So Long Joe

I am saddened these are the days to send off Joe Biden. Tributes to him yesterday in the Senate, from both parties, were moving. But still, I wish he had gone further. The guy is real, approachable and authentic amidst so many phonies. Many times I’ve experienced memorable encounters with Biden, from covering his presidential campaigns to hanging out in airports, and I cherish them all. Like the day our flight was horribly delayed and I took a shot at sitting next to him to chat.

We talked about the Supreme Court, and his pivotal role in the Robert Bork hearings, which I had covered. He said, “We dodged a bullet on that one, but took so many more.”

Yep, he got that right.

The Clinton/DNC mafia forced him aside in 2016, a sad and disgusting truth that will someday be told.

Those arrogant fools ridiculed hum as a joke. But the joke is on them.

Would Joe Biden have lost the entire Rust Belt?

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

49 thoughts on “So Long Joe”

  2. What was that meeting between Vice President Biden & Senator Elizabeth Warren all about last Spring? Biden/Warren 2016? True, False, Maybe, No Comment?

    Would love to see the Vice President become the Democratic Party’s “Ambassador.” People like this man. Also kudos to Dr. Jill Biden. Wow, we were lucky to have this couple represent us. Hope they stick around.

     

     

  3. Mr Crawford: write what you know, warts & all, about the behind the scenes facts concerning this election. Too late to change history, but may be a lesson for the future. You have a unique gift. You are tops in your field. Use it for Democracy. Use it for Truth.

     

  9. Thank you, Joe Biden, for your long and faithful service to your country and party.

     

    He was a little too “mansplaining” for me.  The kind of thing where he offered to beat Trump up behind the gym.

    People who voted for Obama did NOT vote for Trump – in the counties where Obama won then Trump – Obama voters stayed home and assholes voted.

    I think he would have lost the same states because no matter what anyone says – what captured those voters was racism an appeal to blame Mexicans and Muslims for big picture problems and black people for all serious crime.  Joe Biden is not a racist and could not have used those themes.

  12. Paul Ryan thinks the school lunch program is too embarrassing for the kids – why are they getting something different anyway?  And then why cut food stamp programs that would have saved face for the kid.

    The whole argument is a  giant pile of sanctimonious claptrap and for sure Ryan will be going to hell – where he will continue to have to kiss Trump’s ass for eternity.

  13. “Hill, can’t wait ’til he sees what I left in the chair.”

     

    caption contest calls for clever comment… at least cleverer than the one I submitted above

  15. He ran before and didn’t do that well

    The new secretary of labor is a proponent of the jobless economy

  16. Ms Cracker,

    Yup. As if ryan went out of his way to talk to a bunch of hungry kids in NE Wisconsin.

  17. Yup  let’em eat gooper pride

    Carrier’s not embarrassed to eat a free lunch

  19. Craig,

    Joe Biden sort of reminds me of some of the old southern democrats that I grew up with.

    I grew up in rural North Florida and I clearly remember that we didn’t even have a republican party in the county.

    It’s funny but back then I didn’t associate the democratic party with liberal leaning.  I grew up associating liberalism with big city republicans and conservatism with small town democrats.

    It’s funny how much that has changed. I don’t know if there is even one old style southern democrat left in the party?

  21. Craig,

    I clearly remember getting my nomination to USMMA from Congressman Don Fuqua and Sen Lawton Chiles. They both seemed to me to be old school dems.  Did you know either one of them?

  24. He called himself a conservative progressive  but you have to look at what he was trying to do to make an assessment.  He was not interested in maintaining the status quo.

  25. Jax, when I grew up in Birmingham, at least until the mid 60s, it was the same as your rearing in FL.  There were virtually no republicans, and there was no real republican party presence.  All I heard about democrats was that they were supportive of unions and blacks (busing) and most were from the NE.  They were the liberals.  In AL I don’t believe there were any republican office holders until the Kennedy admin intervened in Wallace’s desegregation efforts in 1963.  Other than during reconstruction there were no republican governors or U.S. Senators from Alabama until the 1980s.  There were a few repub representatives in the 60s, and beginning with Eisenhower repub presidential candidates got votes.  I think the schism came when Wallace ran for president as the American Independent Party candidate in 1968.  That to me marked the break between the emerging dem party as we know it today and the racist elements of the party. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying this.

  27. jax & pogo here’s a look back to 1985 in ny times story DISSIDENTS DEFY TOP DEMOCRATS; COUNCIL FORMED

    Other leaders include Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, Senator Lawton Chiles of Florida, Representative James R. Jones of Oklahoma, Gov. Charles S. Robb of Virginia and Gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona. So far, they said, the council’s membership includes 10 governors, 14 senators and 18 representatives, many of whom want to push the party in a conservative direction after last year’s landslide victory by President Reagan.

    Senator Nunn suggested that the group would go beyond policy questions and attempt to change party rules to encourage moderate candidates to compete for the Presidential nomination. Both Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Robb have been mentioned as possible candidates in 1988.

    Impact of 1984 ElectionThe moderate and conservative Democrats didn’t make it past the first round in the primaries in 1984 and we want to change that,” said Mr. Nunn, who supported Senator John Glenn of Ohio for the party’s Presidential nomination last year.

    ”There is a perception our party has moved away from mainstream America in the 1970’s,” he added. Asked to be more specific, the Senator declined, saying, ”The election results speak for themselves.”

    In response to questions, the group’s leaders repeatedly refused to define their policy differences with the national party or to give details of the political agenda they would offer to voters they contend have been abandoned by the national party.

