Joe Biden should be a complete non-starter for the Democratic nomination
By 
With the official announcement of Biden’s candidacy all but certain now, the reasons he would be a truly terrible candidate are coming into sharper focus (see Samuel Johnson on the gallows pole).
In no particular order:
(1) His political track record over the course of his very long career is far to the right of where the Democratic party as a whole is now.
(2) What are the odds that he will end up having a metoo# problem of a more personal nature than the one he acquired during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill imbroglio? Answer: Too high.
(3) He’s too old. I’ve tried to be open-minded about this, but the idea of an eightysomething president is absurd.
(4) Then there’s stuff like this, which admittedly is a story from a very different time in American politics, i.e., last fall:
Joseph R. Biden Jr. swept into Benton Harbor, Mich., three weeks before the November elections, in the midst of his quest to reclaim the Midwest for Democrats. He took the stage at Lake Michigan College as Representative Fred Upton, a long-serving Republican from the area, faced the toughest race of his career.
But Mr. Biden was not there to denounce Mr. Upton. Instead, he was collecting $200,000 from the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan to address a Republican-leaning audience, according to a speaking contract obtained by The New York Times and interviews with organizers. The group, a business-minded civic organization, is supported in part by an Upton family foundation.
Mr. Biden stunned Democrats and elated Republicans by praising Mr. Upton while the lawmaker looked on from the audience. Alluding to Mr. Upton’s support for a landmark medical-research law, Mr. Biden called him a champion in the fight against cancer — and “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks, coming amid a wide-ranging discourse on American politics, quickly appeared in Republican advertising. The local Democratic Party pleaded with Mr. Biden to repair what it saw as a damaging error, to no avail. On Nov. 6, Mr. Upton defeated his Democratic challenger by four and a half percentage points.
This is so far beyond the pale on so many levels that it ought to be automatically disqualifying all by itself.
It was bad enough — and it was bad — when Hillary Clinton was raking in the megabucks from the banksters five years ago. But taking a six-figure speaking fee from Donald Trump’s Personality Cult & Associates, Inc., in order to help defeat a Democrat in the fall of 2018? Are you kidding me?
I can’t believe this is even a discussion.