Joe Biden’s third — and almost certainly final — bid to become president continues to be rudderless, putting forth no message other than “I’m not Trump.” If his campaign promises anything it is to be a third term for Barack Obama, whose legacy Americans rejected in the last election.
As for the man himself, Biden is a bundle of contradictions. After the first Democratic primary debate, he bent to pressure from the left and repudiated the Hyde Amendment, which he had endorsed throughout his decades-long career in government, prompting CNN’s S.E. Cupp to observe, “Biden caves on the Hyde Amendment: what was the point of his candidacy?” Indeed.
Yet for all his lack of substance, Biden continues to lead the rest of the Democratic field in the polls, which may be enough to catapult him to a nomination. Which seems to have been the message behind his most recent endorsement — from his wife, “Dr. Jill” Biden. Speaking at a campaign event in Nashua, N.H., the former second lady said:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Your candidate might be better on, I don’t know, health care, than Joe is, but you’ve got to look at who’s going to win this election. And maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, ‘OK, I personally like so and so better,’ but your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump. [Emphasis added]
There seems to be an underlying assumption that Mrs. Biden suspects that most of those gathered plan to vote for a different candidate, which is a tough enough pill for her husband, but “swallow a little bit” and pull the lever? With friends like that…