It's a cynical mind that immediately concludes the president's decision to travel to Buffalo two weeks ago was intentionally exploitative. But enough time has passed that it seems reasonable to now ask questions. I don't want to think that it was. I don't want to believe that he – or more likely, his political handlers – saw in the grief and anguish of suffering black Americans an opportunity to grandstand, virtue-signal, and score political points.
After all, there's little that is more presidential in my mind than a Commander-in-Chief who is human enough to comfort, sensitive enough to grieve. Biden's own visit to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday – where he touched the life-sized photos of the 4th grade victims – was perhaps the most presidential thing he has done in a year and a half. Before him, Barack Obama's tears at Sandy Hook were moving. Ronald Reagan's emotion hugging the families of the Challenger victims still sticks with me. The images of George W. Bush's puddling eyes at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital remain both tender and poignant.
The president-as-comforter is a role that I think flatters the office.
But sadly the modern iteration of political leaders has engendered more than reasonable doubt when it comes to the purity of their motivations. And selective use of this personal presidential compassion only raises more eyebrows.
A radical black anti-Semite plowed into predominantly white parade participants in Wisconsin, leaving an entire community reeling. The president never found time in 6 months to go offer his condolences. His administration says that for a president to go to a community like that "requires a lot of assets."
A radical white anti-Semite mowed down predominantly black shoppers in Buffalo, leaving an entire community devastated. The president's schedule was cleared within hours to allow for an in-person visit and media event where he forcefully condemned white supremacy.
No sane, moral person disagrees with that message. But sane, moral people would certainly condemn the specific exploitation of black victims of violence, used to ignite a political base and shroud a tidal wave of bad news for the administration.
I don't want to believe Biden went to Buffalo because of this:
Nor do I want to believe he went because of this:
Nor do I want to believe he went because of this:
I don't want to believe it's any of that, or the resurrection of the Iran deal, the record inflation, the border crisis, and all the other damage this administration has done to this point. Using the other-worldly grief of American citizens to distract from your own failures and incompetence is remarkably un-presidential.
Using them because they're black is racist, too.
