Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

Will there be an endorsement from BHO? Don’t hold your breath

The chatter has begun already: Is there an endorsement in the works from President Obama to his “brother,” the former vice president, Joe Biden?

Do not bet a single nickel of your lottery winnings on it.

Joe Biden announced his presidential candidacy this morning. He is the immediate front runner for the Democratic nomination. He took dead aim at Donald Trump’s relentless campaign of division, fear and loathing.

I’ll have more on all of that later.

But the question now centers on what Barack Obama will do.

He should not make an endorsement with 20 men and women vying for his party’s presidential nomination. It’s not customary for prominent politicians to take sides so early in a still-developing race for public office.

President Reagan once created an “11th Commandment” that urged Republicans to avoid speaking ill of other Republicans. The same can be said of Democrats, particularly when it involves a politician sitting on the sideline.

Yes, the former president and former VP grew close during their eight years in power. President Obama has referred to Vice President Biden as the brother he never had. Their wives worked closely together to forge support for veterans and their families. Obama has talked about how his daughters and Biden’s granddaughters became “best friends.”

The ex-POTUS might offer the former VP some back-door advice. Nothing public will be heard.

So, let’s stop with the chatter about whether Barack Obama will endorse formally his good friend, Joe Biden. That will come in due course.

First things first. Joe Biden first has to get nominated. That will be a long and arduous slog up a steep and possibly slippery slope.

political news

Former VP about to liven an already-lively contest

It appears official, or is about to become official.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to enter the race for the presidency of the United States.

Oh, my. How am I supposed to react to this? I’ll give it a shot.

I am of decidedly mixed feelings about it. I admire Joe Biden’s long record of public service. I appreciate all he endured during his time in the U.S. Senate, starting with his immense personal tragedy stemming from the motor vehicle crash that killed his wife and baby daughter.

He took the senatorial oath and served well for more than three decades. Along the way he sought the presidency twice. He got caught in a plagiarism controversy during his first run; he then lost to Barack Obama in 2008, who then selected him as his running mate.

Biden has been on the public stage for a long time. He has a lengthy record of accomplishment. There has been some embarrassment. He didn’t acquit himself well during those hearings involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the woman who accused him of sexual harassment.

I prefer a younger, fresher candidate to challenge Donald Trump in 2020. If it’s not to be, though, I will gladly give VP Biden my support on Election Day.

To be sure, age is an issue. Biden will be 77 years of age were he take the oath in January 2021. Time is no one’s friend. Still, he is the current frontrunner in this enormous field of Democratic hopefuls.

Make no mistake, though, about Biden’s ability to energize the debate. Yes, he is gaffe-prone at times, which might enliven the discussion right off the top.

I simply prefer someone in the White House with a demonstrated commitment to public service. Joe Biden has provided that service dating back to the time I cast my first vote for president.

That’s a long time, man.

national news

Just apologize, Joe Biden

Joe Biden looks and sounds like someone who is going to run for president of the United States in 2020.

Before he does, though, the former vice president needs to perform one simple but significant task. He needs to apologize to all those who might have felt uncomfortable as they received touchy-feely greetings from the longtime public official.

You know the story. Some women have disclosed that the former VP got a little too close for comfort to them. He grabbed them by the shoulders, got in their faces, kissed some of them on the top of their heads.

Did he commit an act of sexual deviancy? Did he assault them, as others in public life have done or have been accused of doing (such as the current president of the United States)? No. He hasn’t.

And in my view these acts that Biden allegedly did are not disqualifiers if he wants to run for the presidency.

However, the video he released in which he said “I get” that social norms have changed since he entered the national scene in 1972 as a young U.S. senator, doesn’t go quite far enough.

Biden should say he is sorry for what he did. By saying he is sorry, I don’t mean he should offer one of those lame “I am sorry if I offended” someone, or “I am sorry to those who are offended.”

He needs to say, “I am sorry for my actions. I regret them terribly. I have learned my lesson. I pledge to be a better man.”

