The 2020 presidential race: whither Joe Biden
Joe Biden continues to be in line to become the Democratic nominee, although I have no idea whether he will actually be the candidate the party officially picks. I continue to blink in disbelief that he ever got as far as he has. But he was a good party player and Obama saw his utility as a VP who would toe the line and bring supposed “experience” to the ticket, and that’s why he’s the Democratic frontrunner today.
Now, though, Biden is 77 years old and fading – fading from a peak that was never all that high in terms of functioning. I’ve said before that even when I was a Democrat I felt he was a mediocre (at best) self-serving blowhard. Now he’s a faded one. But almost everyone I know would vote for him if he happens to become the nominee, because they hate Trump and would vote for literally anyone who opposed him.
So it’s almost futile to try to figure out Biden’s appeal (although I will proceed to try in the remainder of this post), because he doesn’t need to have any appeal at all except for the “D” after his name. The MSM will prop him up, the Party will pretend he’s playing with a full deck, and half (or nearly half?) of America will vote for him.
Biden has always been two things: very ambitious, and what might be called a schmoozer: someone who knows how to talk to people in a friendly way, especially to get what [he] want[s]. Hail fellow well met demeanor, with a core of nastiness underneath. If you look at Biden’s Wiki entry, especially the early years, you may be struck (as I was) by three things.
The first is a lack of academic interest or ability (which in my book does not necessarily mean a person is not intelligent or capable). The second is a tremendous ambition to go into politics and rise very high indeed. And the third is a history of plagiarism. Here are some quotes:
Academically, [in high school] he was a poor student but was considered a natural leader among the students and elected class president during his junior and senior years…
He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1965 from the University of Delaware, with a double major in history and political science, graduating with a class rank of 506 out of 688. He impressed his classmates with his cramming abilities, and played halfback for the Blue Hens freshman football team. In 1964, while on spring break in the Bahamas, he met and began dating Neilia Hunter…He told her he aimed to become a senator by the age of 30 and then president…
During his first year [at Syracuse Law School], Biden was accused of having plagiarized five of 15 pages of a law review article. He said it was inadvertent, because he did not know the proper rules of citation. He was given an F and required to retake a course. This incident was cited in 1987, when plagiarism accusations arose during his first run for president. Biden received his Juris Doctor in 1968, graduating 76th of 85 in his class.
Right from the start you have the themes of affability and ambition, as well as lack of academic interest and abilities and the willingness to cheat (or abysmal ignorance of what the rules were). And yet, here he is and here we are.
One curious point is that Biden is a teetotaler, and for much the same reasons as Trump:
Negative impressions of drinking alcohol in the Biden and Finnegan families and in the neighborhood led Biden to be a non-drinker.
I think having two lifelong non-drinkers running against each other for president is somewhat unusual.
[NOTE: Odd that Biden (or someone handling him) has decided to try to attack Trump for being too soft on China. Only someone who already detests Trump or who literally knows nothing about his attitude towards China would buy that. What’s more, Biden is extraordinarily vulnerable to the same charge coming back at him, and it’s far more likely to stick. Even Peter Beinart at the Atlantic doesn’t think this is a smart move on Biden’s part.]
During his first year [at Syracuse Law School], Biden was accused of having plagiarized five of 15 pages of a law review article. He said it was inadvertent, because he did not know the proper rules of citation.
Never learned rules of citation in 4 years of college? Tell me another one. I learned them in high school.
Biden received his Juris Doctor in 1968, graduating 76th of 85 in his class.
The nickname of Slow Joe came from somewhere.
On the topic of a “tremendous ambition to go into politics”, one should be mindful of the words of Arthur Koestler: “The desire to go into politics is usually indicative of some sort of personality disorder, and it is precisely those who want power most that should be kept furthest from it.”
Biden – there is no there there.
If there is a physical Biden body standing after the democrat convention, the puppet strings will be held by some other minds, and within a month of election the 25th amendment will be activated to elevate the Veep to the presidency.
Actually, there will be a big reveal at the convention, if not shortly before, of the true democrat candidate — who will thus not have had to undergo public scrutiny.
