"What's Not To Like?" Lindsey Graham And I Agree On Something-- But Not The Crazy Way He Interprets It

Yesterday Lindsey Graham told an NBC News reporter, Frank Thorp, that "Biden has had a lot of personal tragedy, so I will never say a bad word about Joe Biden as a person, I just don’t think he’s the right guy to be president. He’s, in my view, a figurehead of the most radical movement in American history that’s coming from AOC and that crowd. And so my differences with Joe Biden are political, and they’re real, they’re wide and they’re deep, but he’s a fine man."

OK, I agree that Biden isn't "the right guy to be president." But compared to Trump? Ole Lindsey-- at least publicly-- and I would part company there. But the part that Graham got right-- partially right-- was this:

He’s, in my view, a figurehead of the most radical movement in American history that’s coming from AOC and that crowd.

The part that was right was this:

He’s, in my view, a figurehead

The rest of it was absurd. Biden is a figurehead for the Democratic half of the status quo establishment, from Obama right on down. "AOC and that crowd?" Not even close. In fact, Biden is closer to establishment conservative Republicans, like Lindsey Graham, than he is to "AOC and that crowd."

Maybe I'm wrong? Well, maybe. We'll know I'm wrong if he picks Elizabeth Warren as a running mate, in my mind a virtual impossibility. She's a progressive; he's a conservative. She wants to do big bold structural reforms. He wants "President of the United States" on his tomb stone. He's-- and what I mean is the group he fronts for-- will probably pick a conservative candidate more like himself. He trapped himself into picking a woman so he's on somewhat uncomfortable ground, but Susan Rice would work just fine for him. The worst possible candidate-- actually putrid-- that he's considering is Wall Street troll Gina Raimondo, governor of Rhode Island but I don't think even Biden, Inc is that stupid. Tammy Duckworth would work fine for him and maybe Kamala Harris.

I bet Lindsey Graham would much rather see Biden win than Trump. And I bet he'll vote for him too. Meanwhile, his state is spiking like mad and the pandemic is totally out of control there. Today little South Carolina was in the top 10 of states with the most new cases-- 1,856, which brought their total to 62,245-- 12,089 per million South Carolinians... which is considerably worse than California (8,910), Texas (10,183) and North Carolina (8,702).