I do not favor Biden. In fact, I don't think he's nearly as electable as some others do. And he blew it last night at the debate when Harris confronted him on this. But on the substance of the issue, it's unfair to him. He was in the Senate what, 36 years? He voted in favor of civil rights on literally ever other issue but this one.
And as the OP's linked article says, busing was an extremely unpopular idea among whites
and blacks when it first started. I can even remember my parents being opposed to it at the time and they weren't racist. Busing was a complex issue and there were numerous problems particularly in early stages, including race riots which they had at my own high school in the years right before I started there.
A 1973 Gallup Poll
found that while a majority of Americans favored school integration, just 5% believed busing was the best way to do it. That went across racial lines — just 4% of whites and 9% of African Americans thought busing was the best way to do it.
Biden's position was in line with 95% of the general public at the time.
Way too much attention on this issue.
Will be interested to see if this one has legs and continues to haunt him throughout the primary or whether it will soon fizzle.
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