I want to talk about Vice President Biden for a little bit. I do not want to weigh in on the recent harassment allegations against him except maybe in how his party may approach the situation. What I want to talk about is the changes that the Vice President has seemed to be going through during this campaign season. It may not be a popular writing with some of my readers because of what is coming to light about the Vice President. Let's try anyway.
Pre-accusation feelings on Mr. Biden. I respect the man. I have watched him in the Senate for many years and I feel like he had an air about him as a fair minded, bipartisan politician who tried to sincerely do what was best for our country.
I have been following national politics closely since the Presidential election of 1968 when President Nixon defeated Vice President Humphrey. With the arrival of cable television and the creation of the C-SPAN network that televised the House of Representative and later expanded to broadcast the Senate live as well, I was able to witness these politicians and decide for myself what kind of people they were instead of taking my grandfather's word for it. It was eye opening as I grew older and came to understand the working of the government better.
Joe Biden stood out to me. As I watched the Senate there were many Senators that I just could not bring myself to have much respect for. Among those were Senator Leahey, Senator Durbin, and Senator Kennedy (Edward) among others on both sides of the aisle. However there were many Senators that I felt were doing the best they could for their states and their constituents as well as the country. These Senators also covered both sides of the aisle and one of those was Joe Biden.
Joe Biden had my respect pretty much the whole time that I was aware of him and who he was. The thing that really won my respect for him though was when he was Chairman of the Judiciary committee. He presided over the extremely controversial confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas to be placed on the Supreme Court. Justice Thomas underwent accusations almost parallel to the hearings that we just watched Justice Kavanaugh go through. There was an accuser. The Democrats smelled blood in the water and the Republicans wanted the accusations to be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was ugly. It was nasty. It brought out an angry Justice Thomas that accused the process of being a "high tech lynching". Senator Biden, as I mentioned, was the chairman of the committee. What I saw Biden do during that 2 weeks of accusations, fighting, arguing presenting to the American people the United States Senate at it's worse, was a man who tried his very best to keep things in order.
Joe Biden tried, and I believe succeeded, in keeping the hearings fair and under control. He chastised both Republican Senators as well as Democratic Senators during that time. He gave and took on both sides. It was probably the most fair hearings I have ever seen coming out of the Senate (except for the Soto-Mayor and the John Roberts hearings maybe). Joe Biden stood tall. Joe Biden kept to his plan on how to handle the hearings. Joe Biden came off as a fair and honest man in my mind and he earned my respect during that time.
Since then, I feel like he continued to do an admirable job as a Senator. When he was chosen by President Obama to be his running mate, I was pleased. It made my decision on who to vote for in those two elections pretty difficult. I was not enamored with Mitt Romney and so that was probably the second toughest decision I had ever made in a Presidential election. The other one was in 1976 When President Ford was challenged by President Carter. I voted for Carter in 1976 and even though his administration can be seen fairly easily as a failure, he did some very good things as President. I was not, and still am not questioning myself on voting for Carter that year.
I did not vote for President Obama however. At the time I felt like Obama was too inexperienced to hold the office of President. He was a one term Senator with little, if any, other experience in National politics, particularly foreign policy. That was what threw me over to vote for Romney. I believe a President's number one responsibility is that of foreign policy and it just wasn't there with Obama. Even as Obama ran for a second term, his opponent Senator McCain was much more proficient in foreign policy than the President was. Through all of that though, I still held my respect for Joe Biden. Biden did know foreign policy. In my mind Biden was still that hard nosed Senator from years ago who was bi-partisan and honest and sincere. I still feel that way about the Vice President. (current allegations withstanding).
So that is my background concerning Joe Biden. I do feel like during his eight years as Vice President he became a little more partisan but over all still a fair, sincere man. That brings us to what my concern with the former Vice President is and what this entry is meant to be about. Most important about Biden was that he never seemed to jump on the "Hate President Trump At All Cost" bandwagon.
When we entered the current campaign season it was fairly obvious that the Democrats were going to have some bloody moments on the road. It seemed that the party was fractured widely between moderates and, well about as far left as you can get on a piece of graph paper ... maybe even off the paper. But then came Joe Biden into the mix. Now I can't say I agree with him on policy or really much of anything as it seems that Biden, as well as myself, have changed over the years. Still, I could see Joe Biden as that same man I saw at the Thomas hearings. He was an arbitrator early in the campaign. He would answer questions quick, straight and hard nosed. You didn't have to wonder where Biden stood on things and it began to appeal to the Democratic party.
