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Home » Joe Biden: nasty guy

Joe Biden: nasty guy

The New Neo Posted on by

I agree with this.

I’m puzzled by the oft-repeated notion that Biden is “likeable.” To me he’s not, and what’s more – and I think this is telling – he’s never been. That includes back when I was a Democrat who had never voted for a Republican in her life until her fifties.

He always seemed a smarmy career pol to me, with a fake and hearty hail-fellow-well-met demeanor hiding something much colder and more mendacious, combining a mediocre intellect with a dedication to self-promotion and to party politics in the classic sense of “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.” Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess. But it didn’t appeal to me even when I was a member of his party.

He hasn’t aged like fine wine as time has gone on. And yet a lot of people, even those who have no enthusiasm for his candidacy, seem to think he’s a nice guy. Go figure.

Comments

Joe Biden: nasty guy — 53 Comments

  1. I agree. I’ve had a negative “gut reaction” to him for the past 20 years or so. His chicklet teeth smile belies the nastiness inside him. And then there’s my feeling that he thinks he is just so cool! People make fun of Trump’s hairstyle, but Biden’s plug job with the little mini flip in the back is laughable. (If that’s the result of his aneurism surgery years ago, I take it back.)

    I remember thinking that President Obama couldn’t stand him, something about the way Obama looked at him now and then.

  2. There exists an interesting theory, in some conservative circles, that the elites in the DNC and the wealthiest donors to his campaign are fully aware of all the flaws possessed by Sleepy Joe, including his obvious senility, but that this constitutes an advantage, because, if elected, he can more easily be manipulated by those around him, including the VP and the members of his cabinet.

  3. I agree wholeheartedly. I never understood Biden’s appeal, even when I was a Democrat. He has a long reputation of saying crazy, incoherent things and outright lies, which can be easily fact checked. Age cannot be the sole reason, as this goes back at least 33 years…to when he plagiarized Neil Kinnock…and possibly even further.

    And yet, far too many Democrats hold him in warm regard. This is not the same as the GOP with Trump. Yes, Trump also says crazy things and outright lies at times. But I think to many Republicans (myself included), these are bugs, not features. With Democrats, Biden’s zaniness, is a feature. They love him for it, even though such behavior would not be tolerated in most other politicians.

  4. I think most approval poll numbers show that Biden has never really been that popular.

    Have you ever heard the expression “a stupid person’s idea of a smart person?” Biden is a decadent elite’s idea of what normal people like in a candidate.

    Mike

  5. Despite the Democrats and the MSM just blowing off, minimizing, or just not reporting Biden’s increasing mistakes, mis-identifications, lacks of orientation, and moments of confusion, or just passing these increasingly alarming and accumulating incidents off as just harmless “gaffs,” or as “Joe just being Joe,” (with Biden reportedly saying yesterday that “he is the only person who can beat Reagan”), given the man-killing pace and complexity of the job of President, and the virtually unlimited power a President has to do things that could get the U.S. into a world of hurt, Biden’s deteriorating mental state should cause great concern among all voters.

    Enough such “gaffs,” and they should disqualify someone from running for, or becoming, President; an accumulation that, in Biden’s case, I believe we have already reached and then some.

  6. Such an apt description, Neo. Is it any wonder this is the candidate they are promoting at this time? So fitting for what constitutes the Democratic party 2020.

  7. Gaffe machine, yes. Creepy, serial fondler of women in public settings, yes. Wrong on every foreign policy issue of the last 40 years, yes. A mean streak, yes. Willing to let his relatives profit off his political offices, yes. Just a typical Democrat politico, yes. Not much to recommend him for POTUS. Yet, he will be more difficult to beat than Bernie, IMO. If he wins the nomination, he will have Bloomberg’s money and operation behind him. The DNC will go all out to get the vote out – many dead voters resurrected. (And to “harvest” votes.) The campaign will use mostly slick TV ads and fewer personal appearances. He will be carefully coached for the debates. The MSM will go all out to slime Trump and praise Biden. He will not be easy to beat. And that tells a lot about how corrupt politics is today.

