I’m a Bernie guy, but I want to at least LIKE Joe Biden seeing that he can become the presidential nomine. I really don’t know how he’ll handle himself under pressure especially in a debate against Trump.
There was just a video of him getting flustered and on edge with a Tom Steyer supporter the other day. He touched his jacket with both hands and got defensive.
He tells one man talking about immigration under Obama to, “Vote for Trump”.
He called a man fat.
He called a guy a liar and challenge him to an arm wrestling match, (I believe).
He got frustrated with Ed O’Keefe when he was pressed on Social Security. He turned around and said; “Why, why, why, why!” And then he realized he was being too hyper, but told O’Keefe to calm down.
This guy has a short temper and gets agitated and flustered very easily. I think he feels entitled to his position. I’d still vote for the guy, but I wonder how we’ll do against Trump in debates, and if he does win, I wonder how good a president he’ll be.
I have serious reservations about Biden as a competent candidate for the nomination. I have some reservations about Biden as the Democratic nominee against Trump. I have very few reservations about Biden as POTUS.
Biden would be an acceptable president, but he has a history of his presidential campaigns imploding, and I’m really worried that he’ll be able to hold it together just long enough to get the nom, and then blow the whole thing in the general.
I don’t know if I feel the same way as you if he were to win the presidency. I think his temper and inability to be appropriate or ‘intelligent’ on-the-fly is a totally relevant thing to consider when considering him as a president.
He’s not the only politician who gets flustered when people stick a camera in his face. There was a video of a dude arguing with Warren about her student debt plan (my children paid off their loans so will we get reimbursed was his point). Why do these people have to record the interaction?
A day or two ago an organisation ambushed the Biden field office in Iowa. Biden was not present but they were causing trouble. Why?
Heck there was an organisation that staged a sit-in inside Pelosi’s office in the capitol over climate change. And recorded it. Why? She agrees with them. She has been fighting the issue of climate change when it was a fringe opinion before these young guys were born. Go protest at Mitch McConnell’s office or the Republicans offices who are in the way if progress.
A person who gets flustered when being recorded is not going to be very effective as President. And how a person reacts when events go off-script is also valuable information about their viability as President.
It’s my perception that Biden has always been like this - it’s not the stresses of the campaign. “Stand up and let them see you” to the paraplegic, “We choose truth over facts”, being handsy, push up contests - now it’s “vote for someone else” when challenged.
I doubt it will stop him from getting the nomination, but the general election is another matter. If he doesn’t win, maybe Hunter can help him find a job for a change.
In this democratic field then the only one who has shown he can handle attacks with composure then is Buttigieg. Biden gets cranky, so does Sanders (at least in 2016 he did), Warren is weak on defense, Klobuchar has bad stories as a demanding boss.
Buttigieg had a protest group interrupt him at his event by faking a medical emergency, calling an ambulance to arrive only to have to turn back when it turned out to be a ruse. That’s quite a litmus test for temperament.
It’s not like the guy on the other side of the race handles any attacks with composure though. You wish the worst Trump would do is challenge a guy to a push up contest.
So in contrast to QuickSilver, I have few reservations about Biden as the Democratic nominee against Trump, but I have some more about him being POTUS (mind you it’d be a massive step up from Trump)
Much as I would LOVE to see Biden haul off and punch Trump in the mouth during a debate, the truth is that an actual debate is unlikely to happen because Trump is a fucking coward. But I worry that Joe will be rattled by Trump and his minions relentless attacks on his son. He’s traditionally not managed that very well and continues to be in-artful in his responses to questions and accusations.
I have serious reservations about any octogenarian as president or nominee. I was really hoping it would go younger this time. Four years ago should have been Biden’s shot. Time is a motherfucker and gets everyone in the end. And when you get to be that age it can go downhill very quick. I’m dealing with that right now.
Well if he wants to be president he needs to be ready to throw his son under the bus. He’s done a lot that is indefensible and his ties to the Ukrainian company look really bad regardless of what bad stuff Trump did.
Frankly, Buttigieg is my top pick. I’m a Sanders/Warren liberal at heart, but a realist at mind. Forget right wingers, most of moderate America is not ready for the kinds of progressive policies that are being proposed by S & W. I’ll be thrilled to be proven wrong about that.
He’s always been awful on the campaign trail and the Dukakis people back in 1988 were watching him for a flub. The plagiarism issue came about because although Biden often attributed the Kinnock quote, he did forget a couple of times. The Dukakis team was brutal and made sure that made the news.
I’m a bit less worried about debates. Biden did kick butt and take names in the 2008 and 2012 VP debates. He was a bit hands off with the overwhelmed Palin but was full attack dog against Ryan when he needed to be. Still, that was 8 years ago.
Biden is a gaffe machine but both Bushs were as well. He’s not the candidate I want, but I’ll campaign for him like hell should he get the nomination.
Then maybe President isn’t the right job for him. Yes that is harsh. I was in Iraq when Beau was deployed there. By all accounts he was a great guy and it’s a damn shame what happened to him. Hunter is a fuck up who was placed on the board of a foreign energy company while his father was Vice President despite being kicked out of the Navy for being a crackhead. And that’s after he got a direct commission to the Navy because of daddy. If Joe wants to be president he can’t defend the indefensible. He doesn’t have to throw stones but he can’t defend him. And he certainly can’t lose his cool when it’s brought up.
I disagree. I think this issue, which is real, is a bigger problem for Biden in the nomination race than it would be in the general election race.
In the general election race, he’ll have an advantage; he’ll be running against Donald Trump. Trump says more dumb things in a day than Biden says in a month, so if it gets down to a contest on that issue Biden wins.
Biden has had a couple aneurysms and had that whole “eye filling up with blood” thing during one of the debates and his short temper, combativeness and increasingly disjointed speech along with increasingly inappropriate behaviors (like finger biting and grabbing women’s hands and refusing to let go, finger poking into people’s chests, etc.) are all just screaming “dementia” to me. Also, find footage of him walking lately, he wanders around and his legs are moving from the knee rather than from the hip like a normal adult walks. He seriously is moving like a toddler. His family should be ashamed they’re not protecting him better than this.
Trump would much prefer to run against Sanders and he may get his wish. they will probably tweet Sanders wearing a hammer and sickle shirt flying a flag with Marx on it.