December 17, 2018

Running interference for Biden.


Ageism is different, by the way, because everyone ages. Race and sex are — if not, as we used to say, immutable — relatively fixed and not on any sort of regular pathway of one-directional change. And even though the decline that comes with age is individual, it can be hard or rude to test a person individually. At least with Nancy Pelosi, she is seen in action on a regular basis by those who will be voting on whether she becomes the Speaker of the House. With a federal judge — like "RBG" — we have someone with life tenure, whose work is done behind the scenes and with extremely able assistants who are in a position to cover up any decline. Where is the individual testing of competence?

Now, with a presidential candidate — such as Joe Biden, who, if he runs, will be offering to serve in the most difficult job up to the age of 82 — we will get a chance to see how he functions and we can vote against him if we don't think he's good enough. BUT:

1. He will have some ability to hide his deficits (as I think Hillary Clinton did, by avoiding too many appearances, by having rote answers, and by trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to be off-camera when she keeled over), and

2. He will, by his prominence, attract money and attention and thereby choke off the progress of less well-established candidates (a process I call JEB-ing).

108 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Well consider me unfollowed and blocked, whatever that means. As they say, denial is the longest river in the world, and there are millions swimming in it, upstream.

RNB said...

Do we get to discuss Biden's multiple brain aneurysms or is that 'ableism'?

Ann Althouse said...

"Where is the individual testing of competence?"

At least put cameras in the courtroom. One reason they don't is they don't want to be caught nodding off.

Unknown said...

How about all the photos of creepy Uncle Joe in this #MeToo era, or does he get a pass with that as well?

tim in vermont said...

By turning it up to 11 and making her appeal more selective, she’s doing her own “spinal double tap."

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I'm sure she said the same thing about Reagan

Chris said...

Siting RBG and Nancy Pelosi are not helping your case against ageism.

tim in vermont said...

It’s interesting that the first instinct is to prevent anybody who disagrees from hearing any further arguments. What next? A chopping block and a scimitar and the demand to convert or die?

Ignorance is Bliss said...


A person is either competent - or they fucking aren't.
It has NOTHING to do with their fucking age.


While I disagree with this in general, it is true in Biden's case.

His incompetence has nothing to do with his age.

tim in vermont said...

Face it, any one of us could vote exactly like RGB by doing nothing more than listening to NPR on the way in to the vote. What is the last unpredictable vote she made? My guess is when she voted that 2A was an individual right, not a collective right. That is the last time I was surprised by her.

Bob Boyd said...

I thought of a good comment when I first started reading this post, but by the time I finished, I forgot what I was going to say.

DRP said...

Pelosi's incipient dementia is one of the most poorly kept secrets in Washington.

Sebastian said...

Actually, two-time plagiarist, naked-swimming Joe "Hands" Biden is the best Dems got.

Until Oprah gets in the race.

Dave Begley said...

It's not that Biden is old, it's that he is dumb as a rock and he is in favor of all of the failed Obama policies.

robother said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gilbar said...

A person is either competent - or they fucking aren't.
and IF a person is competent, NOW! that Means they Will Be competent in 2024 (2024!)
'cause you're not electing a President for a day (like a mayfly) you're electing him for At Least FOUR years . Holy F*ck! I'm not sure I'll be competent in 2024!

oh, AND, you'd want your President to be capable of two terms. Which means 2028 (2028!)

Ralph L said...

I've never seen Althouse be so bold.
Interference for Biden or Bernie?

It has NOTHING to do with their fucking age.
Let's ask Amy, Tina, and JLD.

gilbar said...

It's going to be Kamela Harris with Booker as VP; then, when they lose: they'll blame racism!

Ralph L said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Begley said...

AA wrote, "At least put cameras in the courtroom. One reason they don't is they don't want to be caught nodding off."

You know that's not the reason. The clips would be used in piecemeal fashion on TV and it would change the nature of the arguments. The lawyers and Justices would posture for TV.

And if RBG did nod off, do you think that would be shown on TV?

William said...

