Ron Goldstein makes the case for Biden in Newsweek. I have confessed in the past that I have always liked Joe Biden. He’s my kind of guy. I even find some of his shortcomings endearing. For example, I love his big ‘never-shut-up’ mouth. As a politician, I think he is one of the few naturals. He’s not up to the level of a Ronald Reagan or a Bill Clinton. But he’s a heck of a lot better than Dukakis, Gore, or Kerry. And he’s a fighter. He was known as someone not to mess with when he was growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
My problems with Biden are not personal, and they have nothing to do with his ability. My problems are strictly political. Joe Biden is too much of a hawk, too status-quo, too much Establishment. In an election these can be virtues. These attributes make a lot of people feel comfortable. They don’t make me comfortable.
Biden also disappointed me, in a very major way, with his ‘aye’ vote on the bankruptcy bill. I know he represents Delaware. But, that is an inadequate excuse. That vote killed any chance that I would support Biden in 2008.
I’ve been around the blogosphere long enough to know that most people on Kos, and here, are really down on Joe Biden. I’m not really down on him. I just can’t support his candidacy for the Presidency.
Does he support Kennedy’s Health Care for Everyone bill? I know, we don’t have the answer to that yet. But, I think that if we have a positive powerful plan, we should require all our Senators to endorse it. With vigor and conviction.
I’m down on him. President? No way in hell.
Makes 2 of us!
As a general rule I don’t support ANY senator running for president because history shows that senators generally don’t win. They have oratorical skills that aren’t suited to the general population and, as member of the legislative branch, they must compromise on many issues in order to get legislation that is important to them through. This always comes back to haunt them. And the average American doesn’t really understand senate procedures hence the “he voted for it before he voted against it” or vice versa.
However, if it looks like the Repubs are going to nominate a senator on their side, I suppose that rule is mitigated by the fact that the only viable choices in the matter are senators. I predict a low voter turnout in such a case.
there’s that dirty word ‘viable’
That sentence right there is my dealbreaker, even if I didn’t know much about Joe Biden.
We don’t need someone who can play the game, but someone who is willing to repair the rules. I agree with BooMan that Biden’s too establishment to ever bring this perspective.
of women who remember his treatment of Anita Hill.
He’s a bounder, a cad, a scalliwag and worse.
Joe Biden = windjammer supreme! If yap-yap alone could accomplish anything he’d already be president. JB is very long on talk and very short on do.
As evidenced by the “brilliant” strategy in the questioning of Alito, these old horses ought to be put out to pasture.
Naw, never trusted the man.
What we need is a candidate who can make mistakes and ‘fess up.
Someone with integrity.
Someone who can listen.
Does Biden fit that bill?
Naw.
He’s a smart dude. A very, very smart dude.
He’s a little too impressed with his own intellect, though. And he loooooves the sound of his voice.
If he were the Dem nominee, I would vote for him in the general election without having to hold my nose. But I can think of several candidates that I like much better.
I have no idea what he really stands for, despite all the talking he does.
What is he willing to stand up for? What has he demonstrated already that he’s willing to stand up for in the way of our constitutional foundations and liberties?
And on the other side of those questions, what do we know that he has not managed to stand up for?
I can’t vote affirmatively for anyone if they don’t tell me what’s important to them and what they’re willing to defend. It ain’t any more complicated than that.
He never seems to use that big mouth in the right way. Every time I’ve seen him asking questions of some corrupt, republican, or other he never goes far enough. He should be “nailing” them and he never seems to really live up to it.
Biden is in the hip pocket of the banking industry, as you so rightly point out, Boo. This, in and of itself, is enough to make me dislike him.
What really gets my goat, however, is the way he badmouths fellow Dems, a la clueless Joe.
I don’t think Biden has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the nomination, though he could be a good balance if, say, Clark were to win the nomination.
Sadly, I’d end up holding my nose and voting for him, either way. God, what I would give for a presidential candidate I could truly support.
Seriously. How can someone who had a brain tumor get to be president? Karl Rove, or someone like him, would have a field day suggesting the guy has part of his brain missing. This may actually explain why he talks and talks but never manages to make an explicit statement of position. I dunno, my credit card installment payment just went up three-fold so I’m not a person to ask about supporting Biden…
Revisiting the Thomas-Hill Hearings
Senator Joe “bend-over-in-the-wrong-direction” Biden, that’s him alright.
Biden might be a good Secretary of State.
Can’t see anyone from Delaware winning the Presidency unless they’re a hell of a figure. Biden comes off as a nice guy and all, but he doesn’t really move me.
I like him more than I dislike him. Another time and place he could have been the right guy for the job. We have some serious problems coming down the road and I don’t think that status-quo and establishment are going to be qualities needed to really deal with them…..tough is good though, I think we need tough…….but we need some serious innovation to go along with the tough. God knows I don’t need some average I.Q. of 100 Yahoo up there talking about switch grass and building better batteries. We have been putting things off that have to be dealt with soon and some of it isn’t going to be nice or easy.
Three words.
No. Fucking. Way.