The Wrong Time for Joe Biden

[Right_in_Virginia]

The Wrong Time for Joe Biden
New York Times, Apr 1, 2019, Michelle Goldberg

[...]

So I don’t think Biden’s avuncular pawing is a #MeToo story. (Lappos specifically said the way he grabbed her “wasn’t sexual.”) But if Biden was more oblivious than predatory, his history still puts him out of step with the mores of an increasingly progressive Democratic Party. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that some Democrats are bracing “for an extended reckoning about Mr. Biden and gender if he enters the race.” The inevitably of such a reckoning should make Biden reconsider getting in.

Biden’s issues with gender, after all, go far beyond chronic handsiness. His waffling on reproductive choice troubles many feminists; as The Times reported last week, Biden’s “back-and-forth over abortion would become a hallmark of his political career.” He was the chairman of the hearings on Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination, where Anita Hill, who accused Thomas of sexual harassment, was demeaned and dismissed. Though Biden has expressed sorrow for how Hill was treated, he’s never directly apologized to her.

Beyond gender, on issue after issue, if Biden runs for president he will have to run away from his own record. He — and by extension, we — will have to relive the debate over the Iraq war, which he voted to authorize. He’ll have to explain his vote to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, which, by lifting regulations on banking, helped create the conditions for the 2008 financial meltdown. (Biden has called that vote one of the biggest regrets of his career.) In 2016, Hillary Clinton was slammed for her previous support of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which contributed to mass incarceration. Biden helped write the law, which he called, in 2015, the “1994 Biden crime bill.”

[...]

Still, the widespread assumption that Biden would pose the strongest challenge to Donald Trump is unwarranted. In recent years, neither party has done well when they’ve chosen candidates who were meant to appeal to some elusive cadre of swing voters but lacked a robust grass-roots base. On paper, the war heroes John Kerry and John McCain looked electable; Obama and Trump did not. To those desperate to unseat Trump, the centrist, establishment Biden might seem like the safest choice, but it would actually be risky to pick a candidate who will need to constantly apologize for himself.


More:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/opinion/joe-biden-lucy-flores.html

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Oh come now!

Was there ever a "Right Time" for Joe Biden?

[jmyrlefuller]

On paper, the war heroes John Kerry and John McCain looked electable; Obama and Trump did not.

What is she talking about? I mean, sure, John Kerry looked "electable" compared to Howard Dean, but she faced a George W. Bush who wasn't yet vulnerable or unpopular. Kerry was never all that effective of a Senator.

But Obama less electable-looking than McCain?  Does she even remember the 2008 campaign? Obama's election was considered a fait accompli. He was the inspiring, soaring orator! A uniter! (Gag me with a spoon.) McCain? It was his turn. As for Trump... he never would have won had the Democrats not insisted it was Hillary's turn.

Biden, at least, has a long record in Washington. If he had run in 2016, with the benefit of being the incumbent VP, and his role in sequestration and cutting the deficit, he probably could have won pretty easily: there were a lot of people last cycle desperate for someone not Trump or Clinton.

But this is 2020. Biden is in his late 70s. The Democrats have veered into socialism and tokenism. The new face of the party is the not-yet-eligible AOC. Old-school liberals like Biden are out. Don't get me wrong, he could still win the primary if he truly wanted it—and I'm still not convinced he does—but the money is going to go to the Bernies, the Betos and the Kamalas.

[Fishrrman]

For ol' Joe, 2020 is now-or-never.

If he doesn't take his chance this time, those chances ain't comin' 'round again.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

He'll be the 1st to come equipped with oven mitts to all public gatherings.

[Snarknado]

He'll be the 1st to come equipped with oven mitts to all public gatherings.

I doubt if that would stop him - boxing gloves and a straitjacket might help, maybe with a diving helmet to discourage the sloppy kisses? At least then his molestation attempts would make for funnier youtube viceos...