It isn’t often that a pundit (Krugman aside) hits the nail on the head, but Michelle Goldberg column about Joe Biden hit a homer in this mornings Times.
Biden has been the subject of a couple of recent accusations of inappropriate conduct toward women. Not exactly sexual harassment, more like the exact kind of conduct that led Kristin Gillibrand to force Al Franken out of the Senate. Goldberg doesn’t excuse the behavior, but she does get right to the meat of the reasons why Biden should spend a lot more time with his family.
Still, the widespread assumption that Biden would pose the strongest challenge to Donald Trump is unwarranted. In recent years, neither party has done well when they’ve chosen candidates who were meant to appeal to some elusive cadre of swing voters but lacked a robust grass-roots base. On paper, the war heroes John Kerry and John McCain looked electable; Obama and Trump did not. To those desperate to unseat Trump, the centrist, establishment Biden might seem like the safest choice, but it would actually be risky to pick a candidate who will need to constantly apologize for himself.
The “centrism” path doesn’t work, except with people like David Brooks, and even he probably pulls the Trump lever when in the safety of the voting booth. People have to feel like they’re voting for something, not for the status quo with a little kindness mixed in. It was progressivism that beat back the forces of darkness last time around, and it will either do it again or the republic will degenerate into complete autocracy while the planet burns. That’s our choice, and we can’t afford to nominate a guy who doesn’t see that stark reality.
Several months ago Biden was on Pod Save America, and I was absolutely flabbergasted at the degree to which his mind is still in the 1970s, talking about comity and reasonableness and bipartisanship. They were polite to him, but he was utterly clueless. This from someone who spent eight years as the Vice President of a guy who tried beyond reason to make nice with Republicans and who got nothing for it. This in an era when Mitch McConnell has the gall to complain about Democrats obstructing presidential nominations.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Biden’s front runner status will quickly disappear once the primary season begins in earnest. Fondly do I hope, fervently do I pray that I’m right. I’m sure the powers that be in the Democratic Party want to hand him the nomination, as much as they wanted to hand it to Hillary. Trump will eat him for breakfast if he gets the nomination, and he will inspire precisely no one. If the women who have made these complaints about his behavior put paid to his candidacy they both deserve the Medal of Freedom.
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