Joe Biden Is the Candidate for Anyone Who Wants Off This Frightening Thrill Ride of a Presidency*

[mcar]

Joe Biden Is the Candidate for Anyone Who Wants Off This Frightening Thrill Ride of a Presidency*
For a while, I missed the most important elements in Biden's success: the country's profound desire for a return to something approaching the familiar, and the utter exhaustion with waking up every damn morning to find ourselves one step closer to the abyss.

By Charles P. Pierce
Oct 16, 2020

This was my favorite moment in the Biden half of last night's dueling Very Special Episodes. I watched the Biden portion of the evening's festivities—while listening to the Iowa Senate debate between Theresa Greenfield and my friend Joni Ernst, and more on that in a moment—because I wanted to substantiate what I thought was my biggest mistake in covering this campaign, back when there was an actual campaign to cover. It came late in the debate, when George Stephanopoulos asked a question that surprised me, and for which Biden could not possibly have been prepared. What, Stephanopoulos asked, would another victory by the president* say about the country?

Well it could say that I’m lousy candidate and I didn't do a good job. But I think, I hope that it doesn't say that we are as racially, ethnically and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be...And so, whether I am a defeated candidate for president back teaching, or I am elected president, it is a major element of everything that I am about. Because it reflects who we are as a nation.

All of the basic Biden elements are contained in that one answer. There is a good clean shot at his opponent. There is the tendency to say things that make consultants throw themselves out windows. And there is a good-sized dollop of Biden's sincere belief in the goodness of the country and the decency of its people and the desire for fairness in its politics.

Now, I do not believe entirely in any of that, but I'm not Joe Biden, and, because I am dubious of all that goodness, decency, and fairness in a country that elected its current president*, and of which a solid 40 percent of which still support him, I missed the most important elements in Biden's success: the country's profound desire for a return to something approaching the familiar, and the utter exhaustion in much of the country with waking up every damn morning to find ourselves one step closer to the abyss. So many people want to get off this frightening thrill-ride of a presidency* and get back to a president they don't have to think about as much. More than anything else, that has been Biden's pitch to the country, and, if the polls are to be believed, the country is eating it up.

What this means about a prospective Biden presidency is more problematic. The Republicans are already pivoting madly toward austerity, and a number of Republican senators—Hi, Young Ben Sasse!—are rowing madly away from the sinking hulk of the current administration*. And, as much as I enjoyed that one answer, hearing him (again!) express his belief that the prion disease afflicting the Republicans will go away when the current president* did shook me up more than a little. But I recognize the sincerity of his belief, and I am going to feel bad for him when he finds out how very wrong he is. But he wouldn't be Joe Biden if he said anything else, and that Joe Biden—good-hearted Uncle Joe and his Ray-Bans—has sold very well in a period in American history where everything else has been perverted into something foul and poisonous. There's a lot to be said for that.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34396771/joe-biden-town-hall-recap/

[Budi]

1. K & R

"he wouldn't be Joe Biden if he said anything else, and that Joe Biden—good-hearted Uncle Joe and his Ray-Bans—has sold very well in a period in American history where everything else has been perverted into something foul and poisonous. There's a lot to be said for that."


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