Biden: just doing what he thinks he has to do
There’s been a great deal of discussion about Biden and his reversal on the Hyde Amendment. But I haven’t gone into it much, because I already find Biden such a loathsome character.
Maybe “loathsome” isn’t the right word. But I have long found him to be an opportunistic mediocrity who seems well-suited to politics (that’s not a compliment) and who doesn’t appear to have a deeply-held set of values. Of course, that doesn’t distinguish him from most politicians, but I didn’t say he was distinguished, although he’s got staying power and has held many many offices, including having been VP. That’s why the Democrats are pushing him; he’s their only elder statesman at the moment, or at least their most “likeable” one.
That word “likeable” often puzzles me when applied to politicians, and it’s applied often. I find Biden sort of sleazy, and he seems rather doddering lately. But apparently he has a lot of likeability to which I’m blind (as did Obama). At any rate, “likeability” isn’t one of my top criteria for voting. It’s Biden’s political stances I’m against.
But I think his political stances actually involve doing and saying whatever he thinks will get him where he wants to go, politically. Right now he wants the Democratic nomination. If he gets it, he will be a few weeks shy of his 78th birthday. That doesn’t seem to be a selling point, does it? But I see his reversal on the Hyde Amendment as his effort to keep up with the youngsters in the Democratic Party rather than anything to do with principle.
If you want to get up to speed on Biden and the Hyde Amendment, see this. It’s not just a change of mind or even a supposed change of mind (such as Obama’s on gay marriage, for example), it’s a change and a change and a change:
For starters, “abortion rights in crisis” doesn’t explain why Biden has flipped three times on this issue in the span of a month, including twice in the span of 24 hours. If he’s worried about Brett Kavanaugh and fetal-heartbeat laws, he should have switched to a no on Hyde months ago and stuck to it. I’d add that if Biden’s view of Hyde is dependent on the threat level to Roe, he should have flipped to no on Hyde decades ago, after Clarence Thomas was confirmed. The Supreme Court at the time had *eight* Republican appointees, five of whom had been appointed by Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush…
Why was the threat in the early 1990s insufficient to get him to reconsider his view of Hyde? Why is the threat now, when the Democratic Party is far more militantly pro-choice than it was then, sufficient to make him do so?
The “best” argument available to Team Biden that doesn’t admit the plain truth, which is that he’s afraid he can’t get nominated in 2019 by remaining pro-Hyde, is that he … just hasn’t thought very deeply about this issue. He remained blithely pro-Hyde for the better part of 50 flippin’ years only to have his new campaign staffers convince him literally overnight that poorer areas of the country deserve some federal sugar to keep the abortion mills running. It was the first time he devoted more than eight seconds of thought to the subject, his aides might say, and a lightbulb went off over his head.
That’s not a very good campaign pitch either, though, for obvious reasons. And it would cut the heart out of Biden’s longstanding defense of his pro-Hyde position, that this is supposedly “deeply personal” for him and a matter of considered moral deliberation.
I agree. I think it reveals Biden as what he’s been all the time. Now, maybe that’s what people want. But I don’t think it plays well with either side.
His demeanor in recent appearances suggests onset dementia.
Joe is going to be in Iowa this next week. I plan to see him. I have a question or two.
Biden seems to be a real life example of the famous joke by Groucho Marx:
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
I always thought that Obama had Biden as his VP as a life insurance policy since Biden was always full of gaffes.
Cornhead – I’m interested in what you want to ask Biden if you get a chance. MY question would be “How can you reconcile your upbringing as a Catholic with support for abortion and being against the Hyde Amendment?”
A blogger for whom I have a good deal of respect, always caveated any comment about Biden by characterizing him as a “nice guy”; even though he disagreed with his every policy position. Every time he did this, I challenged it. I don’t think he ever responded with any specifics illustrating Biden’s claim to niceness. But, I don’t think he uses that phrase any longer either.
In my opinion Biden has demonstrated that he is a congenital liar; and one of the most egregious I am aware of was his persistent claim that his family were killed by a drunk truck driver. After many years, the truck driver’s daughter obtained, and made public, the police reports of the accident, proving Biden’s deliberate slander against her father.
“That word “likeable” often puzzles me when applied to politicians, and it’s applied often.”
I think it’s an important trait, and I get it. It’s easy to forget that the president is the leader, not just some guy making policy, and has to be charismatic, to some extent, he has to get people to follow him, to buy into whatever he is selling. Obama had it, Reagan really had it, Trump has it. (I never did really see it in either of the Clintons, but I guess plenty of people did) Some of the presidential candidates I’ve liked for their policy positions just didn’t have it in terms of charisma and never caught on, which I didn’t get until I started to think of politicians in terms of being leaders.
I’m with you on Biden though. Who can forget this great moment in campaigning – Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday told a diverse crowd here, including many African-Americans, that presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney would “put you all back in chains” by unshackling Wall Street.
The Dems Elite think that Biden can beat Trump. Then, he dies and Harris or whomever becomes President. A younger Dem then in the WH. Most likely a woman.
They see it as a win win. He dies, bury him and then have their preferred person as President.
On paper Biden looks good. He’s got a great lead in the polls, though too early to mean much. He’s an old style Democrat, so older Democrats will be comfortable with him. He was Obama’s VP, so blacks will be somewhat more comfortable with him than other white candidates. He’s not a radical like the others, who would have been fringe even ten years ago, so he’s got a shot at moderate and swing voters. What’s not to like?
It’s a good plan. The only problem is that he’s Joe Biden and a 76-year-old Joe Biden at that.
liz on June 8, 2019 at 6:24 pm said:
…
Cornhead – I’m interested in what you want to ask Biden if you get a chance. MY question would be “How can you reconcile your upbringing as a Catholic with support for abortion and being against the Hyde Amendment?”
* * *
Same way the Democrats have been doing it for decades.
They lie.
Biden has always been a which ever the way the wind is blowing buffoon. He has the gravitas (favorite term of the msm a few years ago) of a stale donut.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1136967564934995968.html
John Hayward@Doc_0
Well, most news consumers ignore quite a lot, but otherwise he may be onto something here.
Related to the above Descent of the Democrats
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1136264238941581313.html
“The Left deliberately and very aggressively attacked one of the most important positive forces for healthy social cohesion: men and women getting married relatively young and staying together. Everything unraveled after that pin was pulled out of society, just as they wanted.”
If not Biden, Who?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/08/cnn-iowa-poll-creepy-24-crazy-16-dopey-14-spank-me-7-and-how-15/#more-164834
pictures and percentages
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/06/08/cnn-iowa-poll-creepy-24-crazy-16-dopey-14-spank-me-7-and-how-15/#more-164834
“The only problem is…”
…that he’s a clown. And a dishonest one at that. (Shocking but true!)
He’s a very weak candidate, but he could make it depending on how fraudulent the voting will be (the dead, the multiple voters, the non-citizen voters, etc.).
To be sure, he might might improve his chances considerably by declaring himself transgender.
Not a minute to lose.
Say what you will about Biden, I find his love for America is unquestionably touching…
Hunter/China/Ukraine…,
Carson Napier says:
June 8, 2019 at 10:59 pm
My own view is that the democrat party is being used as a lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the most undesirable and unfit. I can’t prove it, but no one can disprove it either and the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming.
Don’t talk to me about superior civilizations, mortal. Know your place!
I’ve always seen Joe as an old-time Democrat ward heeler. He’s way out of his depth for anything above that. If he gets the nomination, Trump will have to be very careful in going after him — he might be seen as committing elder abuse!