I'm qualified to talk about old age. That saying about how old age is not for sissies is total bullshit. Old age has been (to date, anyway) rather pleasant and comfortable. You get to cash government checks and travel half fare and be as lazy as you want. It's a pretty good deal. I question the wisdom of any old person who would forgo the certain joys of an afternoon nap for the questionable satisfaction of asserting their will upon the world. Right there, they're showing some flawed reasoning.

Jersey Fled said...

I still don't get leftie's infatuation with profanity.

Do they think it makes them sound smarter? More commited? Hipper?

I don't get it.

Ralph L said...

They released audio for Bush v Gore, and the heavens didn't fall. Oh wait...

robother said...

"It has nothing to do with their fucking age."

Didn't we establish the other day that men (i.e., Joe Biden) don't have a last fuckable day? QED.

Nonapod said...

Not sure about his general competence, but Biden's a plagiarist (infamously cribbing parts of speeches from Robert Kennedy), a jackass (see the 2012 vice presidential debate), and perhaps a little too handsy with young women for the #metoo era - although since he has a (D) by his name his sins may be forgiven.

I'd be all for general competency tests administered annually to all the members of the House and Senate, all the Justices of the Judiciary, and the President and Vice President. Make the results public. If someone is objectively incompetent, then voters should be made aware.

Of course I'm not naive enough to believe such a thing will ever come to pass.

Fernandinande said...

I am going to unfollow and block anyone that spouts the "age" shit.

Oh noes!

JayDee77 said...

Imagine what the Obama national spying apparatus has given Pelosi that would allow her to come back as house speaker 8 years after her historic shellacking.

tim maguire said...

President of the United States is not merely the most demanding job in the world, it is also the most important job in the world. The well being, even the very lives of billions are riding on how well the president does the job.

We have not just a right, but a duty to consider every issue we think relevant.

tcrosse said...

Why would they need to consider Joe Biden when the Democrats have so many others who are Presidential timber?

Henry said...

Ageism is of course different because you won't get fired for calling someone a old coot.

tim in vermont said...

Men have a last fuckable day. Women just don't realize it because on that day the man becomes invisible to them.

BTW, somebody should have the job of tapping women on the shoulder and telling them to stop with the space between the thighs because at a certain age, they just start to look cadaverous. Enjoy some French fries!

Charlie said...

Who is PerpetualTJ and why am I reading her tweets?

Martin said...

Everyone is different and ages differently and I have no opinion about Biden's age, but I will note that when George Marshall became Army Chief of Staff in 1939 one of the first things he did was start culling superannuated general officers who had gotten their positions through a seniority system that took decades to promote people (for example, Eisenhower was still a Lt. Colonel some 24 years after graduating West Point and having successfully filled plum assignments under Fox Conner, Pershing and MacArthur), because he determined that the coming war would require officers who had the mental sharpness and physical abilities (esp. endurance) that as a rule diminish as we age.

TrespassersW said...

Yeah. The best way to counter a position you disagree with is to is to block anybody stating that position on Twitter. THAT will show them!

traditionalguy said...

Trump wishes for Joltin Joe to be the nominee. Another old white man is the perfect Dem candidate to lead to a third party popping up the way Ross Perot did when Bush the First ran again.

narciso said...

Biden was clueless at 45 as he is as 75, yet he was vice president for eight years, where he let the stimulus be hijacked was the architect of our afghan and Iraq strategies (serious) and was even against targeting bin laden!

TrespassersW said...

I'm not so much an ageist -- or sexist, or racist, for that matter -- as I am an ideology-ist.

stevew said...

"I still don't get leftie's infatuation with profanity."

They think it makes them come across as serious and tough. Just another thing about which they are misguided.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Biden is ancient and literally has brain damage. Ginsberg is a fucking corpse who can't stay awake more then 2 hours at a time. And Nancy Pelosi's botox and dementia freakshow rolls on. These are the ugly, wrinkled faces of the democratic party.

However, they do have a lot of stock in that horse toothed retard Occasio-Cortez, so they do have some younger members fresh off the short bus.

rehajm said...

Is this oerson famous or blog famous or even Twitter famous? Her whinging seems a non issue. We're gonna do what we do including dismiss Biden because of his age or- far more likely- because of his gender and/or his race. The left will find a righteous way to put it.