  8. I read Emma Sky’s book “The Unraveling” a couple years ago, which deals with the late stages of U.S. involvement in Iraq. Sky is British, and had been quite anti-war, but she spoke excellent Arabic because of working with Palestinians for a number of years. She ended up in Mosul because of her language skills, and it developed that she was very good at dealing with tribal leaders in Iraq. General Odierno noticed, and to her surprise he employed her, listened to her, and in time she became his “right-hand man.”

    Sorry for the long build-up, but her position meant that she came in contact with the highest level of people in the U.S. government. The one person she came to really despise was VP Joe Biden. He’s evidently quite a bully. Sky said that he would walk into the room smiling at his own jokes, but if anyone said one little thing he didn’t want to hear the smile dropped off his face and he’d instantly become abusive to everyone below.

    She blames him for some of the things that went drastically wrong, and he had much more arbitrary power than one might have supposed. Obama wasn’t interested in what went on over there. Biden was only to the extent of playing favorites and indulging himself in little power games.

    Emma Sky “The Unraveling.” Well-written and illuminates a great deal never of course covered by the press.

  9. Agree with every point. The thing is, the incident in 1987 when he was caught appropriating Neil Kinnock’s family history should have sufficed to blow him out of office on gales of laughter. Best I can discern, the person the Delaware Republican Party ran against him in 1990 was someone doing the state party a favor in return for an inside track to run for the positions she really wanted down the road. She won 36% of the vote for Congress, but was elected state Attorney-General 3x at a later date. His subsequent opponents include a businessman whose only runs for public office were his challenges to Biden in 1996 and 2002. His last opponent was nutty Christine O’Donnell.

  10. Many people believe whatever they’re told to believe by those who make a living at telling people what to believe. No critical thought involved by those many people at all.

    Personally, I don’t believe Biden is as far gone mentally as he’s making it appear. I see it as just another cynical ploy by a professional scumbag building a “diminished capacity” defense for the trials he knows are coming.

    A play that works better for him than most because he, in his fully cognizant self, is really an idiot.

  12. I agree with j e. I believe the left needs a figurehead president that can be rolled for photo ops then put away wet allowing the deep state to continue..

    I too read “The Unraveling” and the comment from Ms Sky about Joe Biden.

    I’m very good at first impressions mainly from the ability to look beyond a smile for what it’s covering. I read Good ol Joe as a fraud years ago.

  15. “I’m puzzled by the oft-repeated notion that Biden is ‘likeable.’ ”

    Most pundits and politicians are hacks who would praise Jack the Ripper if he had the right political affiliation.

  16. “Most pundits and politicians are hacks who would praise Jack the Ripper if he had the right political affiliation.” Exactly.

  17. Neo states, “He always seemed a smarmy career pol to me, with a fake and hearty hail-fellow-well-met demeanor hiding something much colder and more mendacious“ [my emphasis]

    From the linked article;
    “The casual cruelty with which Biden is willing to subordinate the lives of ordinary people to his political ambitions — for the sake of a petty tear-jerker line in one of his occasionally plagiarized stump speeches — is remarkable.”

    What comes to my mind is the appropriateness of the term; “The Banality of Evil” when applied to Biden.

    Not all evil is physically abusive, not all evil is blatant. Perhaps the worst evil is that which beguiles and so its malevolence is easily denied.

  19. “He hasn’t aged like fine wine as time has gone on.” – Neo

    https://mymodernmet.com/oldest-unopened-bottle-wine-world/

    So, how old is the oldest bottle of wine? Known as Römerwein, or the Speyer wine bottle, it’s at least 1,650 years old. This dates back to the 4th century, sometime between 325 and 359 AD. The 1.5-liter glass vessel was discovered during the excavation of a Roman nobleman’s tomb in modern-day Germany.

