Although he campaigned heavily in Iowa, voters chose not to support Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, leading the veteran lawmaker to abandon his presidential aspirations after a poor showing in Thursday’s Democratic caucuses.
“There is nothing sad about tonight. We are so incredibly proud of you all,” Biden told supporters assembled in Des Moines. “So many of you have sacrificed for me and I am so indebted to you. I feel no regret. I ain’t goin’ away. I want to thank the people of Delaware and I’ll be going back to the Senate as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
Biden finished a distant fifth place with just 1 percent of the vote, behind Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.; former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, respectively.
Biden and his family spent the week leading up to caucuses traveling through Iowa, hoping to drum up enough support for a strong fourth place finish. He often played up his experience and “electability.”
Speaking to supporters on Jan. 1, he said, “I want all the caucus-goers in this great state to close their eyes and imagine: If their candidate is president of the United States, not in a year but this very instant, are they confident that they have the sure-footedness, the steady enough hand to know exactly what they would do in Pakistan? To know exactly what they would do — not generically — exactly what they would do in Iraq? … Are they ready? Because, ladies and gentlemen, they are going to have to act.”
But Mo Joe 08 failed to catch on with Iowa voters, who clearly threw their support behind the three front-runners.
It’s not the first time Biden has abandoned a run for the White House. In 1988, he left the race before the Iowa caucuses largely because of accusations that he plagiarized from speeches by a British Labor Party leader.
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