Gravely injured, his two young sons were not expected to sur-
vive. The boys recovered; Biden was sworn in at their bedside.
A popular senator and devoted single father, Biden remarried
and is now the father of an adult daughter as well as a grandfa-
ther. A foreign-policy expert who opposed the appointment of
conservative judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, Biden
is also known for verbal gaffes and for taking the long train ride
home to Delaware each night to be with his family.
Perhaps because Palin’s was initially the least familiar tale,
her narrative got the most media play. Her photogenic face ap-
peared on one newsmagazine cover after another, often accom-
panying text that made her sound like a cross between Annie
Oakley and Wonder Woman, able to shoot and dress a moose as
well as change a diaper and do the state’s business. Opponents
saw her selection as a cynical bid to appease the Republican base
and attract women (detractors dubbed her “Caribou Barbie”).
The Republican campaign hailed her as a maverick in the Mc-
Cain mold, who had fearlessly taken on her own party in Alaska.
In a piece in Newsweek, Jeffrey Barthelot and Karen Breslau de-
scribed how Palin fit into a time-honored American tale. They
wrote: “Palin’s personal story taps one of the great American
myths—the hardy woman of the frontier, God-fearing and
determined to succeed against the odds. Her story could be a
Capra film, or a chick flick. But as with most political biogra-
phies (or Hollywood films), the rougher edges have been bur-
nished. To her critics, she’s also shallow, opportunistic and
even corrupt herself.” The last was an allusion to a bipartisan
investigation by the Alaska legislature into whether Palin im-
properly fired a state official. In October, the investigative
body determined that the governor Palin had violated state
ethics laws and misused her power but had the legal right to
replace the official.
On Becoming a Leader