As the ridiculousness of the 2020 election season kicks into gear, it’s apparent that we have not learned from our past mistakes. Case in point: the Democratic nominees (at last count, I believe, there were 25), a mixed bag of leftists and loonies, woefully unaware of their mirror-image similarity to the Republican candidates in 2015. Things are shaping up to be more of the same ol’ same ol’, Democrat-style.



Leading the pack of liberal has-beens, never-wases, and wanna-bes is, of course, the form

As the ridiculousness of the 2020 election season kicks into gear, it’s apparent that we have not learned from our past mistakes. Case in point: the Democratic nominees (at last count, I believe, there were 25), a mixed bag of leftists and loonies, woefully unaware of their mirror-image similarity to the Republican candidates in 2015. Things are shaping up to be more of the same ol’ same ol’, Democrat-style.



Leading the pack of liberal has-beens, never-wases, and wanna-bes is, of course, the former Vice-President, Joe Biden, who, at 76, is, strangely enough, the current front-runner. In July 2019. Almost a year and a half before the election.



Needless to say, I’ve been staying away from most news feeds these days. Believe me, it pains me, as a recovering news and political junkie, to remain so uninformed and aloof to this Washington, D.C. dog-and-pony show, but it’s for my own good. My blood pressure thanks me, and my family thanks me, too. I’m less stressed, because I frankly don’t give a shit about these candidates, mainly because it’s way too early to give a shit about them.



While I have nothing against Biden, I do hope that Biden ends up dropping out and giving his endorsement to some new blood, because Biden represents the same old Old Guard that a lot of voters fought against in 2016, resulting in the election of an orange asshole. Just say it ain’t so, Joe. Let someone younger, smarter, and more appealing to the millenial voting demographic take on the Drumpfster. In the end, and deep down, Joe, you know you don’t really have a chance.



I could be wrong, of course. I was wrong, in 2015, along with almost everyone else in the world, in thinking that there was no chance in Hell that a TV game show host with a fake-bake and an ungodly golden toupee would ever become president. That was fucking weird.



Who knows? Biden may surprise me.



In the meantime, I’ll stick to fictional representations of Biden. The fictional Joe Biden is a lot more entertaining anyway, especially when partnered with his fictional BFF and bromantic partner-in-stopping-crime, Barack Obama.



Andrew Shaffer, a competent writer with an odd sense of humor, published “Hope Never Dies” in 2017, a murder mystery featuring a bored, retired Biden who decides to play detective after an Amtrak engineer he once knew dies under mysterious circumstances. In that book, he reunites with Obama and tackles the opioid epidemic, as well as his own inner demons (mainly pertaining to jealousy of Bradley Cooper, who seems to be spending a lot of time with the Obamas lately).



“Hope Rides Again” is the latest “Obama Biden Mystery”, book two in a series that could potentially become as popular as the Hardy Boys.



In this book, Biden is in Chicago, visiting his BFF during an economic forum. Bored out of his gourd, Biden slips away to help find Obama’s Blackberry, which was stolen from the green room. Biden has his suspicions about who the thief is, and his search leads him to the trainyards, where he inadvertently gets involved in an attempted murder.



Biden---with the help of Obama and Obama’s trusted Secret Service agent, Steve---encounters crooked cops, gun-runners, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.



These books are more fun than good. Shaffer does a decent job of keeping the politics pretty light, but he does manage to interject some relevant social commentary. Still, this book is played for laughs, nothing more. Diplomatic attempt at riling support for Biden, or opportunity missed? I’ll let you decide.



Personally, I enjoyed it, although it probably doesn’t change my views about Biden or the current state of the Democratic party.