Alito Performance Could Sink Biden’s Presidential Hopes

Richard Cohen believes Joe Biden is seriously hurting his presidential chances with his questioning of Judge Alito.

The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth. That, though, is no small matter. It is a Himalayan barrier, a Sahara of a handicap, a summer’s day in Death Valley, a winter’s night at the pole (either one) — an endless list of metaphors intended to show you both the immensity of the problem and to illustrate it with the op-ed version of excess. This, alas, is Joe Biden.

The reviews for Biden’s first crack at Samuel Alito, the humorless Supreme Court nominee, were murderous. The New York Times had Biden out on Page One — normally a position to kill for — only this time it was not a paean to his considerable merits, but an account of how it took him nearly three minutes of throat-clearing to ask his first question and then took the rest of his allocated 30 minutes just to get in four more. He concluded with about half a minute still left to him — something of a personal best that even he had to acknowledge.

[…]

The tragedy is that Biden, who is running for president, is a much better man and senator than these accounts would suggest. But his tendency, his compulsion, his manic-obsessive running of the mouth has become the functional equivalent of womanizing or some other character weakness that disqualifies a man for the presidency. It is his version of corruption, of alcoholism, of a fierce temper or vile views — all the sorts of things that have crippled candidates in the past. It is, though, an innocent thing, as good-humored as the man and of no real policy consequence. It will merely stunt him politically.

‘Tis a pity. Biden occupies the sensible center of the Democratic Party. He supported Bill Clinton’s crime bill (more cops, fewer assault rifles) which helped the Democrats fight the talk-show calumny that they were pro-crime and anti-cop. In his maturity, he has emerged, along with some appropriate gray hair, as one of his party’s most important — and knowledgeable — voices on foreign policy.

[…]

The seniority that makes Biden so knowledgeable on foreign policy — a conversation with him is always instructive — is also what cripples. He has been in the Senate since 1973 and suffers, as nearly all senators do sooner or later, from the conviction that he and his colleagues are the center of the world. After all, no one — with the possible exception of family members — ever tells a senator to shut up. They are surrounded by fawning staff and generally treated as minor deities. They lose perspective, which is why, now that you’ve asked, they talk and talk at these hearings. They are convinced the world is watching. Actually, it’s only a half a dozen shut-ins on C-SPAN — and, of course, the nearly catatonic press corps. Everyone else is playing computer solitaire.

Biden ran for president once before — and then, too, his mouth went off on its own. (In 1988, his stump speech was perilously similar to the one used by Neil Kinnock, Britain’s Labor Party leader.) This time seems no different, except the loss is greater. Foreign policy, Biden’s specialty, is the number one issue. He has much to say — and then too much to add. He is an anatomical disaster. His Achilles’ heel is his mouth.

I agree with Cohen that Biden is generally very smart, reasonable, and decent. I would argue, however, that the flaws he identifies go beyond mere style and into the areas of judgment and leadership. Those things, alas, are the paramount virtues we look for in a president.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Herb says:

    The fact that Biden associates himself with the likes of Kennedy, Schumer, Feingold, Feinstein, Reed and other terrorists extremists, who call themselves democrats, is definitely a few strikes against him. If Biden were smart he would, “Keep his big mouth shut, and “disassociate himself” from those crudballs who call themselves democrats. If he does, he just might have a shot at being President.

  2. ICallMasICM says:

    ‘Richard Cohen believes Joe Biden is seriously hurting his presidential chances ‘

    From a million to 1 to a billion to 1?

  3. Anderson says:

    What the hell was up with the Princeton cap?

    Biden can expect to see that in every commercial against him if he does run.

  4. McGehee says:

    A billion to one is still pretty good odds for a Democrat Senator.

  5. my cat says:

    If judgement and leadership are the criteria, how did Bush get anyone’s vote?

  6. Bachbone says:

    If they sank any deeper, wouldn’t they then be under several fathoms of muck?

  7. floyd says:

    biden stands small among diminutive characters,his prowess at governance is seldom left unexceeded.teddie k excepted