美國政治與政策

Joe Biden’s claim to presidential greatness

Like Truman and Johnson, Biden is an underestimated former vice-president who is excelling in the Oval Office

What does it take to be a great US president? The leaders that Democrats revere have strikingly similar characteristics. Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Barack Obama were brilliant orators with a Harvard education and an aristocratic bearing.

The vice-presidents they picked also had a lot in common. Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Joe Biden all made their careers in the Senate — and lacked the charisma and ivy-league gloss of the presidents they worked for. As vice-presidents, all three were sometimes treated with barely disguised disdain by the staffs of FDR, JFK and Obama.

But Truman and Johnson went on to be great presidents in their own right. Now Biden is showing every sign of following in their footsteps.

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