OPINION:
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is hopping around Iowa these days on one foot — the other being permanently lodged in his mouth. Poor guy can’t get through a speech without slandering someone, slurring a people or simply saying something incredibly stupid.
Still, Mr. Biden’s support in polls nearly doubles his next-nearest rivals. The rest of the endless Democratic field is 30 points behind him. You know your party is in trouble when “Joe Biden” is the best it’s got.
And it’s not that Democratic voters around the country are trembling in excitement over Mr. Biden. He is just the least terrible in a deeply terrible field.
Democratic politicians once viewed as serious people have run off with the circus. They now embrace open borders, want to give free health care to illegal aliens and defend post-birth abortion, better known in other circles as “murder.”
These are political positions that are not just repellent to normal mainstream American voters. Most mainstream Democratic voters don’t even buy into this ridiculousness.
Former President Barack Obama remains the most popular person in the Democrat Party and even he — along with his legacy — has been abandoned by most of the nuts running for his party’s nomination.
Sure, Mr. Biden has tried his best to catch up with the circus. At 76 years old, however, he just cannot quite make it. Truly one of the advantages of old age.
Or, as President Trump observed of Mr. Biden: “He lost his fastball.” Along with a few marbles, it appears.
But no policy position or gaffe or circus act in this race has been so appalling as the reaction of these politicians to the agonizing mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Events like these — as horrifying as they are — have a way of unifying the vast majority of Americans. We are enraged by the heinous acts of deranged killers. We are heartbroken for the victims and their families.
What signs were there that were missed? What can we do to help? How can we prevent this from happening again?
At the very least, we offer prayers.
That is the reaction of the vast majority of Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents.
But that’s no way to win a political campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Screw unity! To hell with your grief!
I mean, you’re already gathered for a funeral so while you are here, let’s just prey upon your sadness and sell you some sick political mumbo jumbo. Anything to get ahead.
It was a sad sight. All the Democratic candidates scrambling up the greasy pole trying to be the first to land a political punch to propel their sick political careers. To score some dirty little points. To advance some creepy political agenda.
Blame Mr. Trump. Call him a racist. White supremacist. Inspiration for mass murder. Whatever — anything to get ahead.
The dead had not even been buried yet and these people were already trying to cash in. Such is the state of the Democratic field today.
No wonder Mr. Biden is still winning.
• Contact Charles Hurt at churt@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @charleshurt.
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