Joe Biden’s coterie of allies and advisors angling for campaign jobs moved their defense of his hands-on approach toward women into high gear in the past 48 hours, swearing on their rosary beads that Joe has never been anything but a champion of women who has never done a single creepy thing in his life. All those photos that show otherwise? “Smears and forgeries” according to spokesman Bill Russo. Stephanie Carter, the wife of the then-Defense Secretary, chimed in to absolve him of wrongdoing in that notorious photo of him whispering in her ear with his hands on her shoulders.
And then, this afternoon, that all blew apart again as another woman came forward with another tale of unwanted touching.
As could be expected, the controversies have given fresh fuel to progressive Democrats who already thought Biden was the wrong candidate for 2020. As Amanda Marcotte points out, Biden’s entire argument rests on the idea that he’s the “safe” choice to face Trump, as if someone calling for Medicare for All will send millions of voters into the arms of a madman.
It is worth noting, although this should be obvious, that Biden has no history of sniffing men’s hair, kissing their heads or rubbing their shoulders in public. I’m sure he also feels affection for men, but either he doesn’t want to touch them that way or he knows that men are far less likely to react with a placating smile. No matter his motivations, Biden’s behavior reflects his willingness to be an active beneficiary of a system where women are not afforded the same basic respect for their bodily autonomy that men get without asking.
Marcotte’s argument is really against all male candidates for the nomination, and rests on the idea that electing a woman would help erase sexism — a notion so obviously wrong-headed that I shouldn’t have to point out that Barack Obama’s presidency was supposedly going to erase racism. Still, this controversy makes it pretty clear that of all the male candidates in the running, Biden would probably draw the strongest protest from the millions of Democratic women whose votes will be needed to oust Trump in November 2020.