From "A photo of me and Joe Biden went viral. I want him to take ownership for his actions" by Sofie Karasek (WaPo).
The photograph has Biden bowing his forehead into hers and clasping her upraised hands. He's speaking. It looks like Biden is deeply empathizing with her. I've come to think that Biden believes that he has gift of compassion that can be conferred nonverbally and that is extraordinarily valuable, something like the laying on of hands.
Karasek says people have said to her "It looks like he's about to kiss you," but I don't think it does.
There are over 2,000 comments on the WaPo piece. The highest-rated one is:
There's nothing happening here that's not obvious to everyone but this woman. He's being compassionate and offering sympathy and she's obviously accepting it gratefully. These absurd attacks on Biden have to stop.Second highest:
Enough with this Biden violated my personal space nonsense. Stop trying to make him into some kind of predator. This is craziness.ADDED: Men also become conditioned to men encroaching on their personal space. Here's a famous example:
पोस्ट्स
१०१ टिप्पण्या:
I think we are going to have a sad society if we make people afraid to touch each other. With the internet and video games (and books!) it's already easy enough to wall ourselves off from other humans. From humanity.
There doesn't appear to be an excessive amount of hair-sniffing in this photo. Progress!
Women, being crazy, need extraordinary amounts of sympathy. Biden's stepping up.
He's not second most powerful. He just presides over the Senate and goes to funerals.
While I agree, this is a big nothing burger, if it was Trump, Pence or Kavanaugh, these little moments of connection would be proof of rape.
"he has gift of compassion"
Which he expresses by telling girls they look 17 and that they should wait to marry until 31.
Handsiness is sympathy, touching is caring, consent is for suckers. If you're a Dem, they let you do it.
Dem privilege at work. Much more valuable than white privilege.
So much for the Kamala wing of the party. Snowplow Joe is just getting going.
I didn’t want to discredit it then. I don’t want to discredit it now. But it’s precisely because he has been active on this for so long that he should have realized much earlier that he could be making women uncomfortable
If, time after time he did something like this, no one expressed discomfort, it was reasonable for him to believe that what he was doing was welcome.
Sucks to have to live by the rules you made, eh Liberals....?
We need to have a sense of perspective, but that seems to be hard to come by these days. Handshakes are normal and don't require consent. Orthodox Jews, some of whom don't shake hands with members of the opposite sex for religious reasons, tend to apologize; they understand that it is they who are violating the norm.
More than that is going beyond the norm. Some people hug others a lot (I had an uncle like that, may he rest in peace), but they should understand that they are stepping beyond the norm and should make sure it's okay first. Or that the other person is close enough to them to be used to it and okay with it.
But as I said, there are people like my uncle who don't really pay attention to that norm. It does not make them sexual predators, it just means that they are boorish.
I don't mind push-back to defend that norm. I'm not sure that #meToo is the right umbrella for it.
Men also become conditioned to men encroaching on their personal space.
Some people know how to handle it...
More to the point- getting away with it is empowering, especially if you know it’s wrong.
What's enjoyable is watching leftists hoisted one-by-one on their own petard. Biden, well, he's just another hypocritical dope.
Ann: What you said about Biden thinking he has an extraordinary gift of empathy and that he’s laying on hands ... exactly right. This is what has annoyed me about him forever. He thinks he’s a gifted communicator but he’s actually a repulsive one who finally getting his due.
@Mary Beth Exactly. All of this behavior was out in the open. Biden's opponents are using photos and videos to stop his bid for the presidency. The visual evidence, thus framed, is funny and has been made fun of for years, but still Biden has spread his laying-on-of-hands love. Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
No, it's not reasonable. It's aggressive, rude, and inappropriate to put your hands all over strangers and subordinates - male or female. The people imposed on are often so surprised they don't know what to do. It's one of those situations where you figure out the right response after the fact. If you're a subordinate, you're afraid to protest. Now, I'm not saying in every situation the offender should suffer dire consequences, but it's aggressive, rude, and inappropriate. In the case of my high school biology teacher (mentioned previously in another post) firing the jerk was the right thing to do.
