“Another one bites the dust,” croons Queen in the background. What makes this prediction so unusual is that former Senator, former Vice President, two-time presidential candidate Joe Biden just announced his third presidential run.
And even before he boards his favorite Amtrak train for his campaign kickoff I’m telling you this: His is a zombie campaign, despite his lead in the polls against all Democrats and President Trump. Have I lost my mind?
Here goes:
Everyone knows Joe Biden. He was Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He’s been in elective office since 1973. That’s right, 1973. And that makes this the perfect time to offer the Biden challenge: Name one accomplishment that he can take credit for and brag about from those forty-six years.
Don’t feel bad. I can’t either.
But we can agree on one thing: The man who asked him to serve as his vice president, President Barack Obama, refuses to endorse him.
Of course, this could be a blessing. The Mueller Report just eviscerated the last smidgen of supposed success of that administration by reminding us that the Russians have been attacking our elections since 2014 and the Obama-Biden Administration chose to do nothing. To the extent that Biden’s third term is seen as Obama’s third term we could have a joint bye-bye Biden/bye-bye Barack going out of business sale.
I recently referred to Biden as the perfect Allstate pitch man. You know, the “Good Hands” people. Yes, I’m going there. And, No, Joe Biden is not a pervert, a child molester, or any other anti-social cretin. No, Joe Biden is simply an old man who has never mastered the art of common-sense appropriate behavior.
We all saw the videos. People were uncomfortable. By people I mean women and young girls. Is that disqualifying for a (Democrat) presidential candidate? Of course not. Does it soften his support? It does if you believe the recent Emerson poll which bumped him from first to second in Massachusetts and the country, among likely Democrat Primary voters.
In forty-six years of elective service there are bound to be memorable moments. Try these: Remember the Clarence Thomas hearings? Senator Biden presided over those hearings as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Justice Thomas came away believing Senator Biden stabbed him in the back, turning on him after promising his support. Every Democrat believes Senator Biden stabbed Anita Hill in the back by not calling more witnesses with supposedly similar stories. Hmm, I wonder if any of the other nineteen candidates will raise this issue.
There’s always a racial issue. Senator Biden strongly opposed mandatory busing as a way of effecting school desegregation. To defeat the bill Senator Biden enlisted the aid of Democrat Senator Eastland, the number one segregationist Senator at the time, a man who called blacks “an inferior race.” Senator Biden invited Senator Eastland to speak on the Senate floor. “Your participation in this debate would be welcome,” Senator Biden wrote on August 22, 1978. Maybe the Biden-Eastland and the Clinton-Byrd partnerships are prerequisites to winning the Democrat Presidential nomination. (I’m just speculating out loud).
Follow the money. Well, Joe doesn’t seem to have much of it. His below million-dollar net worth after forty-six years of public service would seem to make him the Mother Teresa of career politicians.
Dianne Feinstein made a million dollars in one stock transaction. Bernie Sanders did it with one book. Not Joe. So where’s the money? Joe had two sons. I bet you can’t name them. Sadly, we all know Beau, the Delaware Attorney General, the military officer, who died from brain cancer at only forty-six years of age. But few of us know the other son, Hunter. Hunter Biden is a Washington lobbyist with some of the most lucrative relationships in the industry. The short story is the possible conflict that arose in the Ukraine involving Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden and one billion dollars. There are nineteen candidates who will fill in the blanks on that one. Soon Hunter will become the hunted.
“The times they are a changing” wails Bob Dylan. They are, especially for Democrats. It’s not his age. It’s his experience, forty-six years of votes, committees, chairmanships, and White House appearances without a single signature accomplishment. Death by a thousand cuts? That’s my Biden prediction. If you don’t agree you know where to find me. But at the end of the day I’ll have one more “I told you so” notch on my belt.
Sid Dinerstein is a former chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. He founded JBS Associates, a 600-person financial service company, and currently combines politics and business with Niger Innis in Inclusive Elections LLC, a firm that brings urban electorate voters to the GOP. He is the author of "Adults Only: For Those Who Love Their Country More Than Their Party." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.