The whole Joe Biden announcement makes me sad. It’s just going to end so badly, he is never going to win*, and we’re just going to watch someone who is a shell of his former self ruin his entire legacy. It’s going to be like watching an aged Ali get totally trounced by Larry Holmes, although comparing Joe to Ali is in itself problematic, because Ali was a champion. Joe has run several times before and it has always ended badly.
When you look where he is on the issues, he’s just not where America or the Democratic party is right now. Middling centrism is most definitely not where the party is, and if you look at the totality of his record, including his war on drugs, his shepherding of the Bankruptcy Bill, the Anita Hill hearings, and so many other things, you can almost forget about the good he has done.
Again, it’s sad. Watching the video, he looks ok head on, if you can look past the hair plugs and the bulky crowns and the sucking sounds as he talks from his dentures. But his skin is thin, his cheeks are hollowed, and he looks old and tired, something that is obvious in non-staged photographs.
We all get old. I don’t know why so many of us can’t age more gracefully. He should be enjoying a well deserved retirement, spending time with his wife, his remaining kids, and his grandkids, doing the lecture circuit. But for some reason, and to his credit, he feels that he has to do this. But his good intentions and patrician feelings of obligation are not going to cut it.
The world has changed, and Joe Biden has not. He could have ridden off into the sunset, a hero for his past accomplishments and his popularity during the Obama years. But he is going to throw it all away, and it is going to be depressing to watch.
I just find it profoundly sad. It’s time for the kids to take over, Joe. You did your work. Let it go.
* And now he is guaranteed to win, what with me predicting his defeat.