Joe Biden: Stumbles, tragedies and, now, delayed triumph

Days before he left the White House in 2017, former President Barack Obama surprised Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and said Biden was “the best vice president America’s ever had” and a “lion of American history.” The tribute marked the presumed end of a long public life that put Biden in the orbit of the Oval Office for 45 years but never allowed the Delaware Democrat to sit behind the Resolute Desk himself. Less than four years later, 77-year-old