Hagar said...

As for Biden himself, it should be noted that though he has expressed many divergent opinions over the years, he has always voted as he was told in the end. A poor choice for president in a time of rapid changes.

The Democrats claimed Reagan was too old and senile to serve, but now some of the candidates bruited will be older at their inauguration, if successful, than Reagan was when he left office.

The argument against old generals is that they always want to re-fight their last war when the world has moved on to new issues and technologies. Same for politicians.

Fernandinande said...

Like the hippies used to say, "Never trust anyone under 70."

MikeR said...

All pretty silly. Everyone's opinions are fixed in stone by now. It makes no difference who the Democrats nominate. Why not just pick someone normal?
Oh, wait.

Wilbur said...

And that's Uncle Joe, he's a moving kinda slow at The Junction.

Hagar said...

In the next election, the Democrat candidate is going to have to fight, not just Donald Trump, but the idea of Donald J. Trump - and Trump is not even a Republican.

AlbertAnonymous said...

At least RBG (much as I dislike her political views/legal opinions) has to explain her decisions in detail (even though they’re largely written by clerks) and have them circulated to the other eight justices for review/comment, and she has to be able to keep four others in agreement with her.

Biden (as President) wouldn’t have to explain shit to anyone. He might have a team putting out press releases, and writing speeches that he’d read off a teleprompter, but otherwise he’d be gaffing away.

Could be funny though.

Limited blogger said...

Run, Joe, run.

gspencer said...

"such as Joe Biden, who, if he runs, will be offering to serve in the most difficult job up to the age of 82"

Well, if not POTUS he could be president of the Mormon Church where age seems to be a resume enhancer, not a hinderance. Check out the ages at death of its past presidents,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints

Its current president, Russell Nelson, is 94.

Bay Area Guy said...

Slow Joe Biden ain't gettin' any swifter....

Charlie said...

"Until Oprah gets in the race."

Have you seen Oprah lately? She's going 3 bills, at minimum.

Francisco D said...

Uncle Joe is well liked by Republicans and Democrats in DC. He is a pleasant guy and generally non-threatening.

He will have to be a tough guy to run against Trump. That causes him to lose his primary appeal as a nice guy.

When it comes to foreign and domestic policy, he has the unenviable record of being wrong on more issues than anyone in DC. However, he represents the Deep State very well.

gilbar said...

for congressmen, or judges; all they have to do is vote how their aides tell them to, so a 85 year old senator is viable.
BUT! for a Presidency, a important (the important?) part of the job is mobilizing the base and (possibly) swaying the middle: That is, communicating .

O'Bama was Very able to read a teleprompter. Not many REALLY Old people have the eyesight or the memory needed to read a speech.

hombre said...

It depends, in part, on where you start. If, like Biden, you are dumb as a stump to begin with, the slowing that frequently accompanies age simply exacerbates the existing condition. He was never intellectually fit to be President. Probably less so now.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Old leftists - all good


Old rightists - only good when dead.

readering said...

Tempted to sign up for Twitter so I can be blocked for saying Biden too old for my vote. I don't have a vote for Pelosi or RBG. Sadly, they both do seem needed still.

Bay Area Guy said...

Maybe Biden could become President with Obama as his Veep. Or maybe Michelle. Hey, ya gotta be politically creative.

Bruce Hayden said...

"and IF a person is competent, NOW! that Means they Will Be competent in 2024 (2024!)
'cause you're not electing a President for a day (like a mayfly) you're electing him for At Least FOUR years . Holy F*ck! I'm not sure I'll be competent in 2024!"

We really don't ask about health for younger candidates, and probably should (JFK coming to mind). But we heard plenty at the time, and it hasn't really stopped since, that Reagan wasn't making all his own decisions his second term. Of course, we still don't know who made a lot of them with Obama, but no one is really asking. I serious don't think that Crooked Hillary could have survived four years as President, and Biden might not either. He was always a bit iffy, but seems to have gotten more dingy over the last decade since elected VP.

