By Dave Workman
Analysis
Former President Barack Obama was right about soon-to-be-former President Joe Biden when, reportedly during the 2020 primary season, Obama told an unidentified fellow Democrat, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”
That remark has been widely repeated, once in a Politico store in August 2020, and again a year later in the Washington Free Beacon. It is the stuff from which political legends are made.
The quote literally took on a life of its own during the 2020 campaign, with Amazon selling a variety of T-shirts with Obama’s words silk-screened on the shirt front.
In the wake of Biden’s blurt during a widely-reported Zoom call Tuesday in which he described Donald Trump supporters as “garbage”—just a week before his would-be successor, Kamala Harris will face Trump in the presidential election—Obama’s observation takes on a new reality.
The tremors are still being felt across the political landscape, and it is impossible to gauge just how Biden’s comment may fire up Trump’s troops. The whole country recalls how Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” worked out when she was trounced in an election most pundits expected her to win.
One does not fare well when attacking an opponent’s supporters, rather than sticking to the issues and criticizing the opposing candidate.
It doesn’t matter that Biden was trying to make a wisecrack in reaction to an unscripted and immediately-disdained comment by a comedian who appeared at a Trump rally—without Trump’s prior knowledge or approval—that Puerto Rico was an island of floating garbage. The president put his foot in it, clear up to his political knee.
Fox News is reporting that Harris has responded to the controversy, stating, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
But the damage has already been done, and as the clock ticks down to Election Day—millions of ballots have already been submitted by early voters but tens of millions more remain to be cast—there may be no way to tell whether Biden’s mouth may have cost Harris votes until the counting is complete.
A new Rasmussen poll revealed this week that 51 percent of likely voters have an “unfavorable” opinion of Harris, and Biden’s comment can’t help. She is, after all, his vice president and she has told interviewers she was in on major decisions during Biden’s presidency, and that she may not make any major changes in policy if she wins.
All of this is on the minds of voters, especially those who don’t like being called “garbage” or “deplorables” or any other derogatory name.
Dave Workman is editor-in-chief of TheGunMag.com
