Joe Biden’s never touched us. We don’t know how it feels, and have no interest in belittling anyone who’s taken umbrage at the way he’s grabbed their shoulders or embraced their body or, yes, smelled and kissed their hair.
Any woman touched by the former veep is free to tell him to take his hands or lips the hell away.
Still, we have brains to make distinctions and words to express them, so we ought to at least make this much clear: Biden has not yet been accused of inappropriate sexual touching, of gratifying himself at another person’s expense. Not forcible kissing, not grabbing buttocks as Al Franken did, not grabbing anyone by their privates as Donald Trump boasted of doing.
There’s a difference, and it should matter.
Biden is a flawed man whose positions and record and personal behavior should be scrutinized. But having made people uncomfortable doesn’t disqualify him from public leadership. Yet.