Joe Biden still hasn’t pulled the trigger on an official 2020 presidential run, but with every day that passes, he’s doing more and more things that sure make it sound like he’s in. Seeing how far his party has shifted to the left, Biden spent some time this week on what could only be described as an effort to burnish his socially woke bona fides. The first item of note is an event he attended in New York City yesterday honoring people who combat sexual assault. For some reason, he decided to invoke his time in the Senate when the Anita Hill hearings were going on. The former Veep offered up an apology for the “white man’s culture” that treated Hill unfairly. (Associated Press)

Former Vice President Joe Biden condemned “a white man’s culture” Tuesday night as he lashed out against violence against women and, more specifically, lamented his role in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings that undermined Anita Hill’s credibility nearly three decades ago.

Biden, a Democratic presidential prospect who often highlights his white working-class roots, said Hill, who is African-American, should not have been forced to face a panel of “a bunch of white guys.”

“To this day I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved,” he said, echoing comments he delivered last fall as the nation debated sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh amid his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Yeah, white guys are the worst, aren’t they Joe?

Biden has clearly also been watching Elizabeth Warren’s stump speeches and feels he needs to hop on the ‘Get Big Money Out of Politics” train. He’s brought it up a couple of times recently. Fortunately for him, he’s got a lot of history to rely on when it comes to this subject. One rather ancient clip of him appearing on The Advocates, a PBS show from the 70s, recently resurfaced, thanks to the folks at the Free Beacon. In it, he talks about how he tried to “prostitute” himself to get money for his first Senate campaign. (Free Beacon)

Former Vice President Joe Biden said during a 1974 discussion on campaign finance that he tried to “prostitute” himself to big donors during his first run for U.S. Senate but failed to get their money because he was too young.

His youth, however, was what enabled Biden to raise enough money to win, he explained.

“I’m like the token black or the token woman,” Biden said. “I was the token young person.”

Using the phrases “token black” or “token woman” in 2019 is probably going to land with an awkward thud, but the underlying message is one that would probably play pretty well today. It’s the idea that a small number of wealthy people might be able to decide who does or doesn’t get to run for national office. But Biden will need to up his fundraising game quickly if he makes his bid official in the next few weeks, so that’s one more tightrope he’ll need to walk.

What Joe Biden is really doing here is risking the biggest attribute he has going for him… his authenticity. Uncle Joe was never part of the woke generation and he’s always played the campaign money game by the old rules. He’s an experienced Democratic politician with a resume most candidates can only dream of. And he’s from the moderate, old guard of the party. Turning around now and talking about the “inherent problems of whiteness” or toxic masculinity is going to come across as pandering. If Biden is running, and it certainly looks as if he is, he should probably just focus on letting Joe be Joe. It’s served him well over the years and the early polling seems to indicate that his voter base isn’t holding his past, his skin color or his gender against him.

Here’s a clip from that old interview, published by the Free Beacon.