Net Results

CNN has reported that Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. will quit the Democratic presidential contest after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses. If correct, Biden will join Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who confirmed his withdrawal in a caucus night statement to supporters.

A Biden pullout would mark his second, and likely final, brief brush with presidential politics. In 1987, as a 45-year-old rising political star, Biden appeared poised to stage a competitive bid for the 1988 Democratic nomination, until accusations that parts of a major speech he delivered were plagiarized undermined his campaign.

Biden this time relied heavily on his experience in a Senate career dating to 1973, and particularly emphasized his heavy focus on foreign policy issues. But despite his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his singular plan to divide Iraq into three separate enclaves for the nation's predominant ethnic groups, Biden's fundraising and poll numbers lagged badly. He received fewer than 1 percent of the county convention delegates according by the Iowa caucuses.

Biden has always had a fallback option in 2008 politics though. Even as he ran his longshot presidential campaign, Biden continued preparing for a bid for a seventh Senate term -- for which he is overwhelmingly favored.