Delaware's Joe Biden
Senator Joe Biden of Delaware has joined the race for U.S. President. He got off to an inauspicious start by inadvertently insulting former African-American candidates.
Of course, being a long-term Senator does not mean you are perfect.
Biden has been a Senator for close to thirty-five years. He first gained my attention while chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. During his eight year run as chairman, he presided over two heavily publicized U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings when Robert Bork was nominated in 1987 and in 1991 when Clarence Thomas burst on the scene.
In the case of Thomas, the committee was divided by the elder Bush’s nomination. They failed to make a recommendation before sending the candidate before the Senate. In what has been described as the closest vote in the twentieth century, Thomas won approval 52-48.
The Senate hearings in both situations made great television and made temporary stars of such people as Illinois Senator Paul Simon and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. Simon parlayed his notoriety into a 1988 Presidential candidacy of his own.
Biden also announced his candidacy in 1988, but the run went down in flames. This was a time when not everything you said and did was video taped, but Biden was caught repeating a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and claiming it for his own.
Aides to eventual Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis spotted the plagiarism and got the media’s attention. Dukakis made a show of reprimanding his team, but their actions did propel the Massachusetts governor into the spotlight.
So what about all this history? What does Biden have today that none of the other candidates have?
If you weigh the pros and cons you will notice that Biden still does not have the best decision making skills. He made a poor choice in 1988 on what speech to deliver. He made a poor choice of comments when asked about Obama.
Sure, one was a speech and the other was off the cuff, but I want a president who is intelligent, whether writing a speech or speaking candidly.
Biden still does not have great leadership skills. He was unable in 1991 to lead the judiciary committee to offer more than a neutral vote on Clarence Thomas. Recently, he was unable to garner support for the non-binding resolution to condemn the Bush build-up of troops in Iraq. He voted among the 56 senators, but even with seven Republican senators joining up, they still fell four votes short.
Now we could blame a lot of Senatorial Presidential candidates for missing the boat, but Biden is a long-term Senator who should be bringing leadership to the table in his run for office. Even if it was a non-binding resolution, would it have been a nice feather to say he helped drove this through?
In the long run, I like Joe Biden. I like what he says about Iraq. I like the five point plan he has presented for finishing the war and leaving Iraq.
Biden may just be the best choice among the candidates for U.S. President. To get there, he will have to make some changes. He will have to speak more eloquently and convince people to change their minds on important issues.
Overall, Biden must be a leader, more than a smiling face. Let’s see what happens.
Of course, being a long-term Senator does not mean you are perfect.
Biden has been a Senator for close to thirty-five years. He first gained my attention while chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. During his eight year run as chairman, he presided over two heavily publicized U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings when Robert Bork was nominated in 1987 and in 1991 when Clarence Thomas burst on the scene.
In the case of Thomas, the committee was divided by the elder Bush’s nomination. They failed to make a recommendation before sending the candidate before the Senate. In what has been described as the closest vote in the twentieth century, Thomas won approval 52-48.
The Senate hearings in both situations made great television and made temporary stars of such people as Illinois Senator Paul Simon and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. Simon parlayed his notoriety into a 1988 Presidential candidacy of his own.
Biden also announced his candidacy in 1988, but the run went down in flames. This was a time when not everything you said and did was video taped, but Biden was caught repeating a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and claiming it for his own.
Aides to eventual Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis spotted the plagiarism and got the media’s attention. Dukakis made a show of reprimanding his team, but their actions did propel the Massachusetts governor into the spotlight.
So what about all this history? What does Biden have today that none of the other candidates have?
If you weigh the pros and cons you will notice that Biden still does not have the best decision making skills. He made a poor choice in 1988 on what speech to deliver. He made a poor choice of comments when asked about Obama.
Sure, one was a speech and the other was off the cuff, but I want a president who is intelligent, whether writing a speech or speaking candidly.
Biden still does not have great leadership skills. He was unable in 1991 to lead the judiciary committee to offer more than a neutral vote on Clarence Thomas. Recently, he was unable to garner support for the non-binding resolution to condemn the Bush build-up of troops in Iraq. He voted among the 56 senators, but even with seven Republican senators joining up, they still fell four votes short.
Now we could blame a lot of Senatorial Presidential candidates for missing the boat, but Biden is a long-term Senator who should be bringing leadership to the table in his run for office. Even if it was a non-binding resolution, would it have been a nice feather to say he helped drove this through?
In the long run, I like Joe Biden. I like what he says about Iraq. I like the five point plan he has presented for finishing the war and leaving Iraq.
Biden may just be the best choice among the candidates for U.S. President. To get there, he will have to make some changes. He will have to speak more eloquently and convince people to change their minds on important issues.
Overall, Biden must be a leader, more than a smiling face. Let’s see what happens.
posted by Alexander Dimm | 7:21 AM
3 Comments:
I'm impressed by your variety of interests and your informative and lucid discourse.
What is your opinion of what happened on 9/11?
Thank you for your kind words and question. I apologize for my delay in responding.
Simply put, 9/11 was a tragedy. I remember the day well. As I have said before, I work as a manager at a call center for a cell phone company. At the time, I was still a floor representative and was taking calls.
Shortly after the first plane hit the twin towers the calls stopped. Suddenly, no one had bill questions. No one had handset problems. There were no calls coming into the center. Period.
The company allowed time off the line to go watch the television coverage. After an hour or so, calls began to trickle in again and by late afternoon, things were back to normal.
The only thing that came close to this was when the O.J. Simpson verdict was read. I was working in a busy city hotel at the time. There were always people coming and going. The phones were always ringing. Then for about a half hour, everything stopped.
Getting back to 9/11, from what I understand, it should have never been allowed to happen. Our leaders had the intelligence and the capability to put a stop to it.
It seems that the attitude of the administration at the time before 9/11 was that such an event simply could not happen. They were warned and they looked the other way.
Do I believe that there was a mysterious plot by our government to allow 9/11 to happen? I do not think so. I prefer to believe they were inept, not horrible monsters.
At the same time, there are some monsters in the shadows. After the fact, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld and others chose to make lemonade from lemons and formulated a plan to link their desire to invade Iraq to Bin Laden. Whether our President knew and understood, or was hoodwinked like so many of the rest of us is hard to say.
The bottom line is that we need a change in this country. It will come eventually. It is my hope that it comes before we forfeit any last lingering good-will we have outside this country. I hope it comes before the current administration decides it would be good to invade anyone else. I hope we can curtail the loss of any more of our young people by leaving a bad situation.
I may have wandered a bit astray of your original question, but I hope I came close.
If you do not mind, I will return the question. How was the tragedy received by our neighbors to the north?
You can ascertain my beliefs by the contents in my postings. Check out my blog site if you are interested.
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