OPINION:
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign includes a manager, several press spokespeople, a couple of pollsters — and a dedicated batch of young engineering interns whose sole mission is to devise clever wooden props that can secretly, behind the scope of the camera’s eyes, keep his teetering and tottering to a minimum.
That’s to say: Biden is a puppet. And a weak, sickly one at that.
The fact polls have him besting the president have more to say about sly-dog pollsters, leftist-leaning members of the media and, yes, dampened enthusiasm for Donald Trump — among some — than they do for any positives for the former VP.
What does Biden represent, anyway? What are his principles, his guiding ideas, his motives and moral compass?
Once upon a time, he was cast as a moderate Democrat. A friend of the unions. An ally to the working class. A defender of small business. A supporter of minority interests. A helper to the poor and downtrodden. But was he really? He authored a crime bill in the 1990s that is now widely seen as a leading cause of the disproportionately large black population in America’s prison systems. His union ties have faced eye-rolls in recent times, due in large part to his dual friendship with Big Business.
From Newsweek in 2019: “[P]art of the problem Biden may have in lining up labor support is his own coziness with the barbarians — if he defines them as union-busting corporations like Comcast, his fourth-largest donor … or if he was referring to law firms that assist employers with ’union avoidance’ expertise, like Cozen O’Connor and Ballard Spahr, which have so far raised more than $55,000 and $40,000 for Biden, respectively.”
Newsweek wasn’t the only one questioning Biden’s true-blue union credentials.
“Don’t be fooled: Joe Biden is no friend of unions,” The Guardian wrote, in May 2019.
And from the Wall Street Journal, in June: “Biden’s Ties to Police Unions Weaken Amid Protests.”
Meanwhile, he’s hardly proven politically productive for the poor or working class. Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform bill, which Biden backed, has been since attacked by critics as fuel that ignited child poverty fires. And in February, Americans for Tax Reform had this to say about him: “Joe Biden lied during the NBC Democratic presidential debate … when he said that taxes on small businesses would not go up in a Biden administration.”
How so?
His vow to repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would take away the 20 percent deduction small businesses can currently claim, effectively raising marginal rates on millions of entrepreneurs across America.
The casting of Biden has been nothing but a miscast.
Everything he’s supposedly stood for has been smoke and mirrors — politics at play.
And now he’s running a campaign for the highest office in the land largely from the basement of his home, with messaging that goes like this: Trump stinks. I’m not Trump. Vote for me.
But he’s ill-defined. He’s a shell waiting to be filled.
His voting record shows he’s not been the guy most blue-collar, working class, average Jane and Joe, meat-and-potatoes-eating voters think he is. So who is he, really?
“He’s old. He’s worked with Barack Obama. He’s generally seen as a decent guy. If you know more than that about Joe Biden, you know more than many voters,” The Atlantic just wrote, in late June.
In other words: Who knows. Biden, after all these years in office, after all those decades in politics, is still, for the most part, a creation of his presidential campaign, a figment of imaginations. He’s got little to show — except for talk that just ain’t backed by walk.
And given his advanced age of 77, and his obvious health issues leading to valid questions about his cognitive abilities, i.e. onset of dementia, as well as wonder about his physical stamina, sleepy as it often seems, it’s a surefire bet that a Biden presidency would be ripe for the political peddler picking.
He’s not a very strong leader.
Biden in the White House would be Nancy Pelosi in the White House would be Black Lives Matter in the White House would be Bernie Sanders in the White House would be Stacey Abrams in the White House would be — fill in the blank of every far left, progressive/socialist/collectivist/communist influence that can dredged.
He’s a puppet.
He’s a puppet now and he would be a puppet of a president.
And that makes him one of the most dangerous politicians out there.
Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything. Biden, as president, would fall for far left influencers — and he’d bring America down with him.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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