Earlier today, somebody here had an article about Joe Biden, giving a homeless person all the money in his pockets.
Looks like they took it down but it got me interested.
Joe Biden is 76 years old. I thought "it's interesting, now that he's getting ready to run for president, for the first time, we see a bunch of hoopla over him helping the homeless guy"......but maybe this is the type of guy that he is and nobody ever knew about it.
He's very likeable and I've said for 5 years(before Clinton got the nomimation) that he has the best shot to be elected president.
Some of the MSN is playing it up big as this being what defines him "for his contributions to society".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMc9TJCqrAg
I looked for other evidence of him doing this sort of thing but couldn't find any other examples of it in the many decades of him being in politics.......but maybe he is one of those guys that does it quietly, without recognition?
What I did find, however, actually was the complete opposite of what I was looking for. This is the report just before the 2008 election:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5791846&page=1
Biden gave average of $369 to charity a year
"The Bidens reported earning $319,853 last year, including $71,000 in royalties for his memoir, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.
The Bidens reported giving $995 in charitable donations last year — about 0.3% of their income and the highest amount in the past decade. The low was $120 in 1999, about 0.1% of yearly income.
Over the decade, the Bidens reported a total of $3,690 in charitable donations, or 0.2% of their income.
Biden spokesman David Wade said in an e-mail that the Bidens "also contribute to their favorite causes with their time as well as their checkbooks." Wade said Jill Biden has volunteered to help military families and the family "pitched in driving supplies to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina."
Nationally, more than two-thirds of U.S. households reported giving to charity in 2004, with average contributions of $2,047 that year, according to a study released in January by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Those households who gave to charity averaged donations of about 3% of their income, says Patrick Rooney, the center's interim executive director.
Another study of wealthy households in 2005 found average yearly donations of $40,746 from people with incomes from $200,000 per year to $500,000 per year, Rooney says."
The Bidens averaged giving less than $400/year to charity for the decade that they were checked on it, while people in their tax bracket averaged more than 100 times that.............$40,746.
Wow!
My respect for Joe Biden has just dropped off a cliff. Trying to offset his being a big scrooge with his wealth and NOT sharing with the poor/less fortunate(and getting burned previously when it became news) by staging generosity before the election, then bragging about it and the MSM eating it up.
It's one thing to be in the top 1% or so of stingiest people, which is bad enough but then to do what appears to be promoting your stingy self as somebody generous with their money "giving everything that he had in his pockets".
Like I said, I liked Joe Biden but not nearly as much anymore.
Mike, This doesn’t phase me in the least. He’s served the US as a respected Senator and then VP for 40+ years. Also, there’s no telling how much time he has volunteered. Furthermore and most important, Donald Trump doesn’t hold a candle to Biden (his plagiarism notwithstanding) in terms of honesty, empathy, and general character. In addition, Biden has the ability and desire to unite us. I’ve given up on Trump, who just recently repeated his despicable and disgusting McCain comments.
If Trump vs Biden, it will be a very easy decision as I see it now.
I too think that Biden will win.
This doesn't phase you and it won't phase anybody else either that's pro Biden. In fact, he seems to have resulted in the media putting him up on a monster pedestal ..........as intended.
Almost nobody will go back to look at anything else other than just listening to what the media is reporting about this incident.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/03/13/joe-biden-homeless-man/422097002/
I just wish this was consistent with the behavior of the Joe Biden not running for president.
If I were to vote for Biden, it would 100% have to be because of his authentic compassion(actions during his life to help less fortunate for instance), sincerity and honesty and of course, his potential ability to be somebody that brings the country together........and somebody that I can trust.
This will have to outweigh his much weaker agenda and if he goes gung ho on the climate disinformation crisis, I can never vote for him because that dynamic represents the biggest fraud in history and will cost trillions and much more than money(poisoning our childrens brains with junk science).
Finding out that he was scrooge in real life(at least the decade in the article) damages my opinion of him because thats one of THE factors that I was basing consideration of a vote for him on.
