Before his election to the Presidency in 2001, George W. Bush successfully apologized for his past bad boy behavior and promised that he had been reformed. Now, former Vice President Joe Biden is taking on issues before they are used against him as a possible Presidential candidate.
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Strike 1- Age
“Age is a legitimate issue. A totally legitimate thing to raise,” Mr. Biden defended. While he will be 78-years-old in the Presidential election of 2020, Mr Trump remains a septuagenarian too, at age 74.
Strike 2- A Controversial past
Politico Magazine reminds us that Mr. Biden is a long time supporter of gay marriage. And, opines that he is one of the few Democratic leaders who can reach the blue-collar voters. But, as any good media coach would tell Mr. Biden, he will need to acknowledge, bridge and offer new thought leadership for past Senate decisions and actions, including:
The Bankruptcy Reform Bill:
Mr. Biden played a crucial role in passing this bill, making it more difficult for Americans to reduce debts through bankruptcy filings. This legislation had a devastating impact especially on women acting as heads of households. This decision re-surfaced as a “thorny issue” during Biden’s vetting as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008.
“The 1994 Biden Crime Bill”:
This bill established mandatory minimums for drug offenses. Much of the Democratic party believes this bill made the issue of mass incarceration worse, poorly affecting many racial minorities, according to The New York Times,.
And most egregiously, Mr. Biden’s role as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, when Anita Hill came forward to accuse Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Mr. Biden has done a lot for women in the decades since, including authoring the landmark Violence Against Women Act and leading its four re-authorizations. But that hasn’t erased the memories of how he presided over those hearings of aggressive questioning.
Today:
In a recent interview on NBC’s Today Show, Mr.Biden said, ” I wish I could have done more to have revamped those questions. The way they asked them. I hope my colleagues learned from that. Under the Senate rules, I can’t gavel you down and say, ‘you can’t ask that question.’ My biggest regret was that I didn’t know how I could shut you off if you were a Senator. And you were attacking Anita Hill’s character. She got victimized during the process.”
Mr. Biden reiterated, “What should happen is the woman should be given the benefit of the doubt and not be, you know, abused again by the system,”
You can’t take back history, but you can learn from it and try to correct it with a pre-emptive strike!