If he does that, then he should launch his campaign . . . and go full throttle in a quest to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He is not my ideal candidate to defeat Donald Trump, but he would take a huge step toward that goal by saying he is sorry for the way he has behaved.

national news

Should POTUS shut up or keep yammering?

Brian Krassenstein is a blogger who is active on Twitter, which he uses to state his anti-Donald Trump views to the world.

He wrote this:

As Trump and his supporters attack Joe Biden for making women feel uncomfortable and then apologizing for it, it’s a great time for a Trump quote:

“I moved on her like a b**ch… when you’re a star, they let you do it. Grab them by the pu**y, you can do anything.”

Yes, those words came from the man who would become president of the United States. We heard those words just days before the 2016 presidential election. Many of us had hope they would sink the Trump candidacy, sending it to the bottom of some trench.

It didn’t. He was elected anyway. He won 80,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in three key states that gave him the Electoral College majority he needed to win the presidency.

Trump’s attack on Joe Biden over allegations that he made women feel “uncomfortable” is going to persist. The Trump base of voters won’t care that he said the things that Krassenstein reported.

Shame on the future president. Shame on those who endorsed him.

Given that he cannot keep his trap shut, I guess we’ll just let POTUS keep on spouting the crap he wants to let fly.

national news

Sen. Graham finds himself in a difficult place

I want to play out a possible political scenario that involves two close friends who happen to be members of competing political parties.

Democrat Joe Biden, the former vice president and U.S. senator, is facing questions about how he has interacted with women over the years. Some of them have complained about feeling “discomfort” because of Biden’s hands-on manner of greeting individuals.

You know the story by now. Some women have complained that Biden got a little too close for comfort. Biden has explained that he made no sexual advances on them. He said that is the way he is, but added that he recognizes that social norms have changed. “I get it,” he said.

The other fellow is his good friend, Republican Lindsey Graham, with whom Biden served in the Senate before becoming VP in 2009. Graham also is a close political ally of Donald Trump, against whom Biden might run in the 2020 presidential election.

Graham’s friendship with Biden appears — to me at least — to be much more genuine than his alliance with Trump. Indeed, just before he left office in 2017, President Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom and quoted Sen. Graham as saying about Biden, “If you can’t admireJoe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. He is as fine a human being as God ever created.”

Graham just recently talked about his longtime friendship with Biden while giving him the benefit of the doubt over the “too close” allegations that some women have leveled against him.

What will happen if Biden becomes the Democratic nominee for president and runs against Donald Trump? Will the president lean on his ally to savage the former VP? If he does, would Lindsey Graham take the bait?

Do personal friendships get in the way at times of political reality?

Yeah . . . they certainly do.

national security

Trump trashes Biden . . . over this?

Yep. It’s true. Donald Trump probably could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.”

That has to explain how this president, facing the accusations that have been leveled at him by at least a dozen women, could poke fun at a potential 2020 opponent because he’s a bit too touchy-feely.

Trump took dead aim at former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s been accused by four women of getting a bit too close to them. He made them feel “uncomfortable” because he touched them and kissed them on the back of their heads.

Trump? Oh, he’s been accused of sexual molestation, outright sexual assault, sexual harassment — and he’s actually admitted to “grabbing them by their pu***” because he’s a celebrity.

So now he’s poking fun at Joe Biden.

Sheesh! His base loves it. They cheer him on. They think this guy’s the greatest.

Disgusting.

national news

Biden’s actions do not constitute sexual assault/harassment

I’ve been thinking a good bit about the allegations concerning former Vice President Joe Biden’s “inappropriate” kissing and hugging of women.

My initial thought that the allegations could — perhaps should — doom Biden’s expected bid for the presidency in 2020. Now I’m not so sure.

A Nevada politician told New York magazine about an event that occurred in 2014 where Biden kissed her on the back of her head and put his hands on her shoulder. She felt uncomfortable. She said it was not appropriate behavior.