Btw, I do believe Obama recognized this ugly side of Joe and put up with it for political reasons. Now he is silent because, if he spoke up for Joe, it would be too obvious a lie.
Again, what he does with women is bad enough but can be dismissed with this "caring and compassionate" bullshit.
But they can't explain it away when he's stroking your girls hair, sniffing them, and running his hand over their chests. He's a Pedo.
But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
There's an unthinking mob on the right as well as the left.
He's a Pedo
The hispanic heritage move. That makes two in the Dem lineup.
They built it, so it came. Hopefully, this will progress as an intra-party factional schism, and assure mutual neutralization of the toxic elements.
The conservative position is that #MeToo is nonsense-pandering to a mob of women.
"Some people know how to handle it..."
LOL.
That never gets old.
I laugh every single time.
"Ann: What you said about Biden thinking he has an extraordinary gift of empathy and that he’s laying on hands ... exactly right. This is what has annoyed me about him forever. He thinks he’s a gifted communicator but he’s actually a repulsive one who finally getting his due."
Fair enough.
And it does show that he shouldn't be President. He's not reading things accurately enough and he can take a delusion forward without checking.
Empowering was big starting in 1986. Biden is embowering women. He sees women as climbing plants, which is a good characterization.
if it was Trump, Pence or Kavanaugh, these little moments of connection would be proof of rape.
The press and activists conducted a warlock trial for Trump over a private observation of an element of socially liberal culture, and, fortunately, failed to convict. They conducted a warlock trial for Judge Moore backed by misinformation and innuendo, and, unfortunately, succeeded to label him. They conducted a warlock trial for Judge Kavanaugh based on the shifting testimony of a single woman's memory from three decades earlier, and, fortunately, failed to convict.
Do women ever encroach the personal space of men?
Biden is embowering women
He keeps his hands full of women. A kind of Franken mindset. Romney's shortlist of qualified women for employment was empathetic by comparison.
Ann Althouse said...
All of this behavior was out in the open.
All of this behavior that we have pictures or video of was out in the open.
Swimming naked around female Secret Service agents was not.
Why are there zero photos like this of Trump?
MeToo was weaponized to attack Trump and Conservatives.
Liberals want an exception to these rules for 'their people'.
Althouse says Conservatives should allow this.
I am going with a 'no' on that.
The left is rife with knee-jerk, me-too-isms. I've no use for Joe Biden but I'm a little tired of this mass hysteria. It makes women look like fools. But I blame the media the most. They are actually the ones setting the agenda and controlling the narrative. And it is they who are the biggest power-seekers.
Swimming naked around female Secret Service agents was not
The delicate flower secret service detail.
French kings went naked before people who didn't matter socially. It's a social statement.
Secret service is wallpaper, socially, and Biden lies to swim naked. If you can't take it, get another job, also not in health care.
Ann Althouse said...
@Mary Beth Exactly. All of this behavior was out in the open. Biden's opponents are using photos and videos to stop his bid for the presidency. The visual evidence, thus framed, is funny and has been made fun of for years, but still Biden has spread his laying-on-of-hands love. Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Why, yes it is.
We just want to be fair.
We're operating under the rules of the left.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
I disagree. One set of rules for all.
Fritz
You owe me a coke.
The correct response is use the correct rules, not to use their rules.
Why are there zero photos like this of Trump?
Because he's a germaphobe.
PHILLIPS: If you’re going to run for president, you got to shake a lot of hands and you make no secret of the fact that you don’t like to shake hands with people you don’t know because you’re afraid of the germs.
Mr. TRUMP: Well, I’m not a big fan of shaking hands…
PHILLIPS: How are you going to run for office and not press the flesh?
