The Failing Joe Biden Presidential Campaign

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Easter Prayer Breakfast in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Los Angeles Times offered an update of the Joe Biden campaign and it clearly pointed out that he has become irrelevant in today’s battle against the coronavirus. Donald Trump has a daily soap box with his updates seen by everyone on-line and on cable television. Although those updates are filled with lies and wishful thinking where is Joe? He should be countering Trump but he isn’t. I see nothing telling viewers anything about Mr. Biden. Biden’s daily updates are not being reported on any news sites. A studio in Biden’s home is a wonderful idea but unless we see announcements of about his presentations and interviews it is all meaningless. Meanwhile Donald Trump is looking presidential.

I’m not alone in my observations. David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, has warned the Biden “Up your campaign, now!”

Joe Biden starts Democratic Party Unity Effort

A very smart effort to unify the Democratic Party for what will be a very tough election campaign. Support from Sanders’ passionate supporters is necessary.

Joe Biden’s campaign got a last-minute defibrillation in South Carolina

That was the headline posted by The Week magazine.

Joe Biden may have won the South Carolina primary but as the Democratic Party nominee he will be totally destroyed by Donald Trump. It’s not just the name calling that any Democratic Party nominee will be will have to endure. Trump has been collecting a long list of reasons not to vote for Biden. First will be his son’s overpaid earnings in Ukraine. Another will be his opposition to forced busing as defined by Kamala Harris. Yet another will be his treatment of Anita Hill in the Supreme Court hearing in the approval of Clarence Thomas.

Finally have you listened to Joe Biden? He does not have a single proposal on helping the working and middle classes of this country. Bernie Sanders is correct when he says working people incomes are no better than they were 40 years ago. Actually they are worse. Forty years ago it took just one person in a family of four to make ends meet. Today it takes both husband and wife working full time to make it in America.

Joe Biden it’s Time to Graciously Step Aside – You Need to Go Now!

Like Marvin K. Mooney, Joe Biden does not know when it’s time to leave.

“After a fourth-place finish in Iowa and a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire, it’s time to take a good, hard look at former vice president Joe Biden, the once-dominant, now-floundering Democratic “front-runner.” Not to get too technical about it, but I would like to postulate that the Democratic front-runner should be, you know, in front” writes Washington Post commentator Molly Jong-Fast.

She is correct. Joe Biden has hidden from the media for just one reason. He does not want to come under any scrutiny. He has refused most interview opportunities including appearing on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC pro-democratic party program. Finally today he appeared on Meet the Press where Chuck Todd did not ask him one hard ball question. Instead Biden spoke about how he is a progressive but offered not one new idea that all other candidates haven’t all spoken about. His lack of passion was on display. I cannot imagine an army of volunteers stepping up to participate in a Joe Biden campaign against Donald Trump.

Trump has successfully eliminated Biden as the Democratic Party nominee. Perhaps that was all planned. Perhaps Trump believes that no other Democratic Party nominee would have a remote chance of winning in November. I would disagree with that idea. The Hunter Biden job in Ukraine was the knife that killed Biden’s race. Biden’s defense of his son was a miserable failure. Calling a female student “a lying dog-faced pony soldier” at a rally when she asked about the Hunter Biden affair only made things worse.

Joe, you need to end your campaign before you are embarrassed by more losses. I suggest you enjoy your grandchildren. Take a cruise in the Caribbean or on the Mediterranean. Oceania Cruise lines offers some really great experiences and most of their passengers are about your age. Dr. Seuss is correct. You need to go Now!

Best of luck Joe

Joe Biden was and is a very decent human being, despite some mistakes, and an effective legislator and later Vice-President. But his time has passed and I agree with those who feel he’s running out of duty and concern for country. He has lost his spunk and I honestly believe he does not have it in him to come back with a quick punch when the Orange Hulk starts stalking him on the debate stage (as he did with Hillary) while hurling insults and threats of locking him up.