Has he changed and suddenly become more generous now?
That's possible but if he wasn't running for president and did this or if he had done it in the past several times, then I would be on board with it being more than another politician presenting a favorable image of themselves by saying and acting in way that is not consistent with their actions in the past......to generate votes.
With all due respect to you, I really don’t care how much he contributed as that’s really his business imo. Besides, how do we know about possible anonymous contributions that weren’t reported, which would be even more impressive. Also, the time he has contributed isn’t known. I’m surprised you are so hung up on this when considering how imperfect and disgusting Trump is. What do you think about what Trump, who didn’t serve in the military, said about McCain, a recently deceased true hero? And that’s just one of numerous things Trump has said that so turns me off. To consider Biden’s assumed small contributions to be in the same ballpark of significance as Trump’s imperfections and lack of a desire and ability to unify is frankly hard to fathom.
I meant for me voting Biden over Trump would be a total no-brainer .
yes MCain served and God bless him for it but when did that service absolve anyone from criticism? What he did with that fake dossier was beyond what should of been done and has contributed to over 2 years of upheaval in this country.
Biden and character. Didn't he have a few adventures starting early with plagiarism? Then there was a monster scam involving who {the Russians no less, millions of dollars and his son if I am not mistaken. Old Joe got it buried deep? Anybody who has been in DC for 40 years has a trail a mile long I am afraid. Politics is a dirty, dirty game
Larry,
I actually have felt pretty bad about this thread because its such a big slam on Biden, who I've always liked and is the only dem I could vote for at this point but I'm obviously not making my point clear.
If it was Trump vs Biden.........for metmike using a 1-10 scoring system.
Trump crushes Biden on agenda.
Trumps gets a 10 for his climate realism actions.
Trumps gets a 10 for doing and trying to do everything that he promised to do.
He get high numbers for the economy, renegotiating better deals with our trading partners(china is still unresolved) as his platform to be elected promised. His border security, immigration and and other related laws make great sense based on the facts.
Trumps gets a zero on a 1-10 scale on his personality, tact, divisiveness/polarization, compassion, humility and credibility when judged from random stating of facts on a variety of things. Interestingly, he gets an 8 in credivilty when judging him for doing what he says he will do with regards to policies/agenda which is the highest of any president other than Jimmy Carter.
His off the charts character flaws, open the door for a dem that is completely the opposite......."loaded with character attributes" to challenge him for my vote.
So this is the entire basis for me to judge Biden...........and make no mistake, Biden and the rest of the country know clearly that this is where Biden has an incredibly overwhelming advantage. This is Trumps weak point. If they are smart, they can crush Trump by just portraying Biden as the polar opposite of him in this regard.
So when I saw the story of Biden emptying his pockets for the homeless person, my immediate reaction was "this is the type of guy I want to be our president!" but the scientist/skeptic in me thought "strange that this is suddenly big news when he is running for president, so maybe I can check to see if this defines the REAL Joe Biden"
I was actually just checking to see if he had a record of helping homeless or less fortunate, when I found what I did to start the thread..........the complete opposite.
I know this is no big deal for you Larry. However, besides the analysis above for me, in the past, I have spent time volunteering at our "Rescue Mission" for homeless men as well as spending much of my time in endeavors that benefit others, regardless of their current situation.
So, as somebody devoted to these causes, I feel insulted that this appears to be a person using this cause for political agenda and staging based on his track record(the decade that it was accurately measured)by his lack of generosity.
And it's not like Biden was just low with his generosity. I couldn't find anybody lower!
This thread would never have been started if I didn't find the profound contradiction as evidence.
I understand completely why this doesn't matter to you and others and am not saying it should...............just sharing my personal views based on the unique ethics of the volunteer/charity based world that I live in.
this is truly an interesting and educational thread. Thanks to all of you... the pros and the cons. Special kudos to metmike for his very rational analysis of his own thoughts.
