Presidential biographer tells NBC's Chuck Todd that Biden could end up as this era's Bob Dole

(Image credit: Screenshot/NBC)

last updated 3 June 2019

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate field seems to grow by the day, increasing the chances that someone unexpected could emerge from the pack.

But, at the moment, the most conventional candidate is ahead in the early polls. That would be former Vice President Joe Biden.

Historically speaking, though, there isn't much recent precedent for someone like Biden to win the presidency, even if he does snag the party's nomination, presidential biographer Jon Meacham Told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press. Meacham, who has written books about Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and George H.W. Bush, said that when looking at Democrats who have been elected to the Oval Office in the post-World War II era, most of them have been younger, more innovative forces.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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