Mr. TRUMP: Maybe we’ll change something there. Look, if I have to do it, I do it. I’m not a big fan, that when I’m having dinner, and I’m eating, and I’m ready to pick up a roll or something, and a guy walks out of a bathroom and says, Mr. Trump, I’m a big fan of yours, can I shake your hand? Now the good news is you don’t eat the roll, that’s the good news, OK? Because it’s always positive. But, you know, I am not a big fan of the handshake. I think it’s barbaric. They have medical reports all the time. Shaking hands, you catch colds, you catch the flu, you catch it, you catch all sorts of things. Who knows what you don’t catch?
PHILLIPS: If you hit the campaign trail, will you shake hands?
Mr. TRUMP: I will be shaking hands.
PHILLIPS: Will you kiss babies?
Mr. TRUMP: I’d kiss babies, well, kissing babies isn’t so bad. I’d much rather do that than shake hands.
But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Maybe not but it's surely a reason to laugh at his predicament while noting the obvious truth that these weaponized standards have always been illegitimate and developed only for political reasons.
You know what this truth isn't? A reason to defend or feel sympathy for someone who still supports these weaponized standards along with other politically driven hatefulness (they want to put ya'll back in chains).
Tank said...
Fritz
You owe me a coke.
I’ll email it.
I’m sympathetic to these women because it is definitely a bit on the strange side ... I just wonder how far we have to go down this road before we are pandering to a ridiculous feminized standard that is overly focused on internal feelings.
Maybe we’re already there. Seems that way to me ...
At any rate that is a discussion worth having. But we won’t, of course.
You should provide at least 30 gallons of personal space (about 114 liters) per Oscar.
This has already been litigated.
Poor Biden doesn't even rate a capital B in Althouse Tagworld.
This observation might get deep sixed by our hostess but I have yet to see Joe Biden do the hair nuzzling/touching move with an African American. If it's all about connecting with warmth and compassion, why exclude a particular race. All the pictures that I have come across show that he seems to go for longish smooth hair...regardless of age of the "victim". I do think he has a bit of fetish.
Beauty is a cultural thing.
I agree with Rick, above.
The left, including Biden, invented these rules--sure, they were intended to only apply to Republicans, but now some Democrats are finding these rules applied to them.
I will not attack Biden, nor will I lift a finger to defend him.
Karasek says people have said to her "It looks like he's about to kiss you," but I don't think it does.
That was generous and charitable of you. You do know Biden is a Catholic ...right? But then he's one of the good Catholics who is fine with killing unborn babies.
> I've come to think that Biden believes that he has gift of compassion that can be conferred nonverbally and that is extraordinarily valuable, something like the laying on of hands.
The insanity defense? Well, maybe he *is* nuts, or at least incapable of reading signals, but my impression is that he is power crazed and women are least likely to fight back.
I just wonder how far we have to go down this road before we are pandering to a ridiculous feminized standard that is overly focused on internal feelings.
We passed that point about a decade ago.....
We've reached the point where unwelcome advances are considered rape by academic feminists.
I am confident that Biden thinks he is one of the world's great human beings.
I think he's a putz with an empathy schtick. If Biden were a little less mediocre, it could be charming, or even compelling--but he's a hack, so it is not always fun to be on the receiving end.
Like I said yesterday, Biden has managed to achieve the affect of a genial drunk while being a teetotaler.
As to LBJ, people tolerated his gaucherie because they were afraid of him. "Oh my God. Here he comes. What do I have to do to get him away from me?" I don't think JFK put up with it, do you?
Why must we accept whatever story Biden tells himself about why he's entitled to touch women and sniff their hair when they are on the spot in front of the world and he as all the power over their or their loved one's career? How is that not sexual harassment?
I'd be interested to hear if Clarence Thomas thinks Joe Biden deserves the benefit of the doubt.
“ Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.”
