The Deep Rot Exposed by the Biden Flap - WSJ Geral Baker, fomer editor [View all]

[question everything]

Imagine for a moment you’re the ruler of China. You’ve got a master plan to run the world. The main obstacle to your ambitions, of course, is America, shining city on a hill, a nation founded on an ideal—the most inspiring and destabilizing ideal in human history—that all are created equal and that they should be free to pursue their own cause without undue interference or direction from some despotic monarch or party chairman.

This nation, powered by this ideal, rose from upstart to superpower in a little more than a century, and despite proliferating challenges, remains dominant not just militarily and economically but as an idea—a beacon of hope and opportunity for billions of people not fortunate enough to call it home. Mindful of all this, you look across at this great nation and discover that the big question preoccupying the people who control the public conversation there this week is: Should Joe Biden be disqualified from the presidency because he sniffed that woman’s hair?

I have a simple question for you: Is this really happening, people?

(snip)

What troubles me isn’t simply this particular obsession with the former vice president’s odd olfactory habits or what he does with his hands. It is what this baffling discussion says about the quality of what passes for debate now, the issues that seem to dominate that debate and the way that debate is conducted.

For the record, I too have met Mr. Biden on a number of occasions, and though he never attempted to smell my hair (he’d be out of luck with that one), he’s certainly pressed my flesh. Indeed, meeting Joe Biden, for a man or a woman (he doesn’t discriminate), is a bit like an encounter with an especially attentive and curious cephalopod—one tentacle grips your upper arm, another winds its way around your shoulder and another (yes, I do think there might be three) prods you repeatedly in the chest to emphasize a point. This isn’t in any way to minimize sexual harassment or assault, which are despicable offenses, and women are absolutely right to demand accountability for powerful men who abuse their position. But, please, Joe Biden isn’t a monster. He’s an overly tactile septuagenarian with blindingly white teeth and suspiciously glossy hair.


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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-deep-rot-exposed-by-the-biden-flap-11554472705 (paid subscription)