Pundits and political observers are in unanimous agreement about former Vice President Joe Biden’s debate performance this week: It stunk. Biden felt old, out of touch, befuddled, and dangerously “unWOKE” for a party that is rushing to the left so quickly that it boggles the mind. He spent too much of the debate yammering on about the good old days of the Obama administration and too little of it proving that he actually has what it takes to lead this country. We haven’t seen any polls declaring him the winner of the debate, but we’ve seen plenty that peg him as the one who lost the most ground.
And he’s not just in trouble with the intangibles. Following a disastrous exchange with Kamala Harris over his opposition to forced busing in the 1970s, Biden is beginning to lose the thing that actually makes him a threat to win the nomination: His fundraising machine. Tom McInerney, a top Democratic donor, told the Biden campaign last week that they could no longer count on his support. Irritated by Biden’s remarks about working with segregationist senators and his all-over-the-map position on the Hyde Amendment, McInerney has decided his money should probably go elsewhere.
“I had actually let the campaign know I’d pulled back my support of Biden for now,” McInerney said in an interview with CNBC. “I don’t think he did well last night.”
The San Francisco lawyer said that Biden’s poor debate showing could mean that other donors will follow in his footsteps.
“I would imagine I’m not alone,” he mused.
The image, helped along by the Democrat-run media, of Joe Biden as the stoic elder statesman who would lead America out of the wilderness was always at odds with the real Joe Biden. The real Biden spent the eight years of the Obama administration playing a kind of goofy sideshow to the president. The real Biden is a perennial presidential contender/loser whose Washington history is really nothing to write home about.
The real Biden is friendly and likeable enough to get by, but he is painfully out of alignment with the modern Democratic Party. His forced lurch to the left on immigration, abortion, and health care has been as predictable as it has been phony. And his constant gaffes on race – whether or not a sensible person would actually consider him wrong – are going to cost him bigtime.
Some see Biden as the Jeb Bush of 2020 – the guy with all of the establishment support who quickly fizzles in the heat of the actual race. If he has any more weeks like this last one, his “please clap” moment may come sooner than anyone expected.
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