A second woman has made a similar accusation. Then we have seen the viral photo of the ex-VP whispering into the ear of then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s wife.

Does any of this rise to the level of (mis)behavior that Donald Trump has admitted doing? Not by a long shot!

I do not disbelieve the accusations that have come forth. I believe they happened, even though Biden says he doesn’t “recall” the first incident I mentioned here.

He will need to explain himself. Yes, we have entered a new age. Women are standing up to men who actually do abuse them, assault them, harass them.

I just don’t believe Joe Biden’s behavior fits any of those descriptions.

national news

What happens if Trump goes into the gutter against Biden?

I cannot help but wonder about a hypothetical political matchup.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is going to have to answer for a complaint filed publicly by a former Nevada politician who says the ex-VP touched her and kissed her “inappropriately.” He has said he doesn’t “recall” the incident involving Lucy Flores.

Biden also is considering whether to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020. So . . . suppose Joe Biden jumps into the race.

On the other side of the political chasm sits Donald Trump, the Republican president of the United States.

We all know about Trump’s Twitter fetish and how he likes to use that social medium to say some amazingly crude and inappropriate things — at timed!

What might happen if Trump — who has his own, um, admitted sordid history regarding women — decides to dive into the gutter with intemperate tweets about the allegations regarding Biden’s alleged misbehavior?

Not only do we know about Trump’s (over)use of Twitter, we also know about his utter lack of shame and his absolute lack of self-awareness.

I’m just wondering how ugly this next presidential campaign could get. My hunch, if it’s Biden vs. Trump at the end of the parties’ nominating campaigns, it is going to get hideous beyond measure.

national news

Now it’s Joe Biden who’s under the gun

Here we go. Again.

A woman has come forth to accuse a powerful male politician of “inappropriate touching” and of planting an “unwanted kiss” on her.

The pol in question is former Vice President Joe Biden. The accuser is a former Democratic office seeker, Lucy Flores, who ran for lieutenant governor in Nevada.

Biden, of course, is considering whether to run for president of the United States in 2020. He reportedly has decided to enter the fray. He says his family is all in, according to media reports.

But what in the world do we make of this?

According to an article in New York magazine, Biden has been known to get touchy-feely with women. The media have given him a pass on it. Until now.

The #MeToo movement has changed the equation in the most dramatic fashion possible. If it turns out that Flores’ complaint is credible, that it sounds and looks legit, the former VP needs to scrap his presidential campaign plans. Immediately!

Biden has responded by saying he doesn’t “recall” the alleged incident. Doesn’t recall? What does that mean? Is it a case of, shall we say, selective amnesia?

I’ll be candid. I do no want this story to play out. However, it’s not up to me. Nor is it up to Biden’s fans and supporters who want him elected president next year.

This story needs a full airing. It needs to be examined carefully and thoroughly. If it turns out to be true — and I hate saying this — that’s it for Vice President Biden.

national news

Former VP pondering early running mate decision

Dare I take any credit for this bit of news?

I think not, but I have to share this tidbit anyway. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s considering whether to seek the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020 is considering whether to select a running mate early, rather than waiting for the nominating convention.

I thought one option might be to name Beto O’Rourke as his running mate; I mentioned it in an earlier blog post. But then O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, announced his own presidential bid.

Biden reportedly is pondering this decision, which could echo what Ronald Reagan did in 1976 when he challenged President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination. Reagan selected Sen. Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania as his running in advance of the GOP convention.

It would be a gutsy move by Biden to do something out of the ordinary. However, as the election of Donald Trump demonstrated in 2016, we have entered an era of many definitions of the “new normal” in politics.

CNN reports that Biden has discussed the possibility of naming a VP candidate early. Well, the former vice president has a huge number of hopefuls who I reckon would like to run with him.

My only advice would be for the 77-year-old candidate to find someone who is willing — and able — to step into the presidency.

If you get my drift.