Sloppy Joe

Joe Biden is running for president for the 3rd time.  Why is that considered considered okay, while the idea of Hillary running for a 3rd time is considered gauche and distasteful?  I'm just asking this question because I'm desperately hoping for a Trump-Clinton rematch.

We've already jumped the shark when it comes to politics, so let's just enjoy this thing; let's laugh so that we don't cry.  Trump-Clinton 2020, aka Trump-Clinton 2.0, aka the She-Match, aka Vladimir Putin's ultimate fantasy....

That would be so great.  Regardless of the outcome, it would be epic.  It would be part Shakespeare, part Jerry Springer, part American Ninja Warrior, and part Mystery Science Theater 3000, in an utterly amoral, nihilistic abattoir in which virtuous rhetoric and anything remotely resembling basic decency and/or honesty shrivel up and die.

But that's probably not going to happen.  So, what about Joe?  Joe Biden is the 2020 version of Hillary Clinton. Old. Very Establishment. Big fan of the Iraq War. Relatively moderate compared to the Jacobins that are taking over the Democratic Party.  Progressive.  But not "eliminate borders" progressive.  The person who should win. 

And both of their claims to fame are sucking at getting elected president, but being very close to people who do not suck at being elected president.

In a more normal time, Biden would coast to the nomination of a party who understood that the primary objective, aka the only objective is to win.  If you don't achieve the primary objective, the secondary objective, and all objectives after that, are null and void.  Especially when running against this guy:

 
How. On Earth. Do you lose to this guy?  Joe Biden is going to run on the premise that he can win the states that Hillary lost.  Maybe.  But not unless the economy implodes.

Incumbents have been very successful in American presidential elections.  I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, but it's a thing.  A certain standard has to be met.  What does Joe Biden have to offer?

He seems normal and sanguine and measured and responsible compare to Trump, but who doesn't?  

The problem with Biden is that he is not nearly radical enough for the people whose votes he needs.  There are so many candidates that he will be able to crowd out some competitors, but eventually it will come down to 3 or 4 choices for the Democrats.

Bernie. 

"I hate capitalism, even though I've never participated in capitalism, except for that one time I became a millionaire because I wrote a book about how much I hate capitalism."

Bernie will obviously be a finalist. Biden probably will be too. But the general public will not pick the nominee; Democrats will.  

Democrats have one job:  win the general election.  But most Democrats, and most Democratic politicians, are not behaving like people who understand this most elemental fact of literally every either/or decision that has ever been made in the history of human civilization.

Fight or flight?  strawberry or vanilla?  Biggie or Tupac?  Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi?  Cool Ranch or Nacho Cheese?  Do I stay or do I go?  

If your response to these scenarios is, "well, none of them are perfect, so I refuse to engage in this", you are missing the point; a quest for perfection inevitably fails.  Plato figure this out thousands of years ago; strive for improvement, but do not make the perfect the enemy of the good.  

"I have a very big brain....and all the best words.  Ok?  Ok."

The Democratic primary voters, I think, will destroy Biden for not being left enough.  Biden will be left behind for not being behind the left.

The Bernie bros will be thrilled of course, until the general election, at which point they will have lost the world and their souls, after accusing Joe Biden for seeking the world at the expense of his soul.