QoTD: What’s ‘Good’ Good For?

Edit - This was written and posted before Biden dropped from the race. But it might still serve as an epitaph.

"The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man." G. K. Chesterton

Man, that Chesterton was good. In so many definitions of the word.

Many Democrats once considered Joe Biden a "good candidate." But what did they mean by "good candidate"? There are many possibilities, but let's narrow it down to three.

1. "Good candidate," as in morally good. Were there people thinking of Joe Biden as morally upright and of great integrity? I kid, of course, but there are people who at least pretend this was the case. Maria Shriver, for instance, recently tweeted about Biden, "A good man who has devoted his life to serving his country." Just serving his country, like every other politician. According to Forbes, his worth in 2008 was $24,000 and now it's $10 million. None of us believe his net worth is really that low, but even if that were accurate, where did those millions come from? The laptop, which the FBI now attests to be genuine, had records of a cut going to "the big guy." Stories of racism and sexual abuse abound, but Maria thinks he's "good." I doubt anyone was thinking of moral integrity when they called him a "good candidate."
2. "Good candidate," as in able to perform his duties as President well? When we, in a place of work, refer to someone as a good candidate for a job, we mean we think that person will perform his or her duties well. But no one really believed he would be a good president, did they?
3. "Good candidate," as in being able to beat his opponent in the election. This was the only sense in which anyone really believed Joe Biden was a "good candidate." They believed that he could beat Donald Trump in an election. In that way, people believed he was a "good candidate" in 2020, but no longer believe it in 2024. So, Joe Biden was never a "good candidate" in the sense of 1 or 2 and most people don't believe 3 applies anymore either.

As Chesterton said, "good" has many meanings. But none of those meanings apply to Joe Biden today.

And if you were to go with Jesus' definition of "good" from Mark 10:18, it certainly wouldn't apply to Biden. ("No one is good except God alone.") We'll never have a "good candidate" in that sense, but let's do what we can to see to it that the worst candidate doesn't win this time around.