FRONTLINE

>>

NARRATOR

Joey Biden's crisis was stuttering. >> He came of age in a, another time, in which people... (stuttering softly)...weren't as open about disorders or disabilities or setbacks... (stuttering) When the common......prescription was... "Buck up. Deal with it." >> Dealing

with it

a rough-and-tumble childhood in Delaware, his father a car salesman fallen on hard times. For little Joey, Catholic school. Nuns. >> He had an assignment he had to memorize. He had to stand up and deliver it in the classroom. >>

NARRATOR

The words were in

front of him

"Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentleman." >> When Joe read it,

it went... (claps out rhythm)

"Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man." "Say that again?" Mmm... "Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentle man." And this went on three times. >> He said "gentle man" instead of "gentleman." And... the nun said... (imitating

nun)

"Mr. B-B-B-B-Biden, what's that word?" And this is a person in a... position of authority, this is a person who's meant to protect you. >> It was so embarrassing and so enraging that Biden walked out of the room, he walked out of the school. He walked all the way home. (car motor starts) >>

NARRATOR

Joe's mom, Jean, marched him back to the school to confront his teacher. >> The sister starts telling her how disrespectful Joe is, and my mother, "Stop." She said, "Just tell me, did you make fun of my son?" "Well, I..." "Sister, did you make fun of my son?" "Well..." And my mother said, "Well, I'll answer it for you. You sure in hell did. And if you ever, ever, ever do that again, I'm going to come back and I'm going to knock your bonnet right off your head. Do we understand each other?" >> Stuttering is a fear problem. The person feels fear, shame, guilt, tension. He's always worried about what might happen. He might get into a situation, not be able to say his name, or the telephone rings and he can't answer it. >> I was surprised at how often this subject came up during my time with him. It helped me understand that so much of who he is comes back to that. That people are ready to make fun of him. That people will laugh. >> Bullied, harassed, ridiculed, he was hell-bent on beating the stutter. >> Biden would stand in front of his bedroom mirror holding a flashlight to his face, and he would recite Yeats and Emerson. >> He kept pushing-- against the stutter, the bullies-- and it paid off. >> People liked to be around him, he really had a presence. You knew him when he walked in. He was a little taller than most, and in very good shape. He was a star football player on their team. >> Joey Biden found

another way to fight back

politics. >> In high school, he's president of his senior class. Honestly, that's when he gets a taste for it. The stutter is still part of him during his senior year in high school, where he has to introduce his family at the, at graduation, and he has to stand up there and not stutter, and say this publicly. And he does it. >> We want Joe! We want Joe! >>

NARRATOR

In the crisis of stuttering,

a life method

persevere. Just push through. >> More medical research to confer-- to conquer devastating diseases like cancer, and... Not the end in, um, um, in themselves... The UAW took ex-- credible cuts in their future... >> Many people would say Biden's stutter is among his most visible weaknesses, if not number one. But it's also a source of his strength. It's also... The main source of his grit and his... determination to just be there, competing.