It absolutely is. Do you win a game where you didn’t make the rules by exempting your opponent from them? You betray a little of that old-school Boomer liberal hypocrisy, Althouse. Where conservatives play long-suffering, responsible Dad and the Left gets to pretend they’re bold iconoclasts while living off of Dad’s tolerance and checkbook.
It isn't just for men. Remember the photo mid-Kavanaugh of ChiFi invading Lisa Murkowski's personal space.
MayBee said... I think we are going to have a sad society if we make people afraid to touch each other
We'll end up with a Vice President that won't be alone in a room with a member of the opposite sex!
It absolutely is. Do you win a game where you didn’t make the rules by exempting your opponent from them?
4. "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
I have excused Biden's handsy behavior before while ridiculing his political positions.
Someone here pointed out that his behavior would not be tolerated in most work settings. I think that is correct.
I have been holding Biden to more lax standards of personal behavior than a corporate executive because he has a reputation as a nice guy. That is starting to change.
There are countries which such women (and some men, probably) should avoid if they are upset by these things.
The sooner we flee to a sane country the happier I will be.
There's nothing happening here that's not obvious to everyone but this woman. He's being compassionate and offering sympathy and she's obviously accepting it gratefully. These absurd attacks on Biden have to stop.
Believe all women is really taking a beating.
It will be revived as soon as the next Republican is under discussion.
Oh, it's only "laying-on-of-hands love"?? Naw, its a laying-on-of-hands-neuroses, at best. Or, more realistically, 'laying-on-of-hands creepiness". The same creepiness that walks around with its dong hanging out. Time's up, Joe, #metoo and #callitwhatitis have caught up with you.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
There is no equality under Social Justice Law.
Why do you think the right stockpiles weapons?
@Francisco D -- I agree with you.
Find a member of the opposite sex at work today. After a meeting, rub their shoulders for them. Just go ahead -- don't ask. Be compassionate. See how that works out for you.
Biden is a creep. You don't touch people the way he does. Nobody else does that. What makes him so special?
Biden's opponents are using photos and videos to stop his bid for the presidency. The visual evidence, thus framed, is funny and has been made fun of for years, but still Biden has spread his laying-on-of-hands love. Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Nonsense. Conservatives have been saying for years that this is creepy behavior, so why on earth would we stop saying the same thing now?
Construct any scenario you like, but I'd last about two shocked seconds in my office if I leaned in (!) in the way shown in the photo, touched my forehead to hers, and clasped her hands with my own a micrometer away from, or actually touching, her breasts.
I mean it's funny now to the extent Woke Joe is being consumed by the Woke Left, but the act itself would warrant sexual harassment training in my very normal-for-2019 office.
"Men also become conditioned to men encroaching on their personal space..."
Bullshit, that's a straight dominance move by LBJ. He was famous for them. Pulling out his dick "Jumbo" and forcing people to meet with him while he was taking a shit are also alpha moves he is well known for. These are the sorts of things that start fights between men. Try that shit in a bar with a stranger and you are risking an ass kicking.
Biden, is showing his sexual dominance towards these women and girls. How a husband or father can stand by while Biden nuzzles is beyond me. Much like LBJ, Biden' power made him immune from retaliation.
What kind of person believes that the Vice President, the constitutional spare tire, is the second most powerful person in the country? Is Mike Pence the second most powerful person in America today?
AA: Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Oh spare us the "but muh principled conservatism" malarkey. Pointing out the other guys' hypocrisy isn't "piling on" (or "whataboutism" or "punching down" or whatever other bullshit juju-term progs trot out when trying to make their critics STFU.)
Yeah, it's a hit job. I don't know why you keep repeating that, empahatically, as if this obvious fact escapes other people. Biden is being mau-mau-ed by the people to whom he's spent a life time pandering and groveling. That pandering has gotten uglier and stupider over time: he's sunk to attacking "white men" and the "jurisprudential culture" that is the foundation of our ideals of justice and liberty, to please them.
