Joe Biden presidential campaign, 1988
| Joe Biden presidential campaign, 1988 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 1988 |
| Candidate |
Joe Biden U. S. Senator from Delaware (1973–2009) Vice President of the United States (2009-2017) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Key people | Tim Ridley (manager) Valerie Biden Owens (manager) Larry Rasky (press secretary) Ted Kaufman (treasurer) Pat Caddell (pollster/consultant) |
The 1988 presidential campaign of Joe Biden, the longtime Democratic United States Senator from Delaware and eventual 47th Vice President of the United States began on June 1987. He ran for President of the United States in the 1988 United States presidential election. He was considered one of the potentially strongest candidates in the field. However, in September 1987, newspaper stories stated he had plagiarized a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock. Other allegations of past law school plagiarism and exaggerating his academic record soon followed. Biden withdrew from the race later that month.
Biden had been mentioned among possible contenders in the 1984 presidential election. He had considered the notion in 1983, urged on by pollster Pat Caddell, who thought there was space for a young candidate. A fiery speech he gave to several Democratic audiences had simultaneously scolded Democrats for outdated thinking and encouraged them regarding future directions, and had gained him some notice in the party. However, Biden did not enter the race that season. Nonetheless, he won one vote at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
Biden was active on the party speaking circuit from 1985 on, and was considered one of the best orators among the potential presidential candidates for 1988. The declared absence of Senator Ted Kennedy from the field, to whom Biden was sometimes compared, was also encouraging to a possible Biden candidacy.
Biden received considerable attention in the summer of 1986 when he excoriated Secretary of State George Shultz at a Senate hearing because of the Reagan administration's support of South Africa, which continued to support a system of apartheid.
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