One Office Too Many?

Just a few comments about Senator Joe Biden's recent problem. Biden has been in trouble before, in 1988, if I recall, when he was accused of plagiarism. If my memory serves me right, the situation brought about his withdrawal from the presidential race. Biden is a smart man, in my opinion, but some folks just weren't made to go to higher office, and I think Biden is one of them. He's a thoughtful guy on many issues, but put him in front of a microphone and you'd swear that he studied under President John Kerry, ah, I mean Senator John Kerry.

Another such person is Newt Gingrich. I'm sure I'll take some heat for this, but I like him. He's another thoughtful guy. He and Clinton played well off of one another after Gingrich became Speaker of the House. He's a lightning rod though, and ideally, he should have not taken the speaker's job, although to many Republicans, he was the natural choice, and conquering his own ego would make the Battle of the Bulge look like it was an easy fight. He seems much more at ease with himself when he's teaching and thinking through problems. It's a shame that he didn't have George W. Bush as a student.

Here in Ohio, Bob Taft, now the former governor, went one step too far. He was our Secretary of State during much of the 1990s. It really isn't a very high profile job, and it doesn't necessarily require a whole lot of political skills. The position was far better suited to him than when he became governor. He's a nice, easy-going guy, and he just was overwhelmed by Ohio politics. He got caught up in, what I consider, a mini-scandal, which involved some golf outings paid for by lobbyists, but not reported as such. Interestingly, many in the media came to his aid, saying that the reporting omission was a staff error, but the damage to his reputation was done. He was so hobbled, that it was like we really didn't have a governor for the last year or two of his term. Further, one of his ideas, to provide state money to high tech companies to locate or develop in Ohio was given pretty high marks by many in the media, but when it was put on the ballot, Taft never seemed to even get behind the measure, and it went down to defeat at the hands of the voters, who were never told by the governor why the measure should get their support.

Ideally, some folks just need to stand back and see where they are, and what their capabilities are, and stay in that realm. As Joe Biden would sing, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." (Oh wait! Did Joe Biden sing that?)