Joe Biden has released his tax returns as part of the Democrats' campaign to force the release of President Trump's tax returns.  Access to those returns, with hundreds, probably thousands of pages each year, would enable them to niggle-to-death every detail.  It's an obvious trap intended to distract and mire a president who has accomplished an astounding list of achievements, starting with reversing the "new normal" of stagnation that Obama assured us would require a "magic wand" to reverse.

But it turns out that Biden has made himself and his wife, "Doctor Jill Biden" (with a doctorate in education), into multimillionaires in just over two years.  Even NPR sees the problem for his image:

Former Vice President Joe Biden has referred to himself as "middle class Joe" throughout his political career, and used to regularly joke about being the "poorest person on Congress."

Those terms no longer apply.

Biden and his wife, Jill, have together earned more than $15 million since Biden left office. That's according to tax returns and other financial disclosure forms released by Biden's campaign on Tuesday. The bulk of the Bidens' earnings come from book sales and paid speaking engagements — two routine sources of income for former high-ranking public officials.

The documents show Biden has earned far more than the rest of the 2020 presidential field, with the likely exception of billionaire Tom Steyer, who entered the race Tuesday.

I don't know about you, but I prefer my rich politicians to have made their money before they enter what is laughably called "public service."

I still don't think Biden will be the nominee.  But if he does cop the Dems' crown, the phoniness of his claims to be an ordinary guy will be self-evident.

Of Biden can be said what originally was said of the early missionaries who came to Hawaii and bought up land: "They came to do good, and did very well, indeed."

Photo credit: Good Free Photos.