I respect my liberal friend and fellow columnist Bo Statham, but we rarely agree on anything political. I’m going to make an exception today, however, because I agreed with Statham recently when he argued Vice President Joe Biden would be “a better choice for president than (Hillary) Clinton.” I couldn’t agree more.
In an Aug. 27 column Statham wrote “Democrats must face an ‘inconvenient truth’ about presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. . . . She’s not the quieting, unifying presence this nation so desperately needs as president. Vice President Joe Biden is that leader.” You go, Bo!
Although Mrs. Clinton “can boast a lifetime of promoting Democratic principles,” he added, “it’s a question of her temperament, her demeanor (and) her contentious nature . . .” That’s true of course, but that’s not all. It’s also a question of a litany of scandals going all the way back to the Whitwater scandal when her husband, impeached ex-President Bill Clinton, was governor of Arkansas and continuing on through the sordid Monica Lewinsky affair — in which an alleged champion of women’s rights (Hillary) defended a serial womanizer (Bill) — and up to the present day with ongoing Benghazi and email scandals.
You may not think Benghazi, where four American diplomats including our ambassador to Libya died, is a full-fledged scandal but it’s going to be when the former Secretary of State testifies before Congress in October. Benghazi occurred on Mrs. Clinton’s watch and she’s ultimately responsible for what happened there. Trust me on this one.
As for the email scandal, which Hillary attempts to brush-off with tone-deaf jokes (“I like Snapchat because the messages disappear.” Har har), she’s got some explaining to do about why she mixed highly classified State Department messages with her personal email account, which was operated out of a broom closet somewhere in Colorado. We didn’t have email when I was in the Foreign Service but if we left classified messages lying around Embassy Marines would write us up for security violations. Two or three of those would send us back to the States on the next plane out.
So once again we have an example of the Clintons attempting to play by their own rules rather than by the rules that apply to everyone else in Washington. Bo Statham denounced Mrs. Clinton’s “arrogance” and her “ill-fitted humor about Snapchat and messages disappearing automatically.” Once again, I agree with Bo.
Left-leaning USA Today piled-on recently with an editorial titled “Clinton Email Controversy is No Joke.” Mrs. Clinton “seems to think she can dismiss the controversy by making light of it,” USA Today opined, “but the episode raises questions about (her) decision-making and commitment to openness in government.” Does it ever!
The national newspaper went on to note “scandals surrounding Clinton and her husband have a habit of being stoked by their penchant for secrecy . . . Federal computer security is no joke. Regardless of whether Mrs. Clinton broke any laws (the FBI is investigating), her decisions . . . represented bad judgment bordering on recklessness.” Are these the people we want to put back in the White House? I don’t think so.
Bo Statham said it best: “Mr. Biden is pre-eminently qualified to be president of the United States. . . . “An experienced, humble and joyful person, (Biden) will best serve our nation and the world in this time of conflict and turmoil.”
I’m not endorsing the vice president, but Statham makes a strong case for his preferred candidate. My conclusion: Run Joe, Run! Neither party should be satisfied with an “anointed” candidate for president. Let the fun begin.
Guy Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.
