Tag: Lindy Boggs

USA TODAY In the fifty years I have spent in the company of politicians one of the things that most surprised me was their public physicality, like Joe Biden's. The more radical enforcers of the #MeToo movement are at present cuffing around former Vice-President Joe Biden for an incident that took place in Nevada in 2014. Revealing this in a New York Magazine blogpost, Ms. Flores’s account seemed timed to coincide with the imminent announcement of Biden’s intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination and, it would appear, calculated to inflict the greatest damage on Biden. Biden’s defenders have rallied to his defense, making the argument that’s “Oh, that’s just Joe Biden”, a politician of inveterate physicality. Geraldine Ferraro was a toucher. There is a very distinct line between a public display of support, sympathy or affection and a transgressive physical invasion of a person’s body, or at least there ought to be. I am now often hugged by other men. I believe that Rep. Flores has misconstrued the actions of Vice President Biden. It was gesture by a man whose humanity happens to express itself in innocent physical contact. Is that less blameworthy than gripping a person’s shoulders in a gesture of support or solidarity?