I find that despicable, and don't have any response beyond mild schadenfreude to the fact that the mau-mau-ers have recruited #MeToo-ers for the hit job. Contrarily, your dismay that he's being #MeToo'd for being regrettably but forgivably handsy and sniffy is apparently a much stronger emotion than the disgust or contempt you've felt for other things he's done.
I can't say I understand your (honestly admitted) strong emotional response to the attacks on Biden, but responses to the hit job on Biden are based on people ranking things differently on their importance or danger. The inadvisability of conservatives "piling on" doesn't even make my list of "serious areas of concern" re Biden, but obviously it ranks very high on yours.
Biden is another one of those old white guys (and girls) who think they can ride the "old white guys are the root of all evil" pandering train for fun and profit, too stupid to notice that they're the deadwood that the young Turks want to get rid of. Why is anybody surprised that he's the target of a hit? And why am I supposed to be all emo about something so predictable and expected?
Yesbut, if you start a crusade about men invading women's personal space at some point you're going to trip over cultural differences. For it's hardly a secret that although all cultures recognize personal space, the size of that space varies across cultures.
Althouse said:
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Absolutely this is a reason for conservatives to pile on. The only way to break the double standard is to give it back good and hard. Not so we can count coup by getting a Dem scalp, but instead to draw attention to the problem of mob trials of public individuals. By making a big deal of Biden, more people are coming to the understanding of just how unfair these types of responses can be, and maybe then they will be less likely or able to use them against conservatives in the future.
It has occurred to me for a long time that many people have proclivities that, if given their head would be unacceptable in polite society. The less scrutiny and oversight you receive the more likely you are to be emboldened to cross certain lines. I know that if I really wanted to be more lecherous in my life, I I would need to do is become a democrat politician. I can then push the boundaries much more easily because people will over-look my proclivities because I am a mouthpiece for the the right causes. I can literally commit sexual harassment and worse as long as I sponsor bills that NOW and NARAL advocate. The same can be said for other things. The left will accept a lot of sin in exchange for agenda support.
Ann: "...you conservatives..."? Got it.
rh: French kings went naked before people who didn't matter socially. It's a social statement.
Sure. 17th century French autocracy, republican America, same "social statements", understood and accepted the same way.
Secret service is wallpaper, socially, and Biden lies to swim naked. If you can't take it, get another job, also not in health care.
One suspects that Biden fondness for swimming naked is consequent to female agents being around, not prior to female agents being around.
(You're not really the go-to commenter here for accurate etiologies of creep syndrome, rh.)
Joe Biden lectured college men and spearheaded the Title IX kangaroo bullshit.
Biden touted the 1 in 5 college women are sexually assaulted. That definition of sexual assault was very broad. It included unwanted touching, which is what a half dozen women say Biden did.
Intent does not matter on campus, Joe. Misunderstandings do not matter on campus, Joe. Ignorance of changing social attitudes do not matter, Joe.
You wanted the Guillotine, Joe. Now it’s your turn.
Shut the fuck up and at least take it like a man.
Touching girls was creepy. These women were at least adults who could have pushed back.
Biden is a Creep. Creepy Joe.
Caligula: Yesbut, if you start a crusade about men invading women's personal space at some point you're going to trip over cultural differences. For it's hardly a secret that although all cultures recognize personal space, the size of that space varies across cultures.
Which is why some northeastern Irish guy being all warm and Mediterranean-like with the touchy-feely doesn't pass the smell, er, sniff test.
French kings went naked before people who didn't matter socially. It's a social statement.
And a social statement wholly inappropriate for someone wanting to be the POTUS.
Joe ain't running for King.
