I'm Sorry, Mr. Biden, No One is Available to Take Your Call

I remember reading a think piece years back, something about passing glory and all that, in which the writer recalled spotting Walter Mondale in a supermarket parking lot, the day after he had taken a shellacking from Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election. Mondale was loading groceries into his car, all by himself, with nary a reporter, secret service agent or campaign worker to be seen. Such are the vicissitudes of a life in politics, I guess.

Mondale, at least, was fawned over through Election Day. Poor old Joe Biden however, eight weeks before the election, already seems to have been tossed down the oubliette. Jack Tapper reports

Since the Delaware senator left Obama's side and ventured out on his own on Labor Day, he has hardly garnered any national media interest at all.

His plane, a blue chartered 737, now crosses the country with about three-quarters of its seats empty, rows and rows with nary a warm body to be found.

[snip]

Either way, as Air Joe flew from Wilmington to Charlotte Sunday, the only reporters onboard were off-air reporters from the five television networks and correspondents from NBC and Politico. There was only one camera crew. The back of the plane, reserved for press, sat totally deserted.

The New York Times? Gone. The Washington Post? Not seen since the first days of September. The otherwise ubiquitous Associated Press? Left even before that.

Poor Joe, nobody wants to play with him. The only attention he's received recently was when he opined on the Catholic Church's teachings on abortion and those mean ol' bishops wrapped him on the knuckles for that. This election can't be going the way he had hoped.