Biden asks 8-year-old girl at a diner this morning if she's going to be president, tells her

[highplainsdem]

girls can do anything. Later she tells the Washington Post's Matt Viser, "It would be pretty cool to be president.”


Tweets from Viser, with a photo:

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Editing to post an ABC News tweet, which I have thanks to demmiblue kindly posting it in reply 20 -- and as you can see from the video, Biden was talking to two girls:

Link to tweet

[demmiblue]

1. I am glad he learned something from our women candidates. n/t

[LanternWaste]

3. After this therefor because of this?

[demmiblue]

4. I'm sure you can figure this out on your own. n/t

[mr_lebowski]

23. It seems Lantern has figured it out ... just sayin' ...

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

[highplainsdem]

6. Are you suggesting Biden was never in favor of women running for president before HRC's run

"taught" him "something"?

[demmiblue]

9. No, that is not what I am suggesting. n/t

[highplainsdem]

11. Then what "something" do you think he learned from our women candidates?

As you can tell from the replies you're getting, your post wasn't clear.

[zackymilly]

16. Do you mean giving the girl her space? n/t

[demmiblue]

18. No, that didn't cross my mind. n/t

[LexVegas]

7. I do think he learned some things from his treatment of Anita Hill. nt

[emmaverybo]

22. I guess it was terrible of him to get a hearing for her that she wanted when Repugs

didn’t want to give it to her. And terrible that he voted against Thomas and has throughout the years praised Hill for her credibility and courage.

Reading a transcript or watching if there’s a video might help clear up the grossly unfair claim
that Biden mistreated her.

He did not, under advice of counsel, subpoena a reluctant witness he would have had to treat as a hostile witness. That witness had not witnessed Thomas’s harassment. And no, Biden did not act as Hill’s personal defense.

The process is terrible. No woman in a non-judicial proceeding should have to testify especially without a lawyer, a hope of a criminal charge, and in a case that due to circumstances comes down to her word against a man with a whole malignant party behind him.

Hill’s case was weakened by the fact that ten years had passed since the alleged verbal harassment, that she had voluntarily returned to work for Thomas a second time after his emotional abuse, and that she had contact with him even after her job was over. Undoubtedly she
needed this powerful man’s recommendation and to stay in his goi$ graces for the sake of her career.

Joe could not make her more credible and he could not stop Thomas from playing victim of a “high
tech lynching,” a claim which cowed other Dems at the hearing. At least Biden tried to shake Thomas’s story.

At the time, Hill did not enjoy the support of the majority of black people. After all, Thomas was nominated to take Thurgood Marshall's Seat on the SC and would go on to be only the second
AA in history to become a Supreme Court judge. Yes, Grassley, Hefner, Simpson, and others were outright abusive to Hill. They humiliated her.

Joe has never called them or the canny Republicans out for choosing an arch conservative to test
Dem’s racial fairness. Ed Kennedy about disappeared into the woodwork.

And well Joe might have said that Hill was not strong in defending herself. Certainly, when asked why she continued to work for Thomas and to be alone with him on an occasion after no longer having to, she could not say “to build my resume and get his reference,” which she did. She said the men insinuating she was lying just didn’t understand harassment.

In all this time, Biden has never blamed anyone else for this fiasco. Well, he could.

[True Blue American]

27. Thank you for the truth

Biden did not vote for Thomas!

[dawg day]

30. Well, Christine Blasey Ford was also mistreated, decades later

Not much has changed. Not much at all.

[Loki Liesmith]

12. Pretty sure he already knew this

But whatever rubs your rhubarb...

[Chemisse]

14. So you think he only realized this week that girls can grow up to be president?

How very uncharitable.

Biden is not my top choice, but I can appreciate that he is a kind and decent man.

[demmiblue]

17. Of course not. n/t

[zackymilly]

15. What did he learn? nt

[Cha]

2. Thanks for Biden's early

diner conversation, highplains !

[Thekaspervote]

5. Nice!

[MontanaFarmer]

8. Joe Biden, for whatever differences I

may have with him, and whatever shortcomings he has (all candidates do including my preferred one), is a fundamentally decent man who cares about people. I'd be proud to vote for him for president.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Fellow Montanan here! (Flathead Valley)

I wish we could post our top 2 or our top 3 in our signatures. My other choice is Kamala. I love her.

[MontanaFarmer]

25. North central here.

Biden/ Harris still looks appealing to me as a ticket.

[demmiblue]

10. Video:

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

13. Thank you! So it was two girls? What a great moment for them, one they'll never forget.

[highplainsdem]

19. I've edited my OP to include that tweet and thank you for the link.

[delisen]

21. "Guys" and Girls--My comment not about Biden

but of the barriers to full equality.

The title Ms. was revived in the early 1970s in order to free women from the constraints of Miss/Mrs. titles.

It gained wide acceptance quickly especially because our government adopted it for use in completing forms.

However, soon the term "guys" became widespread as a generic greeting for both males and females. (Formerly the term referred only to males and "gals" was the equivalent for females-as in "guys and gals').

So women gained a step toward equality with the success of "Ms." but we have been experiencing a push backward with the emergence of "guys" used as a generic term for "people." (Imagine if anyone had tried to turn "gals" into the generic term for "people."

What Biden's use of girls and guys illustrates is that the term "guys" really does not include females and I consider his distinguishing between girls and guys to be useful in pointing this out.

Curtures, I believe, have strong self preservation tendencies. We live in a patriarchal culture and I believe that we have reached the limits of what that cultural identification can do in terms of ensuring human survival, individual self-fulfillment and survival of our environment.

The binary identifications with male as the default of personhood has never worked well for all of us and at this point has put us on our current path to destruction with the new rise of the "strong man " leader.

Language can help us move beyond where we are or hold us back. The current experiment with pronouns and the growing acknowledgment of the fluidity of gender are steps forward.

Instead of the now ubiquitous "guys" I use the address "people." because that is what we all are.

These usages often seem petty to some people but language shapes us and we can shape language; our culture can shape us but we can shape our culture.

At this point we need a different culture - one in which we all fully participate and identify with equally. This is actual revolutionary choice facing us.

....and how great it will be to click on a You Tube video and not hear so many bad presenters screaming "Hey Guys!"

[Saviolo]

29. Some good gender neutral greetings:

Y'all (or you all)
Hey, everyone
Your highness
Theydies and gentlethem.

A great way to stop dudes from using "guys" when referring to everyone: When they say "I use "guys" neutrally, everyone's a guy!" just respond with, "Would you sleep with a guy?"

[delisen]

31. Great post!

[LuvNewcastle]

32. I say 'folks' a lot.

It's a little old-fashioned, but it's a nice generic term.

[Saviolo]

33. I forgot folks!

Yes, I use folks a lot, too. And "kids."

Hey, kids! What's happening?

[CatMor]

24. That was a great thing to say to the two girls ..

I'm sure they will remember it and know they can reach for and are capable of reaching high goals.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. Cue

A bunch of people in Social Media land and pundits wondering WHAT he meant when he smiled .. .



The media is being ridiculous to the Democratic Candidates.

[dawg day]

28. I certainly hope by the time she's grown, there will already have been several woman presidents

It's about time. It's past time.