Not in favor of Joe Biden for President - Am I right?

[MaggieD]

Disclaimer: I will vote for any Democrat for president over any Republican. The worst Democrat (and Joe is not the worst) would be better than any Republican president. By a million miles. I have never voted for a single Republican for any office in my entire life (I'm 52 and have voted in every single election since I was 18) and I am sure as hell not going to start now. That said....

Joe is great on foreign policy. I guess that is one reason Obama chose him. He has a lot of experience in that area and in many, many difficult cases history has shown he was correct. Not always, but often.

I'm not confident Biden could even win since he is such a gaffe machine. And by that I mean he has a unique political gift of saying what he really means -- sometimes without thinking. But the fact that he might not be a very good campaigner (and certainly hasn't been in the past) isn't even the reason I would not like to see him be the nominee.

My main beef with Biden is he involvement as head of the Senate judiciary committee in supporting and passing mandatory minimum sentencing in federal courts. Especially around drug offenses. Oh, what dismal results we have seen from that. How many lives have been ruined as a result? How much useless federal spending? And what a colossal political blunder. The whole war on drugs culminated in this mandatory minimum sentencing -- as if the judges we elect and appoint were too incompetent to make judicial decisions in regard to sentencing.

And to this day I have never seen him walk any of that back. We have 5% of the world's population, but at least 25% of the world's prisoners. We have millions of fatherless and motherless children and an ongoing cycle of poverty at least partly because of these ill advised policy. This is unforgivable. I hope he does not run.

Am I right?

[elleng]

1. Wrong, and as to mandatory minimums,

I suspect if he were asked directly, he would reflect today's rational thinking.

And as to 'gaffe machine,' that is an old, b.s. canard.

[MaggieD]

4. He apparently thinks shotguns and shooting people....

... through the door is okay. That's a pretty recent gaffe. Also, did you not think the Obama is a clean, articulate, etc., etc., was a pretty big gaffe? How about the picture hugging up to the biker chicks during the 2012 campaign? I think his heart is in the right place, but I don't know how anyone could conclude he's not a gaffe machine. Where's the canard?

Has he walked back the mandatory minimum stuff? Not that I know of. Even in the face of the Obama administration calling BS on it.

[SheilaT]

2. He is already 71.

I'm of the opinion that he's too old already.

Personally, I wish Bernie Sanders, himself already 72, were a couple of decades younger, because I'd love to be able to support him for the office.

[MaggieD]

5. It would be awesome to be able to run a true populist like Sanders

[ChangeUp106]

8. Bernie is very likely to run

I wish more people would be talking about this. Warren would be huge but if she doesn't run, Bernie is going to.

[davidpdx]

16. He's 5 years older than Clinton

and if anyone on this board called Clinton old they would be deemed a sexist.

[SheilaT]

17. I'm a 65 year old woman myself, so I don't think I'm being sexist

to call Clinton too old to run. Notice I'm saying the exact same thing about Biden and Sanders.

My biggest problem with Clinton is that she does not offer anything new. She is not a genuine champion of the people. Were she to become President we'd have a retread of the first Clinton administration in many ways. Which has been my biggest complaint about Obama, that he has not really brought in very many new people.

Sanders would. Warren would. Biden probably not so much.

[cheapdate]

3. I like Joe. The country has moved

considerably on drug laws since the 1980s. And still, the situation for hundreds of thousands of men and women needlessly imprisoned is a heartbreaking disaster. Biden is a conventional, mainstream politician. He doesn't share all of my values and ethics, he wouldn't agree with my radical notions for remaking society, but he would be a Democratic president that I could support and feel comfortable with. I'd suppose that Biden would accept the changing outlook on drug laws and sentencing that is taking root at every level of government and society.

Until a serious and credible candidate arises who fully supports my radical agenda, I'll continue to vote for the candidate who will do the least harm.

[MaggieD]

6. I'd vote for him if nominated

But he had plenty of time in the Senate to walk back the horror he was instrumental in putting into law. I don't think he has changed his mind on that issue. Maybe he has, but I haven't heard him say it.

I would just prefer someone without such a terrible legacy as he has wrought in that respect.

[craigmatic]

7. He's a fire breather on the stump and probably could win a national election just because he's VP

He's at least give Hillary a run for her money and harden her up for November.

[Whisp]

9. Biden is not a gaffe machine. Hillary, otoh, IS.

Has Biden come anywhere near 4,720 miles of a Hillary Tuzla?

lordy.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. No you're not. You're wrong as hell and don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Welcome to DU!! :wave:

[MaggieD]

15. Thanks! :)

[dylan33]

11. Do you remember

How easy he taught Paul Ryan how to debate? The truth is he is not perfect but no candidate is. I think he could easily handle anything or anyone he was up against for president including Clinton.

[blkmusclmachine]

12. No to Joe. And no to HRC.

[4now]

13. He was a mighty drug warrior back in his day

From a Time interview:
"In the Senate, Biden was on the forefront of the Democratic Party’s war on crime, authoring or co-sponsoring legislation that created the federal “drug czar” and mandatory minimum sentencing for marijuana and the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine.

“I am not only the guy who did the crime bill and the drug czar, but I’m also the guy who spent years when I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of [the Senate Foreign Relations Committee] trying to change drug policy relative to cocaine, for example, crack and powder,” Biden says."
[link:http://time.com/5330/marijuana-legalization-joe-biden-pot/|]

He should be proud that he helped put so many Americans in jail.
http://time.com/5330/marijuana-legalization-joe-biden-pot/

[MaggieD]

14. That's my point

I think many Democrats have forgotten about that. I haven't.

[Beacool]

18. I think that Biden is a good VP and a nice man.

Having said that, he got no traction the last two times he ran and he's in a very distant second place after Hillary. No one out there is clamoring for a Biden run. He'll be 74 in 2017. If it's not Hillary, then it'll be someone younger.

[bigwillq]

19. I hope Biden does not run.

I wouldn't vote for him.

Biden makes too many gaffes to be taken seriously.