Joe Biden spoke in Hampton today.
The line formed an hour before he was due and the place was packed.
Anticipation was high.
People really love Joe.
Of course, for most of them, that love has grown from afar.
This was a place to see him, touch him, etc.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?460665-1/vice-president-joe-biden-makes-campaign-stop-hampshire
I began to allow myself to hope: It will be tough beating Trump, given the strong economy and the fierceness of his support. But talking to the people around me today, I heard as much genuine affection for Biden as you see at Trump rallies.
When I asked two guys in their 70's why they like him, they grinned and shrugged their shoulders and could not say exactly why: "I just like Joe."
He arrived and began his stump speech, talking about how we've lost a sense of decency and how his father told him a job was more than a paycheck, it was about dignity.
He had a lot of anecdotes about things his father said, about the dignity and ennobling aspect of work, which evoked warm burbling about the times some of us can remember when there was fellowship, pride and a sense of contribution in jobs, whether it was turning out automobiles, steel or even operations at hospitals. A time when you might work for GM or Dupont or General Electric for 30 years.
He launched into a joke based on a cartoon from the New Yorker. He started describing the cartoon--Barack used to kid me about it-- about a man sitting in an interrogation room with a bag of money he had stolen and--did I tell you this was from the New Yorker?--and he is saying "How was I supposed to know he was the job creator?" Polite laughter. I think I got it: The man had expected if he stole money from a rich guy he would be forgiven but if the rich guy is seen as a job creator, that's a crime. But most of the audience seemed confused. Laughed politely.
The gag went so nowhere I actually Googled it. The cartoon, actually, is funny. But you have to be able to describe it properly. And Biden could not. But he uses it in his stump speech. And he has more handlers than O'Rourke, Delaney and Gillibrand combined. Has nobody talked to him?
He righted himself and I thought: Okay, he's going to be okay now. But then he seemed to lose track of what he was saying. He'd forget the subject from the first part of his sentence by the second part. He'd flub his lines. "We used to want to be an example of power; now we ought to show power by example," became, "We used to want to be example power by showing power."
Or something.
It got to where I was feeling: Can't we help this guy somehow?
Questions came next and it got ugly. The usual audience member who started off with several paragraphs about the experience of having a husband who developed early Alzheimer's and what it did to her family and to herself and to her husband and to their friends. I have to admit, my mind wandered waiting for her to find a question in all this.
But finally she asked what Joe would do to solve the Alzheimer's problem. Joe sallied off into a long voyage about curing cancer, which had taken one of his sons, and which he had talked to Barack Obama about and got appointed to a task force called "The Moon Shot" for cancer, based on the premise that if America could send a man to the moon and return him safely back to Earth, then, by golly, we ought to be able to solve the cancer problem. So Joe traveled all over the globe, talking to people to learn how to cure cancer. And doing this, he discovered "cancer" is not just one disease but 240 different diseases. (Where that number came from is still a mystery to me.) But all you really have to do is to get scientists sharing information, which they currently do not do.
So here is the rub: 1/ Politicians who believe they know enough about science to solve scientific problems. 2/ The question was about Alzheimer's.
The audience could, it is true, think, "Oh, well, he means, like cancer, all Alzheimer's needs is for scientists to start sharing formation."
But when you get to the point where the audience has to finish your thought for you, because you've lost the thread, this is not good.
Physically, his skull shows temporal hollowing, and he has a sort of worn out, gaunt look. He's that neighbor who coached your kids' baseball team, who sold Christmas trees at the local fire department tree stand, who marched in the Fourth of July parade and everyone likes him.
But you are making allowances for him because, well, he's lost a step or two but, well, Hell, you have to like the guy.
My neighbor, who saw him speak in 20012, observed: "He's not the same man. He used to be quick." Today, he was a little at sea.
Last polls put him up by 18 points on his nearest competitor in New Hampshire.
What that may reflect, if that poll is not just sheer baloney, if it really represents voter sentiment, may be a longing for a return to normal. A restoration figure. Someone who is the opposite of the mean spirited, nasty and divisive Trump.
Joe is certainly a swing away from Trump.
But if New Hampshire does its job, if it really vets the candidates, Joe will do so poorly here, he'll fall out of the race. Trouble is, even in New Hampshire, it's only the small minority who is even thinking about 2020 or the primary.
The line formed an hour before he was due and the place was packed.
Anticipation was high.
People really love Joe.
Of course, for most of them, that love has grown from afar.
This was a place to see him, touch him, etc.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?460665-1/vice-president-joe-biden-makes-campaign-stop-hampshire
I began to allow myself to hope: It will be tough beating Trump, given the strong economy and the fierceness of his support. But talking to the people around me today, I heard as much genuine affection for Biden as you see at Trump rallies.
