Skip to main content

Why Dems should no longer be 'Biden' their time

One of the problems with American politics is that by the time we arrive at the little 19th century canvas-tent-booth at the local high school gym, we are left with two choices. Sure, we could opt for that weird unknown candidate who promises not only free healthcare and tuition but breakfast with billionaires on alternate Saturdays. Most of us are sensible enough to vote for one of the two final choices, sometimes a third if an Independent such as Ross Perot has made a significant splash.
What's eating me right now is we are pushing up to an election that is likely going to be the lesser of two evils. If Trump gets impeached, that could be interesting, and we would be left with Biden vs. Pence, another uncomfortable mental jump in my opinion. So let me spell out why Democrats must put their time and energy into promoting the right candidate right now:
1. Joe Biden has not said anything very interesting. Every time he leans on his "pal Barack" I squirm. I imagine President Obama rolling his eyes from his easy chair in Georgetown, muttering something to Michelle about how he could have had a VP who didn't sniff women.
2. Which leads me to Point #2, he has sniffed women. He has butterfly kissed women. If this is not a big deal to you, imagine someone sniffing you at random at the next important public meeting you attend, or a fundraiser you are helping with. Imagine especially someone in power grabbing you, slowly kissing the back of your head and inhaling your scent while you Just Take It. I would especially like to give the men out there a minute to imagine this. Most cannot because the idea of rape is so foreign to them that they don't instinctively squirm the minute a man invades their space.
3. Biden IS too old. For that matter, so are Sanders and Trump, yet in the latter case age is the least of his ills. If you don't think age matters, consider this - after 50, one enjoys an increasing daisy chain of tests and problems she had previously not even heard about. I remember at age 39 I was flown out to Atlanta to write about a gastroenterologists' convention. I had to look up the meaning of the term. Now my GI is in my Contacts list.
I have liberal friends who will probably stop calling me if they think I won't vote for Biden if he is indeed the final one standing. So be it. I don't tell people who I vote for and now will be the same. I urge Dems to use their imagination and reading skills and read up on some truly beautiful candidates - Beto, Pete, Elizabeth, Amy ... I am using their first names because each of them has made a connection with voters. Each of them has a platform we should investigate and care about - from gun control to immigration reform to climate change to rolling back college debt. The list goes on. A binary choice may be our only choice, but let's use these precious months leading up to the primary to make a sensible choice.
Photo credits: Amy Klobuchar, By United States Senate - http://klobuchar.senate.gov/mediacenter.cfm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1866289, and Beto O'Rourke,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Beto_O%27Rourke%2C_Official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg/2048px-Beto_O%27Rourke%2C_Official_portrait%2C_113th_Congress.jpg

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Take care of yourself, Lester

When I saw him the day after the plane and helicopter crash at Reagan I knew exactly why he was in town. "Lester Holt?" He turned, looked down at me and smiled, "Yes." "I'm a big fan," I said. He thanked me, I smiled, and left him. I have never been able to ask a celebrity for an autograph or picture. I immediately regretted it, but I also knew he was lost in his own thoughts at that moment. He was standing outside the bodega at DC Union Station. Days later he made news with the announcement of his departure from NBC Nightly News. Suddenly, his quiet introspection, gazing outside an open store, made sense. I believe in that moment his quasi-retirement flooded his thoughts. There is no way this was his choice. TV lore is ripe with stories of the old dog favored for the younger model (Tom Llamas, in this case). But Lester is a musician at heart, so when the bosses came to him and said numbers were down, he knew just how to play this. A classy exit. In ...

Aging white males need no longer apply

Watching the second of the presidential debates the other night, I winced when I watched Biden speak, react, squirm, half-raise his pointer finger. He does not look well. It is not just his age; he looks frail. I thought he was older than Bernie, but the latter is more than a year older. Everyone knew that beside Mayor Pete, Biden would look about a hundred; but what no one had reckoned was how that young whippersnapper Kamala Harris would eclipse the vice-president like a bull at a meat parade. She took her bites laced in pink, but with a venom that stung into the morning and will resonate for years to come. Biden not only looked weak, but out-of-touch, old in the way my late mother (who died at 79) never did. His ideas were old, his approach was arrogant, and his self-importance wreaked. Bernie was better, and his youthful following will always love him. I am impressed by his vigor and vim, and like him more this time round than I did last time. But that may be because compared to...

Blacks will push Joe to the win, if anyone will

I was tired, cranky, sweating in line at a Stop 'n Shop in a poor part of New Haven to cash in my returned-bottle receipts. Somehow, the talk turned to the recent debate and the impending election. The woman ahead of me, a fiery Black lady of middle age, shot back that she was staying with Joe. "People are afraid of a little age. 81. So what! Look at all the good things he's done. He's not perfect, but who is? I am staying with him. He's a good man." And someone brought up Obama's name. I said you could be sure he'll be more in his ear than ever if he continues. She: "That's just fine. I won't let people try to replace JOE!" I have to say, this Democrat was moved. Her love for him shook me to the core. Until I realized what was really happening. The Black community was so thrilled to finally have a person of color in office that they naturally loved his "this is a big effing deal" sidekick, Uncle Joe. The Barack Obama legacy...