Last night’s Democrat debate in Charleston was, as the pundits and political junkies are saying throughout the cable news sing -a -long, a scream match interrupted by the exchange of personal insults and cheap shots. Beyond that, it had nothing notable to offer, other than , of course, Joe Biden’s bragging about his writing everything from the Bill of Rights to every major piece of legislation over the past 40 years. There is, as is said, no praise like self-praise and old Joe is the master at it, even when he is lying through his false teeth.
What no analysis of the debate or the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination acknowledges is the mess it is in because of the presence of one particular candidate. And no, it’s not Bernie Sanders.
Bernie has every reason to run. He is trying to exorcise from the party the political ghost of Hillary Clinton. She and her insider backers stole the nomination from him last time and he is seeking his vengeance in attempting to reclaim what he considers his just due. In the party that sees itself as all things just and proper, what is so wrong about that after all? Besides of which, he has more campaign donors and their money than anyone else, excepting the plutocrat Bloomberg, who, it would seem, is sinking so low and so fast that his best hope lies in finding an escape clause in his deal to save America. Perhaps “Mike will be able to get that done”, to paraphrase his campaign theme, as little else seems within his grasp.
No, what is really messing up the inner workings of this Democrat process is the candidacy of Joe Biden.
Poor old Joe, now running for President for 32 years….yes, he started in 1988, before having to withdraw then because of his plagiarizing British political speeches…..just cannot get off the stage, not, at least, voluntarily.
Last time Obama told him to stand down for Hillary. This sent him into a tailspin and he simply can’t emerge from it. In this sense, like Bernie, the spectre of Hillary’s ghost is haunting him.
If Joe was concerned with his party’s good fortune or if he was really concerned about the future course of the country’s political direction, he would not run. The fact is, however, he is concerned with neither.
What motivates him solely is personal blind ambition. He is the modern day beast- like figure of Democrat politics. He is the party’s reconstituted Hubert Humphrey. He hunts relentlessly for each morsel of votes he can consume, cashing in on old favors, promising new ones and all of it in a desperate effort to get the prize that has for so long eluded him. He so wants to be President and his desperation is all that is left to define why.
In running, he, as a former Vice-President, has a base within the party that will support him, come what may. Remember, he spent four years sending notes, grinning in selfies and attending funerals with one thing and one thing only in mind. The forced smiles, the acting as if he is interested, the repetitive stories of his hard scrabble upbringing, of the “ kid from Scranton ,” where his Mom could not always afford bread or was it his Grandma had to bake bread…..it varies from audience to audience. This is the real Joe Biden, conveniently leaving out the parts about his son earning $80,000.00 per month to do nothing. He is the salesman in the plaid jacket who will say and do whatever it takes to seal the deal, then, the door closed and the cheque in hand, his shoulders droop and he sighs with the satisfaction of the carnie huckster who has pulled it off one more time. Yet, try as he might he has never been featured at centre ring and boy is he going to prove that he should be there.
His is the solid base of wart- hog Democrats, there because a former Vice-President has shown up at their clam bake. or made a phone call to one or more in their capacity as a local Chairman or head of some delegation or committee. His methods are as old and tired as he is, lacking any of the sense of dynamism or drive that characterizes the campaign of a President in waiting.
Biden knows this but he cannot let go because in his world, self comes before party and party before country.
His rump, a group not available to Bernie, is just strong enough to dislodge the hopes of any one of the other candidates. This makes his campaign one of mere spite. He cannot believe that the Party he has carried the water for what seems an eternity, will deny him his last chance at getting what he has wanted for so long. His candidacy has blocked the field, diminishing to the point of extinction, the possibility of anyone other than , with his army of supporters and fundraisers, from entering the convention with no less than a strong plurality of delegates.
Yes, Crazy Bernie can raise money in truckloads. Last month he garnered 21 million with an average contribution of $18.00. This means he can tap them all the way to the convention. Joe and the others, by contrast, have relied on large donors and most are maxed out at the $2,800.00 limit.
Joe Biden is the nation’s most notorious political careerist. His party, already heading for disaster, will be helped along its decaying trajectory by this man’s personal greed.
My next thoughts on the Democrat race shall focus on the fact the Democrats, for all their talking about equality and fairness, will not nominate Pete Buttigieg for one reason: his being Gay and married….to a man. So much for walking the walk in a party all about talk.
