Joe Biden may have trouble apologizing to the multiple women who have accused him in recent weeks of touching them inappropriately, but the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination appears to have learned a lesson.
On Monday, Politico reported that Biden’s first days on the campaign trail have seen the 76-year-old largely keeping his hands to himself. He’s rarely hugging, he’s no longer nuzzling, and he’s canceled all canoodling.
But after nearly a week on the campaign trail, including nearly a half-dozen events in Pittsburgh, Iowa and South Carolina, it appears Biden got the message. Gone are the episodes of canoodling with voters, replaced by a less tactile brand of retail politicking marked by selfies and more physical reserve than Biden is accustomed to.
Biden’s advisers, Politico reports, had to impress upon him the importance of keeping his hands to himself, which doesn’t come naturally.
But since announcing his presidential bid, Biden’s approach reflects an understanding of the greater scrutiny of his politicking style — his advisers at one point after the controversy huddled with him to underscore the need to adjust his habits and the need to tell the public that he would be more respectful of people’s personal space.
It hasn’t been easy. He’s had to adopt a new selfie posture, with one hand holding the phone and the other firmly welded to his hip. But, so far, he appears to be getting it, as evidenced by his going a whole weekend without burying his nose in the hair of an unsuspecting adult woman.
