I mostly quit reading the Portland Mercury once “One Day at a Time” passed on.  And though there’s nothing much different in the replacement, the latest edition has a political point worth commenting on.

The pool of democratic presidential candidates may need just a little more chlorine now that former vice president Joe Biden formally announced his candidacy after months of speculation, including several weeks where his history of handsiness and hair-sniffing seemed like a big deal, and people were like, “Women are recklessly accusing Biden of stuff that isn’t even bad, according to me, somebody who wasn’t there, and it will damage his reputation FOREVER!” Yet straight out the gate, Biden is leading in the primary polls against several candidates who have never been accused of inappropriately touching anyone. That’s weird!
To be clear, I’d vote for an un-housetrained basset hound over Trump in 2020, so whatever. The first caucus isn’t for 10 months. A lot can change. John Edwardswas a frontrunner once, too. (BTW, did you know that John Edwards, who fathered a child with his mistress as his wife died of cancer, is now back to being a successful lawyer? Another life ruined by allegations of sexual misconduct… NOT. *snaps*)

We’re in a land where the politics of the liberal cohorts of twittersphere and various points of a liberal communisphere don’t match the general Democratic electorate.  With Biden we have women photographed in the Biden compromised pose horrified that it’s being used against him, and Biden offering a mea culpa of passing standards.  (I wonder how Angela Merkel woulda done with Joseph Biden.)

As we were the problem with the Democratic primaries — sure.  There’s thirty or so people running.  All goddamned politically flawed — whether by my standards or by the general electorate.   At the moment I’m a shrug with a “Biden’s as good as any”.  At least in his weather vane role he hasn’t made the mistake Kamala Harris has as she maneuvers from her role of super-prosecutor in the age of attempted prison reform to land on the “Prisoner Voting Rights”.  (Skipping from the right to the left to meet Bernie Sanders, before seeing she has to retreat.)

John Edwards was never a frontrunner.  If he ever lead in the polls in 2008, it was for, like, a day.  Overall, he was always a distant third behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  In 2004, he emerged after Dean’s slide as a Nation magazine approved second placer — The Nation now able to look past his fervant support of the Iraq War as he steered over to stumping about poverty.

More to the point, I don’t really know why he shouldn’t be back to successful private lawyering.  His sexual misconduct is not of the sort that afflicts (go down the long list that includes Bill Freaking Clinton).  He had a private affair, and not here with a subordinate (Clinton again).  A dickish private affair, sure — which I suppose precludes him from being popular enough to win any elected office or serve in a function in an elected official, but nothing criminal.  I don’t even know that “sexual misconduct” is the proper word for it, unless everything becomes bad in the same way.

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