BY FLORIDA BILL
For nearly a half-century, Joe Biden has been around Washington politics. He was a U.S. senator from Delaware for six terms and then put in eight more years as Vice President in the administration of Barack Obama.
Now he is running for President and aiming to become the Democrat standard bearer in next November's election. It's the third time he has sought the office. He drew some puzzled looks when he told a crowd that he was 77 and would be a one-term president, vowing that he would never seek reelection. His comments made sense, but were nevertheless unusual and unexpected, but not uncharacteristic coming from the Biden mouth.
To some political masterminds and analysts and to the media which fawns over Democrats and loathes Republicans, his promise to be a one term President was consistent with his unpredictable rhetoric. Free swinging and inane comments have always marked him as dippy "Uncle Joe." His gaffes and frequent malapropisms were just "Joe being Joe."
Recently, old story teller Uncle Joe showed up at a rally and recounted memories of years ago when he was a life guard at a beach and that a bunch of kids hanging with a guy called "Corn Pop," rubbed his "hairy legs" and made the hairs stand out and turn blond in the burning sun. Not quite sure of his point, but that was Joe letting it all hang out.
Biden has always been a decent, friendly well-liked guy who got along well with the hoi polloi. He told a lot of stories and most were not true, but they were fun to listen to. Then, in 2008 Barack Obama picked him, a fellow senator, as his vice presidential running mate and that team became residents of the White House for the next eight years.
Last April the white-haired Biden who had once been bald, but nowadays has regrown hair, announced that he was a candidate for President in next November's election and currently leads a big pack of contenders seeking to be their party's nominee. His old friend Barack Obama, the former President, has dodged endorsing Biden, and Biden has explained that he persuaded Obama to stand down on this explaining ---"I wanted to win and do it all by myself."
If he becomes the Democratic standard bearer, he will be running head on against incumbent Donald Trump who is seeking his second four year term. Trump calls Biden, "Creepy, Sleepy Joe" and seems to be looking forward to taking him on.
Biden's announced positions such as endorsing open borders and free medical care for everyone as well as bringing millions of poor people into America, might be a tough sell, but Democrat strategists have confided that he appears to be the only Democrat who realistically has a shot at beating the blustering incumbent whose policies have made the nation's economy shine.
Biden is an attorney who says that law school was his most boring time in life. He graduated from the Syracuse University College of Law, but just barely, finishing 79th out of a class of 85. He almost got booted for plagiarizing some papers, but instead he was given an "F" in that class, but then allowed to retake the class --which he did-- and the school deleted the "F" from his record.
Personally, I find it amazing that Joe Biden was so successful in the face of his many years of his "touchy-feely" conduct toward women and his unusual statements and malapropisms. In one article by the Washington Post he was described as the "Lamborghini of Gaffes." Some politicians make blundering idiotic statements, and malapropisms and it assures defeat. With Biden, his bone-headed comments netted mostly chuckles and the shaking of puzzled heads. One former defense official once observed that in Biden's entire career, he has always been on the "wrong side" of foreign policy decisions and solutions.
Who can forget him saying upon the passing of Obamacare that "this is a f....ing big deal."----and his admitting a bit later, that as to the Obama-backed plan, "there's still a 30 percent chance we're going to get it wrong." Then there was the political rally and Biden called for those attending to applaud a particular guest. "Stand up Chuck," he called out to the paralyzed man who was in a wheelchair. In another rare moment He mourned a woman ("God rest her soul") who hadn't died.
He often labels President Trump as a "racist." He could have trouble with that one as a result of telling an audience a few years back that "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven ...unless you have a slight Indian accent."
After his selection as President Obama's running mate, Biden got carried away praising the presidential candidate with whom he had served in the U.S. Senate. He heralded the aggressive nature of Obama and noted that the future African American president was cut from the same cloth as Republican Teddy Roosevelt. "I can tell you this," said Biden: "Barack has a big stick."
Actually, Biden opened 2007 by announcing that he (Biden) was a candidate for the highest office of the land, and that Obama would need "on the job training" if he ever got the job. But he was a Democrat and then apparently in an attempt to be fair, added that Obama was " the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy. I mean that's a storybook, man." (Biden was severely criticized for the comment.) Obama never held ill will toward Joe, and apparently took him under his wing, accepting that Biden's foolish comments were just an unavoidable part of his genes.
You might wonder if his uncontrolled and nit-witty comments splashed about for nearly 50 years will hamper his campaign. Will his observations be just the spark enabling incumbent Trump to paint Biden as perhaps too uncontrolled or just too dumb to be president?
Primary elections will be beginning soon and while Biden has been leading in the polls, he is certainly not a shoo in to become the nominee of the Democrat party. Even with endorsement by the popular Obama, the loose-lipped Biden would have a tough road ahead.
While President Trump has been impeached by the House and is now awaiting decision by the Senate, the partisan attack on him seems to have actually pushed up his popularity. The vitality of the nation under his administration has brought greater prosperity and job opportunities for all citizens, including African Americans. Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have asserted that the loose-lipped Biden, "Lamborghini of Gaffes" has been corrupt in his Washington dealings for many years.
Trump and Giuliani are demanding that Biden explain his conduct in dealing with Ukraine when he was the "point man" to that European nation during the Obama administration. His son, Hunter, a lawyer and a cocaine addict who was kicked out of the Navy, was a board member of the Ukraine gas company, Burisma Holdings, earning some $83,000 a month. Hunter did not speak the Ukrainian language and did not relocate and live in Ukraine; and had no expertise in gas matters.
Biden keeps saying that there is no evidence that he or his son did anything wrong, and the Democrat- tethered media backs him. But Biden may yet be put on a stand and made to testify under oath. Giuliani has said that Joe Biden had his fingers in Ukraine policies and did his best to discredit President Trump when he ran for election in 2016. President Trump has said that the Bidens are "stoneface corrupt." Giuliani has said that "Joe Biden has been corrupt his entire life. I know it and I can prove it."
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