Walter
Shapiro, a staff writer for The
New Republic has
reported on 10 previous presidential campaigns, dating back to the
days of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. He has seen the many come
and go, with many an aspirant falling by the wayside. Many climb the
greasy pole, but only a few grasp the brass ring.
In
the latest edition of The
New Republic, Shapiro
turns his attention to the darling of the Democratic mossbacks, Joe
Biden. “Speaking
to about 130 people at a late November town meeting in rural
Knoxville, Iowa, 40 miles southeast of Des Moines, Biden gave an 11
minute stump speech without a single burst of applause until he
finished. Then, for the first 20 minutes of the question period,
Biden spoke to the sound of no hands clapping. It was hard not to
recall the plea of Jeb Bush—another thoroughbred hopeful in the
crowded 2016 GOP field: Please
Clap. Amid
all the many polling surprises, debate bumps, and unanticipated
reversals of the 2020 Democratic campaign, there has been an
unalterable truth: You never have to worry about finding parking at a
Joe Biden event.” (1) Indeed,
Shapiro reports that chairs are often re-arranged so that gaping
holes do not appear in the audience.
Biden's
campaign has tried to excuse what is so painfully apparent by telling
themselves—and anyone who happens to stop by—that people already
know Joe and don't need to come out to see him. A curious posture,
kind of like whistling past the grave yard.
Shapiro
writes that “[N]o
other presidential candidate in modern times has had to defend a
Washington career that stretched over hear half-century” (2) ,
comparing
Biden to a general with over-extended and vulnerable supply lines.
That he is. With the possible lone exception of the Violence
Against Women Act, Joe
has been remarkably consistent in his firm stands on the wrong side
of every issue. From supporting the credit-card industry's financial
rapes to championing NAFTA and other trade agreements, to being a
cheerleader for the repeal of Glass-Steagall,
and
the telecommunications Act, to supporting Bill Clinton's war on
“welfare as we know it”, to his support to freeze Social
Security—in his
words,
not once, not twice, not three times...but four times—he is indeed
vulnerable. An that's not even mentioning his disgraceful management
of the Anita Hill hearings.
Biden's
sole justification, be there any at all, is that he is here.
His
only rationale is that he thinks, and the Democratic establishment
has so far deluded themselves into agreeing, that he is the only man
who can beat Donald J. tRUMP.
But
something has happened on the way to the forum. The fact is that
since announcing his candidacy he has campaigned his way Down.
A
year ago, he was polling in the mid sixties, as a percentage of
Democrats who favored Biden over the others. Today he is in a
statistical dead heat with Bernie Sanders as Democrats throughout the
country are casting about for another alternative. Among Democrats,
only black voters still support Joe, and that may soon change as
returns from Iowa and New Hampshire come in.
What
we have here is more than a populist revolt. We have also a
generational
upheaval,
the likes of which we have not seen since 1968. The young are in
open revolt against The
Generation of Swine,with
Bernie Sanders surging in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada
and California, taking leads in all these states, save South Carolina
where a prominent conservative black county chairwoman has recently
switched from Biden to Sanders. The ground beneath the
'establishment' is beginning to shake. A television advertisement has
been produced, not by the Sanders campaign but by some people who
support him, using the voice over of Bob Dylan's anthem “The
Times They Are A-Changin”, in
a delicious turn of the tables. The young are saying “You
better start swimming, or you'll sink like a stone”, “Your old
road is rapidly aging”. Indeed
it is beginning to resemble the drawn aging lines on Joe Biden's
face.
The
Party mossbacks are now in panic. Biden is imploding before their
very eyes, the ship is taking water,
and
they are beginning to cast about for a lifeboat. Indeed, when the
votes in New Hampshire are counted, it will be the deepest Joe Biden
has gone in any of this now three presidential campaigns.
Mike
Bloomberg stands waiting in the wings. He has spent over a quarter of
a billion dollars and is now polling around 9 per cent. The
mossbacks, sensing the quick dispatch of Biden, have changed the
rules so that Mike can get on the debate stage leading up to the
California primary. Here the tattered remnants of the old DLC are at
last showing their true colors by rallying behind a former Republican
and current tycoon of Wall Street.
Imagine,
if you will, a Bloomberg/tRUMP contest. One genuine facing off
against one fake billionaire. The horde of deplorables pounding the
table, the Democratic base yawning and staying home.
An'
Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Convict
and Imprison.
______________
- Shapiro, Walter. “A Man in Full” The New Republic. January-February . Pages 16-17
- Ibid. Pg 16
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