Obama, Biden & The Democratic Party

The big news just before the August 25 kick-off of the Democratic convention in Denver Colorado has been the selection of Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as the vice-presidential running mate of presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
The choice of Biden represents a form of political continuity, while in other ways the 2008 Democratic Convention marks an historic departure. If all goes according to plan, this will be the first time a major political party has selected an African-American candidate for President of the United States. The convention is also an historic first in the prominence of women leaders.
Obama’s principal competitor for the nomination has been Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. While Clinton ultimately could not overcome Obama’s early lead in delegates, she finished a close second, well ahead of the other contenders and victor in most of the later primaries.
Sen. Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton will be featured speakers on two separate convention nights. While Sen. Obama locked up the nomination and Sen. Clinton conceded several months ago, her supporters insist her name be placed formally in nomination to have a public state by state delegate vote. Late reports in the media indicated she was seeking to forestall that in the interest of party unity.
In 1984, Rep. Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic vice presidential nominee on the ticket headed by former Sen. and Vice President Walter Mondale. They were defeated by incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Another woman legislator, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, is prominent at this convention. The California Democrat is the first woman to hold that extremely central leadership post. In the 2006 elections, the Democrats captured a majority in the House, and indications are the party will probably build on those gains in 2008. This would further increase her national visibility and influence, within and well beyond Washington D.C. Obama’s wife Michelle will be featured prominently early in the convention as well.
Historically, race relations have been particularly divisive within the Democratic Party. At the 1948 convention, Hubert Humphrey, the young major of Minneapolis, led the effort to include a civil rights plank in the party platform, which succeeded after a very bitter battle.
In reaction, Southern Democrats led by Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina bolted the convention and established the separate States’ Rights Party or
”Dixiecrats”. With Thurmond as the presidential candidate, the party carried several southern states but did not prevent Democratic President Harry Truman from winning an upset reelection. In 1964, Thurmond switched to the Republican Party, a precursor of the massive increase in Southern support for that party in the years since.
Many predicted Humphrey’s own political future would be destroyed, but he went on to a very influential career in the U.S. Senate, served as Vice President with President Lyndon Johnson, and in 1968 as Democratic presidential nominee came from far behind to a very close finish with Republican Richard Nixon, who won the White House.
In 1860, an earlier Democratic Party literally shattered over North-South sectional issues closely tied to increasingly intense conflict over slavery. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, principal rival of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, led the Northern Democrats, while Vice President John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky led the Southern Democrats. The fracturing of the Democratic Party provided the opening for Republican presidential nominee Lincoln to win the White House with approximately 42 percent of the popular vote. The Civil War ensued.
Sen. Joe Biden arguably is a relatively conventional choice as running mate, a long-term influential Washington insider, albeit with a populist style which emphasizes the concerns of working people. Critics argue that in fact he is too beholden to powerful corporate interests. Delaware traditionally uses attractive public policies to encourage business headquarters to locate in the state.
First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at the age of twenty-nine, Biden had barely reached the constitutional minimum age of thirty when he began his term. He was the sixth youngest person ever to serve in the body. Over the past three and one-half decades, he has established a reputation as a highly effective legislator. Currently in his sixth term, he is now one of the longest serving senior members of the body. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination this year and also in 1988.
Biden is Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with a demonstrated long-term interest in foreign policy. He voted in favor of the resolution providing President George W. Bush authority to invade Iraq. More recently, he has been a critic of U.S. Iraq policies, including the serious problems accompanying the military occupation of the country. He has advocated dividing Iraq into three regional governments, in part to address the concerns of the distinctive Kurd minority.
Joe Biden’s first wife and young daughter were killed in an automobile accident. Now remarried, for years he juggled caring for his two young sons with his Senate responsibilities. While the Senate is in session, he still commutes daily from and to his Delaware home by Amtrak.
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of ‘After the Cold War’ (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He can be reached at acyr@carthage.edu