    If you’re wondering what wine this old smells or even tastes like, experts still do not know. They are uncertain what would happen to the liquid if it were exposed to air, so it has stayed sealed with a thick stopper of wax and olive oil.

  20. Art Deco on March 6, 2020 at 5:09 pm said:
    His wife and daughter were killed in a car accident in December 1972.

    Did you catch this?:

    https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/flashback-biden-lied-for-years-about-the-driver-involved-in-his-wife-daughters-death/
    * * *
    That’s a good retrospective, and ends much as Neo began.

    As a husband and as the father of two young boys, ages 9 and 13, I can all-too-well imagine the horror of receiving of phone call like the one Biden received on December 18, 1972. But to then spend years impugning the innocent driver who tried to save my own loved ones, despite just have been nearly killed himself? That I can’t imagine, and suspect you couldn’t, either. We can, however, safely assess the character of the man who would do such a thing — and then neglect to apologize when called on it — as thoughtless, cruel, and very, very small.

    I admit to some personal bias here. From the first time I became aware of Biden, during the 1988 presidential primaries, I found his demeanor annoyingly fake and cloyingly off-putting. My 19-year-old self had no way to know just how correct that assessment was.

    The substance of that story was in the Williamson post that was quoted at Neo’s link to PowerLine.
    I don’t always agree with Kevin W. these days, but sometimes he gets things right.

  21. I never understood the nice guy theme. I know that the media covers for him; but, one conservative blogger, whom I respect unequivocally, has made the same assertion. I have repeatedly challenged him for supporting evidence without response.

    Everyone knows that Biden is a serial liar; but, many shrug it off as harmless. Well, the lie that he told about the death of his wife and daughter was not harmless. He smeared an innocent man, and he did it knowingly and frequently. The innocent truck driver had no voice compared to that of a powerful politcian, and lived with the stigma to the grave. Fortunately, his daughter pursued the issue after his death and exposed the lie–for anyone who cares.

  22. Ackler on March 6, 2020 at 3:47 pm said:
    I agree wholeheartedly. I never understood Biden’s appeal, even when I was a Democrat. He has a long reputation of saying crazy, incoherent things and outright lies, which can be easily fact checked. Age cannot be the sole reason, as this goes back at least 33 years…to when he plagiarized Neil Kinnock…and possibly even further.

    * * *
    But his doctor says he’s been just fine since 1989.
    https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/03/joe-bidens-age-and-health-is-not-off-limits/

    Biden’s penchant for these types of mistakes had gotten so bad that President Trump was calling him out on it, Biden’s allies were pushing to scale back campaign appearances, and articles were written about the mental acuity questions. His physician even talked to Politico to assure people that Biden was “every bit as sharp as he was 31 years ago. I haven’t seen any change.”

    “Missed it by thaaaat much.”

    I guess Age really can wither him, and custom stale his limited variety.

  23. MBunge on March 6, 2020 at 4:12 pm said:
    I think most approval poll numbers show that Biden has never really been that popular.

    Have you ever heard the expression “a stupid person’s idea of a smart person?” Biden is a decadent elite’s idea of what normal people like in a candidate.

    Mike
    * * *
    So was: Hillary Clinton, Liz Warren, and a host of others who try to fake their authenticity.
    However, as Bernie’s supporters (and even detractors) have noted, Sanders isn’t faking his.
    A lot of people just don’t like what he’s authentically proposing.

  24. Snow on Pine on March 6, 2020 at 4:13 pm said:
    … Biden’s deteriorating mental state should cause great concern among all voters.
    Enough such “gaffs,” and they should disqualify someone from running for, or becoming, President; an accumulation that, in Biden’s case, I believe we have already reached and then some.
    * * *
    h/t CTH commenter.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-Ob2xdHuc&feature=youtu.be

  25. Kate–Sorry about that mistake.

    But my mistaking this for an authentic quote by Biden illustrates the greater problem here, and that is this, that given the kind of “gaffs” Biden has made in the past, him saying that about Reagan is all too believable, and that is a very scary thing.

