Race for the White House 2016 Volume 8

So, I see that I have accidentally been titling these posts as "Road to the White House" instead of "Race for the White House" for the past two weeks. I better watch that, I do not need Brian Lamb and C-SPAN suing me.

There are not a lot of topics that are jumping out to me to be written about. That is not surprising considering how early it is in the cycle. Much of the news this week continues to involve the incumbent lame duck President and the increasing concern Americans have about terrorism in the Middle East, particularly at the hands of ISIS. The White House held a summit this week on terrorism, which seemed to have as its primary focus, not offending Muslims. Administration officials continued to make some headlines in the way they seem to minimize the terrorism situation and how the Administration believes they can be best countered. Needless to say, I could rant for many paragraphs about how out of touch with reality the Obama Administration is. The longer these sorts of things go on though, and the more of a disconnect that is perceived, the more likely it is that the 2016 election will be one where foreign policy and national defense are the dominant issues, and that will be because of disapproval of the current policies.

With foreign policy in mind, a former Governor who has never served in the federal government, but who has relatives who have, made a speech this week in Chicago. In it, Jeb Bush delivered a broad outline of his view of the world, and made it clear that while he loves his former President father and brother, he should be considered his own man, who would chart his own course. However, many of the endorsers and advisers to Governor Bush on the issues appear to be veterans of both Bush Administrations. It may not be surprising though that the GOP Establishment frontrunner would be attracting those particular individuals.

On the Democrat side, the most interesting and perhaps disturbing activity of the week came on the part of a potential candidate, whom virtually nobody expects could ever be elected President. For decades, Joe Biden's odd statements and behavior have been a bit of a running joke and since he has been Vice President, there has been a lot of, "well, that's just Joe being Joe", in describing various things he does. Last week, I talked about how he referenced somebody from the podium as an "old butt buddy." This week, in addition to formulating an odd and demonstrably inaccurate statement about how he is friends with scores of Somali cab drivers in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden perhaps went out of his way to show that he really does like the ladies.

New Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was sworn into office this week, and while he was giving his first speech, Biden called for his wife to come up from her seat and stand in front of him, where he came close to virtually molesting her, with the cameras rolling, and while her husband was speaking. It had to be a very uncomfortable moment for the Carters and the discussion afterwards is likely to have taken away from what should have been a big moment. Various people remarked how Biden stood creepily with his hands on Mrs. Carter's shoulders, and then appeared to sniff her hair and whisper in her ear. What in the world is going on with him? He has always been a bit of a cheeseball but these situations seem to be increasing as he gets older. There are photos of him from the Holiday season, where he posed with his hands around the midsection of an uncomfortable looking female reporter and it was remarked upon how he was maybe a bit too touchy feely at the ceremonial swearing in of Senators last month, when it came to the very young daughters and granddaughters of Senators.

Let me be clear. There is no evidence to suggest that Biden is a predator or has illicit intent on his actions. However, in this culture that we live in, where just about everyone,, especially men,  is lectured against even the perception of sexual harassment or unwanted touching, it is remarkable to the extent to which Biden gets a free pass. He needs to realize that times have changed, a long time ago, and just because he is a pro-choice powerful figure, he does not have the carte blanche to put his hands over females.

Some reporters and columnists have started to write this week about how there may be a misguided double standard that has overlooked Biden's actions, but one can only imagine if Dick Cheney or some male Republican politician was caught on camera doing half of what Biden has been caught doing.

If that were the case, there would be very loud questions about the mental state of the man to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency and if Biden were a Republican, there would be the obvious talk of resignation, or even impeachment and other legal action.