One of Biden’s known gaffes;
“I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let ’em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal.”
—Biden, telling Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up at a campaign rally, before realizing that Graham is confined to a wheelchair.
If we are to judge by what the voters are thinking now, we might face at the next presidential race a “perfect storm”. The potential matchup between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will present us with a decision between the two worse candidates that the party’s could offer. Let us analyze Ms. Clinton by her merits, not her sex. She obviously has experience as a lawyer, first lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. Unfortunately for her, she has not excelled in any of her prior posts. It is acknowledged, even by her ardent supporters that she is not a great campaigner, and more often than not misspeaks when not following a script. To make matters worse she is entangled by an e-mail investigation that brings to the fore the well known Clintonian sense of entitlement. Her defense has been erratic and without merit. First, she said she did not receive any “classified messages”, after that was disproven, she changed to “marked classified”. In either case the Secretary of State is supposed to know what is and is not classified regardless of its being “marked”. Also, per President Obama’s order, any message from an intelligence source had to be considered “top secret”.
The excuse that the allegations are a matter of Republican and media invention, clashes with the fact that the FBI is doing the investigation. The FBI, a very reputable and impartial organization, only intervenes in criminal accusations and looks into persons, not computers as the Clinton campaign alleges. As of now there is no one that can challenge her candidacy. We the people would like that a competitor to her appears, as it is obvious that Ms. Clinton does not have the merits to be anointed as our next president. Joe Biden, if he decides to run, could be a feasible alternative to the voters. Even if he is known for his many “gaffes”, and that he has supported the liberal agenda of Obama, he is not an ideologue, regardless of his campaigning as one. Personally he is affable, modest, honest, and has enough legislative experience to work with a congress of either party. What this country need is a non confrontational president that can unite, and not use our ethnic, gender, or race differences as reasons to maintain control over all of us. Flamboyancy, popularity, speaking abilities, demagoguery, false promises, all qualities that made the voters elect an inept leader like Obama twice, should be rejected. Unfortunately, we now witness that the lack of political savvy, ignorance, and attraction to “charlatans” is not a partisan issue and many republicans are flowing to Donald Trump, a self aggrandized egomaniac, who is full of promises with few solutions, easily irritated by criticism, devoid of any conviction, following only what he interprets will be better for his image and/or desires. There are a handful of candidates that could be chosen by republicans, other than Trump, including a woman and an African American, that can compete with Biden and avoid a possible disaster. We hope the electorate raises up to our expectations.
Fernando J. Milanes, MD
