CHICAGO (AP) — Sixteen years ago, a triumphant Joe Biden delivered a speech to an admiring crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, his smile radiating confidence in the future of the country and his own path.

The future Vice President hugged his son Beau. He talked about how his own parents instilled in him a sense of courage and tenacity.

“Champ, when you get knocked down, get back up,” he recalled his father Joe saying. Biden then repeated the lesson taught to him by his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, who was sitting in the audience: “At some point in life, failure is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.”

In 2024, Biden was not forced to accept a failure of his presidency. He compiled a list of significant achievements that will be felt for years to come. But he decided to give up his campaign under pressure from Democratic leaders, in a remarkable concession to the passage of time, as allies in his party and a clear majority of adults in the USA concluded that the 81-year-old should not run for re-election. After Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race, his party not only forgave him, its leaders even praised him.

This is how Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. comes to Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week both revered and resigned.

Biden had consolidated the support of his party and had no serious rival. But this support collapsed after a disastrous debate in June, when his weaknesses were publicly and mercilessly exposed and his greatest disadvantage became clear once again: that at his age he might no longer be suitable for the job.

In Chicago, Biden decided to stand up again and show the difference between resigning and resigning. His vice president, Kamala Harrisis now in the spotlight as a candidate. For the president, it is the latest step in a life marked by loss and recovery.

“Wonderful things have happened to him, and terrible things have happened to him,” said Ted Kaufman, his friend, former adviser and Delaware’s appointed successor in the Senate.

This story is based on interviews with staff, colleagues and people who have worked with Biden over the course of his 50-year political career.

Biden came to the White House with the hope that focusing on the common good could help heal the partisan malice that had accompanied the rise of the former president. Donald Trumpnow again the Republican candidate.

No one denied that the pursuit of the White House requires a certain ego, but respondents emphasized that Biden sees his legacy more as that of a leader who was able to prove that government is a force for good in a cynical era.

“It’s less about him,” says Stefanie Feldman, assistant to the president and White House staff secretary. “He wants to make it clear to people that the federal government is delivering results.”

Biden used his decades of experience in the Senate to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure deal, signing off on sweeping investments in advanced technologies and negotiating a debt deal with Republicans to avoid a catastrophic default. Biden stressed last week that he was Price reductions on 10 of Medicare’s most expensive prescription drugs.

He also helped restore longtime allies’ faith in the United States as a steadfast partner and led efforts to provide much-needed support to Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion and to counter the rise of China.

He struggled with a pandemic, inflation, immigration problems, a broken supply chain and a difficult withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The experience he brought to the job – there’s no doubt about it – gave him the ability to accomplish things that nobody thought he could,” said Anita Dunn, who worked as a senior adviser. “But it’s not just about experience. It’s about relationships. It’s about understanding how Congress works and how to get members of Congress to get things done.”

But what Americans saw throughout was not the accumulated wisdom but the stiff, shuffling steps and the verbal battle.

Biden was born too early to be considered a baby boomer, and his political career was filled with notable successes and harrowing defeats. At 29, he was elected to the Senate in Delaware, but lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. He found a new partner in Jill and ran for president in 1988, but withdrew his candidacy after reports of plagiarism. He then struggled with serious health problems and survived two brain aneurysms.

His 2008 presidential campaign was a flop, but he became President Barack Obama’s trusted No. 2. Then Beau died of brain cancer and his other son, Hunter, succumbed to drug addiction. Against all odds, Biden won the Democratic nomination in 2020 and then defeated Trump, only to find that his party wanted someone else to replace his predecessor this year.

Aides recall that Biden was told years ago that China’s economic growth was positive because it would lower prices for consumers, even if that meant moving more manufacturing overseas. “If it helps the consumer and hurts the worker, we have a problem,” Biden told them at the time.

Biden was so focused on middle-class jobs that, ironically, his presidency was defined by the people’s desire for lower prices. Inflation was a symptom of the global dislocation caused by the pandemic and war, as well as government spending designed to stabilize the economy for workers, leading to a historic hiring boom.

The hard logic is that Biden designed his presidency with an eye on what America might look like in a decade.

Although he personally believed he could beat Trump, a possible defeat carries the risk of eliminating his tax cuts, which were intended to help the country transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and electric vehicles.

A defeat would mean even deeper tax cuts for the rich and corporations. A return of Trump to the White House could mean the disintegration of the alliances that Biden had rebuilt.

Even when Biden returned from political retirement in 2020 because he viewed Trump’s movement as a threat to democracy, the former president remained a defining figure in American politics. Trump had earned deep loyalty among many voters, who made their objections to Biden visible through protests that he could see from the presidential limousine.

“Perhaps that is the biggest unfinished business of his administration,” Dunn said. “He has raised the issues in a way that makes them an issue for voters, and that is ultimately the way democracies deal with them.”

Biden had told voters he needed a second term to “finish the job.” But a president’s work is never really finished. This is also evident in some of the portraits of other presidents that Biden has hung in the Oval Office.

George Washington served two terms and left behind a fledgling country full of potential and danger. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before he could bring peace after the end of the Civil War. Franklin D. Roosevelt did not live to see victory in World War II.

Unlike Lyndon Johnson in 1968, Biden’s hopes for a second term were not dashed by an unpopular war and violence on America’s streets. Unlike Harry Truman in 1952, he did not fail in a primary.

But in retirement, Biden may once again be fortunate enough to experience the future he helped create during his four years as president.