You see, I believe Biden made a huge tactical error in not forcefully fighting back when attempts to smear him and his son on Ukraine came to light. Faint denials were not enough, he should have gone on a media blitz demanding that Trump present proof, demanding that an open and public investigation be initiated and even suing Trump for defamation. He did none of those things thus allowing the cloud of malfeasance to fester and grow. In addition, as a politician Biden should have known that being pure and innocent is not enough because one has to give the “appearance” of such. Thus, he should have anticipated that the optics of Hunter Biden joining Burisma were not good and could be exploited for political gain by a corrupt opponent in the future and he should have warned Hunter, such as it’s happening now.

Biden’s inability to see the optics lead to him refusing to appear on Sunday morning political programs while other Democratic presidential hopefuls jumped at every opportunity to appear. Pete Buttigieg appeared on five of those programs of Sunday February 9.

That Biden was grieving is understandable but not a good enough excuse. Best of luck Joe and many thanks for your service to this country.

Voters don’t like Joe Biden’s nostalgia? That’s pure malarkey

This is fun to read but it is full of baloney.

By Jonah Goldberg Los Angeles Times Columnist

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden has embarked on a “no malarkey” campaign tour.

I like the word malarkey, consarn it. It’s the bee’s knees. Sure, the youngsters might say, “OK, Boomer” on hearing Joe Biden utter the word, but if you think he’s all wet for using it, you can take your phonus bolonus and tell it to Sweeney.

Joe Biden has never really been my cup of tea. There’s always seemed like a bit of flimflam behind that gigglemug of his. And for a guy who uses the word malarkey more than any politician since the 19 th century — and has now emblazoned the slogan “no malarkey” on his campaign bus — he’s peddled a lot of it over the years. But he remains popular among a lot of Democrats for the same reason people like the word malarkey: nostalgia, which can be a powerful force in an election.

While I’m prone to nostalgia myself, I’m fairly immune to Biden nostalgia. And so are the hep cats of Twitter and Instagram who have an outsized role in the Democratic primary process. Most of the Twitterati weren’t even twinkles in their father’s eye when Biden first ran for the Senate, and it’s no surprise they don’t get his appeal.

But if Donald Trump taught us anything, it should be that the opinions of smarty pants don’t amount to a hill of beans compared with the opinions of voters. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign was soaked with balderdash. He promised to balance the budget, cut taxes, spend wildly and save money in the process. He promised to fix the economy by putting China in its place and bringing back manufacturing. For nostalgic Republican voters, though, Trump’s vision evoked just the sort of mythical past they aspired to inhabit one day. And it was a plus that Trump caused the self-righteous press to huff and puff their outrage as they declared him incapable of victory.

Biden benefits from a similar dynamic. The handicappers keep fitting him for a pine overcoat, but the voters haven’t gotten the memo.

As Bloomberg columnist Ramesh Ponnuru writes, “The only thing Joe Biden has had going for him in this race is Democratic primary voters.” He’s flubbed debates and failed to convince wealthy members of his party to open their wallets. But despite a barrage of negative press, he remains popular with a lot of voters, particularly older ones.

Nostalgia is Biden’s trump card. For some voters, it’s not nostalgia for the good old days of the 1950s or the 1920s, but for the Obama years — which is why Biden mentions him like a verbal punctuation mark. But he also appeals to a deeper nostalgia.

For moderate voters who nonetheless think things have gone haywire under Trump, Biden represents a kind of return to normalcy, to a time when partisan politics weren’t quite as lethal. He may be as prone to malapropisms and misstatements as Trump, but his folksy fumbling is a known quantity, a relic from a more predictable time.

But he’s also reassuring to Democratic voters who still think they’re good liberals in the tradition of FDR, Johnson and Clinton, and who honestly think their party is veering off the rails. They’re the voters who aren’t interested in who’s tweeting what or what’s trending in search engines, and there are a lot of them. A recent pre-obituary of the Kamala Harris campaign in the New York Times noted that many of the younger members of her team thought Twitter was the best place to figure out what voters really care about.

