GO JOE - GO AWAY
Biden is an Awful candidate. But there's still time - and plenty of capable replacements - to set America Free
Joe Biden.
That’s because if Biden runs for president, we’ll get Trump.
And our country can’t stand four more years of Trump; neither can other countries nor the world’s environment.
We need somebody else to lead the Democratic challenge.
Who?
One of the governors who’ve shown their stuff during the Covid-19 crisis, like Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gavin Newsom of California or Jay Inslee of Washington state.
Or one of the standouts from the debates. Remember them?
Remember how many candidates there were? Remember how refreshing it was to look across the panorama of the debate stage and see a gathering of energetic, smart, talented, decent and good people? How most of them gave us hope and reminded us of how we’d forgotten what it was like to have a responsible, capable person in the White House?
I’m not saying that any one of them is guaranteed to beat Trump, but I know this: Joe Biden can’t.
Joe Biden is a disaster. He’s too mediocre, too burdened by his past failures as a presidential candidate, as a Senate committee chairman, as a person of no memorable ideas, no ability to inspire, encourage and excite voters. Yes, he seemed a good vice president for President Barack Obama – that's because Obama is that good.
Biden will be outgunned, out-talked, outfoxed and outspent by Donald Trump, and the result will be that early in the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 3, the world as we know it will come to an ugly, tortured and nasty end.
We need to get rid of Biden, and tomorrow isn’t too soon.
You’re saying it’s too late.
You’re saying the primary process has played out the way it’s supposed to, and Joe’s the last man standing.
And I say to all of that?
You don’t believe that Joe’s the one any more than I do.
Really.
Tell me, down deep in your heart, that you don’t feel exactly as I do.
Tell me that every time Biden opens his mouth, your heart doesn’t suspend activity because you are scared about what’s going to come out of the Biden mouth, whether the Biden brain will make sense, will get its facts straight and finish the sentence, all without embarrassing the Biden campaign.
Tell me that of all the role models you want for your children, you’d pick Joe Biden. “Kids: I want you to grow up to be just like Joe Biden.”
Tell me one thing that Joe’s said that’s worth remembering.
Dogs have super senses, and not just of smell, hearing and eyesight. When it comes to our human pals, we can tell when you’re scared, when you’re hurting and when you’re hopeful and when you’re happy.
And dogs know that when you hear two words, “Joe” and “Biden,” your face frowns and you say to yourself: “Maybe things will work out. I hope.”
You’ve got your fingers crossed. Please don’t make any mistakes. Hang in, Joe. Maybe Trump will self-destruct. His luck’s got to run out, sometime. You were everyone's second choice; the so-called safe choice. So hang in there, Joe. Donald Trump’s bad deeds will catch up with him. Stay the course, Joe. Safe and steady, goes Joe. At some point, the proverbial scales will fall from the eyes of Donald's worshipful supporters and they will say: “What fools, we’ve been. Hooray, thank goodness for Good Old Joe.”
Let me quote, not from the Bible, but from today’s Gallup poll:
“Americans divide evenly when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus situation in the U.S., with 50 % approving and 48 % disapproving.”
With more than one-million Americans infected with Covid-19; with more than 60,000 dead; with some of the departed in refrigerator trucks awaiting their trip to the funeral home and the cemetery; with the economy in shambles; with Trump on TV day after day demonstrating in plain sight how stupid, how mean, how inept, how untruthful he is.
With all of that, Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States, has an overall job approval rating of 49 percent, the Gallup poll says, up from 43 % at the beginning of April.
So if the country is to rescue itself, it’s going to take someone who is dynamic, angry, motivated, capable, tough and appealing to unseat Donald Trump. And that person is not Joe Biden.
TWO EXAMPLES of how Biden is failing.
One is his failure -- until Friday, May 1 reportedly -- to respond to the sexual assault charges voiced against him by a woman who briefly was on his staff when he was a U.S. Senator. Tara Reade says when she was 29, Biden pushed her against the wall of some government building, kissed her, reached up under her skirt and inserted his fingers into her private parts.
If Reade is lying – like many, including me, believe – you’d expect Biden to have come roaring out of the basement of his home in Delaware, boiling with outrage. What an insulting, outrageous, ugly thing to say about him. Would you let anyone, whether a man or a woman, get away with that kind of slander?
