Why does Habib Fanny like Biden so much?

Why does Habib Fanny like Biden so much?

I never said I wanted to make out with the guy.

I’ve had a my ups and downs with Biden. In 2007–2008, when he was running in the Democratic Primary, I was a huge fan. My politics were more malleable then. And I very much didn’t want to feel that I was supporting Obama only because he was black. Biden was experienced, funny, and very articulate. But he didn’t get much traction. And before long, I was gripped by Obama fever, in spite of myself.

I thought Biden did a fine job as VP during the Obama years, but I had reservations about wanting him as the next nominee:

1. Obama clearly preferred Clinton as a successor, which made me feel he wasn’t that impressed with his VP.[1] Clinton had a brainy approach to politics and policy, which Obama could more easily relate to. Biden, on the other hand, was a practitioner of an older, transactional, relational type of politics. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but he wasn’t the type of policy wonk that I tend to gravitate towards these days.
2. Biden had been a centrist Democrat during his whole career. He had positioned himself squarely at the center of the party and didn’t seem to want to pull policy-making leftwards, which is what I wanted to do.
3. I didn’t like the fact that he didn’t challenge Hillary for the nomination in 2016. He clearly wanted to do so. But he wanted Obama’s blessing. Obama’s blessing wasn’t forthcoming, and Biden got scared of taking on the Clinton Machine.
4. By 2020, there were many newer faces that I preferred.

But the polling consistently showed that Biden was the Democrats’ best general election nominee, and after flirting with other options, I decided that I wanted to defeat Trump more than I wanted to elect the Democrat closest to my policy preferences. And so I made my peace with Biden. I never saw him as primarily responsible for the 1994 crime bill. It was extremely popular among Democrats at the time, including with black Democrats. It included the assault weapons ban and the Violence Against Women Act. If you were a Democrat in good standing and in politics at the time, you were probably going to vote for it. Besides, mass incarceration wasn’t just a federal thing. Most of it was at the state and local level.

So, all in all, Biden was a non-ideological, pragmatic Democrat I felt I could live with. And seeing how close this election was, I’m very thankful that we didn’t go with another candidate. I just don’t see how Bernie could have possibly beaten Trump this year.

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