Yes! I always envisioned Biden in an alternate universe as “Honest Joe” the car salesman putting his arm around your shoulders asking you: “what’s it gonna take to put you in this beautiful sedan today?”
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The answer is usually dependent on how attractive the accused is.
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Cal Worthington, but without the horrible hairpiece. 
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Growing up in Southern California in the 70s and 80s, I get this reference! +1
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Explain our ignorance. I have never seen any example of Biden’s alleged lechery. None is described in the article.
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This utterly obnoxious article tells me way more about the self-regarding young puritan who wrote it than it does about Joe Biden.
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Old Cal had a dealership up here in Sacramento for a long time…I was sad to hear he passed a year or two ago, but damn he must have been about 100 years old, not joking. Crazy but lovable old coot.
Biden has an LBJ quality about him, at least superficially. He’s a hard-driving wheeler-dealer yet is willing to make political sausage whenever it’s needed. He’s a legislator and a smoother of the ruffled feathers more than a statesman, though he’s always got a good speech in him as long as he doesn’t gaffe too hard.
Unfortunately, we’re rapidly losing the legislators (REALLY rapidly losing them, on the GOP side) and getting partisans instead.
Partisans don’t legislate, unless they have total power. And their legislation tends to screw 50% of the population if not more.
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Regrettably, Alana’s use of right wing rhetoric, describing the 2008 election as “the one about Hope and Change” does nothing to lend her anything resembling credibility.
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Sorry but Joe Biden doesnt need a pass. He is a warm and caring man. I dont know what the spark of this story was but there is certainly nothing here.
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This article and its discussion make me long for the old McLaughlin Group, with Jack Germonde (sp?), Robert Novak, etc… McLaughlin would have introduced this topic at the end of the show with something like, “Question: Is “Uncle Joe” a baby-kissing, old-time politician, or a dangerous predator? Beetle!” No one would take it seriously, because they would all know the issue isn’t worth the time spent discussing it. Some of the comments are doltish, but TPM should get the message here.
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You’re right.
I was wrong.
The punctuation in the Editor’s Blog makes it clear through the use of a colon that the question posed is a paraphrase of the author’s opinion and doesn’t require quotation marks.
It’s my mistake and I apologize for jumping on it.
Now I can put my old English usage books back in the attic.
Edit: Pending resolution of some quite good points made by @arrrrrj concerning the rules of usage when clarity of content is at stake.
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Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes, Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift…aieeeeeeeeeeee, bad memories from decades past.
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Also Christopher Hitchens, Tony (“We’re Entitled To Our Standard of Living”) Blankley, Jay Carney, and many others who knew what they were talking about. I loved it. Unfortunately, it was the forerunner of the out-of-control screaming arguments you can catch on every channel all the time today.
My favorite moment was at the very end of one episode. After a short piece about a moose getting stuck in a swimming pool, Freddy (The Beetle) Barnes called Boutros Boutros-ghali “Moostros Moostros-ghali.” Eleanor got really ticked. It was one time I had to side with him.
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Well, not “nothing”, exactly. Did you see that ice cream picture? If my daughter was an ice cream cone, I wouldn’t let her get anywhere near him.
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Perfectly stated and exactly what I was typing up to contribute…so now I don’t have to. (-:
There also seems to be a maturity lacking in this piece, when it comes to recognition of generational changes. VP Biden is from an era when his overtures and actions were considered nothing other than gentlemanly. Same with his comments. A 20-something likely has no frame of reference to anything outside of the PC bubble where harassment policies and procedures are the norm from schools to workplaces and come as naturally to someone of that age as breathing. So if they are going to roundly criticize his behaviours, they best be doing their homework first.
Perhaps she needs to spend a little more time understanding the learning curve of someone of his generation in comparison to what is second nature to someone of her generation. Then maybe she’ll have an understanding of why there are times he appears to cross the line. I see this all the time in my work life (I work in law), and there are lots of men his age who struggle with re-learning approaches. Not all of them are going to get it 100% right, every time. VP Biden included.
But to use a term like lecherous to describe him? WAY OVER THE LINE.
Not everything VP Biden says or does is universally ignored by all liberals, which is another thing I question in terms of the veracity of her piece. Lumping all of us in together is identical to lumping anyone holding a Republican party membership card in with the Tea Party caucus. It’s lazy and uninspired…and most definitely, it’s factually inaccurate.
Her brand of feminism is nothing I want any part of, if this is what spurs her to write.
Signed, a progressive feminist.
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No doubt Joe Biden IS imperfect. But the problem is that this article offers no examples that warrant that conclusion (unless “imperfect”=“not continually bland”), let alone the conclusion that he is lecherous and sexist. Does anyone seriously believe that in paying a compliment to an elderly woman he was coming on to her? Or that his remark about the fence meant that he was sexually interested in the little girl? Drawing those conclusions (not saying that you did this, of course–I’m talking about the article’s author), just seems to be a wild misinterpretation of Biden’s behavior.
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It’s an opinion, to be sure. And the author is entitled to it.
But it’s shockingly immature, decidedly prejudiced, written to be inflammatory, and lacking in facts to back it up.
Perhaps the author should stick to the social media part of her job until she can write her opinion pieces without sounding like such a puritanical ninny.
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Hope this is snark, because you were right the first time. (I commented on it myself just before you did.) Try this – “Sam Smith asks an uncomfortable question over at Cafe today: Do liberals excuse Joe Biden’s drunken, racist behavior just because we like his policies?” The form implies the acceptance of the premise if not the conclusion. (“No, they excuse that behavior because he had a nervous breakdown.”) Sorry, @Josh_M, but that criticism’s valid.
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i’m still trying to figure out what sexism the author’s referring to.
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Why does this writer have a job at TPM? is a much more important question. Is TPM being subsidized by the GOP? You guys certainly are runing a lot of Fox News worthy stories these days.
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