    Surveying all of his actual quotes, do we really want–can we afford to allow someone as obviously deteriorating as Biden–to become or even to run for the office of President.

    It appears that Democrats/those running Biden’s campaign and Biden couldn’t care less about the good of the country, but are willing to put the United States in serious jeopardy, as long as they can attain the power they seek.

  26. Hereogar on March 6, 2020 at 5:02 pm said:
    Many people believe whatever they’re told to believe by those who make a living at telling people what to believe. No critical thought involved by those many people at all.

    Personally, I don’t believe Biden is as far gone mentally as he’s making it appear. I see it as just another cynical ploy by a professional scumbag building a “diminished capacity” defense for the trials he knows are coming.

    A play that works better for him than most because he, in his fully cognizant self, is really an idiot.
    * * *
    “Not guilty by reason of diminished capacity” – but does it apply to the years in which the offenses were committed, and what is the IQ limit for claiming it?
    Biden is not mentally handicapped in the legal sense; he just really is that stupid.

    And Neo covered your initial, correct, assertion in the Math post, with a little support from LI’s commenters.

    Exiliado | March 6, 2020 at 9:38 am
    And these people wake up every single day to go out there and tell us how much smarter than us they are, and they expect us to do, and say, and vote and live as they say, because you know, they’re so much smarter and stuff.
    And it’s their job to do that.
    And stuff.

  28. We’ll stated, neo. When I almost exclusively voted Dem, he still gave me the creeps. He was disgusting in the Clarence Thomas hearing. I can’t understand his support in the black community after that.

  29. My wife was very put off by the husband of one of her aquaintances. I asked her what she didn’t like, and she said “I don’t know- he just seems really…bidenous”. I knew just what she meant.

  30. I thought Biden was extremely arrogant and off-putting in the vice presidential debate against Paul Ryan. He came off as a smarmy and smug bully. I couldn’t believe anyone could find him likable after watching the debate. But my liberal daughter thought his performance was outstanding. She is now a Bernie supporter who is convinced that Biden is corrupt. But, she will pull the lever for Biden if he runs against Trump. Unlike republicans who stayed home in 2016 rather than vote for Trump over their favored candidates, I think the democrats will vote for Biden no matter what gaffes or ridiculous statements he makes. I think that poses a great problem.

  31. Where I am from, guys that behave as Joe Biden does are called “grin f*$kers”. Can’t be trusted and usually a tough guy in word not deed.

  32. AesopFan — thanks for the link to the Guardian review of Emma Sky. The only thing lacking was that it didn’t point to Biden in particular when it mentioned keeping Maliki in power despite the Iraqi election. But the review definitely gives the flavor of Sky’s book.

    I might add, dealing with Biden on another matter, that it was Joe Biden who was responsible for General Stanley McChrystal having to resign after the Rolling Stone hit piece. It was Biden who was allegedly so offended by a few things said by members of McChrystal’s staff when they were offduty and drunk. (McChrystal himself was not even there.) It was a set-up, but it worked.

    Funny how the two most successful generals in Iraq both lost their commands in strange circumstances having nothing to do with their performances in the field.

  34. miklos – interesting about the generals; not too strange, though, now that we have pulled the veil off of at least some of the corruption in the (in this instance) Democrats in power.

  35. The Dems will do their best to protect Biden — but I suspect Trump will be able to list many issues.

    As long as elections really are decided by “independents”, the Dems are in big trouble, even with Dem media spin. Biden is the deep state attempt to avoid losing the House; and he might win Pres, too. Vote fraud; semi-legal “harvesting” (illegal if Reps do it, OK when Dems do it).

    But Biden’s awfulness vs Bernie’s awfulness — each makes the other look a bit better in comparison. 8 more months of election uncertainty.

    And the Covid-19 / recession / possible ME war.