Something began to happen though during the primary season. It wasn't easy to notice at first. Biden began to hesitate just a little before giving an answer. The pause began to grow as the weeks went by. Then Biden began to get words turned around now and again but was quick to correct himself. After that little anger burst began to come from somewhere deep inside him and a few times he threatened democratic supports and challenged them to what appeared to be fist fights out in the parking lot. Then it got worse and I began to really get concerned about Joe Biden as a man, as a human being. Joe was slowing changing into a Joe Biden that I did not recognize.
Over the past few weeks, the Vice President has begun to slur his words a little. His thought processes have begun to be disjointed. He forgets words entirely and can not correct himself. He seems to not be aware of where he is or sometimes what he is doing. During one campaign speech he announced that he was "Joe Biden and I am running for United States Senator". This was the point when I was convinced that early onset dementia was starting to effect Joe Biden.
I have no proof of this. There have not been any medical examinations or anything of the sort to confirm what I feel I see in the man. But I do see it. I watched my father slowly slip into dementia and what I saw in Biden was almost a mirror as to what I saw in my father. It continues to get worse in my eyes as the days go by. He looks old. He looks tired. His wife, Jill, has had to walk him off the platform a few times. He has wondered off camera. One night with the camera on him, he turned and talked to the wall with his back to the camera. He stops mid sentence constantly now trying to remember what his train of thought was. Personally, I see the dementia growing almost daily.
It is sad. I am sincere in saying that. It is sad to see any person slip into dementia especially when you have seen them with a sharp mind and very capable of taking care of themselves. It truly is sad to see Biden go through this. What I do not understand, what I can not understand, is how the Democratic Party puts him through this. It is becoming more obvious by the day that if he were to be elected, he would not be able to serve the country the way we deserve to be served. He would not be capable of carrying out his duties, of upholding the Constitution without the danger of being led by people who could be of questionable character talking him into making decisions that the Joe Biden of past years would never make.
I feel that the Democratic Party has to find a new candidate to take Biden's place on the ballot and they need to come out of their convention with a viable candidate. If they put Joe Biden on stage in a debate with President Trump, I do not believe I would be able to watch it. It would be so sad to see that once great man, not able to formulate a consistent argument or sentence without stumbling all over his words and looking tired and old. I would not want to see that. I don't think the American people would want to see that, no matter what your political philosophy is.
Now comes the only time I will bring up the current allegations against Biden. I truly hope that what I am about to say does not come true. My fear is that the party that Biden was a part of and loved for all these years may turn on him. They may use this scandal as the excuse to replace him at the convention putting him and his family through unnecessary turmoil. I think that this could happen to cover up the fact that the Democratic Party were ready to nominate a man who is so clearly unable to carry out the responsibility of the office if elected. This would be about the meanest thing that could happen.
I hope, my fervent hope, is that somebody in the leadership of the party, a few of those people, talk to Jill Biden and get her on board before approaching Joe with what everyone is seeing from day to day. My hope is that they are able to talk to him and make him understand enough to realize that stepping aside is the right thing to do. I have no idea or thought on who could or should replace Biden at the top of the ticket. That is what the convention will be for. My hope is that they treat Joe Biden gently with all the respect he has earned over the decades of serving his country. As far as the allegations, that can be worked out without a President being hampered as President Trump has been since he was elected. The situation can be handled in a just way, in quiet and outside of government.
Joe Biden deserves at least this much respect and decency. I truly believe this. The last time I felt this bad for a Senator that went down was when George McGovern and the democrats embarrassed and shamed my senator from Missouri, Thomas Eagleton in 1972 because it came to light that he suffered from depression and was seeking help for it. I feel like the situation with Biden is much worse than the Eagleton situation.
I am asking the leaders and members of the Democratic Party to please, please give Joe Biden some dignity as his political career comes to a close. He deserves it.
(As an aside, I do not condone any actions that Joe Biden may have done if the allegations are true. At the time of this writing it is reported that 8 women have made accusations in the past against Mr. Biden. This of course, changes my attitude toward him as a man in the overall scheme of things. I also believe he needs to be held accountable after an investigation is conducted)
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