Biden is a mixed bag for progressives..

Joe Biden is a good man, I don’t doubt that. He doesn’t live in DC, instead taking the train every night to his Delaware home…which by the way is quite modest by anyone’s standards. He isn’t worth much more than the average Joe and Jill that live down the street in middle-class America, having taken out a second on his house to put one of his son’s through college.

Biden is a good debater, he can hold his ground with anyone, and yesterdays bitch-slap of McCain was a welcome sight to me.

His positions on some of the important issues might cause a lefty to gulp however. This Alternet article tells us some of Joe’s pro’s and cons. He’s, according to Alternet, taken the lead on environmental issues, is strong on labor, with a number of years with 100 percent “pro-labor” voting scores by the AFL-CIO (his 2007 score of 85% was not among the top scores for Senate Democrats).

Again, from Alternet and Joshua Holland:

He has a mixed record on a woman’s right to choose, having voted for the ban on “partial birth abortion” — a nonexistent procedure invented by the religious right — and opposing federal funding for abortions for low-income women, but he has also been a consistent defender of the basic tenets of Roe V Wade.

He’s received a 78 rating from the Human Rights Campaign, and is a strong advocate for domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples. He voted against the proposed Constitutional ban on gay marriage but supported the Defense of Marriage Act. In 2003, when asked if gay marriage was an inevitability, Biden responded, “I’m not sure. I think probably it is.”

Biden’s most problematic domestic issue, as far as progressive voters are concerned, is probably his record of fealty to the finance industry. Not only did he vote in favor of the 2005 bankruptcy “reform” bill, he also voted against most of the proposed amendments that would have strengthened consumer rights under the legislation. Biden, whose top contributor over his career has been the credit card giant MBNA Corp., was one of only 18 Democrats to vote for the bill. He’s often referred to by progressive critics as Joe Biden (D-Mastercard).

I am not thrilled at all with his stance on Abortion and poor women first off. It bugs the living shit out of me to be honest. I do not consider Biden to be a friend to the consumer either. His vote for the Bankruptcy Bill and his allegiance to the Financial Industry down right piss me the fuck off.

But the Drum Major Institute, which tracks all things that are relative to our nations middle class gives Joey B a 95 percent rating so far this year. His rating has consistently been an “A” except for the year he voted to fuck everyone with the new…and cough..improved Bankruptcy Bill. The MiddleClass.org site is a great little synopsis of each legislator and their pov on Biden is worth looking at.

Biden’s strong suit is supposed to be foreign policy but in my mind he isn’t “all that”. Holland’s Alternet article calls him a Liberal Hawk.

WTF? I guess there is such an animal..but its a strange bird none the less. The use of force anywhere around the world is not a slam dunk and must be used wisely. Biden is a big fan of the ‘use of force’ as witnessed by his votes to go into Iraq and Afghanistan. He also championed our use of force in Bosnia and Kosovo. He does support going into Sudan…and frankly I do too.

His views on medicinal marijuana, cannabis in general and “source country interdiction” are total and complete utter bullshit.

The Alternet writeup is a good read, and doing a little research on Biden shows he pretty much hangs in the middle-to-the-slightly-left category on most issues, but not all. He is a mainstream Democrat by and large.

Which means I ain’t real fond of him.

So the real question remains…will he help or hurt the Big O’s chances to become the forty-fourth President of these here United States.

Tags: Joe Biden, Joe Biden on the issues

Crossposted at Bring It On!