#JoeChina will NOT be POTUS
Quid Dementia Joe? I remain skeptical he is able to complete the race, either physically or mentally.
I can see Trump getting under his skin during a debate, and Joe challenging him to step outside or do push ups. And have a very public meltdown. Dems keep putting torpedoes into the water, they keep circling back.
Oh, wait…Acme Torpedo Works, a subsidiary of Acme, Inc. Wile E. Coyote, CEO.
That’s the other problem Joe has. A big honkin’ China problem. China isn’t exactly popular at the moment, and having your kid fly with you on AF2 to go get some sweet, sweet, Chinese kickback…err…investments for his hedge fund may prove to be a problem.
My guess is that Biden will not be the nominee. A white knight will be selected to save “democracy” from orangemanbad.
First certifiable Sock Puppet Presidential Candidate. We just can’t quite make out whose hand is inside this Charlie McCarthy. Yet.
I find it odd that this whole exercise of selecting the Democratic Party Nominee was so done so sloppily and so… undemocratically.
The Democrats have been making so many unforced errors lately, that all I can surmise is that that they are locked in an unprecedented internal power struggle. I cannot see how they can get their base enthusiastic about Biden. I suspect that there will be a very low Democratic voter turnout and, as a result, they will lose the House of Reps as well as the White House.
He was elected to Congress from Delaware seven times. I have a suspicion that Delaware Republicans never made a serious effort to get rid of him.
Joe was picked by the Dems for Obama’s running mate for two reasons. One, he’s the ultimate insider like McCain. He knew where all the skeletons were and could get into anybody’s office while Obama was a true outsider, being from Chicago and black. Yes, I said it. He’s a good looking black guy who dresses nice and can talk well. Just ask Joe. Second, Joe is so dumb, they knew he would never show up BHO. Why do you think it took Obama so long to endorse.
Joe has lost his first wife and daughter and, just recently, a son. To me, he remains a little too hail and hearty after these terrible losses. I would expect he would develop a little more gravitas and dolefulness to his personality. When someone is this disconnected from his path in life, I always suspect psychopathy.
DanJ1, 7:15 pm:
“[Obama is] a good looking black guy who dresses nice and can talk well.”
. . . when a teleprompter is handy and operative.
Anyone else here remember the ummnn’s and ahhhh’s when President Hopenchange was off-teleprompter?
A yahoo [R] news story says-
That Joe Biden will choose a Black/African-American woman as his running mate, when he runs for president.
Here’s hoping that the number of US people with white guilt have gotten over their “white guilt”, and their “whatever-people’s guilt”, that made them give in to Obama, every-time he threw guilt messages at them.
You know, messages that are like:
“How dare you not like my work as president? I’m a BLACK person!”
and
“How dare you not DO EVERYTHING I say? I’m a BLACK person!”
and
“How dare you not do everything I want? I’m a BLACK person!”
If you feel guilty about race issues, then the politicians will find ways to control you, every time.
Joe Biden grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I spent some time in and around Scranton professionally, and have known people living elsewhere who were Scranton natives. It is a deeply corrupt culture there, none of the natives that I have known have been trustworthy people. Some were hideously selfish and deceitful, the business people were incompetent and scheming, even members of a religious order had skeletons in their closets and knives ready to backstab. For that reason alone I regret that Joe Biden has risen as far as he has.
It is kinda funny that the “smart” party is stuck with Biden. If elected, portraying Biden as one of the smartest presidents ever would be a tough sell. The scary thing is that he actually could get elected, the Democrat nominee is probably guaranteed at least 45% of the vote.
I have a tangential question about this topic. Except for James Earl Carter, I can’t think of a modern, American President who had anything close to a STEM undergraduate degree (maybe Eisenhower). Yet, many of them were ambitious, even as Undergrads; Obama, Bush’s I and II, Clinton, Nixon, Kennedy.
