, 297.
Obama campaign ad that suggested McCain was old: Sarah Lai Stirland, “Obama Campaign Mocks McCain’s Computer Illiteracy,” Wired, September 12, 2008, https://www.wired.com/2008/09/obama-campaign-4/.
Biden’s praise of the Republican: Jimmy Orr, “Biden Praises McCain and Slams Obama? New McCain Ad Released,” Christian Science Monitor, August 23, 2008, https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2008/0823/biden-praises-mccain-and-slams-obama-new-mccain-ad-released.
