Joe Biden while campaigning in Iowa, was talking to a 41-year-old special needs educator about his plans for strengthening collective bargaining rights for teachers in states like Iowa. After a short back and forth, Biden grabs the woman’s hand and clutches it firmly throughout the rest of the conversation.”
Apparently the Washington Examiner thinks that this is “news!” Now don’t get me wrong. I do not like Joe Biden. I think this worn-out, aged, hackneyed politician would make a lousy president. But really! This is “news?” Who cares? I suspect that good-old Joe is a sincere guy . . . mostly wrong in his political views, but sincere, and his grasping of someone’s hand is just an innocent part of his personality. Many years back I worked with a sincere friendly guy who was chummy with many of our female co-workers. Occasionally he would innocently put his hand on one of their shoulders. Did they consider this an affront? No! This was who he was. Now granted he was not campaigning to be the President, like “Old Joe,” but if he was, would his hand be “news?”
What if this male co-worker were to be nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice? And what if Christine Blakey Ford had worked with us? Would it then be okay for her to go after him because he and Ms. Blakey Ford had different opinions on certain issues? Most of us would say, “no,” but according to Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, Blakey Ford apparently felt otherwise. Katz said part of Blasey Ford’s “motivation” for coming forward with her unsubstantiated claims against Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation hearings stemmed from Kavanaugh’s views on abortion. Interestingly, I have not seen anything concerning Debra Katz’s recent statement in our local liberal newspaper, which apparently does not consider attorney Katz’s statement as “news!”
BTW: When I read about Blasey Ford’s “motivation,” I found myself wondering what Anita Hill’s “motivation” was during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings? Maybe this is something which Joe Biden could be asked, as he was a key player in Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings. Here his answer might well be “news!”