I always thought of foreign language study as the “Calc” or “PChem” of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Although many aspects of L.A.S. are challenging, foreign language is the one required subject you can’t fake. You can’t cram. You can’t only take one semester and be proficient. It is years of diligent, dedicated study. Yet Bush II is the only modern President I know of that is/was conversant in a foreign language. And many of the others are not shrinking violets. I think we would have known if they were bi or trilingual.
Does anyone else think that is odd?
Jackie O’Nassis was quite good at French. Melania Trump is supposedly proficient in 5(?) languages.
Look what I found on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multilingual_presidents_of_the_United_States#Bill_Clinton
It claims Clinton and Bush II have partial Spanish proficiency, but I’m pretty sure Bush II is comfortably conversant, whereas Clinton is not. FDR was fluent and French and German!
I find anyone under the age of about 40 who is interested in a political career creepy.
I can’t understand why anyone would major in PoliSci.
In 1944 Franklin Roosevelt choose Harry Truman to be his running mate because Truman was bland, midwestern and competent enough. He had emerged from the Kansas City machine, but was never tainted by it.
He met Roosevelt in person a few weeks later, and was shocked by how visibly aged the president was. After he left the meeting, a friend commented, “Harry, you’re running for president, not vice-president.”
Truman replied, grimly, “I know.”
There’s a reason all of the female candidates from the primaries are waving their hands in the air. Biden already said he would choose a woman. And all of those women know that Biden will not be able to serve if elected.
You’re right about Eisenhower, Rufus. A degree from the service academies is pretty much an engineering degree with a lot of leadership thrown in.
Rufus T. Firefly on April 21, 2020 at 9:33 pm said:
I find anyone under the age of about 40 who is interested in a political career creepy.
I can’t understand why anyone would major in PoliSci.
* * *
My MA is in PoliSci, but I have often wondered the same thing.
What I learned was that, although I enjoyed doing the math and stats, and found the personalities and history interesting, the idea of dealing with politicians as a career became increasingly unappealing (1974-1976 era).
Besides which, computer programming paid better.
(I learned to code before I went to graduate school.)
While in college, I also concluded that no one under 40 should ever be allowed to study philosophy, much less teach it; and the voting age should probably be raised to 25.
Michael Walsh had an interesting article a few days ago that rings true for all the comments that have just been posted: “Michelle Obama will be the VP choice at the convention – Biden wins the Presidency – Biden will step down in late Jan. due to health reasons – M. Obama will be the president for the next 4 yrs.” Sounds just like what all here are saying.
Not an expert, but my impression is that when you start to have increasing signs of dementia, the decline from that point on can be slow, or, it can be very rapid indeed and, it seems to me, that–despite his campaign’s efforts to conceal this decline by limiting his public appearances, and trying to stage manage the appearances he does make–“Lunch bucket” Joe’s publicly observable symptoms are increasing in both frequency and seriousness.
If the accelerating mental decllne I think I see is really there, by the time of the Democrat Convention that decline will be undeniably obvious, and on such public display that Biden will be asked/forced to step down as the Democrat nominee
P.S.–And the fact that his wife Jill–seen sitting next to him in the screen during one of Biden’s latest appearances–appears to be acting as his minder/handler is even creepier.
The ruthlessness with which Joe Biden is being put through what appears to be an increasingly cruel ordeal is breathtaking
j e on April 21, 2020 at 5:09 pm said:
On the topic of a “tremendous ambition to go into politics”, one should be mindful of the words of Arthur Koestler: “The desire to go into politics is usually indicative of some sort of personality disorder, and it is precisely those who want power most that should be kept furthest from it.”
* * *
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
William F. Buckley, Jr.
I would make that the phone book of some solidly Republican city (should one be located), but definitely never trust the faculty of Harvard.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/observations-on-the-great-hunkering-10.php
But they have a goood excuuuse.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/04/21/trump-calls-on-harvard-to-pay-back-the-wuhan-coronavirus-relief-money-they-received-n2567367
Copying tweets doesn’t work – they claim Harvard will give 100% to students for financial aid, instead of the mandated 50%, but don’t mention that it goes only to students who had Pell grants etc. to start with.
