The two sides of Joe Biden: Ambition combined with empathy make for an uncommon politician Marc Fisher, The Washington Post Jan. 13, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Joe Biden, like any president, is a man of great ambition. This is a guy who started developing a detailed plan for a presidential campaign when he was in college. Actually, trace it back even further: Biden once visited his old Catholic school, and a student asked whether he'd always wanted to become president. Biden demurred, but a nun who'd taught him years before stepped in with a reminder - it turned out young Joey had written a paper about his desire to be chief executive.