President Joe Biden is absolutely right to try to make a case on behalf of arming Ukraine. But the way he chose to do it was as hypocritical as can be.
Biden used as a model of behavior the late President Ronald Reagan’s famous speech wherein the Gipper, in Berlin, said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
One problem: Biden at the time hated that speech. He said it was dangerous rhetoric.
In Reagan’s personal diaries, the Gipper rarely mentioned Biden. But after his Berlin Wall speech, Reagan was infuriated by Biden, who at the time was in a race for president that would fizzle to nothingness when Biden repeatedly lied about his heritage and his resume. Biden had blasted Reagan’s speech and the “Reagan Doctrine” of arming people willing to fight for their own freedom against autocratic regimes.
In his diaries, Reagan wrote, “[There was] some talk about Sen. Biden — now candidate for Pres. I saw him on CNN last night speaking to the John F. Kennedy school at Harvard U. He’s smooth but pure demagog[ue] — out to save Am[erica] from the Reagan doctrine.”
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Reagan was right: Biden is a pure demagogue. Always has been. And while it is a good thing he is now on the side of today’s equivalent of the Reagan Doctrine, he is wrong to claim the Reaganite mantle without at least acknowledging that he, Biden, had been wrong back then and that he is glad he learned the lesson that Republican isolationists should learn now. Humility can be persuasive in ways yelling, and attacks aren’t. Biden shows no humility, no ability to admit past mistakes, and no desire to persuade rather than condemn.
His hypocrisy is galling.