I have spent years – literally up to and including earlier today – criticizing President Trump for not being able to control his mouth.
But he’s got nothing on Joe Biden.
A question: suppose you were accused of being inappropriately physical by someone and, within a week of the accusation, you were speaking in front of a group. Would you make a joke about the accusation? Try to get a laugh out of it?
I’m guessing the answer is no.
And I’m guessing that if you were accused by not one, but seven women – women who have no connection to each other and whose accusations span a number of years – you’d be even less inclined to make a joke about it.
With that in mind, please note that, today, Joe Biden spoke before the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). While on stage, he physically touched its President, Lonnie Stephenson. And then he wisecracked that:
“I just want you to know, I had permission to hug Lonnie”
And if that weren’t tasteless enough, later in the event, when children were invited up to the stage, he put his arm around one of them and tossed out another one:
“He gave me permission to touch him”.
Both lines apparently got a positive reception from his audience – an audience of people who came to see/hear him and probably would have applauded anything he said.
But what about the rest of the world?
Could Joe Biden possibly not have realized that, by doing this, he was calling attention to what seven women (so far) have accused him of?
Could he possibly not have realized that, by effectively saying “See, it’s OK when I get touch-feely, they’re letting me” he implied that there was something wrong with his accusers? That they should have just shut up and accepted his physicality?
Is this the way he intends to sell himself to Democrat primary voters???
The title of my blog asks “can Joe Biden be this obtuse”?
The answer, self-evidently, is yes he can be. And is.
