Paul Wellstone, the most progressive, pro-union senator in a hundred years, warned American manufacturing would be destroyed as multinational corporations moved U.S. factories to China.

Joe Biden dismissed Wellstone with a sneer, saying, “Nor do I see a collapse of the American manufacturing economy, as China, a nation with the impact on the world economy about the size of the Netherlands, suddenly becomes our major economic competitor.”

Like Rip Van Winkle, Joe has slept for decades as China rose to become “our major economic competitor,” even during the Obama administration as China built stationary aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, annexing international territory to block our Navy from defending our East Asian allies.

These are the “not bad folks,” as Joe Biden says.

What’s afflicting Joe is worse than narcolepsy. It is venality.