When I asked two guys in their 70's why they like him, they grinned and shrugged their shoulders and could not say exactly why: "I just like Joe."
He arrived and began his stump speech, talking about how we've lost a sense of decency and how his father told him a job was more than a paycheck, it was about dignity.
He had a lot of anecdotes about things his father said, about the dignity and ennobling aspect of work, which evoked warm burbling about the times some of us can remember when there was fellowship, pride and a sense of contribution in jobs, whether it was turning out automobiles, steel or even operations at hospitals. A time when you might work for GM or Dupont or General Electric for 30 years.
He launched into a joke based on a cartoon from the New Yorker. He started describing the cartoon--Barack used to kid me about it-- about a man sitting in an interrogation room with a bag of money he had stolen and--did I tell you this was from the New Yorker?--and he is saying "How was I supposed to know he was the job creator?" Polite laughter. I think I got it: The man had expected if he stole money from a rich guy he would be forgiven but if the rich guy is seen as a job creator, that's a crime. But most of the audience seemed confused. Laughed politely.
The gag went so nowhere I actually Googled it. The cartoon, actually, is funny. But you have to be able to describe it properly. And Biden could not. But he uses it in his stump speech. And he has more handlers than O'Rourke, Delaney and Gillibrand combined. Has nobody talked to him?
He righted himself and I thought: Okay, he's going to be okay now. But then he seemed to lose track of what he was saying. He'd forget the subject from the first part of his sentence by the second part. He'd flub his lines. "We used to want to be an example of power; now we ought to show power by example," became, "We used to want to be example power by showing power."
Or something.
It got to where I was feeling: Can't we help this guy somehow?
Questions came next and it got ugly. The usual audience member who started off with several paragraphs about the experience of having a husband who developed early Alzheimer's and what it did to her family and to herself and to her husband and to their friends. I have to admit, my mind wandered waiting for her to find a question in all this.
But finally she asked what Joe would do to solve the Alzheimer's problem. Joe sallied off into a long voyage about curing cancer, which had taken one of his sons, and which he had talked to Barack Obama about and got appointed to a task force called "The Moon Shot" for cancer, based on the premise that if America could send a man to the moon and return him safely back to Earth, then, by golly, we ought to be able to solve the cancer problem. So Joe traveled all over the globe, talking to people to learn how to cure cancer. And doing this, he discovered "cancer" is not just one disease but 240 different diseases. (Where that number came from is still a mystery to me.) But all you really have to do is to get scientists sharing information, which they currently do not do.
So here is the rub: 1/ Politicians who believe they know enough about science to solve scientific problems. 2/ The question was about Alzheimer's.
The audience could, it is true, think, "Oh, well, he means, like cancer, all Alzheimer's needs is for scientists to start sharing formation."
But when you get to the point where the audience has to finish your thought for you, because you've lost the thread, this is not good.
Physically, his skull shows temporal hollowing, and he has a sort of worn out, gaunt look. He's that neighbor who coached your kids' baseball team, who sold Christmas trees at the local fire department tree stand, who marched in the Fourth of July parade and everyone likes him.
But you are making allowances for him because, well, he's lost a step or two but, well, Hell, you have to like the guy.
My neighbor, who saw him speak in 20012, observed: "He's not the same man. He used to be quick." Today, he was a little at sea.
Last polls put him up by 18 points on his nearest competitor in New Hampshire.
What that may reflect, if that poll is not just sheer baloney, if it really represents voter sentiment, may be a longing for a return to normal. A restoration figure. Someone who is the opposite of the mean spirited, nasty and divisive Trump.
Joe is certainly a swing away from Trump.
But if New Hampshire does its job, if it really vets the candidates, Joe will do so poorly here, he'll fall out of the race. Trouble is, even in New Hampshire, it's only the small minority who is even thinking about 2020 or the primary.
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteI agree we've got a problem if the leader of the Democratic pack, by a wide margin, has seen better days. With Trump it's readily apparent that the Emperor has no clothes. In Biden's case the Emperor may be missing a few items and those closest to him may not want to acknowledge that.
On the other hand, everyone has off days-jet lag, illness etc. Perhaps you need to hear him speak a second time before definitively declaring him past his shelf life. It's sad to think age may rob Biden of his last chance for the Presidency, especially since he otherwise would have a very good shot at winning. People on both sides of the aisle, as well as the center, like Joe-it's hard not to.
Maud
I would like to think it was an "off day."
ReplyDeleteBut this looks like deja vu. The "inevitable" safe choice turns out to be a disaster candidate.