I've been sitting here thinking about how to feel about all the Biden stuff. It's so utterly pessimistic as a lurker in this thread.
1. Believe women. Flat out, always. However, my version of belief may be different from other peoples. I believe people have a right to tell their story. I believe people ought to be taken at face value. I believe people should be able to seek whatever form of justice they want/deserve. This woman deserves to be believed, her story deserves to be told, she has a right to not be ignored. This is so often the case (case in point, Ford).
2. How Biden deals with this story will impact how it's told. I've heard a lot of similarities to Ford with this case, and that's not true- yet. The problem with comparing this to Kav or Trump's assault allegations was the fact that the women were ignored, justice was not done. Ford flat out gave them the go ahead to find evidence and they refused to find that evidence. So, no, this case is not like Ford's (again- yet). The problem with comparing this to right-wing scandals is that major journalists haven't had an opportunity to vet the information yet. I'm fine withholding my emotions and waiting for news- I'm sick and tired of immediate, emotional reactions.
3. These immediate, emotional reactions, by the way, are what keep these stories from making the impact they should. By relying on raw emotion (pathos), the argument is immediately weakened. She has credibility-she has already accused Biden of making her feel inappropriate and he's acknowledged that-but we're going to need data to get the full scope of this (something akin to Beach Week, and the revelations about Kav's calendars). Likewise, Ford had affidavits from witnesses from the time which matched her story. I have no problem waiting for this information to come out, and history has shown that it will.
Please note that this is not an assessment of whether the victim should or shouldn't be believed, but more how I've come to think about the accusation in the last day. Neither is it an endorsement of a candidate.