  36. I suspect a lot of it is gaslighting. As Obama’s former van driver cum national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, pointed out, all reporters now are 27 and know nothing, because they were journalism majors. Tell one of these kids often how Joe is such a great guy, and they’ll repeat it on air.

    It’s the same thing with “Bernie’s honest and consistent.” Bernie’s a commie rat bastard. He’s consistent in one thing: his admiration for communists. And communism shares one tenet with Islam: It is perfectly fine to lie if it advances the cause.

    I do hope Bernie is the nominee. I can’t wait to see Trump take him apart. “Yeah, Bernie, I’ve heard your schtick. Wanna be like Sweden. Funny thing, you commie bastard, you didn’t go to Stockholm for your honeymoon. You went to the Soviet Union.”

  37. Gordon Scott,

    Fair enough regarding callow youth, but why do you also hear it from so many in their 50s, 60s, 70s, who know his entire history? Even those opposed to his policies.

  38. I wonder if Biden has strong charisma in personal encounters, which doesn’t translate to video? This despite the counterexamples in the thread.

  39. . . . communism shares one tenet with Islam: It is perfectly fine to lie if it advances the cause.

    I don’t know whether the asserted commonality is either uniquely shared by Islam and communism (of whatever flavor) or no, but supposing it is so, I would assert the commonality must extend to another prior commonality (or characteristic): each believes it uniquely possess absolute, universal and final truth. The one, Islam, has such truth acquired in revelation from the creator god Allah. The other, communism, believes it has such truth acquired from a scientifically derived knowledge of the world.

    Scepticism upon either of these claims to final truth is viewed by each as tantamount to willful heresy, and thus I suppose, adjudged as evil by each.

  40. “t has such truth acquired from a scientifically derived knowledge of the world.”

    Yet study after study regarding human nature proves it false. As do real world experiments.

  41. How ironic is it that the Democrats and their never-Trump co-conspirators spent months trying to build a 25th Amendment case against Trump, calling him mentally incompetent, and now put up a truly mentally incompetent candidate to run against him? One notes again, the Democrats’ recurring dishonesty.

    Snow on Pines said: the Dems are “willing to put the United States in serious jeopardy, as long as they can attain the power they seek”. Absolutely true, and I find it amazingly dishonest and corrupt. Treasonous, at times. Hillary and Bill’s sale of uranium production to the Russians is an outstanding case in point. And especially Bills sale of missile technology to the Chinese. Both are acts that would have earned ordinary people a life sentence behind bars.

  42. . . . study after study . . .

    Plato’s Republic, written when, say, middle 4th century BC, is more than sufficient to show communism isn’t possible; is a false teaching; can never function among human beings, etc. But, y’know, no one should read that because: old, dead European hegemonist type (Hey! Hey! Ho ho, Western Civ has got to go!).

  43. I’m puzzled by the oft-repeated notion that Biden is “likeable.”

    Compared to Warren, Sanders, Bloomberg et. al., maybe he is. And don’t get me started on Hillary.

  44. Compared to Warren, Sanders, Bloomberg et. al., maybe he is.

    I don’t think Warren, Sanders, Bloomberg et al have ever produced a spawn like Hunter. Don’t think Sanders or Bloomberg have ever trafficked in Biden’s family history frauds, either. (And Warren’s frauds aren’t vicious in the manner of Biden’s yarn-pulling about his 1st wife’s death).

  45. Joe Biden is the typical corrupt politician who enriches himself and his family knowing that the press will never call him on it. He is empty, stands for nothing and bends whichever way the ideological winds blow him. Watch the press fawn all over him until November and cover for his gaffes.

  46. Joe’s enablers are giving good advice to the campaign.
    They know they can’t keep covering for him if he stays in front of the public.
    From CNBC to Gateway pundit to CTH to you.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/op-ed-biden-can-finish-off-sanders-by-doing-these-4-things.html

    We should leave Biden’s actual mental abilities to the medical experts, but his campaign needs to learn from the mistakes it made last year. Mentally sharp or not, Biden at every stage in his political career has never shown a consistent ability to win over voters anywhere other than Delaware.

