Joe Biden may not be an Al-Franken-level groper, and he’s certainly not a Harvey-Weinstein-level offender.
But his public displays of affection for women and girls during photo ops are widely viewed as creepy, in a touchy feely kind of way.
This video of Biden snuggling the daughter of Senator Chris Coons during his swearing in ceremony is [you fill in the descriptor]:
In fairness that video is slow motion. But it’s no less creepy at regular speed:
And there is the infamous Ashton Carter swearing in ceremony where the expression on the face of Carter’s wife as she is touched by Uncle Joe symbolizes a #MeToo disgust with men who take liberties with their hands:
And there are others out there, just search YouTube for “Creepy Joe Biden.”
In the age of the #MeToo movement, in which even completely consensual contact between adults can be a career killer and cause for internet mobs, does Biden have a chance?
According to an AP report widely run at major publications, Biden, in public and private, tiptoes toward a 2020 run:
Former Vice President Joe Biden is tiptoeing toward a potential presidential run in 2020, even broaching the possibility during a recent gathering of longtime foreign policy aides.Huddled in his newly opened office steps from the U.S. Capitol, Biden began a planning meeting for his new diplomacy center by addressing the elephant in the room. He said he was keeping his 2020 options open, considering it a real possibility. He insisted he had made no decision, and didn’t need to yet, according to five people who either attended the meeting or were briefed on it by those who did….The political world has long tried to game out Biden’s plans for 2020. After all, he came close to running last time only to see President Donald Trump pull off a victory that many Democrats openly suggest wouldn’t have happened had he, not Hillary Clinton, been their nominee. Several people came away from the meeting with the impression that if no strong Democratic candidate emerges in the next year or so, Biden would feel strongly compelled to run.
A Politico article earlier this month on Biden’s plan to use 2018 to build 2020 momentum:
The questions about Biden’s political plans continue as he and his staff, in consultation with Democratic leaders in Washington and aides to Barack Obama, have begun making plans for the next nine months that will likely make the former vice president the most active high-profile Democratic surrogate on the trail….In the two months before the election, Biden intends to campaign nearly nonstop around the country….Biden’s midterm appeal is both as the best-known Democrat readily available — Obama is limiting his political appearances, and Bill and Hillary Clinton are neither as desired nor as ready to campaign — and as a politician who hits exactly the kind of voters Democrats need to win.
If he ran, Biden would have Obama’s support, just as he would have had Biden run in 2016. The campaign theme would be to restore the Obama-Biden magic Democrats long for.
The only person who would excite Obama Democrats more would be a real Obama, Michelle. If Democrats fail to take back either the House or Senate, I’m still predicting that Michelle will be The One, if she chooses to run.
Biden would have other obstacles in a Democratic Party primary. He’s viewed as part of the old Democratic Party, not the new increasingly far-left party that almost put Keith Ellison at the top of the Democratic National Committee. That “old-school” persona may not play well to start, and would subject him to attacks from #MeToo movement radicals.
Biden could assuage some of the #MeToo criticism by naming a female running mate, but in an age when Democrats long to make Trump’s comments about pussy grabbing the centerpiece of their 2020 campaign, the images of touchy-feely creepy Uncle Joe may not be what they need.
Joe Biden didn’t leave the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party may have left him.
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