    Although Mr. Gephardt said the council hoped to broaden its base, its members at this point are nearly all white men from the South and the West.

  28. Pogo, KGC

    It was certainly a different time then. But not really that long ago 30 years or so. I remember my interview with Chiles and Fuqua. They were both vets and very adamant about how much was expected of those of us that represented Florida at the service academies.

    They both made it a point to explain that while the active duty obligation was only 6 years (back then) they preferred that everyone go in expecting to do 20.

    To this day I still think that if more politicians shared military backgrounds there would be more willingness to work across the aisles. For some reason in each others minds they have earned the right to have their views considered seriously.

     

     

  30. there was also bit of a backlash to teddy’s push for lower voting age [In His Own Words 
    Lowering the National Voting Age to 18
    Voting Age to 18 Testimony Before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments ]
    and his end run around jimmy courtesy of those younger voters and a more liberal bent.

  32. granny, yeah, “what might have been”

    as to your lesson request: I usually just plug in the image using the browse button and write captions in the comment box before posting.  that way you can still read the comment even if the pix turns out too small.

  33. KGC,

    I’m still not sure about ex-generals in too many cabinet positions.

    I don’t really know anything about any of them.

    It might make sense (from Trump’s point of view) if the expectation is to execute a short term plan for significant changes. These guys are probably good at executing a set game plan in a reduced time frame.

    Without knowing their minds it’s hard to say how they will perform well with long term exposure to DC culture.

    So many go in with big plans and it just whips them……we’ll see.

  36. now free to orbit us all forever…r.i.p.

    John Glenn, American hero, aviation icon and former U.S. senator, dies at 95

  37. Patd,

    Oh…the deferment thing was a little before my time.

    I thought she was talking about all of his cabinet appointments with ex-generals.

    I was part of the kickoff of the selective service registration that they still have now. I still remember laughing when I received a letter from selective service threatening me for not registering. I received the letter while I was on active duty on a Navy frigate escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf while the Iraqi’s and Iranians pounded each other.

     

  38. Granny

    When you click on your small picture, it blows up into a big picture that can be easily read.

     

  39. Dem lawmaker offers ‘Drain the Swamp Act’ 

    Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is channeling Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp” with an eponymous tongue-in-cheek bill introduced on Thursday: the DRAIN the SWAMP Act (Deter Revolving-Door Appointments in Our Nation; Stop Washington Appointees From Becoming Manipulative Petitioners).

    Trump’s team recently announced they plan to bar political appointees from registering as lobbyists for five years after leaving his administration.

    “I want to help him in this effort,” DeFazio said on the House floor. “Unfortunately, his proposal lacks any enforcement mechanism. I want this to be more than a press release.”

    DeFazio’s measure would reflect that proposal with a five-year lobbying ban after leaving the White House, as well as a permanent prohibition on any lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

    The bill would also enhance existing penalties for violating lobbying restrictions to a maximum of five years in prison. Current administration appointees can’t lobby for two years after leaving the executive branch, or else face up to a year in prison or a $50,000 fine.

  41. Hillary Clinton Gets More Votes Than Any Candidate Ever

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has garnered at least 65,527,625 votes in the 2016 presidential election, the most any presidential candidate has ever received and over 2.6 million more than the president-elect, who has received at least 62,851,436 votes, according to figures released Wednesday by The Cook Report, a nonpartisan election analysis organization. Clinton now has a margin of more than two percent of the popular vote majority than Trump, as states like Florida and California continue to submit ballots from primarily Democratic-held regions like Miami and Los Angeles.

  42. Here is the best bio on John Glenn that I’ve yet seen.

    He was much, much more than an astronaut. He was also a career Marine pilot who, between WW2 and Korea, flew 149 combat missions. Resting-up between public service jobs, he became President of Royal Crown Cola, and then to top things off, he and his missus went ahead and founded a College at The Ohio State University. I have no idea how he found the time to become really, really old.

    Take six, Colonel, we’ve got the watch.

  43. jonathan jones of the guardian:

    Time magazine didn’t give Trump devil horns. God did

    Time magazine denies doing it on purpose, yet the sign is there. The mark – and this one is much more visible than the 666 that I have been told by a maverick Vatican priest is tattooed on Donald Trump’s left buttock.

    There was no unpredictability about Time’s choice for its person of the year. Just as in 1214 it had to be Genghis Khan and in 1462 Time could not fail to recognize Vlad the Impaler’s impact – the screaming bodies he left on stakes across Transylvania were a tribute to his determination and foreign policy strength – this year it had no choice but to put the president-elect of the United States on its cover.

    He looks the part. Photographed inside Trump Tower by Nadav Kander, the most powerful man in the world radiates the grandeur of destiny. Turning to look at us from his expensive and ornate, indeed monarchical, chair, he wants it to be seen that he means business. He is not smiling. He is not joking. He is not even tweeting.

    Time calls him “President of the Divided States of America,” and Kander’s photograph casts one side of Trump’s face in shadow. Is that facial division into light and dark meant as an allegory of the “divided” nation to which Time’s cover refers? Or is it a suggestion of his apparent dark side, the unreasonable id that seemed to expose itself in his readiness to resort to extreme language, images and threats during his mad and triumphant campaign?

  44. another story from the guardian:

    Photographers on their best Trump shot: ‘I think he’s a damaged person’

    Holding a million bucks, cradling a dove, looking broken, refusing to pose … in a My Best Shot special, four photographers reveal what it’s like to shoot Donald Trump

  45. I hope that the New Yorker has a trump cover that rivals theirs of 2008, when they portrayed Barack & Michele as Symbionese Liberation-style thugs.

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