Thanks Gunter,
This makes me feel less bad about slamming Joe. Now I will speculate based on the history of politics forever.
When I was in TV, we had a promotion department. There were 2 people in it. They earned a living finding creative ways to spin information to make our tv station and the people that did/do the news look good. Every tv station has people that do this.
They highlight stories/reports with promo's that make them/us look the best. They create hundreds of promo spots that tell viewers why they or a particular person is the best in the business. They sometimes embellish on the truth. They exaggerate and distort the truth at times...........if they are good, but there is no entity that holds them to accurately using facts. They also state some honest facts, when the facts allow their subject(s) to shine brightly which is often too.
I have hundreds of examples but will give you a big one. In Sept. 1985 I flew into Hurricane Gloria out in the Atlantic...............basically as a publicity stunt to get viewers to watch and give me credibility as our meteorologist. There was another meteorologist from Pittsburgh on board with his photographer. We joked about how a hurricane could never hit our viewing areas and this one was ZERO threat to anybody watching because we were so far inland and we were there entirely as a publicity stunt.
I am forever grateful for that extraordinary experience and don't want that to be lost. It sometimes seems like that must have been a dream, that it couldn't have really happened.
That event didn't make me any better than I was...........and I was not a tropical weather expert. In fact, back then, that was probably my weakest area because I got my atmospheric and oceanic science degree at the University of Michigan. Top school for meteorology but did not specialize in tropical meteorology.
If anything, it made it look like my weak point was actually a strong point. Same thing with the meteorologist from Pittsburgh..........which is why we thought it was so funny.
If either of us had moved to the Gulf Coast or Florida for our next job, we would have had a lot of educating to do to catch up with experienced forecasters from other stations........but we had the understanding of the atmosphere/science background that would have allowed us to do that.
Political people hire people like that too and when you are running for office, you have a team of experts working constantly on coming up with ways to make you look good(and your opponent bad).
Based on my many years dealing with our promotion department and making observations in the political world, I strongly suspect that this is what's happened/happening with the Joe Biden homeless person story.
This principal of promoting applies in the realm of selling anything. Billions spent for commercials on tv and elsewhere........the ads on the internet.........used cars or just items in the store with signs. It defines our world in many realms in many ways and we just get used to it and don't think about every time that somebody just sold us on an item or idea or person or whatever.
So, one could try to give Biden the benefit of the doubt on this particular incident..........maybe he's catching up on the many years of being very stingy and not helping others...............which is very, very sad because somebody in a powerful position like this is in a unique position to actually make the world a better place in profound ways...........and they should have been maximizing it for decades if they really cared.
My experiences in tv, politics and life as well as being objective and analytical, cause me to speculate otherwise in giving him the benefit of the doubt. To do so, is for me to act naive, which would not be true to myself.
Again, I have always liked Biden, stated that here previously and was not looking for dirt. It popped up with my search to find a good thing(s) about him.
I do take into account that the other candidates, under any circumstances will never get my vote, so Biden is the ONLY one that I care about from his party...............so he will get all the scrutiny and its not scrutiny of him vs the other dems because he already beat them.
1. Mcfarm, Relative to Trump's major imperfections, the plagiarism incidents from 30+ years ago don't bother me at all.
2. Mike, Thanks for your well thought-out reply. I understand better what you're saying.
Are the Dems going overboard and trying to stop Biden from running? I suspect so because Biden has been strong in the polls and they want a socialist to win the nomination as opposed to a moderate like Biden. Biden has always been touchy feely. This appears way overblown to me. Now we can't hug or touch another human being without it being suspected of being due to a sexual desire? Absurd! Vs Trump, he is hands down a much better human being imho. Not even close.
fine wx if that is ok what about the millions of dollars from over seas? seems RUSSIAN have been in the news the last couple years, why not investigate that incident as well....hell why we are at why not just throw some un warrented musing out there that Biden was working with the RUSSIANS?