He has no chance at the presidency. He registers next to nothing in the polls. He can't raise enough money. He lacks verbal discipline and loves to hear himself talk. He plagiarized others. He is the reason Clarence Thomas is on the Supreme Court. He's owned by the credit card companies. I hear he hates baseball, apple pie, and puppies.
Great. Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to get down to business.
Joe Biden had been calling for an Iraq only debate and he recently got his wish. It will be held on June 6 and is being hosted by the Financial Times and the Center on Politics and Foreign Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
And this will be a "real" debate according to Robert Guttman, the center's director. The plan is to offer propositions to the candidates - "the US should remove all troops from Iraq by Sept. 1," for example - and then have candidates debate the merits.
Guttman said the debate will be held even if Biden has to be surrounded by a "bunch of empty seats." The date was chosen to coincide with the congressional calendar, so candidates should have no excuses if they choose not to show up.
"If we find out that people are going to fund-raisers rather than talk about Iraq, that will be interesting," Guttman said.
Better go check those schedules, Mr. Guttman. As of today, none of the other candidates have agreed to participate.
Iraq is the number one issue in this campaign. Forget about whatever you think of Biden: you should expect and demand that your preferred candidate tell you exactly what he or she would do about Iraq as president. That they are not agreeing to do so in a public setting, while standing on stage with the other candidates, should tell you something.
Why should the frontrunners get into this with the underdog? The answer I would suggest to you is this: you bet they don't want to "get into this" with Biden. They can't hold a candle to him when it comes to Iraq. (However, that's also why Biden isn't going to be going away in this race--sorry to disappoint the "haters.")
The other candidates can't run from this forever. If you are critical of Biden because of the fact that he plans to attend the Fox debate, think also about how your candidate skipped this one.