Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Dartmouth College, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, in Hanover, N.H. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Joe Biden was out in Iowa yesterday and we have an outtake from one of his news appearances that is really a metaphor for the situation in which Biden finds himself:

File this in the 'why is Biden even running for president?' drawer. Reporter mentions Iowa's economy is booming. Reporter: "Why should people want to make a change?" Biden: "Well that's up to them to decide." Reporter: Well make your case?" Biden: "I'm not going to." pic.twitter.com/edmWgsDgRK — Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 23, 2019

In that clip we have:

Biden: Well, that’s up for them to decide. Reporter: “Why should people want to make a change?” Biden: “Well that’s up to them to decide.” Reporter: Well make your case?” Biden: “I’m not going to.”

If Joe Biden though Hillary’s preferred campaign slogan of “because it’s her turn” was going to work for him he’s finding out he was wrong. He’s showing more and more signs of a man who knows that his hope of becoming the nominee based on the strategy of “I’m not batsh** crazy like the rest of them” isn’t going to sell to a Democrat primary electorate that is damned close to being clinically batsh** crazy.

On the merits, Biden is a horrible candidate. The stench of corruption has wafted about him for thirty or more years with large, unexplained and unsecured loans from major banks headquartered in Delaware that seemed to have no relationship to Biden’s salary. Hunter Biden’s coke-fueled rise to prominence, etc. This is helpfully provided by the RNC:

IN 2016, JOE BIDEN PRESSURED UKRAINE TO FIRE A PROSECUTOR GENERAL WHO WAS INVESTIGATING BURISMA HOLDINGS, A FIRM WHICH HAD PAID HUNTER BIDEN’S ROSEMONT CAPITAL $3.4 MILLION FOR REPRESENTATION From 2014 to 2015, Hunter Biden and his business partners were paid $3.4 million to represent Burisma Holdings as part of an effort to have “well-connected Democrats” defend the company from U.S. and Ukrainian investigations. The New York Times reported that, in 2016, Vice President Biden had sought for and succeeded in ousting a Ukrainian Prosecutor General that had been investigating Hunter Biden’s client Burisma. IN 2009, HUNTER BIDEN PIGGYBACKED OFF OF HIS FATHER’S DIPLOMATIC TRIPS TO OBTAIN ACCESS TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND IN PARTICULAR CHINA Connected by a strong relationship between their dads, Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, the son of John Kerry, created Rosemont Capital in June 2009 Rather than occupy an office in New York City, Rosemont chose to operate out of the political hub of Washington D.C., just miles from their fathers’ offices. Less than a year after opening, Rosemont Capital secured access to multiple foreign leaders including access to China “at the highest levels.” From 2011 to 2013, multiple foreign business meetings drew public scrutiny from outsiders including one that took place just hours after “Hunter Biden’s father, the Vice President, met with Chinese President Hu in Washington.” Rosemont Capital and Hunter Biden drew public scrutiny for piggybacking off of Joe Biden’s diplomatic trips to hold business meetings including flying on Air Force Two during Biden’s Asia pivot ventures. JOE BIDEN AND HIS SON HUNTER HAVE A TANGLED HISTORY WITH THE BANKING COMPANY MBNA FULL OF SWAMPY DEALINGS AND APPARENT QUID PRO QUO In 1996, shortly after a top executive at MBNA bank bought a house from his father Joe Biden, Hunter Biden was hired by the company to a six-figure position. While Biden was a Senator, Hunter Biden’s partners secured $25 million in federal earmarks for the University of Delaware and received firm fees totaling $1.5 million for its work on behalf of the school. Additionally, records show that Senator Obama also sought over $3.4 million in earmarks for clients that Hunter Biden represented. JOE BIDEN’S FAMILY MEMBERS, JAMES AND FRANK HAVE MADE A PRACTICE OF USING JOE’S NAME IN CONTROVERSIAL BUSINESS DEALINGS Joe Biden’s brother, Frank Biden, used the Biden name to underwrite his Mavericks in Education project which was ultimately deemed a failure . In 2010, James Biden was brought on to Hill International, a firm tasked with building low cost housing in Iraq, with the firm saying the Biden last name helped him get in the door.

The far left, or, rather the center of the Democrat base, is conceding that Biden isn’t the right guy for 2020 in record, temperament, genitalia, melanin, or sexual proclivity:

It is not his age but his history that bedevils Biden, and not style but substance that weighs on his candidacy. Biden got the big things wrong repeatedly over the last 40 years. In what he has since called a “big mistake,” he championed the infamous 1994 crime bill that contributed to the unconscionable mass incarceration that particularly ravaged the African American community. As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he left Anita Hill to fend for herself during the Clarence Thomas hearings. He defended President Bill Clinton’s repeal of Aid to Mothers of Dependent Children. He consistently backed pro-corporate trade treaties — from the North American Free Trade Agreement to letting China into the World Trade Organization — that savaged America’s manufacturing workers. He voted for the invasion of Iraq, surely the greatest foreign policy debacle since Vietnam. (He now claims he was duped by then-President George W. Bush.) And he was all in for Wall Street deregulation that helped lead to the worst recession since the Great Depression, then served in the administration that bailed out the banks, put no major banker in jail for what the FBI called an epidemic of fraud and left homeowners adrift.

…

For months, pundits have been warning about the Democratic candidates going too far to the left — embracing bolder reforms and a bolder, more aggressive agenda. Greenberg’s book [she’s referring to Democrat pollster Stanley Greenberg’s GOP RIP: How the New America is Dooming Republicans] is a necessary corrective, demonstrating that Trump’s own tea party extremism is forging a powerful majority coalition intent of ousting him from office and removing those standing in the way of addressing the challenges this country faces. Greenberg implies virtually any of the leading Democratic contenders can beat Trump and beat him badly. Ironically, the weakest of these might well be Biden, burdened with defending a series of votes and positions that have not worked for most Americans. Democrats win big if they nominate a candidate credible as an agent of change, willing to take an economy rigged by the few. Biden is about to discover that once they take a good look, Democrats will find it hard to see him in that role.

Biden is now finding out that not only is the Democrat party, at large, unwilling to defend him in the current non-scandal concerning Ukraine, they are actually quite happy to use those events to take Biden out and clear the deck for their favorite: Elizabeth Warren.

The clear message in the video clip is that Biden knows he’s finished and is finding it hard to pretend that he even cares. As Warren passes Biden in recent polls (here | here) on wonders how a man who can’t make a case for his own candidacy is going to convince Democrat caucus voters to go with him…and will he even hang around to find out?

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