COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Joe Biden, who has been in politics since 1970, just won an election outside of Delaware for the first time in his life.

Biden has run for president three or four times. In his earlier runs, he dropped out early, never winning a primary. This year, he lost Iowa badly, lost New Hampshire badly, and lost Nevada badly.

As I wrote after Iowa this year:

"Biden has proven he can win in only two circumstances: (1) When he is the running mate to President Barack Obama, the Democrats’ greatest political talent since President John F. Kennedy; and (2) when he is running in Delaware.

Before Obama tapped him as a running mate, the high point of Biden’s electoral life had been getting 165,000 votes in his 1996 reelection. That year, Biden got the lowest vote total of any sitting senator (finishing behind Alaska and South Dakota senators) and the second-lowest total of any victorious Senate candidate."

Now he's finally done it. After 50 years in politics, Biden has won somewhere outside of Delaware.