By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.comÂ
INDIANAPOLIS – Joe Biden did something dumb.
The former vice president of the United States boasted that, earlier in his life, if he had heard someone speak as disparagingly of women as the president of the United States has, the young Biden would have taken Donald Trump behind the gym and beaten sense into him.
Trump being Trump, the president tweeted in response that he would have been the one to administer the whipping.
Biden barked back. Trump taunted some more.
The two men stopped just short of insulting each other’s mothers.
And, thus, the nation and the world were treated to the edifying spectacle of two septuagenarians of immense prestige trash-talking like a couple of teenagers who had forgotten to take their meds.
I blame Biden, for a couple of reasons.
The first is on grounds of maturity.
I long ago stopped expecting Donald Trump to demonstrate much decorum or dignity. The man’s made his career by behaving like a boor. He’s not going to start acting like an adult now just because he’s in the Oval Office.
All who think otherwise are fooling themselves.
Biden, though, has demonstrated that he is capable of the grace and self-discipline Americans should expect from their leaders – or from any grown-up, for that matter. He has shown he can conduct himself with compassion and an awareness of his duty to his best self and his country.
That’s why this was far from the former vice president’s best moment.
But the other reason it was dumb is that it was self-defeating.
One cannot make the case that Donald Trump isn’t up to the demands and responsibilities of his high office by stooping to his level. To do so is a losing strategy. No one can or will out-Trump Trump.
Marco Rubio tried to do that during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. He taunted Trump about his manhood by saying the future president had tiny, uh, hands. Rubio jabbed at Trump about his personal life, his aversion to telling the truth and his practice of bullying people.
All Rubio gained from his efforts were a spanking from Trump and a substantial loss of dignity.
Biden, I know, prides himself on his blue-collar background. Perhaps he saw this as a way to reaffirm his bona fides in that arena, a way to demonstrate he could and would be willing to mix it up with the president.
That would suggest calculation on Biden’s part. If so, that doesn’t bother me. Saying politicians are calculating is like saying fish have gills.
Gills are necessary for fish to survive.
The same goes for politicians and calculation.
The problem here is that it wasn’t intelligent calculation.
The Americans who yearn for a president who is prone to braggadocio, immaturity and irresponsibility already have their champion. He’s in the White House, dismantling the social safety net, triggering trade wars with China and inching us toward actual war with North Korea.
What the rest of America wants – no, needs – is an alternative to Donald Trump, someone who thinks before acting and doesn’t let ego-driven impulses overwhelm rational consideration.
What America needs is a president who is tough, not one who boasts about how tough he is.
Joe Biden has a chance to be that alternative.
But he won’t be if he continues to allow President Trump to dictate the terms of engagement.
My grandfather was the first in our family to go to college. He likely would have been considered blue-collar if the times required and his family could afford collars. He once gave me some useful advice.
“It doesn’t pay,†Grandpa said, “to get into a peeing contest with a skunk.â€
(Okay, I cleaned that up.)
Good counsel.
Joe Biden and anyone else who wishes to joust with the president would be wise to heed it.
The key to beating Donald Trump isn’t to be found in acting “tougher†than he does.
No, the path to besting the president lies in being tougher than he is – more mature, more disciplined, more responsible, more grown-up.
An increasing number of Americans, myself among them, care less than we once did about whether a conservative or a liberal is in the White House.
We’d just like to know that there’s an adult in charge.
FOOTNOTES: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
The City County Observer posted John Krull article without opinion, bias or editing.
“An increasing number of Americans, myself among them, care less than we once did about whether a conservative or a liberal is in the White House.”
First of all, John Krull, the choice is NOT conservative or liberal. The choice is Republican or Democrat. And judging from your writings in the CCO you DEFINITELY prefer Democrat.
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