'We Can Reverse This' -- Why a Black Pastor Supports Joe Biden

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

I hear the humidity in Houston this September can be cut with a knife and served up like brisket. It is weather designed to make you sweat, and Joe Biden is likely about to do just that. The third Democratic primary debate is going down tonight, and with Biden having barely fended off Kamala Harris in prior contests, the pressure is on the front-running former vice president to show he can hold his own next to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as they continue their ascent in the polls.

I know the Reverend Dr. Alyn Waller will be paying attention, and I wish I could pull up a chair next to him as he watched. I’d want to talk with him about what he saw and heard from the former vice president. I’d love to continue the conversation we had been having.

The pastor of Philadelphia’s massive Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church since 1994, Waller supports Biden’s candidacy, as evidenced by his description of the former vice president’s appeal as “like getting back into old comfortable shoes that will allow us to get our footing back.”

That’s how Waller was quoted in an August 24th Washington Post report that focused on the black electorate in Pennsylvania and Democratic hopes for its increased turnout in 2020. Before publishing a column critiquing that “old comfortable shoes” framing, I’d called Waller’s office for comment, but I didn’t hear back until after it was published.

I thought it would be a good idea to check in with Waller to take the pulse of a black community leader who believes in Biden as I weigh the doubts I have arising from my reporting and research.

“I just want to be very clear,” Waller told me at the start. “I am going to work feverishly hard for whoever the presidential candidate from the Democratic Party is. When the smoke clears, whoever’s at the top, I’m going to be as forceful for them as I would be for Biden. It’s very clear that I think we gotta win. And whoever the Democratic candidate is is gonna get my full support.”

-more-

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/joe-biden-black-support-pastor-primary-883552/

[Cha]

1. Thank you for rhis, Yo!

[Scurrilous]

2. K&R