The Slimiest Character In American Politics?

Joe Biden has been in the public eye for close to 50 years. His record over that time is dismal, but for some reason he has usually gotten a pass. “Good old Joe” has broken every rule in the book without suffering serious consequences. To be sure, his prior presidential runs crashed and burned when a few aspects of his gross dishonesty came to light, but his dishonorable career continued nevertheless.

Biden has feathered his nest for decades, in part by selling his influence to foreign powers, as in the case of Ukraine’s Burisma, not to mention his more worrisome Chinese connections. This would seem to be a serious offense, but it has been chalked up to “Joe being Joe.” The theory, I guess, is that he is too dumb to know better, and money somehow just finds its way into his pockets.

That isn’t a great recommendation for a presidential candidate, but the Democrats are about to nominate him. So the time for indulgence is past. Biden’s main problem at the moment is his dementia, which appears to be accelerating rapidly and in some quarters is generating sympathy for the frail and elderly politician.

But let’s not get carried away. Joe Biden (or his far-left inner circle) is as full of hate as ever. We saw this in the opening campaign salvo that Biden and Kamala Harris launched yesterday. Where did they go for an attack on President Trump? To Biden’s long-discredited lie that Trump was somehow responsible for the fact that a tiny handful of white supremacists turned out in Charlottesville several years ago. Seriously, this is apparently the best they’ve got.

I can’t improve on Ann Althouse’s take, which is hard to excerpt. You should read the whole thing:

I’m reading the text this morning because I saw in a tweet that he was forefronting the Charlottesville “fine people” hoax. On his first day of campaigning with his running mate, he led with that. I say “he,” but I don’t really believe it’s him. I think it’s more likely that he’s a foggy-minded figurehead, and other people have decided to frame the message like that. I consider these people — whoever they are — despicable. They have chosen quite deliberately to commit to a lie that is intended to make black people feel hated and they are doing it for political gain.

As my earlier post about the tweet says, I blogged in April 2019, “If Biden does not come forward and retract [a video relying on the Charlottesville hoax] and apologize and commit himself to making amends, I consider him disqualified. He does not have the character or brain power to be President.” Now, more than a year later, Biden has done the opposite. He’s doubled down on the lie and he’s making it the centerpiece of his campaign!
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He did say, “No president of the United States of America has ever said anything like that.” Well, now, that is true. Because Trump didn’t say it.

I can’t imagine what Biden could do to win my confidence. I’m not going to bother to put in a request this time, because I feel completely hopeless that he will try. He has decided to run on — his people have decided to run him on — fomenting racial division, fear, and hatred. He could have run on just not being Trump — the simple dream to make America normal again. But he has chosen an eyes-closed nightmare.

As Joe Biden enters the last of his twilight years, it is important to remember that he has long been a voice of hatred and a peddler of division, and remains so today.

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