The flip side though is that the Democrats don't really seem to want a dynamo like Trump to lead them in the White House. They were perfectly happy with a cipher like Obama, who seemed to operate more as a front man for those who put him there, enjoying the perks to f tge job, without really getting in their way. Most of their younger front runners seem to be of a similar mold, willing to be an attractive front person, but not get involved too much in the running of the country that is well above their heads. It is mostly their older candidates, who have been running around the block in DC for too long, who do think they know the answers, and might actually try go put their stamp on their Administration.

Joel Winter said...

I have long argued that the next barrier to fall to the Left is "Maturity."

Though age is concrete, there's no doubt that "adulthood" is a social construct--and you can already see this (truly artificial) line being doubted and pushed.

The implications on the younger end of things is concerning.

wild chicken said...

She's going 3 bills, at minimum.


What? Porking out again?

Bruce Hayden said...

"Everyone is different and ages differently and I have no opinion about Biden's age, but I will note that when George Marshall became Army Chief of Staff in 1939 one of the first things he did was start culling superannuated general officers who had gotten their positions through a seniority system that took decades to promote people (for example, Eisenhower was still a Lt. Colonel some 24 years after graduating West Point and having successfully filled plum assignments under Fox Conner, Pershing and MacArthur), because he determined that the coming war would require officers who had the mental sharpness and physical abilities (esp. endurance) that as a rule diminish as we age."

Interesting how quickly that turned around. My grandfather spent the war building Army camps around the country. While an engineer by training, he had come up through Artillary. Not sure if he was a Major or LT Col on 12/7/41, but spent most of the war a Col, retiring in maybe 1947. His problem was age - the Army considered him too old for combat so wouldn't send him to Europe (until after VE Day, when he went to Germany for a couple years to sit on a war crimes tribunal). He kept applying, and the Army kept turning him down. He knew that he wouldn't get a star if he didn't get some WW II combat experience, and didn't (he had WW I combat experience, and got Purple Hearts from being was gassed a couple times).

Curious George said...

"RNB said...
Do we get to discuss Biden's multiple brain aneurysms or is that 'ableism'?"

You know what they say....“You ain’t never the same when the air hits your brain.”

Kevin said...

Ageism is NO different from sexism - or racism, or homophobia.

Let's see this person going nuts when people prefer a candidate of color.

It will be racism wrapped in affirmative action, so as not to be seen as the racism it is.

readering said...

Sen Alexander (TN) announces not running in '20 (he turns 80 that year). Sensible.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Race and sex are — if not, as we used to say, immutable — relatively fixed and not on any sort of regular pathway of one-directional change.

Relatively fixed in what sense? One can change their race merely by deciding to do so--"I identify as X" and so on.
Sex is fixed but meaningless (having whatever combinations of X and Y chromosomes one has can be given no meaning)--what matters is one's self-identified gender, so again there's no "fixed" about it.

Sorry if it's a boring point but we either have to follow the rule or not: one can't assert that failure to buy in to the prevailing rules is "ugly" in one case and then argue that those rules don't exist or should be ignored in another. If race and sex are a matter of self-identification and subject to change at any time then they're not relatively fixed in an sense.

William said...

I wish her well, but the visible evidence indicates that RBG is a frail old woman. The widespread reports in the media of her dynamic health lead me not to doubt my lying eyes but rather to doubt widespread reports in the media...,,,......Biden looks to be more fit and in better shape than Trump, but Trump projects more vitality and bounce. Still, both men are in their seventies, and bad news can happen overnight at that age. Wendell Wilkie looked far more youthful and energetic than FDR, but he's the one who died first.

Sigivald said...

Do the Democrats really have such a thin, unappealing, empty field of candidates that people are seriously considering Joe "Give Iran A Million Dollars" Biden as a Presidential candidate?

Hey Skipper said...

[Ignorance is Bliss @ 12/17/18, 8:52:] A person is either competent - or they fucking aren't.

It has NOTHING to do with their fucking age.


I'm an airline pilot. In seventeen months, when I turn 65, I will be declared effectively incompetent, and therefore turfed.

Your assertion is impossibly Manichean -- there is a sliding scale.

