by B.R. GOWANI
In August 2008, as the then Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama, chose Senator Joe Biden as his running mate over Senator Evans Bayh (Indiana) and Virginia’s Governor Tim Kaine. Obama informed Kaine of his decision:
“You are the pick of my heart, but Joe is the pick of my head.”
Obama was using his head: Biden was an old white man who was very friendly with Republicans, many of whom were openly racists. Biden could be helpful in blunting the effect of Republican attacks.
Other reasons Obama opted for Biden were due to his political experience and his promise that he would not harbor any presidential ambitions; so “Barack would never have to worry.”
However, there were two other issues to be dealt with: Biden’s lack of control over his tongue and his son Hunter Biden was a lobbyist and had a drug problem.
In 2007 Biden was a presidential candidate and commented on Obama:
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Biden expressed regret over this and Obama accepted it, but also reminded Biden that there have been other black leaders who were articulate too.
Obama’s campaign asked Biden about his son Hunter’s problems but his response was
So that issue was dropped.
Biden served as Obama’s vice president for eight years. In 2015, he considered running for presidency but decided otherwise. One reason was due to his elder son’s death.
On April 25, 2019, Biden announced his candidacy but not before, according to the New York Times, he and Obama had talked “at least a half dozen times” and had been advised by Obama in these words:
“‘You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t.'”
Obama must have weighed Biden’s age, his gaffes, his memory, his loose tongue, his ability to debate Trump, etc. before trying to dissuade Biden from running.
But Biden was determined to run this time. He began his presidential campaign with a $2,800-a-plate fund raising event. Biden promised his wealthy donors:
No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change.”
Now Obama had no choice but to support Biden and probably hoped one of the moderate candidates as Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, or Pete Buttigieg would get ahead of Biden and would thus save the fiasco of Trump/Biden debates where Trump would expose Biden’s son Hunter’s work as a lobbyist, his business dealings with China and Ukraine, while his father was Vice President. Trump would also rip Joe Biden apart for his support of the crime bill which resulted in massive incarceration of blacks; his opposition to abortion; his past speeches on reducing social security, medicaid, and medicare; and his central role and support of the US war against Iraq. (Obama opposed the war.)
During a lunch in July 2019, Obama also advised Biden to get young people for his campaign because changed times demanded that. He also invited Biden’s top advisors to his Washington office and put them in touch with his own staff about communications and digital strategy.
Obama did the above favor with a condition: whatever the outcome, victory or defeat, that during the campaign, Biden not “embarrass” or “damage” Obama’s legacy.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party establishment was planning on ways to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
In November 2019, Obama joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic National Council (DNC) chairperson Tom Perez, and others at the conference of Democracy Alliance, “a secretive group of donors,” who spent hundreds of millions of dollars for political causes. Its President Gara LaMarche warned:
“Donald Trump is competitive in key battleground states and could very well win reelection.” “Does this scare the hell out of you? If so, good! Stay scared! We have 51 weeks to work our asses off to make sure that Donald Trump is repudiated and removed from office next November.”
A group of corrupt Democrats got together to plan the ouster of a corrupt Trump and the corrupt Republican Party!
Obama had won the 2008 election with tons of corporate money, including from Wall Street bankers – whom he rescued with tons of taxpayer money and none of them were sent to jail for their role in that financial crisis. In 2010, the late Alexander Cockburn accurately described Obama’s veneration for capitalism
“Obama reveres the capitalist system. He admires the apex predators of Wall Street who showered his campaign treasury with millions of dollars.”
At that conference Obama criticized, without naming Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, revolutionary traits visible on the campaign trail.
“The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”
“They just don’t want to see crazy stuff.”
“[Most voters are different than] left-leaning Tweeter-feeds.”
Most people, in reality, want a totally different system that aligns with their needs of survival. The stuff that the multimillionaire Obama labels crazy: free education, universal healthcare, decent pay, etc., are basic necessities for the common masses. People demanding these things on Twitter or on any other medium are not left-leaning – most developed countries in the West already provide these things. Sanders is a reformer, not a revolutionary. Obama is intentionally blind to this.
After losing primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, Biden’s fortune turned when he captured South Carolina with the help of the black leader Jim Clyburn. Solomon Comissiong describes the tragedy of blacks supporting Biden:
Clyburn passionately ushered a great many Black voters into the ballot booths, to cast their votes for a man who could not give a damn about their long term liberation and prosperity. Joe Biden has never given a damn about Black people. Black people are merely useful tools in his political chest. Given this undeniable fact, it is unfortunate that most Black voters do not see the likes of Joe Biden for whom they are—political adversaries to our community’s quest for self-determination.
On April 13, 2020, Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Once the hurdle called Sanders, the last opponent of the rotten corporate run system was out, the Republicans, the corporate world, the billionaires, most of Democratic Party and its leaders had a capitalistic orgasm. This also brought out Obama, one of the most influential member of the Democratic elite, in the open. The very next day, Biden got Obama’s endorsement with a 12-minute video.
“I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now.”
“Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery.”
Really, Obama? Joe has got all the qualities and character for healing us? Biden’s qualities and character are only there to the extent of being accountable to the donor class on whose money Biden is fighting the election.
Obama himself had created some records on getting money from corporations when he was running for president. Obama was also liberal when handing out taxpayers’ money to the Pentagon, a continuation of George W. Bush’s policy.
So, is Biden the right choice?
David Swanson’s grasp on the Republican and Democratic candidates is accurate:
“Voting for Joe Biden or Donald Trump would be counter to the goals of every movement for peace, justice, and human and environmental survival.”
But Obama’s goal is different, he wants to protect his own class – the one percent who controls the country. Obama is aware the right candidate to defeat Trump is Sanders who has not taken any money from the corporations and so will work only for the betterment of the common people. Sanders passion for the common people was on full display in his continuous 8 & 1/2 hour speech on the Senate floor.
Mahir Ali sums up Obama’s stance on change
“Change we can believe in, as the Obama campaign put it. Which in most spheres translates into little or no change at all.”
Without Sanders, it is clear that no matter who wins in November 2020, the victory will belong to the elite and the power will remain in the upper echelons of the billionaire class.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com