By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 20, 2019 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 20, 2019 |
Last Sunday on This Week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked about Joe Biden, and specifically, about his handsiness. As someone who still likes Joe Biden in the abstract but finds him appallingly ill-suited to run for office, I thought she gave a very good answer that I think is applicable to Biden’s entire campaign (not just the grabbiness): “It’s not about right and wrong sometimes. It’s about feeling whether someone gets it or not.”
"I do think that there may be some discomfort," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells @jonkarl when asked if she thinks Joe Biden gets the allegations of inappropriate touching against him
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 16, 2019
"I don't think he's necessarily convinced all women," she adds https://t.co/jVstG7wcVZ pic.twitter.com/L7MNbAEYIx
That’s Joe Biden to a tee. I don’t think Biden is evil. I don’t think he’s bad, and I knew what he was trying to say where it concerns segregationist Senators, but I don’t think that Joe “gets it.” He doesn’t understand why his statements were insensitive and woefully out of touch. He doesn’t understand why they pissed off so many people, and he refuses to apologize. I’m beginning to understand, however, why Biden has been reluctant to apologize for anything, because if he did, he’d spend all of his time apologizing: For Anita Hill, for the Eastland comments, for smelling women’s hair, for saying things he should not be saying to 11-year-old girls. He’s not gaffe-prone, because that would suggest that all the things he says are accidents. He doesn’t understand why they’re wrong, because he doesn’t get it, and he’s displayed little willingness to try and get it.
Do I think he’s specifically reaching out to “economically anxious” voters in the center and center-right?
I’m moving out of thinking Biden is just daft to thinking that this is a deliberate strategy of repeatedly making racist gestures in a pathetic attempt to get those “economically anxious” voters we keep hearing about. https://t.co/CcTNRiKO2O
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) June 20, 2019
No. Not really. Do I think he’s racist? Well, I think he honestly believes he’s not racist, but that’s not quite the same, is it? But I also think that “not getting it” is a powerful lure for all the old-school Democrats who also don’t get it, and there’s probably a big block of establishment Democrats who have vowed not to “get it” together.
Anyway, Biden’s not gonna apologize, which isn’t good. Asking Cory Booker to apologize to him? Well, that’s worse. Yikes.
Biden hits back at Booker over segregationist senator.
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) June 20, 2019
“Apologize for what? Cory [Booker] should apologize. He knows better” pic.twitter.com/xq8lLk4tTj
I don’t know if that’s better or worse, however, than how Mayor Pete is handling the shooting death of a black man in South Bend by a police officer, because this sounds real bad:
“How’s he handling it?” said Oliver Davis, the longest-serving black member of the South Bend Common Council. “Well, he talked to the media before the family. He skipped the family vigil, full of black residents. & then he then gave a speech to the police” https://t.co/GHEsHHF3aw
— Alexis Goldstein 🔥 (@alexisgoldstein) June 20, 2019
As for Beto, who has lost much of his support to Mayor Pete, the man continues his tendency to rattle off statistics in lieu of taking a position. Bill Clinton used to do this, but he did so in a way that it felt like he was connecting to the story behind the statistics. When Beto does it, it feels like he’s regurgitating homework.
Beto O’Rourke on @PodSaveAmerica: “For the VP (Biden) to somehow say that what we’re seeing today is a function of partisanship or a lack of bipartisanship, completely ignores the legacy of slavery and the active suppression of African Americans and communities of color.” pic.twitter.com/IC0yTdkIJC
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) June 20, 2019
As for Cory Booker? He’s not got a shot in hell, but I do like his plan to grant executive clemency to thousands of nonviolent drug offenders on his first day in office.
Then there’s Bernie. Good lord, Bernie.
The cat is out of the bag. The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly "anybody but Bernie." They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class. https://t.co/zimci7JRO6
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 19, 2019
All the commentary on this is absolutely right: Bernie is alienating the Democratic party, making Warren — who rose to number two behind Biden in the latest national poll — a more viable Democratic candidate, because a number of progressives are abandoning Bernie for Warren while Bernie’s outright rejection of the Democratic Party is making Warren a more palatable alternative for moderates. In some ways, Bernie is not only his worst enemy but a best friend to Warren: He’s rejecting the establishment so hard that Warren’s progressive ideas seem more mainstream. Keep it up, Bernie!