This doesn’t mean everything is copacetic for Biden. But he’s doing better than the wiseacres seem to think. He’s up 10 points over the field nationally, nine in Nevada and 19 in South Carolina. In New Hampshire and Iowa he’s slipped considerably and is now running in fourth place. But it’s still easy to imagine he could win or pull off a close second. Bill Clinton came in second in New Hampshire and, thanks to his gift for tooting his own horn, was dubbed “the comeback kid.”

If Hoosier moppet Pete Buttigieg wins in Iowa and Sen. Elizabeth Warren wins in New Hampshire as a “favorite daughter” from neighboring Massachusetts, that wouldn’t be ideal for Biden. But if he were to come in second in both places, which doesn’t seem unlikely, he could still be rolling in clover, and that’s no malarkey.

@JonahDispatch

Joe Biden is the Democratic Party front runner. I wonder why?

Joe Biden is trying to run for president on the coat tails of President Obama. His primary argument is that Obama pushed the country along in a moderate way. There were no extreme actions taken.

Biden’s argument should be examined. I argue that Barack Obama did take extreme actions. Some of those decisions were serious mistakes.

Obama’s signature accomplishment was health care insurance. The action he took was a benefit to America that will remembered as consequential as Social Security and Medicare. That is the Affordable Care Act. Called Obamacare by those who opposed it, that law has provided health care to 11.8 million people. While the coverage is not a perfect solution to affordable health care, it did take a big step forward to address the high cost of healthcare. Unfortunately many people are dropping out of the plan due to high deductibles. The GOP efforts to end Obamacare have continued to this day. Repeal and replace has been a mantra of the Republican Party. Even if the law is repealed, health care coverage will be an enduring reality for all Americans.

Unfortunately Obama did not lead a fight for raising the minimum wage from the current paltry $7.25 an hour, gun safety (Isn’t the killing by military weapons a national emergency?), for infrastructure projects, for fighting homelessness, for job training for those who lost their job due to automation. American manufacturing jobs have declined by 5 million since the 1980s and left many communities devastated. I could list many other things that should have been on his agenda.

Sadly Obama’s foreign affairs successes were few. The single outstanding action was 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that did nothing to stop their development of ballistic missiles and their spread of terrorism throughout the middle east.

Stupidly the U.S, blundered into a war in Iraq in 2003. The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq began in December 2007 and was completed by December 2011. But the total withdrawal was a mistake and an American-led intervention in Iraq started on June 15, 2014, when President Obama ordered United States forces to be dispatched to the region, in response to offensives by ISIS and its affiliates.

On August 20, 2012 President Obama told a group of reporters the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria would cross his “red line.” A year later, almost to the day, Syrian forces killed more than 1,400 people with sarin gas, a particularly horrifying chemical weapon that can cause paralysis, convulsions, or death. But no action was taken. Instead he agreed to a deal with Russia to remove and destroy 600 metric tons of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

So the question is what part of the Obama legacy does Joe Biden want to pursue? What is the Biden agenda? Hopefully the September and October debates will provide some clarity.

Democratic Party debate Night 2 – Good-Bye Joe Biden

The stage included the leading candidates in all the national polls with the exception of Senator Elizabeth Warren who had participated in the Night One debate. Joe Biden has clearly led in all the polls. Kamala Harris seemed to be fading after her initial declaration of candidacy. Harris’ poll numbers showed her with about 6% of supporters versus Biden’s 32%.

Personally I lack enthusiasm for Biden who I view as old and out of touch with today’s Democratic activists. My reasoning: 1) The job of president is difficult and the stress could easily kill him. 2) Without young activists to help in a campaign, Donald Trump will overwhelm a less than enthusiastic Democratic Party challenger. Is it any wonder that Trump is rooting for Biden to win the nomination?

