Post on CNN

Recent post on CNN responding to a Republican's positive take on a Biden run for office.

I'm Canadian, so my take is remote and perhaps somewhat uninformed. Nonetheless, here it is.

I find the commentary about socialism in the article to be a tad bizarre. From Social Security, which guarantees recipients what in Canada would be a lower middle class income, to tax deductions of mortgage interest, to Medicare which is almost as rich as the entire Canadian health care system, to the fact that most Americans don't even pay income tax, to the shocking level of support given to farmers, etc, I'd suggest that creeping socialism isn't the problem. America has become a nation of almost blindly aggressive rights-holders. Everyone has their rights! In short, whether it is the taxes that are not paid, or the public benefits that are being paid and received, or both, just about everyone has their hands in the cookie jar in America. The Tea Party is the most extreme example of the problem - dismantle government and cut our taxes, but don't touch our Social Security! Spare me.

The bill for the free lunch we have all been enjoying for most of two generations - and Canada is much like America in this regard - is coming due. American will need someone who can build cross-party support for some very difficult foreign and domestic policy decisions that will have to be made when the Great Recession rears its ugly head again, and it becomes obvious that America can no longer afford both its present standard of living, and to also be the policeman of the planet. Note - that Recession is not even halfway done, and the hard part is coming. The tax increases; cuts to domestic rights-based programs; as well as the retreat from post-WW2 international engagement will be difficult and perhaps humiliating, but they are inevitable.

Biden is the only person available who can do this. Clinton is likely the most divisive person in American politics today...and she seems to think divisiveness is an asset. She is also crazy. When your obsession with controlling the story and the historic record extends to installing your own personal government in your basement, you aren't innovative, you are completely nuts. I think she is actually dangerous. Trump, while "interesting", and more real than most people realize, is too used to being in charge to build bridges. Bush is a slave to money interests who have been running much of the public policy in the USA since at least half-way through Bill Clinton's time in office. More Bush = more Goldman Sachs doing God's work by manipulating government policy to enhance their own riches at the expense of everyone else. These people don't build bridges, they downsize them. Sanders is an anti-establishment candidate who would not be able to move policy forward if he won as he would need many in that same the establishment to help him do it....and, like it or not, the American Establishment isn't going anywhere.

So you are left with Joe - a man who I think can actually work government successfully from within. With a competent Vice President - not Clinton, but maybe Hagel which, given his Republican past, would signal the intent to bring Americans together - you could have the makings of a one-term executive office that could deal with looming crises and also set America on a better course for the next quarter-century and beyond. America is still the greatest country the world has ever seen by so many measures, but Red State v Blue State is killing your country, and it is hard for your many friends outside of America to watch. Even the Pope gets it....and, I suspect, so does Mr. Biden, who I think will announce his candidacy next week.

Oh...Go Jays Go!