Sure it's sad, says presidential reality-show critic David Brooks, but hey, it's given him a
narrative.
Shorter David Brooks, "The Biden Formation Story", September 15 2015:
Frankly, I didn't think Joe Biden had a chance at the presidency this year: a long-time Washington insider like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush but without their money, in a year when voters appear to be in revolt against the usual candidates. But then I saw him on television and realized that he has something amazing they haven't got: tragedy! Like Saint Augustine, George Eliot, or A. Philip Randolph, he has had a lot of character-building experience, in the horribly premature deaths of so many of his nearest and dearest from 1972 to now, and that could be such a terrific advantage for him! Even if he doesn't make it to the White House, he could virtually be a character in my recent book!
This is why I don't want Biden to run (or part of it, because he's also not the "leftmost electable" possible candidate against even Clinton, let alone Sanders), because of the way his vast experience in government, his foreign policy expertise, his deep understanding of the dilemmas and struggles of ordinary people all count as nothing to these people—the race would be about how well he can commoditize his sorrow and sell it to the
Dowds and the Brookses. He'd be running for
Queen for a Day. Better not be president, no matter how much you feel you have to contribute, than lower yourself and your grief to the level of these ghouls.
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