Joe Biden’s been in Washington for a long time.
In his youth, he was somewhat of a Republican in his thinking, but he didn’t like Nixon, so he became a Democrat.
He capably represented tiny Delaware for thirty-sx years in the Senate, and then he did a fine job as Vice President with President Barack Obama, for eight years. Biden’s pretty savvy on foreign policy, something Donald Trump knows very little about.
“Uncle Joe" ran for president in 1988, when he got in trouble for plagiarism, and then in 2008. Now he’s trying again, hoping that the third time’s a charm, and he’s 76.
On Thursday evening in Miami, Biden and Never Really a Democrat Bernie Sanders, who’ll be 78 in Sepember, stood next to each other in Miami, in the center, with eight other Dem presidential hopefuls, in NBC’s glitzy “debate."
Joe knows how to smile, but Bernie’s not so good at it. When Bernie fulminates, he does anything but smile; he gets made and he grimaces. He just preaches his version of what former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper calls socialism.
(Hick, who lives in your solitary reporter’s precinct, had the bad luck to be standing next to spiritual author Marianne Williamson (what was she doing on the stage anyway?) and Andrew Yang, who wants to give everybody a thousand bucks.)
At least Hick’s been elected to big jobs: Mayor of Denver and Governor of the Centennial State.
Joe wasn’t ready for 54-year old Sen. Kamala Harris’ attack against him, which captured most of the headlines. Instead, he looked offended. Harris went for the kill and pointed out that Biden courted mega-seg senator James Eastland (D-Miss.) in support of Joe’s anti-busing legislation when he was a 34-year old wet behind the ears senator.
The Thursday “debate” was much more a cacophony than anything else.
But for us here at AP, especially newly minted associate solitary reporter Sheila Kenwood, Joe was unprepared for the onslaught, which Harris had been preparing for more than a month (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/28/kamala-harris-joe-biden-debate-1390383). Kenwood likened Biden’s response to the proverbial deer in the headlights.
And because all the other nine Dem hopefuls loved talking over each other, at least Joe had the decency to say “my time is up.”
Kenwood took that literally, concluding that Biden will soon drop out of the race without endorsing Harris or Sanders — maybe boyish Mayor Pete?
But the best part of Debate Round Two came from the mouth of Congressman Eric Swalwell, a 38-year old California Democrat who scolded Biden for not passing the torch to far younger candidates like him.
Swallwell (how can a white male with such a name hope to defeat Trump?) actually had the best line of the night when he talked about changing his two-year old son’s diapers, saying that the diaper aroma smells lots better than the stench in DC.
Tomorrow, associate solitary reporter Ko Il-sun will be at the DMZ to cover Trump’s third fruitless photo-op with Kim Jongun.