That does it.
After today, I’m not mentioning, complaining about or laughing at Joe Biden’s latest blithering gibberish and evidence of advancing cognitive rot. The Julie Principle now applies.
First the provocation: today Joe said at a South Carolina campaign appearance, “I’m looking forward to appointing the first African-American woman to the United States Senate.”
Unlike many of Joe’s brain farts, I have no idea whathe wanted to say. Do you? Senators aren’t appointed any more, and Joe knows that, having been elected as one himself. He also knows that the first African American woman was elected to the Senate 27 years ago, that being Carol Mosely Braun. What could he possibly been trying to say?
Well, it doesn’t matter. Joe has activated the Julie Principle. Please read this post and this one to catch up; I am recently sensitive to repeating myself here. To be as brief as possible, the Julie Principle, named after the character who sings the famous ballad from “Showboat” that begins, “Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly,” in which she admits that her lover is scum, and won’t change, but she loves him, and accepts his flaws. My father, whose longtime best friend was a sociopath, the opposite of my father in every way, explained that his friend’s character was evident , set, and unchanging, and once Dad understood that, he had two choices: accept his flaw and remain friends with him, or decide that he was irredeemably corrupt, and have nothing more to do with him.
There was no point, he said, in constantly complaining about his friend’s behavior when it was inevitable. “It makes as much sense as complaining that fish swim or birds fly,” he said.
Well, I, we, have reached that point with Joe. Either we think he’s a great guy with lots of experience whom we trust but who has this unfortunate habit of spouting nonsense, or even if we don’t think he’s in top form, he’s someone we’d rather see in the White House than the Bad Orange Man, or he’s a shambling, babbling public service announcement for the tragedy of dementia, and has no more business in high elected office in his current state than a badly trained lemur. There is no point in making a big deal over every gaffe and non sequitur now. If you have a senile grandfather living in your guest room, do you come to dinner every night regaling the family with the bonkers things he said that day?
So we make up our minds, because all the data is in, and we accept reality. We don’t constantly complain about it. That’s cruel and stupid.
My conclusion? Joe Biden is hopelessly, pathetically incapable of being President or running for President, and what he says or doesn’t say now adds nothing to that assessment. Blather away, Joe! It doesn’t matter any more.
I would like to know what the hell he meant about appointing the first black female Senator, though.
Ethics Alarms 
He probably meant the Supreme Court…but regardless, it’s typical identity politics pandering, played by so many.
I believe that is what he said in the debate, too. Supreme Court.
-Jut
If he didn’t mean the Senate, how do you know he meant “Woman” Or African American? He might have meant to say that he looked forward to appointing the first Mongolian amputee as UN ambassador.
Next up? Biden claiming he’ll eliminate any redistricting which might affect U.S. Senate elections…
Some wit SHOULD ask him if he thinks Republican gerrymandering helped them win control in the Senate.
Well, who could he appoint? A Cabinet Member? We’ve already had a black female cabinet member. Supreme Court Justice? Presidents don’t technically appoint them, but do nominate them.
He must’ve meant something, but his mind’s still stuck in the Senate. The fact that he keeps going to back to the Senate in his verbal gaffes is interesting.
During the misnomered (I know, not a word) debate, he said he would name the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. Well, to be more precise factually and grammatically, submit to the Senate the first nomination of an African American woman to serve as a Supreme.
Hmmm….
The Julie Principle by definition deals with an immutable characteristic, but dementia typically gets worse over time. Biden is deteriorating, from all appearances. The severity and frequency of the gaffes seems to be much higher than a few months ago (though in fairness, this may be attributable to more public appearances, stress, etc.). He is likely to get worse over time as he applies for a job with a four-year term.
Yes, but he’s at the point where any further deterioration is coals to Newcastle. It’s may be of clinical interest, but its like clearing the poll vault bar by six feet or three feet. The bar has been cleared.
…the poll vault bar… yes. Unconscious puns are the best.
My opinion of the voters of South Carolina who just gave babbling Joe the nod is that perhaps Lincoln should have just let South Carolina secede. Joe’s short term memory is shot and Obama was wise in not endorsing him.
I confess, I was having similar thoughts. How bad off do you have to be to see and listen to Biden and think, now THERE’s a guy I want leading the country! Yeesh.
Came close to winning a majority, not just a plurality. Pretty darned amazing. At least now we know what people of color want in a candidate. Wait, what is Joe?
I think Joe’s taken the Obama campaign strategy (Don’t really say much of anything specific and let the voters think you’re for what they are for) and turned it up a notch: Leave the voters wondering what you’ve said but have them remain willing to vote for you anyway, Brilliant. Another celebrity campaign strategist is at work. We just don’t know who he is yet. Is anybody running Joe’s campaign?
They want a heterosexual man, which is why even Tom freakin’ Steyer beat out Buttigieg, Warren, and Klobuchar.
That’s an interesting observation.
I think apply the Julie Principle that we apply with Trump to Biden’s is the correct choice.
What I have a problem with it the double standard that the political left is using towards Democrat vs Republican politicians, they’ve been basically rationalize gaff’s by Democrats, such as Biden, but they endlessly drag Conservative’s gaff’s through the mud.
On that note: I’ve been noticing a really interesting trend in the past month or so from Liberals, they appear to be more open to openly speaking about the blatant double standards and hypocrisy that the political left is employing and they appear to be not as willing to justifying it with rationalizations as they were a couple of months ago. There appears that some have found a new-found moral courage to acknowledge the morally bankrupt tactics that the left has been using in the last 3+ years.
Other than the impeachment folly, what’s changed? Is Sander’s prominence in the primaries skewing the lefts perception of itself and casing a new awakening?
Curious minds want to know.
My typing grammar this morning is terrible; I’m sure you all get the idea. Julie Principle can be applied to my poor grammar typing. 😉
Biden appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning, saying, among other things, “Money…can’t make you something that you are or are not.” In the last segment of his interview, He was asked about a few of his most recent gaffs. Chris Wallace then thanked him for appearing, and Biden answered “All right, Chuck, thank you very much.”