one of the very few good points about biden

[justabubba]

he can reach across the aisle

if there is someone i despise as much as tRump, it is jesse helms (and franklin graham, but that's for another thread)

it may have been helms' televised commentary, before he entered politics, that turned me away from the republican party as a very young man
in later years i had to personally go to his raleigh office to explain why my department had not concurred with requests on behalf of his constituents, formally made by the senator. for someone who publicly preached fiscal responsibility, he pushed to convert federal loans to become gifts to his cronies. intimidation was his method

i just read an excellent newspaper article about the close relationship by and between jesse helms and joe biden
that convinces me joe could do business with the devil ... because he already had
and with today's republican party, that is a valuable ability to have in order to get something done
Mayor Pete is who i found best qualified. Bernie is who i supported (anybody need "Bernie" bumper stickers?) and i will vote for biden because he is not tRump, and because he seems to be a decent person
but i have been searching for other reasons to support him
the cited article is one. it tells me that biden can get something done and those things, with Obama coaching, should be good things for our nation ... for our kids, and their children

despite that it says some nice things about that sonofabitchhelms, it's an informative article. hope you read it:
Access Denied

... Over the years the liberal from Delaware who’s now his party’s presidential nominee and the conservative from North Carolina would form an unlikely friendship and a bipartisan alliance, all while never abandoning their core beliefs.
... He’s said the episode offered “the most important lesson I ever learned” over more than three decades in the Senate.
As he recounts it, Mansfield said that while he could question somebody’s judgment or policy position, it was “never appropriate to question his motives because you simply don’t know his motives.”
“From that moment on, I tried to look past the caricatures of my colleagues and try to see the whole person,” Biden would recall.
... “We got things done,” Biden told supporters at a 2019 fundraiser. “We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy.” ...

 

[Aunt Antifa]

I didn’t want Joe but I have been super impressed with the outreach to all sides of the Dem party. He and his team have gone out of their way to listen to progressives. Not nearly as much as I wish but Biden is Biden, and he won the primaries running as Joe Biden.

I think he gets this moment in history too. He keeps mentioning Charlottesville as the trigger for him to run. I don’t know if I completely buy it but it’s not a leap.

Joe is gonna be the right guy at the right time. Only took him 3 tries.

 

[Walt]

he can reach across the aisle

Everyone who knows Biden speaks of what a wonderful compassionate person he is. People who know trump question whether he has human emotions.