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George,
About 30 years ago, my local cable service added C-SPAN. One week, I learned that there would be a televised Senate hearing on a subject in which I was quite interested, so I tuned in. The chair of the committee was a Senator I knew nothing about, Joe Biden of Delaware. He opened the hearing, and introduced the witness, an expert in the field (I no longer remember just what the hearing was about, but it is no matter). Biden then went on to use his entire time explaining, with little self-deprecating winks and smirks, how much he knew about the subject. The witness never spoke. I took a dislike to Biden from that time, which only grew with his handling of Anita Hill a couple of years later, in the confirmation hearings for Justice Thomas. Joe Biden's lack of self-awareness continues to be paraded in public. For instance, he has made many people uneasy with inappropriate groping and hugging. The problem, for me, is not that he is "sorry if he made some people uncomfortable." It is rather that in each instance, over many years, he was not aware that he was making people uncomfortable. After his dim responses during the recent cattle call on television he says, as an excuse, that he was "caught off guard" by Kamala Harris raising the issue of busing as a means of addressing race-based educational inequality. Aside from issues of busing, let's focus on the caught-off-guard part. When he is president (god forbid) will he not be presented with fresh issues? Will he then be caught off guard? He's 76 years old now, and there's a real thing called age-related cognitive decline. Let's not put it to the test In 2008, Barack Obama told us that, after himself, the person best qualified to be president of the United States was Joe Biden. In 2012, Obama had a further opportunity to modify that assertion, and he did not. Yet he is now clearly avoiding what would ordinarily be an obvious endorsement. Has something changed, or, as I suspect, does Obama not really view Joe as presidential? Biden continues to lead in polls, both nationally and in key early states. He continues to maintain the largest margin of victory over the incumbent. I do not understand it, I do not like it, and I hope it comes to an early end and Mr Biden enjoys the rest of his golden years in retirement. Dave Sagarin (July 16, 2019)
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