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One of the lasting decisions any president makes before leaving office is choosing where to build his presidential library, often the repository of the administration’s long-term legacy for future generations.
Former President Joe Biden and his wife Jill set up, through their foundation, a board this week to plan his library, and they’ve now announced that Biden’s presidential library will be built in one of his “home states” – Delaware.
The Associated Press wrote that an unsurprising group of people are among the planners:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive.
The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation this past week approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project. The board includes former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, prolific Democratic fundraiser Rufus Gifford and others with deep ties to the one-term president and his wife.
The report quietly admitted that this planning for the library by Team Biden is a bit later than most recent presidents – even for a one-term president:
Clinton announced Little Rock, Arkansas, would host his library weeks into his second term. Barack Obama selected Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side as the site for his presidential center before he left office, and George W. Bush selected Southern Methodist University in Dallas before finishing his second term.
One-termer George H.W. Bush announced in 1991, more than a year before he would lose his reelection bid, that he would establish his presidential library at Texas A&M University after he left office.