Why Joe Biden’s Constant Apologies May Not Be Enough To Win

Once again, former vice president Joe Biden is very, very sorry. Since he declared his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year, Biden has spent the majority of his time on the campaign trail apologizing.

He has tried to make amends for his habit of touching women in ways that made many uncomfortable. He’s done countless mea culpas for his role in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings, in which Anita Hill blamed Biden for what she considered rough treatment.

He’s apologized for his role in shepherding the 1994 Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act to passage because most liberals and African-Americans believe mass incarceration of criminals devastated their communities. And lately he’s been making the rounds among African-American leaders accounting for his comments in which he noted that some Senate segregationists were not only civil but people with whom more enlightened creatures like himself could do business.

The question is, why haven’t these issues dented his still considerable lead in the polls over the other 25 members of the Democratic primary field? If not, does this prove either that these issues are not as important as many on the left—and on the right who fear that Biden would be a more difficult Democrat for President Donald Trump to defeat in November 2020—think?

Will Biden Sink or Swim, and Does Apologizing Help?

Are his various apologies—some of which seemed to be based in genuine regret about past decisions and others that he clearly believes are responses to charges that are unfair or completely unfounded—going to be enough to secure the Democratic nomination? Or will the accumulated weight of accusations, all of which seem to buttress the conviction that Biden is a man of the past, ultimately sink him in a race in which more ideologically left voters will presumably predominate?