Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, April 17, 2020

Uncle Joe

Martin Longman does a nice job explaining Joe Biden's strengths as a candidate. Biden's a genuinely nice guy, invested in the people he meets. He's a classic "people person." (For the record, I don't currently believe the allegations of sexual assault against him.  Way too many red flags. And the Rule of Thumb is: there is always more than one. Biden DOES get into people's personal space, which is weird, but not creepy.)

Biden's essential normalness is his great calling card against Trump's abnormality. Biden will need to demonstrate that he can remain disciplined in his impromptu moments.  Those have been tricky for him in the past. If he can just stay on script, hit his marks and be "good old Joe," he has a chance to rack up a sizable victory. I'm talking winning states like Arizona, Georgia and Texas.

The real trick will be his coattails and his ability to advance a "progressive" agenda (whatever the hell that means at any given moment).  If he wins, he will inherit a smoldering wreck of an economy and the need to reinvent the federal bureaucracy and judiciary. He will need to re-invigorate America's standing in the world.  To do that, he will need a team with vision and energy, because those really aren't his strong suits.

We elect a party, however, and Biden is showing a decent grasp of how to unify his.

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