Joe Biden and Getting Old(er)

[_MeDotOrg]

I'll be 69 years old this year. Watching Joe Biden get pummeled last night brought up a surprising amount of feelings. I was angry at people for piling on. I was angry with Joe because he attempted to defend a policy that he shouldn't have defended. And I had sad feelings as I watched him jab back ineffectually. He acted old.

Eric Swalwell kept interrupting to say that "the torch should be passed to a new generation", I assume trying to invoke JFK with his boyish looks. People should remember the rest of JFK's thoughts:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

In other words, JFK brought something to the table when he talked about "a new generation". Swalwell seemed to suggest that being not-old is the same as being competent.

People see injustice and they say "why hasn't everyone always automatically seen what I see?" They think that the lens through which they see the world is a perfectly ground lens, that the lens has always been this good and will never be any better. The human experience is an evolving, progressive experience. It is self-evident that the earth is flat, and the universe revolves around the earth, n'est-ce pas? We learn from our history (sometimes the wrong lessons). Abraham Lincoln did not give a lot of shout-outs to the LGBT community, let alone the LGBTQ community.

If you sail into the future thinking you will never have to course-correct, bring along a life preserver. Sooner or later you will probably change your opinion about something. That doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you an evolving person.

I wish Biden could have just said that he was wrong. But one thing I would like to ask when I see younger politicians attack older politicians: Twenty-five years from now, do you think all of the positions that you hold today will be considered politically correct? Are you so sure that ALL your current political opinions will stand the test of time? Twenty five years from now, are you sure that what you consider WOKE will be considered WOKE? Will the expression WOKE still be used, for will it be in the orphanage for abandoned politically correct expressions like 'Afro-American' and 'domestic partnerships'?

Anyway, bitch, bitch, bitch.

[_moksha]

There would certainly be a big contrast in a Trump-Buttigieg debate in terms of old versus young, stupid vs smart, dishonest vs honest, babbling vs coherent, ego-maniacal vs thoughtful, etc....

Mormons and Evangelicals would cast a landslide percent of their votes for Trump since he would embody their important values.

[_Kevin Graham]

I think at this point Kamala Harris probably has the best chance of beating Trump. She killed it, and she would kill Trump in a debate too.

She'll energize the minority/female vote as well.

[_honorentheos]

It was one debate. People will watch the tapes, reframe strategies, things will happen in the real world forcing them to react (see: police shooting in South Bend) and we'll see.

What jumps out at me from this first debate was the lack of vision on stage. Granted, this was a first debate on two crowded stages, but it left me wondering what it is the Democrats are offering the nation? I was hoping to see someone try and make a move by presenting something compelling.

Regarding Biden, he suffers from having lived a life with all the mistakes and compromised triumphs that usually entails. He's this cycle's Clinton. He won't make it to the nomination because this cycle is just as much a refutation of Clinton's loss in 2016 as it is a mandate to stop Trump from winning a second term. The voters want an ideologue who can maintain the image of being uncompromised even if that isn't fact.

And that, in my opinion, is Harris' problem, too. She has history. She is an accomplished prosecutor with the skills to take the offensive and win over a jury. But she made it clear she needs to be taken on aggressively or risk being unable to defend against her. The best defense in this case IS a strong offense and we should expect future debates will see her having to defend her own record. It won't be pretty.

[_ajax18]

I think at this point Kamala Harris probably has the best chance of beating Trump. She killed it, and she would kill Trump in a debate too.

She'll energize the minority/female vote as well.

I doubt we'll see another WASP Democrat presidential candidate. MeDot.org's wing of the Democrat party is dying off. People like Joe Biden aren't really welcome. Perhaps his descendants will experience a different kind of awakening. But yeah, for Joe it's too late. Rust belt union Democrats are now Republicans. All the Democrats have left are welfare queens and communist kooks like Bernie Sanders. It's not a working man's party anymore nor have Democrats done anything to attract working people especially native born Americans witjh no grievance card to play.

[_subgenius]

I think at this point Kamala Harris probably has the best chance of beating Trump. She killed it, and she would kill Trump in a debate too.

She'll energize the minority/female vote as well.

talk about an echo chamber, geez.
Kamala wont survive the microscope and if she is the nominee then the DNC is in ruins.

[_Brackite]

Rust belt union Democrats are now Republicans. All the Democrats have left are welfare queens and communist kooks like Bernie Sanders.

That is completely wrong. During the 2018 midterms, all the three rust belt states that delivered Trump his victory in 2016 (PA, MI and WI), the Democrats won the senate and Governor’s races. (Not to mention that Trump won MI and WI by getting less votes than Bush in 2004.)

[_Some Schmo]

Rust belt union Democrats are now Republicans. All the Democrats have left are welfare queens and communist kooks like Bernie Sanders.

That is completely wrong.

ajax clearly lives on a steady diet of pure BS. He rarely says anything that represents reality.

He's not just damned ignorant. He's spent his life actively learning the wrong things. He's a dimwit. If he is representative of the supremacy of white people, all Caucasians should be damned embarrassed.

ETA: Luckily, he is not representative of white people. Just the morons.

[_Some Schmo]

I'm not sure why people feel like Harris had a killer night (although I've seen she has, in fact, risen significantly in the polls post debate). It feels more like a case where nobody else did anything really attention-grabbing except her, and therefore: attention.

Maybe I'm not seeing it because I was already very familiar with Harris. It was a typical night for her, in my opinion. Strong. Clear. Purposeful. I still was more impressed with Buttigieg.

I will say that Biden seemed very unprepared/out of practice for the debate generally. Is it a case of getting older, MeDot? Perhaps. Or maybe he's just not caught up to the idea that nothing is for certain, and he better work harder for the nomination.

[_subgenius]

I'll be 69 years old this year. Watching Joe Biden get pummeled last night brought up a surprising amount of feelings. I was angry at people for piling on....

Biden is a political liability for the Democrats. The party of "progress, youth, and diversity " is laughable when their frontrunner is an old rich white guy.