Joe Biden has run for president two times -- in 1987/88 and in 2007/08. Will he run again?
That time — actually, times — Joe Biden ran for president
02:03 - Source: CNN
Washington CNN  — 

As Vice President Joe Biden mulls another run for president, it’s worth looking back at his two past bids – launched in 1987 and 2007.

Biden’s first campaign was derailed rather quickly in September 1987 after a plagiarism scandal culminated in an admission he lifted – nearly verbatim – a speech originally given by a British politician.

And his 2007 bid is likely most remembered for the gaffes the free-speaking Delaware senator let fly, including one in which he inartfully described his then-Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

How much time does Biden have to decide?

Biden’s proclivity to let his mouth get out ahead of his brain has been seen as either an asset or a liability, depending on who you listen to.

“Where you look at Joe Biden then or look at Joe Biden now – he’s a kid from Scranton,” said John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent. “He speaks the language of the bartender or the plumber or the mailman.”

How other vice presidents have made it to the Oval Office