I read the article. She calls out the Catholic Church, the military, and colleges as institutions where sexual assaults are prevalent and where they have to have a reckoning.. She conspicuously does not mention Hollywood. She appeared at the Oscars. Technically that's not as bad as appearing at NAMBLA, but it's in the same class. If you're against sexual exploitatio, don't go to the Oscars. Do not go to a butcher's convention to extol the joys of tofu.......The picture doesn't make her or Biden look bad. She used to be proud of it. The picture has warm colors and a Norman Rockwell kind of vibe. There's an element of condescension, but of the noblesse oblige type.. He may have cured her scrofula.
What a pathetic, embarrassing, whiny, weak, sniveling editorial. There would not be a sane, normal person in 1000 who would find anything amiss or awkward about that photo. Thought experiment: It's Obama at an event for firefighters and they introduce firefighters who've lost colleagues in fires. He meets a female FF and has a moment exactly like this on stage. The world would melt down at his compassion and kindness. This is a hit job on Joe because he can't pass the insane list of Lefty purity tests.
Encroaching on personal space is a form of dominance.
Re: Althouse:
The visual evidence, thus framed, is funny and has been made fun of for years, but still Biden has spread his laying-on-of-hands love. Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
The visual evidence has been funny, and has been mocked for years, but his habits have also been criticised for years. Here's a Thinkprogress article -- certainly not right-wing -- asking why Creepy Uncle Joe gets a pass. It's from 2015. People knew what he was doing was wrong before 2019! What's changed is (1) Liberals and Progressives aren't lockstep protecting his creepy behaviour anymore, and (2) many of the women on the receiving end are confirming that yes, it was creepy and unwanted, opening up a fig leaf justification for Liberals and Progressives to switch sides.
I suppose it's a "hit job" in the sense that some of the women coming forward today are probably coordinating with someone to get the stories out. And there's a certain "We've always been at war with Eastasia" quality to the way that Democrats and journalists are turning on him for behaviour to which they had previously turned a blind eye (to avoid embarassing Democratic leadership in general and Obama in particular). But those kinds of situational value judgments are normal in American politics today -- stuff that was perfectly normal when Bush II or Obama did it suddenly threatens the integrity of the Republic now that Trump is doing it.
Let's put together a bunch of pictures of Michelle Obama giving people big, drapey hugs. She actually did it a lot. Even to the Queen! Is that encroaching on space? Is it horrible?
What Biden did was not illegal, it was a sign of a person who does not read social queues that show discomfort with his actions. What are these women who come out and discuss it being attacked for? They didn't like his weird hands and face on them and now they can speak out. S
Why is that wrong?
Biden's lack of insight into this situation shows poor judgement. Do you want that in the Persident? How he handles this situation will also show what he does under uncomfortable situations as a President.
gilbar said
MayBee said... I think we are going to have a sad society if we make people afraid to touch each other
We'll end up with a Vice President that won't be alone in a room with a member of the opposite sex!
When they discussed this on CBS this morning yesterday with Jodi Kantor, Nora O'Donnell said she knew a male bank exec who told his wife he didn't dare to be alone with women any more. The rest of the panel said, "oh no no no. That is not necessary". To which Nora replied, "Well, maybe we can listen to what the men think about it". Which seemed so outrageous, right? Listen to the mens' thoughts about something???
William: He may have cured her scrofula.
Lol.
Maybee observes: Let's put together a bunch of pictures of Michelle Obama giving people big, drapey hugs. She actually did it a lot. Even to the Queen! Is that encroaching on space? Is it horrible?
One does not hug the Queen. Ever.
Isn't the whole purpose of 'man caves' to prevent women from encroaching on men's personal space?
The problem is that this photograph is just about the least offensive such forced intimacy. In short, it looks to me that the media, in trying to defend Biden, is trying to fool people into thinking this photo is the worst one. If this were the worst one, Biden would be in the clear, even with me.
Wow, it isn't conservatives piling on, Ms. Althouse. I would consider this creepy behavior from anyone. I think there is a great number of attempts in the last few days to conflate greetings with what Biden is caught doing on multiple occasions. I personally find intimate touchy/kissy greetings uncomfortable, both receiving them and giving them, but I do understand my discomfort isn't universal, and my scale is also sliding based on how well I know the greeter or the person I am greeting.