Eric Swalwell’s attack on Biden when he said “Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans 32 years ago. He’s still right today. If we’re going to solve the issues of automation, pass the torch. If we’re going to solve the issues of climate chaos, pass the torch. If we’re going to solve the issue of student loan debt, pass the torch. If we’re going to end gun violence for families who are fearful of sending their kids to school, pass the torch.”

From the transcript of the debate Kamala Harris said the following.

“Okay. On the issue of race I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. There is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend, or a coworker who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination.”

“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris began, turning to face Biden. But, she added, “it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”

“And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”

Biden, sputtering in response, declared Harris’ accusation “a mischaracterization of my position across the board.” He rattled off civil rights measures he had supported in his long career as a senator and tried to defend his opposition to busing during the 1970s and 1980s.

“I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education,” he said, reprising the states’-rights position that he, as a senator from a border state with a history of segregation, had taken decades earlier.

Harris shot back: “That’s where the federal government must step in, that’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act … because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.”

Joe Biden’s responses were weak throughout the debate. I can imagine Kamala Harris using her prosecutor skills to overwhelm Donald Trump in a debate.

Grandpa it’s over.

Vice Presidential Debate

It was a Draw!

Vice President Joe Biden did what he does so well. He was the attack dog. Congressman Paul Ryan was the calmer deliberate speaker who adequately supported Mitt Romney.

The differences between the parties could not have been more stark. Both men offered some inaccurate information and both offered some accurate info.

I suspect Joe Biden’s eye rolling and silly grins were all intentional and well practiced. Even after giving a serious response to Raddatz or Ryan he returned to those big smiles and surprised facial expressions.

Martha Raddatz was an excellent moderator. She wins the award for performing an outstanding job in a difficult situation.

For those of us who are undecided the decision is yet to be made. Too little time was spent on the job of creating jobs in America. Biden skipped the topic and Ryan restated the Romney contention that their election will result in 12 million jobs being created in the next four years. How exactly will that be done? Biden or Raddatz should have asked Ryan that question.

My recent purchase was two beautifully tailored shirts that were made in China. That is the country that also makes iPhones, Dell computers, and other more expensive high tech devices.

Perhaps the next debate will provide some further reason to vote for one of these candidates.

Social Issues Will Now Be Consequential in the Presidential Race!

My theory!

Social Issues are not the really consequential topics in the presidential race! However, President Obama and his re-election team see this as an opportunity to distract attention from the dismal condition of the economy and his health care program.

A May 12 Associated Press article is titled “Gay marriage, abortion back in campaign spotlight“. The first paragraph reads, “Abortion and gay marriage. For years, they’ve been lumped together as the paramount wedge issues of U.S. politics — hot-button topics in the vortex of sexuality, personal freedom and public policy.”

Vice President Joe Biden appearing on Meet the Press this past Sunday said he had no problem with two people of the same sex marrying. That brought a substantial response from the news media but no remarks from the Republican Party. The White House appeared to try to evade the issue even as the commentators quoted the president’s earlier statement that his views on gay and lesbian marriage were evolving.

Everyone thinks VP Biden is just a fool who can’t keep his mouth shut. That is his reputation. The president’s re-election committee is counting on you believing that. So he appears on MTP this past Sunday and has the media mouths going.

What you do not realize is that the Obama team has accomplished a diversion. Defending the president’s economic program is impossible. They realized they needed to change the topic. They have succeeded. Obama’s ability to argue the social issues is his strong suite.

Romney’s strength is business and the economy. The Republican Party wants to talk about social issues. Obama wants to change the subject and the Republicans are giving him a gift. The AP reports “Republicans controlling the House are pressing for cuts to food stamps, health care and pensions for federal workers as an alternative to an automatic 10 percent cut to the military next year.” It’s a perfect diversion.