    The Biden campaign foolishly ignored that fact and thrust him officially into the race way too early last year. In this election cycle, Biden’s perceived electability against President Donald Trump – and now against Bernie Sanders – has always been his best calling card. His personality, demeanor on the campaign trail, and his debate performances are all weak by contrast.

    With Super Tuesday’s grueling campaign and travel challenges behind him, it’s time for the Biden campaign to take their candidate out of the public eye and as many unscripted events as possible. That includes trying to reduce the number of debates versus Sanders and relying on more of Biden’s growing list of Democratic Party backers to do as much of the talking for him until Election Day.

  47. Back on the SCOTUS vs Schumer thread, Jamie linked an interesting post by Ann Althouse, which is just a long excerpt of a Graeme Wood post at Atlantic.

    https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/03/but-its-just-possible-that-creaky.html?showComment=1583525207945#c1068071842679084467

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/weekend-bernies-theory-presidency/607489/

    From Althouse, because The Atlantic has a paywall.
    I saw in the comments that I was not the only one wondering (a) how long this breaking news sat on Wood’s spindle waiting for Biden to finally make it back to the front; (b) how many more we will see from the rest of the MSM Event Presenters aka propagandists.

    See if you can spot the glaring inconsistency.

    March 6, 2020
    “But it’s just possible that the creaky machinery of an aging brain might make a president better at the job….”
    “[Neuroscientist Gregory Samanez-Larki] and his colleagues… recently found evidence that older adults are better at keeping their emotions and impulses in check…. Moreover, Samanez-Larkin says, the set of skills known as ‘decision making’ does not decline in any predictable way during normal aging.
    …
    Presidents need to have a spry brain, capable of assimilating new information and rapidly adding it to their cognitive repertoire. But the job is, most crucially, about making decisions—extremely difficult decisions that are, unlike arithmetic, matters of judgment and value. The rightness of a decision is often unknowable ex ante. In these treacherous exercises, the elderly do not do badly, and impetuous youngsters sometimes come very close to getting us all killed
    ….
    The more presidents slow down, the more decisions get made by other people
    ….
    And perhaps we’d all be better served if other people—and not Biden, Sanders, or Trump—were making decisions.

    Jamie noticed it, among others.
    https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/03/but-its-just-possible-that-creaky.html?showComment=1583522277579#c4028976672291178947

  48. The old ward heeler’s just a shill for whoever the Dems nominate for VP. Say hello to Michelle, Kamala, Stacy, or Amy.

  49. It seems to me that Biden’s mental condition is deteriorating at an ever accelerating rate, and just naming a steadier VP won’t really compensate for Biden’s descent into senility.

    Thus, as Biden descends into senility, its starting to look like there is an increasing possibility that Biden won’t even make it to the Convention–which I’m becoming more and more convinced–will be a brokered convention.

    One in which Biden will have withdrawn (i.e. more likely just been pushed aside), and the Democrat power brokers will pick a substitute.

    Who is that new Democrat Presidential candidate likely to be?

    Well, the available choices–male or female–are not that inspiring.

    Could the Democrats be foolish enough to take another ride on the Hillary train to disaster?

  51. There’s a story out today that Biden is already making plans to staff out his White House, and bringing back John Kerry, Susan Rice, all the old Obama Admin. gang.

    So perhaps Biden’s candidacy is just a ploy to get the Obama Administration back in power while avoiding responsibility for doing so.

    Biden runs, and plans out his incoming Administration, but his increasingly obvious senility causes him to drop out.

    Then, whoever is chosen to replace him (in “honoring” Biden’s service to the party, and his wishes) essentially just accepts the choices that Biden has made to staff his Administration and viola, the Obama Administration is reborn, and any blame for these appointments will be placed on Biden.

  53. He can’t remember if he married his sister, oops, that congressperson is from Minnesota. Honest mistake.

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