Had Biden been greeting people with hugs and kisses on the cheek, it wouldn't be a problem for me. Even the photograph of Biden with Karasek doesn't bother me- indeed, I think she is making too much of it, but then the cynical part me is screaming in my ear that Karasek's purpose isn't to critique Biden, but is rather to defend him by trying to make this photograph the face of Biden's behavior.
Standing behind someone, reaching around and hugging them just under the breasts and nuzzling their necks and their hair, and doing this to women you don't really know well, or at all, is simply not socially acceptable behavior. Trying to conflate that with of socially acceptable intimacies is just fucking dishonest.
"I've come to think that Biden believes that he has gift of compassion that can be conferred nonverbally and that is extraordinarily valuable..."
In isolation, the outrage over Biden's "handsyness" is overblown.
In context, I think it's a different matter. Biden did indeed spearhead the Title IX "no justice for college men" policy. Emily Yoffe certainly seems to think so. But he seems oblivious to the obvious similarities between his own behavior and some of what he criticizes in young men. What gives?
Biden has a history of being gaffe-prone. There is also the plagiarism, both in law school and his presidential campaigns, which he brushed off as "mistakes" and "much ado about nothing".
For Biden, the current unpleasantness also seems to be "much ado about nothing". Is it always this way with him? Is he exempt from normal standards because other folks are rotten and he's just Good Old Joe making a few mistakes?
Let's not forget Biden bragged about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired, when said prosecutor was investigating a firm which employed Biden's son.
I think this "nice fellow" has a severe entitlement mentality hiding behind an "aw shucks" facade. Or maybe he's just plain dumb.
At least Trump ("They say the [wind turbine] noise causes cancer") knows what he's doing.
Joe Biden got a pass for the 8 years of the Obama presidency. No darkness could be allowed to penetrate into the vicinity of the the precious' golden aura.
Now, Obama is out of office and Biden is in the way. The dispensation he got by being associated with Obama has been withdrawn.
What limited faculties of reason Biden has, he uses to rationalize - as all creeps (and their apologists) do. I wish there were a fresher cliche than 'don't piss on me and then tell me it's raining', but that will do until a better one comes along.
This isn't even a close call folks. He's a sick man.
rhhardin said...
The correct response is use the correct rules, not to use their rules.
4/5/19, 8:06 AM
Conservatives don't get to make the rules, so the new rules are the only rules.
All your personal space are belong to me
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
Actually, that's a perfectly good reason.
encroaching on men's personal space
and hearing.
There is a conservative and libertarian tradition that people should respect other people's space. Who is "conditioning" these women to receive an alternative religion (i.e. behavioral protocol)?
I don't think he would be able to stop doing this type of thing. Then when he messes up it will just be a jolly little ha-ha.
No.
Does he press his forehead to *men's* foreheads and clasp their hands? Does he sniff *their* hair? Per a commenter above, did (or does) he swim naked if his security detail is male? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," then he's just socially inept and the whole thing is overblown.
But if he's singling out women and girls (and from the possibly non-representative sample I've seen, relatively attractive ones) for his attention, then at BEST he's doing what he does out of a misplaced idea that it'll get him a reputation for empathy, a la Bill's feeling of our pain. Just as likely, ISTM, is that he's taking advantage of his untouchable position to exhibit his ability to... well, to grab them by the pussy, more or less, in front of God, the camera, their husbands and fathers.
(No, of course I don't mean hair-sniffing is equivalent to pussy-grabbing, whatever that would look like if anyone actually did it. What I'm talking about is the exhilarating sense of power that someone could garner [I said that on purpose! But for fun] by doing forbidden things publicly and not being punished for them.)
Disqualifying? Hmm. People in politics are drawn to power as moths to a flame. But it's certainly distasteful.