Maybe this only matters when peoples lives are at stake right now. As opposed to the plausibly deniable future.

bagoh20 said...

Why can't they be honest and just say "shut up".

bagoh20 said...

I guess this means we can run Reagan again.

tcrosse said...

Do the Democrats really have such a thin, unappealing, empty field of candidates that people are seriously considering Joe "Give Iran A Million Dollars" Biden as a Presidential candidate?

Does the accordion player wear a ring? Is the florist open on Mothers Day?

William said...

Olivia Dehaviland looks good for 102, but she's no Vera Lynn. Doris Day still has it going on, but Vera Lynn is the hottie.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...


2. He will, by his prominence, attract money and attention and thereby choke off the progress of less well-established candidates (a process I call JEB-ing)



If we learned anything from 2016 it's that the DNC party power brokers determine who will get the resources and who will be the nominee. The Clintons are party power brokers, Slow Joe isn't. Joe will need the buy in from folks like the Clintons to win the nomination.

Yancey Ward said...

Biden, Sanders, and Clinton are too old to be considered in 2020- it really is that simple. Trump would be too old, too, but he ran right at the edge of what I consider viable in 2016. However, Sanders and Trump both exude a vitality the other two do not.

On Biden, there was photo of Biden I saw a few days ago, not sure where now, that made me believe he has had a face lift recently.

Yancey Ward said...

Biden is toast, though- in the primaries his opponents will not be shy about outing Handsy Joe. If he wanted to be president, he should have run in 2016- being the VP of Obama would have afforded him some media protection against those charges in a race against Clinton, but not in 2020.

Yancey Ward said...

As I have aged (I am 52), I have come in contact with more and more men and women over 65. There are very, very few people of that age and older capable of doing even a job like Supreme Court justice with a gaggle of clerks. Honestly, I think there should be an upper age limit on presidents, senators, representatives, and judges of 65.

cubanbob said...

Lord it was only ten years ago Biden was selected for his "gravitas" when in reality he was chosen as Obama's life insurance policy. That is, he was considered so dumb no one would kill Obama and make Biden president. Now ten years later that very same moron is supposed to be the leading Democrat for president?

rcocean said...

We need age limits for SCOTUS judges and Congressmen.

We have judges that are 85 and graduated from law school in 1953! Not only that, but they've been "old" for 25 years, they can't even remember what it was like to be 55.

When the founding fathers said "Judges for Life" - no one imagined judges would regularly stay on the bench till they were 80-85 years old. Life meant 3 score and ten.

rcocean said...

Even as late as the 1950s you had SCOTUS judges dropping dead in their 50s and retirieng before they were 70. Now they all stay on till 80.

Static Ping said...

Basically, the tweet is demanding that we all stop thinking critically and do whatever is demanded. That will end well.

rcocean said...

And the most absurd thing was seeing 95 y/o Strom Thurmond in the Senate.

Ridiculous. LIke no one else in S/C could be a Senator.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FullMoon said...

Charlie said... [hush]​[hide comment]

"Until Oprah gets in the race."

Have you seen Oprah lately? She's going 3 bills, at minimum.

"In 1989, TV Guide put television's celebrity-du-jour, Oprah Winfrey, on its cover, perching her upon a pile of money... The only problem was that it wasn't, actually, Oprah. TV Guide had taken a picture of the talk show host's face ... and grafted it onto the body of '60s star" Ann-Margaret.

With todays technology and Oprahs money, they can graft her melon onto a poll tested attractive robot body.

AllenS said...

I'm more interested in how fast Biden will recover after Crooked Hillary kicks him in the groin.

Skeptical Voter said...

Age is not the reason to decline to vote for Slow Joe. He is an admitted plagiarist and a "gaffe machine". He's also a nudist exhibitionist --ask the female Secret Service Agents who guarded him whilst he was swimming au natural. Ask the hundreds, nay thousands, of women who have been groped by "Uncle Joe".

Aside from those disqualifications, his age at the time of election is a mere bagatelle.

Roger Sweeny said...

