Biden was a spectator at his first DNC. Now, at his 13th, he’s an incumbent president passing the torch

CNN —

When Joe Biden traveled to Miami Beach for his first Democratic National Convention in 1972, his presence generated little more than a footnote.

“Councilman Joseph R. Biden, D-Faulkland Heights, a non-delegate, also is attending,” reads the only reference to his being there, turned up in a Delaware newspaper archive.

On Monday, Biden will ascend the convention stage at the other end of his political life.

An arc that began as a long-shot candidate to become the youngest senator in Washington will conclude as the oldest sitting president in history, once hopeful for a second term but now resigned to watch his chosen successor assume the mantle of Democratic standard-bearer.

Aides said that in his speech the president would deliver a forceful argument for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election in November while casting her rival, former President Donald Trump, as a threat to democracy. Biden was revising his speech with senior aides at Camp David ahead of his appearance.

The 29-year-old who skipped a meeting of the New Castle County Council to attend his first convention in 1972 may never have imagined himself behind the podium as the incumbent president.

But Biden’s first foray into convention life was not his last. He would go on to attend a dozen of the gatherings over the years.

His stature may have begun modestly as a spectator. But by 1976, as a senator, he’d been elevated to floor manager and surrogate for Jimmy Carter, whom he’d been quick to endorse. His role expanded four years later, allocated an early-in-the-evening speaking slot.

Biden is seen at the 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago. Biden speaks on the last night of the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

The national media paid