“Mr. TRUMP: Well, I’m not a big fan of shaking hands…”
It very much depends on the circumstances. Today he was down on the border, and was talking to a bunch of immigration people. He seemed to have had no problems shaking their hands after his remarks. I think that part of that difference is that he very likely figured out decades ago that you get a lot more loyalty and hard work out of people working for you if you shake their hands, and do it sincerely. Each and every one of these Cusoms people will likely go back and tell their coworkers that President Trump shook their hand and thanked them sincerely for their work. That was something that neither Obama, nor Crooked Hillary, could do. I would expect that any loyalty either of them received was due to shared avarice and lust for power.
I really do think Biden is only trying to convey sympathy. It’s weird to me and I would be most uncomfortable, but I have a rather expansive personal space issue. In the case of LBG, I’d say his invasion of personal space is more of an intimidation tactic.
Why does everybody who wants to excuse Biden talk exclusively about grown women? The criticism over what he did with women may be inspired by the MeToo movement, but there are videos of him treating young girls the same way. THAT standard is not new. I am a contemporary of Biden's; because of my father's position, I had to appear in public with distinguished scholars; not one of them, or any other man of my acquaintance, ever put their hands on me like that. It was wrong in 1960 and it's wrong today.
I have to say I get annoyed at women who say nothing at the time and then talk about how awful it was years later. I would have stepped back in the photo shown and if someone came up behind me and touched me they would be likely to get an accidental elbow in their stomach. If it's someone very elderly or ill (like the elder Bush), just move away, take their hand and move it or turn to him and tell him you can't believe he did that and you'd appreciate it if he didn't do it again.
On the other hand, Mr. Biden pretty much invented the "inappropriate sexual behavior" take down at the Clarence Thomas hearing and he deserves every bit of embarrassment and distress this hit job brings him. I cheer quietly from the sidelines.
Ann Althouse said...
@Mary Beth Exactly. All of this behavior was out in the open. Biden's opponents are using photos and videos to stop his bid for the presidency. The visual evidence, thus framed, is funny and has been made fun of for years, but still Biden has spread his laying-on-of-hands love. Suddenly, it's beyond fun and on to serious outrage. It's a hit job.
Yes, a conservative would have gotten different treatment all along. But that's not a reason for you conservatives to jump into the pile on.
4/5/19, 7:40 AM
Althouse, if Chuck did that groping at you, what would you do?
I myself have been pawed at by a crazy woman on the 7 train *while my mother was sitting next to me* and my best friend on the other side of her. 9th or 10th grade. This crazy shriveled-up Hispanic woman in an orange dress squeezed in next to me and stuck her lips in my ear and started murmuring gibberish and rubbing against me. Mom was completely boggled but she finally nudged my friend Mike to go and get me away from her, which he did effectually.
Now women get a break for unsolicited touching of men as opposed to the reverse but I can tell you it was utterly unpleasant (even though, possibly because, I was getting a hard-on). It was perfectly vile. Putrescent. Like in The Shining where Jack Nicholson is making out with the corpse.
If, say, Chris Coons' daughter felt like I felt that day - and looking at her, she did - well, you're wrong to laugh this off. The fact that Coons did not haul Biden off his daughter does not speak well of him at all, but that's nothing, nothing compared to how it speaks of Biden.
And if you think that Biden was not aware of how he was making his victims, I'll use that word, feel, then you're saying that there's something terribly wrong with him, like the after effects of brain surgery. In which case he will grope Putin one day and cause nuclear war.
I say nothing about his other public and private corruption such as the plagiarism, the savaging of Clarence Thomas, the scandalous Ukrainian affair. But the kindest thing one can say of this behavior is that Joseph Biden is a sick man.
And, as had been said before, the fact that your side decided to ignore this public behavior for all of these years, does not mean that conservatives should turn around and defend it once it finally became convenient for you to notice it.
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