A national unity ticket?
Democracy and world peace have had a very bad week.
The special counsel’s unprofessional, partisan decision has put Biden’s age and mental status front and center in the presidential contest. Most commentators agree that it is up to President Biden to dispel doubts about his fitness, primarily by making himself more available to interviewers and voters. Whether this will work remains to be seen. Even if Biden is mentally fit, which I believe is likely, he is clearly an undisciplined speaker, and given the circumstances his inevitable gaffes may well be interpreted as evidence of mental decline. There is no guarantee of success.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, yesterday the stakes of the election became even higher as Trump made his antipathy to NATO even clearer. The risk of Russian – and Chinese – aggression in a second Trump term has risen substantially.
Finally, at oral arguments on Thursday it seemed highly likely that the Supreme Court will ignore both the events of January 6th and the ongoing insurrection, and the history, plain words, and sensible purpose of the 14th Amendment – and keep Trump on the ballot nationally. Talk about whistling past the graveyard . . .
In response to Trump’s remarks on NATO, Phillips O’Brien suggests naming “two internationalist Republicans to the Cabinet” and a unity ticket in 2024 (he mentions Michelle Obama and Adam Kinzinger).
I had a similar thought: a national unity ticket of Biden and (say) Romney. Putting a respected Republican on the ticket would make it much easier to get Harris off, and it would avoid the need to persuade Biden to drop out. The Obama/Kinzinger combo strikes me as a real crap shoot.
Eric:
We had eight years of incomprehensible remarks by George Bush junior plus a revenge war in Iraq upsetting a bad balance in the Middle East as it was. And that was better than Biden’s record? A president who did all the right things during a pandemic saving the public and keeping the economy on an even keel. Neither of which bush junior or trump could have accomplished.
Speaking of which trump hands off a $2+ trillion deficit from Republicans TCMJ bill passed under reconciliation which is supposed to net a positive return. By the way, the corporate giveaways are permanent and will be funded by the rest of the taxpayers as planned by Republicans. Biden has the wherewithal to handle its demise and provide safe passage for citizens who are not safely in the upper 20% of taxpayers.
A stressful three years on the edge and successful balance of needs against political harassment. Hur and Republicans engage in ageism and we all stand around asking ourselves who do we replace Biden with in 2024? Rather than strike back acknowledging what is taking place here with Hur’s discriminatory remarks, we sit silent.
Biden and his team pulled off one of the greatest economic recoveries ever at opposed to what Republicans did after 2 years of a Dem majority during the Obama presidency. Then we got the bigotry of racist trump who lined the pockets of the upper 1% of the taxpayers with the TCMJ bill. An the eighty percent of the lower in income taxpayers will pay for to balance out the permanent tax breaks for corporations.
And we are worried about some slips by a president who went through 3 years of hell? Fatigue from the pressure of a close economic failure in the nation.
Economic and political battle fatigue. Thank you Joe Bide, you are fired.
I do forgive what the US is paying for in Gaza. Moral bankruptcy!
Kamala Harris is the reason I voted for Joe Biden. Pull her off the ticket and I won’t
Been thinking about it all day: I think for the first time since 1972 I’m gonna’ sit this one out. It’s not like my vote ever counted for anything anyways, sure as hell hasn’t done me any good
If the democrats want to play republican games, I’ll not have any part of it …
‘Sitting out’ is also part of the strategy that leads to a Trump victory.
If you like Kamala Harris, then you sure as hell ought to be voting for Joe Biden.
TenBears
hang in there. better than the other guy is the best we can do. i tend to agree with Bill here. Biden is smart enough to do a hell of a lot better than anyone since Eisenhower (unless you count LBJ on Civil Rights and forget Vietnam.
It is the mentally and morally deficient hard left that worries me. aomeone says “Biden is too old” and that’s all they can think about. Frankly I think anyone under 70 is too young to be trusted with the vote, much less the Presidency.
Kramer
you don’t seem to know much about Romney.
he is corporate to the core. But of course he gave us Romneycare. Called it Obamacare. “better than nothing” to stop Medicare for All.
And he wants to “fix” Social Security.
he is the kind of person who would tie his dog to the top of the car and drive 70 mph on the freeway all day to the family vacation. I guess so he could have a family dog for the photo shoot. you know, so he would look like a human being to the people who vote.
Romney (& Joe Manchin) are only mentioned as a ‘plausible’ ticket for the ‘No Labels’ group. A ‘moderate’ GOP pol & a ‘right-of-center’ Dem pol, who are both ‘available’.
Are they ambitious enough (or too smart) to get involved in this?
Is this anything?
Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl for second year in a row
(I don’t follow football, but apparently this is a Big Deal, what with Taylor Swift’s involvement with someone on the winning KC team. An upset win, after SF dominated in the first half.
Anyway, it perhaps suggests that the Dems can pull this off. But a ‘National Unity ticket’ is an absolutely terrible idea – when there is NO National Unity these days. Such a ticket will only produce a Trump victory. We have a two-party system, which we are stuck with. The Electoral College reinforces this.)
Donald Trump posts about Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce before Super Bowl
Is this anything? No …
Related.
New No Labels warning: A presidential election decided by the House
Axios – February 5
(If that happens, the GOP controls a majority of state delegations in the House. Each state gets one vote, regardless of its population. Thus, Trump wins. That has long been a backup GOP strategy for presidential elections.)
Just barely related.
Travis Kelce was Super Bowl’s leading receiver – NBC Sports
The Pitch for a Unity Ticket in 2024 Keeps Getting Weaker
Vanity Fair – Decewber 20
Pretty much the last time this happened…
United States presidential election of 1912 | Taft, Roosevelt & Wilson
(Former president Teddy Roosevelt managed to end Taft’s (his protege) re-election bid, getting Woodrow Wilson the presidency, which led to the ill-fated presidencies of Harding, Coolidge & Hoover, followed by the Great Depression of 1929.)