In some fairness to Harvard, the allocation for educational institutions was part of the bill and was done by formula, but apparently Harvard doesn’t have the same moral standards as Shake Shack, which said, essentially, they were doing fine and wanted the money to go to businesses who needed it more.
Or they could do something really generous, like this guy.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/04/21/georgia-restaurant-owner-sells-car-to-help-employees-n2567272
King Cuomo, on the same hand as Harvard, decided it was better to hurt some people directly in the expectation of maybe helping some other people later.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/cuny-boots-students-from-dorms-to-make-space-for-coronavirus-hospitals/
I think the DNC will try to keep Biden on his feet until after the primaries are over, and then he’ll withdraw so the rulers can pick their puppet without interference from their voters. I think Michelle Obama would be their most formidable choice, since the Obamas inspire so much mindless adulation from the lefties. And of course she would revive the corruption that fuels the Democratic machine.
IMO, the Obamas are interested in bottomline only, cashy money. They are on the gravey train, why detour to the presidency?
AesopFan,
No offense applied regarding PoliSci majors, and I hope none was taken. Based on your comments here, you actually paid attention in class and have an obvious, genuine interest in political systems and how they present themselves across the modern world, and throughout history. The breadth and depth of your knowledge is impressive, as exhibited most recently on the Israel thread. Most of the PoliSci majors I knew were trying to maintain good GPAs for admittance to law school and went out of their way to avoid any classes that may require work, or a challenge.
In all sincerity I don’t understand what is wrong with smoke filled rooms. I am not a fan of political parties, but they appear unavoidable. If they are to exist, then they should be as pure as possible. Why both major parties have descended into a feigned, democratic process to choose their nominees is beyond me.
I understand the conventions. I just don’t understand all the wasted time prior to the conventions holding state by state votes of various degrees of effectivity. And why are any of the state votes open?
Rufus – no offense taken, of course, as none was intended.
“Most of the PoliSci majors I knew were trying to maintain good GPAs for admittance to law school and went out of their way to avoid any classes that may require work, or a challenge.”
That is very likely true in undergraduate PS programs, I suspect.
I was an “ME” (math-engineering) major then, rather than an “academ” (as the two overarching divisions were known at my alma mater; now it’s “STEM” and “useless”).
My master plan was to do the hard courses for stats and programming first, and the “easy” academic ones later, and it worked out fairly well. I cut my PhD program short because AesopSpouse was admitted to law school (!) in another state.
Some of the best people I’ve ever worked with were in my graduate school TA cohort, all very serious and dedicated. Except for Stuart the Communist, that is; even the other lefties didn’t like him.
At the time, there were still some conservative faculty and students, but the tilt was already trending. Since I became more conservative myself over the years, it’s probably just as well I got out of the discipline instead of beating my head against the wall in the Ivy Halls.
AesopFan,
Impressive way to approach it. I think our Congress suffers from a lack of members trained in Engineering and Systems. If you run for office in my state you have my vote!
I disagree with your statement about Philosophy. I took a class in Logic and it may be the course that had the single, biggest impact on my future education, and how I looked at learning and education. I ended up taking a fair amount of Philosophy after that, and some of it was fairly worthless (except from a historical perspective, or learning how not to think), but that initial course in Logic altered my manner of thinking like no other class before or since.
I think Jill Biden wants to be Edith Wilson redux. I don’t think “Joe gracefully retires after a couple months” is in her plan at all.
Well, we’ll know for certain who won that fight if we see sat the Democratic Convention they announce, “And here is Michelle Obama, (wink, wink, nod, nod) our candidate for Vice-President!” Wink, wink, nod, nod.
Rufus – well, logic is in a league by itself. It was one of my favorite classes as an “applied mathematician” (we didn’t really have programming majors at the time, back in the Dark Ages) as it is critical to good design and working code.
Now, if the Philosophy majors had actually applied logic to their ideological ramblings, they might be worth something.
In retrospect, Philosophy was probably the first classic discipline fully captured by the Left, as it had no necessary contact with reality, which Sociology and Political Science at least pretended to have, for awhile.