Posted on 04/26/2019 8:46:06 AM PDT by billorites
When I was a young baseball fan, I thought that pitchers who relied on a great fastball would lose their effectiveness more quickly than pitchers with a mediocre fastball who relied on “junk” and guile. After all, speed declines with age while guile, if anything, increases.
Eventually, after observing the late career success of to Robin Roberts, I realized that pitchers with a great fastball can reinvent themselves as pitchers with a mediocre fastball, guile, and “junk.” Meanwhile, junkballers lose the mediocre fastball that set up their junk.
Which brings me to Joe Biden.
Biden never had a good fastball. He finished near the bottom of his law school class at Syracuse University (and lied about this, as well as other aspects of his academic background). When he campaigned for president in 1988, he had to rely on words he stole from a British politician.
He has been wrong about nearly foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades, including even the no-brainer decision to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Biden never had success in any endeavor other than politics. That’s true of Bill Clinton and (mostly) Barack Obama too. But they are obviously intelligent (extremely so in Clinton’s case) and achieved the academic success that eluded Biden, to say the least.
Biden deserves credit for becoming a Senator from Delaware at a young age. But his two attempts at the presidency were abject failures. If Barack Obama hadn’t needed a non-controversial white running mate with gray hair, Biden would have languished in the Senate forever.
Biden’s signature moment in the Senate was the Clarence Thomas confirmation process over which he presided as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He behaved like a deer caught in the headlights. Now, he’s apologizing for the few sensible decisions he made during the Anita Hill farce (Hill, needless to say, isn’t mollified).
In short, Biden was a mediocrity during his prime. At 76, he’s past his prime.
What, then, does Biden have to offer? Two things, I think. He’s not a socialist and he doesn’t traffic in identity politics.
That wouldn’t be much, except for the fact that every other serious contender for the Democratic nomination answers to at least one of two descriptions: socialist and identity politics monger. By contrast, a large swath of Democratic voters answers to neither.
This reality, Biden’s name recognition, and his association with Barack Obama make him a formidable-seeming candidate.
But there’s a problem. It’s not likely that Biden will run as a purely traditional Democrats. I haven’t heard him part company with the leftism espoused by the rest of the Democratic field. Rather, he’s apologizing for past manifestations of his traditionalism. Biden seems anxious to prove that he’s “woke” — that, in his late 70s, he finally “gets it.”
I don’t believe Biden can do “woke” for a sustained period of time. I’m not sure he do it for a month. Moreover, the effort will only make him seem ridiculous and produce even more gaffes than we are accustomed to from the talkative former vice president.
This suggests that Biden’s candidacy could go in either of two directions. He might become a laughingstock and, as such, crash and burn. Or Democrats (and eventually the electorate as a whole) might forgive, overlook, or laugh off his attempts at wokeness and accept Biden as a serviceable alternative to his wacky competitors (and eventually to President Trump).
In the latter scenario, America might well end up with a president who never had a fastball or much guile — a president who was always a mostly empty suit and who has shriveled with old age.
Sorry. He lost me there.
Joe shows every evidence of stumbling right out of the gate.
Son Hunter has done some highly questionable things, ranging from merely sleazy and unethical to outright criminal, and Papa Joe has aided and abetted him all the way.
Look up Hunter and use keywords “China” and “Ukraine”.
That’s Delaware politics for you. One Senator is a wife beater. The other is a Marxist coke head. Old Joe was Obama’s insurance policy against assassination. The lone Representative is the token black woman.
Hunter is a real piece of work; bedding his late wife before his body was cold. That’s not even addressing his unethical and probably illegal activities. Hunter was given an administrative discharge for cocaine use - one month after commission.
Joe’s niece punched a cop and committed credit card fraud. She got probation on both counts.
The Idiot Biden was chosen as VP by the Kenyanesian Usurper precisely because he was insurance.
NOBODY wanted Joe Biden to become President.
May he soon be broke
Not possible - "she" is not equipped that way.
America as survived our fair share of mediocre (at best) Presidents. Now that we have a truly great President, I trust America to keep him another 4 years.
p
They will put a running mate with him they want to be President and Joe will have a unfortunate Death if he wins.
_______________
Joe Biden: Stale, pale, and male.
Wait a few weeks or a few months when Joe starts to see things in the news about spoiled little Hunter boy's corrupt $$$$$, and all the spying details that will wipe up against his scrawny ass in the Obama White House.
He'll be gone soon enough.
The guy is fragile, brittle, and stupid.
_________
What????
He began his campaign with a crappy video basically calling Trump a KKK / Nazi pig.
No identity politics?
Baloney.
Biden is a foul little man ...... and I use the word "man" with caution.
Biden will crash and burn.
I still think we ought to make some money on him.
Let's have a pay per view Fight behind the gymnasium with DJT. Biden will fall quickly and voila ..... more $$$$ for The Wall.
:-)
Biden must be totally woke. Didn’t he say that he has “a black friend” named Barry (not Obama). A black friend ... as in ONE black friend. Biden is woke.
“Hunter is a real piece of work; bedding his late wife before his body was cold.”
If you mean bedding his late BROTHER’s wife, the timeline is wrong, I believe. I think the affair started ling before his brother died. Then when Bro croaked, Hunter divorced his own wife to marry his sister-in-law.
And Joe condoned it. Family of sleaze.
Sleepy Joe or woke?
If Biden really said that he’s not gonna get the black vote unless Michelle Obama is his running mate... and then only if he’s diagnosed with cancer prior to the election...
When somebody gets a certain reputation people just make up things and say they said it.
Quayle, Palin, Ocasio-Cortez, Biden.
Biden’s known for his gaffs... especially those dealing with race. Glad to know he didn’t make the one in question...
Here’s one he did make:
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-gaffes-quotes-2020-election-1323905
‘Mainstream African American’
During a conference call with reporters in 2007, Biden assessed the strengths of fellow presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
“I mean you’ve got the first sort of mainstream African American, who is articulate and bright, and clean and [a] nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man,” Biden said.
After Biden apologized, Obama said, “I didn’t take Sen. Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate. African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.