What Are You Even Doing This Time, Biden?

Joe Biden cannot stop saying stupid things. And the reason he can't is because his head is filled with stupid thoughts that he thinks are smart observations that must be shared with the world.

When he gets busted saying something contemptible, it's usually not the first time he's even said it, but a line he's used in multiple speeches, which is why it's actually worse than being a gaffe machine, as is his reputation.

It's not that he's not thinking about this stuff. He is. That's what scary. (And disqualifying.)

Case in point: Calling Mike Pence "a decent guy."

Arlette Saenz at CNN reports:

Biden's comments about Pence came as he discussed foreign policy and how the international community had reacted to Pence during the vice president's speech at the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.

"The fact of the matter is it was followed on by a guy who's a decent guy, our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, 'I'm here on behalf of [Donald] Trump,' and there was dead silence. Dead silence," Biden recounted Thursday at the Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

...This is not the first time Biden has referred to the vice president in that manner. At a rally in St. Charles, Illinois, last fall, Biden called Pence a "decent guy" but noted he doesn't agree with many of Pence's policies.

Joe Biden shouldn't have been at the inaugural Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership in the first place, where he felt obliged to say something nice about Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom he called a "good guy."

After reports of Biden referring to Pence as a "decent guy" circulated on Twitter, Cynthia Nixon pushed back, tweeting: ".@JoeBiden you've just called America's most anti-LGBT elected leader 'a decent guy.' Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community."

To which Biden responded: "You're right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn't be given a silent reaction on the world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President."

Except, there's no context in which Mike Pence is a decent guy. He's the (extremely powerful) second in command to a serial sexual predator in an administration soaking in queer hatred, white supremacy, toxic masculinity, nativism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and disablism, waging class warfare and amplifying bigotry and attacking the free press and undermining our democracy and alienating our allies and normalizing authoritarianism.

Who gives a single fuck if he was polite to Joe Biden personally during their superfun veep transition meetings?!

Joe Biden either doesn't understand the urgency of this moment or the threat we face, or he doesn't care because it isn't affecting him personally.

Either way, he should skip running again. He is not the person we need to lead us. Not by a long shot.