2. He will, by his prominence, attract money and attention and thereby choke off the progress of less well-established candidates (a process I call JEB-ing)

But it didn't work for Jeb! In fact, I suspect "attracti[ing] money and prominence" made a lot people deliberately vote against the "well-established candidates" and instead vote for Trump.

Mike Sylwester said...

Joe Biden will prevent the Republicans from putting the Colored People back in chains.

Bay Area Guy said...

I've noticed that the top 3 Dems in the polls are: Biden, Bernie and Beto.

These are 3 straight white males.

When did Democrat voters become so racist, sexist & homophobic?

Nonapod said...

The Clintons are party power brokers, Slow Joe isn't. Joe will need the buy in from folks like the Clintons to win the nomination.

"You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me.” - Joe Biden

To be honest I think it remains to be seen if the Clinton's still command the purse strings. I'm skeptical that they still do.

PackerBronco said...

I agree. Pelosi and RBG were stupid at any age.

PackerBronco said...

Does the accordion player wear a ring? Is the florist open on Mothers Day?

Is the Pope Catholic? Wait ... skip that last one.

Mike Sylwester said...

Correction to my comment at 12:47 PM

I inadvertently used the expression Colored People.

I meant to write People of Color.

Please make the mental correction.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Biden had confided (off the record) to the White House press corps that he wanted to run, but he added something like ‘You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me.’”

The Clinton Money Grubbing Crime syndicate - that involves more that merely the Clintons, but many inside the gov and the hack-D MSM hack press - will destory anyone and destory anything to keep the power-money-power train going.

Ask Seth Rich. But don't ask his parents. They are not talking.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Hillary-Mueller-Srozk 2020. With some Avanetti sprinkled on top.

Get your banana republic. Free universal glitter promises!

bagoh20 said...

Staying on as a Supreme Court judge into your 80s shows poor judgment, which may be excused due to their advanced age.

bagoh20 said...

The only thing worse than politicians that are too old is ones that are too young, and that goes for voters too. Me? I'm the perfect age, and I always will be.

Howard said...

It's all about departing from the past. Nancy Pelosi counts and collects like a Young Turks. Uncle Joe has been out to lunch since forever.

tcrosse said...

"You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it."

JackWayne said...

Typical stupidity. Doesn’t understand the difference between immaturity/maturity and incompetence/competence. Or that the most common form of incompetence is dementia and that is mostly an old-age issue. Joe Biden is not incompetent. He walks, talks, gropes, pays his bills and behaves like anyone with a 100 IQ. However, his political immaturity is completely off the scale. He is a big-government lover and apparently knows nothing of history.

Gk1 said...

Maybe it was this blog but one of the resident doctors opined about Joe's mental fitness with the saying "When the air hits the brain, they're never the same" in regards to Joe's aneurysm operation. He's just a goofy old fuck that should retire. It's a sad commentary on the democrat's weak bench of presidential timber.

cacimbo said...

I love the word Jeb-ing. Excellent word, hope it spreads out and is utilized by the 2020 pundits.

tcrosse said...

Jeb-ing is practiced by the Jeb-oisie.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Racism, transgenderism, sexism, etc. are subclasses of diversity or color judgment. Ageism is a cousin to Pro-Choice/selective-child. All are moderated within a politically congruent framework. Color is a low information attribute. Transgender is the result of genotype, phenotype, or choice. Sex differences are similarly discerned with differences observable in physical and mental attributes. Each reflect attributes that are statistically significant in context.

DavidD said...

What was that ST:TOS episode where some old guy was getting propped up and someone behind the scenes was making all the decisions?

Biden could be just like that.

Humperdink said...

Joe Biden, swamp dweller emeritus.

Swamp def: (noun) an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects.

Think Dead Sea or maybe catheter bag.

narciso said...

pattern of force, I've thought McCain was john gill, with mark salter really pulling the strings, although king denethor and wormtongue

Gretchen said...

Biden starts with below average IQ, add dementia.

I will however love watching Democrats nominate an old white guy.

Tina Trent said...

You need to call it sometning other than Jeb-ing. He came in last everywhere, if you leave out Pataki, which we still cannot explain.