Thoughts about Joe Biden

Joseph R. Biden, Jr, had had a distinguished political career. Thirty -six years (six terms) as a U.S. Senator from Delaware, followed by eight years as Vice President of the United States. He has reached the pinnacle of political success and been in the deepest valley of personal tragedy. He has suffered to an extent that no one on earth should have to deal with what he has had to. He has overcome these personal tragedies to achieve much and now he is the presumptive Democratic party nominee for President in the Nov. 2020 election.

Mr. Biden had a questionable academic record where he was accused of plagiarizing a term paper. He denied it and excused it by stating that it was simply a matter of not knowing that footnotes needed to cite the source of the questionable material. Later, during one of is periodic runs for president, he borrowed the phraseology of Neil Kinnock, then the Labor Party leader of the United Kingdom. Kinnock spoke, in a campaign speech of a thousand years of Kinnocks not being able to advance in the stratified British class system. Biden spoke of a thousand years of Bidens and was quickly called out for “plagiarizing” Kinnock’s speech.

Despite claiming working class origins in Scranton, Pennsylvania where he was born, he came from a wealthy background. His father was wealthy but had come upon hard times and when Joe was eleven, the family moved to Delaware. Joe attended the elite Archmere Academy (current tuition $28,800/year) After college and law school, Joe entered the public service arena and won an upset victory in the Senate race in 1972 over the incumbent Republican J. Caleb Boggs. Biden’s margin of victory was less than 3200 votes. In all subsequent races, Biden won by impressive majorities.

He achieved a certain amount of notoriety during the Clarence Thomas hearings. Biden was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Anita Hill testified against Justice Thomas’ nominations and accused him of sexual harassment. The Thomas nomination was sent to the full senate with no recommendation and the nomination was approved. Sen. Biden was accused by certain groups of mistreating Miss Hill during the hearings.

Now, twenty-nine years later, former Vice President Biden faces accusation himself of sexual misconduct. A former staffer of then Senator Biden has accused him of sexual abuse while she was employed in his Senate office. Naturally, we have people swearing that the accuser, Tara Reade, is truthful, while others, just as vehemently swear there is nothing to these charges and that he is an innocent man. What can we conclude? Quite frankly, the only people who know, what if anything occurred between them are Biden and Reade. No one else was there, so we are faced with a he said-she said situation. There is insufficient evidence to charge Biden with any crime, assuming Reade is truthful. Of course, she may not be truthful as well. So who knows? His defenders don’t nor do his accusers.

Mr. Biden should be judged on the totality of his public career. Whether he is an honest man of personal integrity or not is up to each voter to determine. Whether, in the face of serious, but unproven, charges against him, he remains worthy to be the candidate of the Democratic Party is up to the Democratic Convention. Assuming he is the party’s nominee, the voters will determine if this is the kind of person who should be President of the United States. One thing is certain. We will be hearing plenty about what happened between Biden and Reade this election season.

Garry S. Sklar Las Vegas, NV April 30, 2020