Loving the guy's guys
by digby
Oh lordy please spare me any more bullshit about this or that politician being "real" and "authentic." This piece by Matt Bai says that Clinton has a huge problem with Joe Biden even if he doesn't run because he's so real and she's so phony. Zzzzzz.
I like Biden too and he really does seem to be an unfiltered kind of guy. But "real" and "authentic" simply cannot be applied to someone who plagiarized his presidential candidate speeches!!!! It is an oxymoron. Bai mentions it, but only as proof of Biden's incredible resilience and strength and calls it a "pseudo-scandal".
Obviously, the boys on the bus are yearning to feel the love for old Joe right now, much in the same way they loved John McCain in 2000. They just want to cuddle up and have a big old fashioned slumber party with the guy who has the fun gene.
Clinton, on the other hand, according to Bai, is the reincarnated Richard Nixon. Not kidding:
Clinton’s argument is, at its core, like Richard Nixon’s in 1968: You’re not hiring a friend or a babysitter. You just have to believe that I get what’s wrong, and I’m the only one with the competence to fix it.
You can see why the Clinton team is going this route. Yes, it plays to her strengths; she’s got more experience than anyone in the field, and a tireless work ethic is pretty much her calling card as a public servant. But it also nicely sidesteps her evident weaknesses. You work with what you’ve got.
Needless to say Sanders is dismissed completely --- only Biden (or someone like him) can really bring home the reality that Clinton is a monster. The argument being waged right now in the Democratic Party is all boring, icky policy stuff that nobody really cares about.
It's going to be a long campaign.
Also too: this