In Biden's Defense Readers and a political scientist take exception to the outrage.

[elleng]

'Over the weekend, my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick and I went looking for articles arguing both sides of the Joe Biden question. We found numerous pieces upbraiding Biden for touching people while interacting with them, and several of them argued that his likely presidential campaign should suffer for it.

Finding articles making the opposite case wasn’t so easy. (The closest we came was a Medium essay by Stephanie Carter, whose husband served in the Obama administration with Biden.) But if the media consensus this weekend was a condemnation of Biden, the reaction on Monday — both in the media and among readers — was different. It was substantially more mixed and less negative.

You can see some of that view in the letters that The Times received from readers. . .

The strongest reaction I saw came from Theda Skocpol, a Harvard political scientist whom I’ve quoted before in this newsletter. She has spent years studying the Tea Party, the Obama presidency and the Trump resistance. I’m going to turn over most of the rest of the newsletter to her, by reprinting an email she sent me.

And my own view? I’m still thinking it through. As I said yesterday, Biden’s “handsiness” is a bit strange. I’ve interviewed other politicians who touched me repeatedly during the conversation, and it was unnecessary. I hope Biden understands why the habit makes some people uncomfortable. But I’m increasingly thinking that it should not become a defining issue for his likely campaign.

‘Wait a minute’

Theda Skocpol writes:

The piling on about Joe Biden’s sometimes unwanted affectionate touches by political competitors and media outlets is shameful. Both women who have come forward so far are not talking about workplace abuse or sexual misconduct. I can believe them, and still ask why they are speaking up now. . .

Wait a minute: Is this what gender equality really means? Is this the kind of society we want to live in — where right-wingers can do any vicious thing they want to anyone and shrug it off, while people on the center-left are supposed to expel from public life anyone who says a single wrong word or has done something benignly intended in the past that now does not fit changed norms?

Not me, that is not the kind of America I want to live in. That is not the kind of Democratic primary I want to participate in. If Biden wants to run, I want to hear what he has to say and compare him, fair and square, to the others.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/opinion/joe-biden-inappropriate-touching.html?

[peggysue2]

1. Hattip to Theda Skocpol

Could not have said it better.

[Demsrule86]

3. Greatvpost.

[Cha]

2. Thank You, Theda Skocpol..

The piling on about Joe Biden’s sometimes unwanted affectionate touches by political competitors and media outlets is shameful. Both women who have come forward so far are not talking about workplace abuse or sexual misconduct. I can believe them, and still ask why they are speaking up now. . .

Wait a minute: Is this what gender equality really means? Is this the kind of society we want to live in — where right-wingers can do any vicious thing they want to anyone and shrug it off, while people on the center-left are supposed to expel from public life anyone who says a single wrong word or has done something benignly intended in the past that now does not fit changed norms?

Not me, that is not the kind of America I want to live in. That is not the kind of Democratic primary I want to participate in. If Biden wants to run, I want to hear what he has to say and compare him, fair and square, to the others.'

Joe Biden has some thoughtful people coming forward.