I agree that it is hard to find middle-of-the-road politicians. The most vocal extremist ones are drowning them out & also squeezing them out. I remember Jon Huntsman getting crapped on for being moderate & not being partisan. The whole partisan thing where they are just out to one-up or "beat" the "other side" needs to stop.
Unfortunately, the newsmedia cares more about sensationalism than about the country & getting good people elected. They steer the narrative & try to get people riled up instead of just reporting the news accurately & without bias.
I don't know much about Joe Biden. I do think it was sweet how he tried to console McCain's daughter, but there was a bit of weirdness with him in how he acted toward women & children. If he tried to run, the media would probably focus on that more than policy or anything important (but, they do that with most candidates).
Does the deficit amount take inflation in to consideration?
Clinton had some ups & downs. I think he did some illegal crap with foreign donors. Hillary had the Watergate scandal & her fingerprints were found on classified FBI documents. Some of the good was that Clinton treated federal employees very well & they had good morale. He was supportive & worked in deals to make it worth their while to work for the government instead of the private sector. The benefits were to help balance the pay discrepancy (people would make a lot more in private sector bc federal govt has a salary cap). When Bush came in, he undid a lot of the deals, made things harder for the employees, & diminished morale. The whole reorganization after 9-11 has been a total clusterf***. But, 9-11 probably would not have happened if not for Clinton's INS commissioner appointee. He screwed the proverbial pooch on that one.
I've heard that Bush is genuinely a nice guy & I think he really did care & want to do what was best for the country, but there were some missteps. He was too easily fooled by Putin (maybe because he's not a shrewd person so he wasn't able to recognize the same signs that Clinton saw & was alarmed by). I still find it amusing that he has a more eco-friendly home & lifestyle than Al Gore.
In the recent news, the whole Omarosa thing is idiotic. What I find alarming about it is that she was able to secretly record so many people without being caught/noticed. The recording in SCIF is a federal crime & I do believe she should be prosecuted for it. But, more importantly, what is going on with security that she was able to record? I highly doubt she was the only one recording. So, who else has been recording things & possibly getting classified info? It is a serious security issue. But then, Jared Kushner was allowed to see classified info that he very likely shared with other countries in exchange for $ when he lied on his security clearance application multiple times & failed to pass.
The whole thing with the churches & sexual abuse is very sad-- but predators seek out positions of power/influence. The priesthood lends itself to abuse because of the trust as well as the enabling from people who cover it up or blame the victims. It's really a near perfect cover because they can use the excuse of being "Godly" and that anyone who goes after them, accuses them, or criticizes them is somehow supposedly going against God. They also bank on having the love/trust of the community/parishioners who are blinded to the truth. They just can't reconcile people who they view as so pious being such deplorable human beings. So they turn to victim blaming instead. I'm glad that they sussed out so many abusers, but sad that so many people suffered before it came out-- and that it will continue to happen.
Allegedly right now there are horrible abuses of women & children by ICE agents and employees at the facilities where immigrants are being detained. Again, scumbags seeking the most vulnerable to exploit. Extreme conservative biased media will ignore that while extremist liberal biased media will exaggerate it. I don't know if either side will do much to make sure it stops.