Unless.
Unless you are Joe Biden, and your brilliant political game strategy is to keep a low profile in the “me-too” era; bad enough that some women, Reade included, said last year that he had wandering hands, just not that wandering. Now it’s time to lay low, not stir things up, not give Reade a spotlight, let others speak about what a fine fellow is Joe.
Unless.
Unless he did it. In which case, he owes Reade an apology, as he does his wife, grandchildren, supporters, staffers, voters and the world. Who knows, people might admire his honesty, and find it a refreshing counterpoint to Trump’s denial of the many more assault charges brought against him by many more women.
Tonight, after a bunch of newspaper stories, opinion columns, a Washington Post editorial, and growing demands within the Democratic Party, Biden reportedly has decided to talk about the charges on the “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC Friday, May 1. He shouldn’t have waited, shouldn’t have tried to hold out.
As always, my heart will be on full-stop during the interview. Maybe he'll get through it.
THE OTHER EXAMPLE of how Biden is failing is that he is just failing.
He’s failing to be an important voice, a participant, a change agent, an expert on the coronavirus and other crises while awaiting coronation at the Democratic National Convention.
But you don’t have the slightest idea of what Joe’s up to, do you, other that this "Morning Joe" bit. Do you know where your presumptive Democratic nominee is tonight? Where he was yesterday? Where he’ll be two days from tomorrow?
Don’t blame the media, please. If Biden was worth covering, reporters would cover him. He has plenty of opportunities. Do you think there’s a news program on TV and radio, or a newspaper, a magazine, an online news website, that wouldn’t welcome an interview?
And wouldn’t a savvy, hungry, crafty, skilled candidate find a way to make news at a time when Trump’s ineptness, his stupidity, cruelty and egoism is on such display?
Why isn’t Joe Biden, safely face-masked, standing in front of a post office in East Nowhere, challenging the president to stop trying to destroy the U.S. Postal Service because it delivers Jeff Bezos’ Amazon packages, because Trump hates Bezos’ Washington Post and because Republicans don’t want a functioning post office that can deliver mail ballots this fall?
Why isn’t Joe Biden standing in front of a Clorox factory, warning Americans not to inject themselves with bleach, after Trump wondered aloud whether that might not be just what the doctor ordered as a treatment for Covid-19?
Why isn’t Joe Biden standing in front of a Navy ship, calling for the reinstatement of Captain Brett Crozier, who was fired as skipper of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt because he appealed to higher-ups to take Covid-19-infected sailors off the ship?
Why isn’t Biden’s “No Malarkey” campaign bus back on the road, social distancing itself to political hot spots, championing the governors trying to save their states from the infection despite the Trump administration’s bungling, delivering masks to nursing home staffers, interviewing victims’ families?
Why? Because Joe Biden is a terrible candidate.
And you really don’t need a dog to tell you that.
If Joe Biden is truly a public servant, who loves his country more than himself, he’ll come out of his basement hideout, blink a couple of times at the daylight and resign from the race. Heck, he could do it on "Morning Joe."
IT WON'T BE EASY to beat Donald Trump.
But there’s still time. There are plenty of Democrats – experienced, motivated, inspired – who can do it. Andrew the Avenger can beat the Dangerous Don. Ambitious Amy can. Carry on Cory can. Liz the Whiz can give Don the biz. Galloping Gavin can. And if California Man can’t, Jumpin' Jay knows the way from Washington the state to Washington, the district.
But Biden? The Don will trample him.
Don’t be fooled by Biden’s frighteningly small lead in early polls that invite respondents to a pretend match-up “if the election was today.” Remember Hillary Clinton’s lead, and how she made the same sort of too-clever-by-far, defensive, consultant-driven, too-careful mistakes that Biden is making now, and how that turned out.
This doesn’t need to be a hold-your-breath campaign.
There are better candidates. This can be a vigorous, exciting, inspiring moment in American life.
Let’s pick someone who realistically can take on the toughest job in America, sending the most dangerous man in America back where he belongs, taking the “up” escalator at Trump Tower.
Nov. 3rd doesn’t have to be the worst night of your life. Or mine.