Joe Biden, the Democrat front-runner for president, says the time for talk is over.
The elderly former vice president wants to stop arguing with his older opponent, Bernie Sanders, and stick to ending the Chinese Virus pandemic.
Given that he isn’t a doctor, a scientist, the president, or any other sort of public official, what Biden thinks he can do other than yak about the Asian plague is anyone’s guess.
Enough Talk
During a virtual press conference, Biden delivered his verdict: Enough is enough. “My focus is just dealing with this crisis right now,” he said. “I haven’t thought about any more debates. I think we’ve had enough debates. I think we should get on with this.”
Biden’s comments came a day after Sanders said he was ready for debate No. 12.
“If there is a debate in April, he plans to be there,” a worker in the Sanders campaign Information Ministry told The Hill.
Sanders is “assessing” his campaign, the newspaper reported, which likely means he’s trying to figure out a graceful exit before the rest of the primaries end in defeat and Biden reaches the 1,991 delegates he needs to secure his party’s nomination.
For his part, Biden is wooing Sanders’ young voters, the New York Times reported yesterday, and after saying debate time is over, promised to be a transitional candidate who turns the country over to the leadership of a younger generation.
Speaking to that demographic in a virtual “happy hour,” the Times reported, Biden said “his responsibility is to bring along a new generation of leadership. And I start that by the people I pick to serve in my administration.”
Biden again promised a woman vice president, and told viewers that “you all are the answer for us. And I hope I can just be one of those transition figures that gets to the point where you guys are running the whole show.”
It echoed remarks he made this month in Michigan, where he described himself as a “bridge” to the next generation of leadership.
“I really mean it,” Mr. Biden said on Wednesday, referring to that remark. “That’s why I’ve made the commitment, as I said, for an administration that’s going to look like the country, including choosing a woman running mate. That’s why I wanted to make sure we spent today talking to you.”
Biden’s Delegates, RCP Lead
Whether Americans want the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her febrile gang “running the whole show” is open to question, but in any event Biden has amassed a substantial delegate lead over Sanders.
Thanks to his Super Tuesday comeback following three early primary losses, Biden has 1,215 delegates to Sanders’ 910.
As well, Biden has received the endorsement of nearly every top Democrat in the country, most notably, almost all his former opponents, including Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar, and Representatives Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Buttigieg.
Beyond them, the list of endorsements from pro-Biden Democrats and some renegade Republicans, such as former Senator John Warner, is a long one.
As for where Biden and Sanders stand in the polls, the former vice president maintains a commanding lead in the Real Clear Politics average of voter preference surveys.
His 19.4-point lead over Sanders, 55.8 to 36.4, is little changed from last week’s 20.9-point lead, and he crushed Sanders in the last three polls, one by more than 20 points.
Biden’s Age
The question is whether the 77-year-old Biden, born when the German Army faced annihilation at Stalingrad, can make it through the campaign.
As columnist Marc Thiessen wrote for the Washington Post, “if Biden is elected, he’ll be older on the day he takes office than Reagan was on the day he left office. So yes, his mental fitness is a legitimate issue.”
His utterances are increasingly bizarre, a possible sign of dementia. “When I left the United States Senate, I became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” he said during yesterday’s video chat.
In fact, he became vice president when he left the Senate.
As well, on Monday, Biden became extremely confused and lost track of his teleprompter when he spoke about the Chinese Virus pandemic. He openly signaled campaign gofers to help, and then fouled up as he tried to ad-lib.
Sanders is even older than Biden and was briefly forced to suspend campaigning after a heart attack. The old socialist returned, only to be forced off again when the Chinese Virus pandemic struck.
Photo: Derek Brumby / iStock / Getty Images Plus
