All week the press has been gleefully covering the growing list of accusations that former Vice President Joe Biden has a habit of being inappropriately physical and affectionate in a way that makes women uncomfortable. Lucy Flores opened the floodgates with her piece one week ago, describing how Biden grabbed her shoulders and kissed her hair in a manner she called, “blatantly inappropriate and unnerving,” (Source: “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden,” by Lucy Flores, TheCut.com, 3/29/19).
Flores’ story unleashed a flood of similar anecdotes, accompanied by photo montages showing Biden nuzzling noses and giving impromptu shoulder massages to an array of women (and some men). Despite all of the hand wringing, this isn’t complicated — don’t touch people who don’t want to be touched. The truth is, this is just Biden being Biden— an exuberant and often inappropriate, if fundamentally decent man. Continue reading “All politics is local”