What’s So Hard About This?
Tom has it correct. I am not so sure I would want to be associated with the jackasses engaging in ageism. I am not far behind Biden in age.
The initial debate was a shocker. A shocker where one person can speak lie after lie in front of millions of people and stand there looking justified in doing so. And those who support him and such behavior are no better.
Tom Sullivan at HuLLaBaLoo, July 17, 2024
They’re both old. The Republican is a lying criminal.
Joe Biden is an aging but accomplished public servant who occasionally loses his train of thought. Donald Trump is a self-obsessed, wannabe dictator, a convicted criminal three years younger, a pathological liar who falls asleep during his own trial and nominating convention. When Biden rambles, there’s a point at the end. When Trump rambles about sharks and showers and windmills, he’s incoherent.
A large swath of Americans finds it a challenge to choose between the two.
The press is more obsessed with Biden’s age and poor debate performance than with Trump’s firehose of lies and Project 2025 plans for euthanizing the republic. In Lester Holt’s NBC interview with Biden this week, Holt asked if Biden is considering dropping out of the presidential race. (Biden’s repeatedly said he won’t.) Biden answers, no. Holt won’t move on. He asks if Biden wants a chance to “get back on the horse” and “what happens if you have another episode like we saw during the debate?”
On Tuesday afternoon, Biden delivered a fiery, 30-minute speech before the NAACP convention in Las Vegas (watch it). He condemned Trump for “lying like hell” about the strong economy:
Then, capitalizing on Trump’s comment in last month’s debate in which he referenced “Black jobs,” Biden said, “Folks, I know what a Black job is: it’s the Vice President of the United States! I know what a Black job is: the first Black president in American history, Barack Obama!” as audience members roared in approval.
Biden forcefully touted his administration’s accomplishments and detailed legislative proposals for his second term, including a 5% cap on rent increases and a new assault weapon ban. He is finalizing plans for passing term limits for the Supreme Court and an enforceable ethics policy. Try finding coverage on today’s front pages.
“For more than two weeks, Biden had difficulty moving beyond the fallout from his faltering debate performance on June 27,” the Washington Post reports. Trump fomented an insurrection and picks a vice president more MAGA than himself, but Biden loses his place on the teleprompter and that merits a mention.
It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you. It doesn’t help that members of his congressional caucus are still trying to push him out of the race egged on by pundits. The virtual vote scheduled in late May to get around a ballot deadline in Ohio is now seen by “Pass the Torch, Joe” members as “an attempt to ram through his nomination.“
How many times do I have to say, get back to me with an alternate candidate and a plan and we’ll talk?
The irony here is that it’s progressives (the party’s DFHs) like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders who are keeping their heads and wanting to press ahead to the election fight without further ado.
Weeks after the first presidential debate (as Markos Moulitsas observed), Biden is still old and Donald Trump is still a liar.
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Joe’s ouster is the price tag on turning back full-time to Trump/Republican bashing. Do you think it’s worth it or not? My sense is that Biden supporters do not want Biden in as strongly as those who want him gone want him out. Is it crazy to see all this and conclude that the message to Biden is not just he no longer has this or that support, but that he will be actively sabotaged if he stays in. He stays in and much of the media will hound him the rest of the campaign. Defy the donors and they won’t come back after the convention with their checks. ‘Joe, if you lose, your legacy (and family well-being?) will be trashed. And if you stay, we will work hard to see you lose.’ Slight tangent, but I think the objective of this “virtual roll call” might be a little different than is being explained. Again, same Milwaukee source as some other comments. As explained to me, if they do this virtual and select Biden and he accepts, the principle action of the convention is complete. But doing this won’t relieve the pressure on Biden, and could make it worse. So speculate Joe finally throws it in. Well one reading of the current rules is that the DNC committee takes responsibility for selecting a new nominee as soon as Biden withdraws because the convention’s pick withdrew. Even if the actual convention in Chicago isn’t over, the delegates might be told, ‘you picked one. He’s gone. Our turn.’ Reasoning? Harris seems to be in line for a lot of delegate support if Joe goes. Recall that I was told months ago bouncing Harris was a bigger motivation than even Joe. Don’t know if this is what’s going on, but interesting and more plausible than Ohio is making us do it.
What is a paragraph?
I may have misunderstood a message that I thought asked to avoid paragraphs.
Eric:
It is far easier to read you and also your points if you use paragraphs.
Defy the donors and they won’t come back after the convention with their checks. ‘Joe, if you lose, your legacy (and family well-being?) will be trashed. And if you stay, we will work hard to see you lose.’
If this ridiculous fake controversy has achieved one thing, it’s to clarify the desperate need for serious campaign finance reform, to permanently break the power of the oligarchical parasite class to inflict this kind of pressure and manipulation. The idea that the most powerful man in the world needs their blessing and approval to run for re-election should be almost as terrifying as Project 2025.
Infidel:
“The idea that the most powerful man in the world needs their blessing and approval to run for re-election should be almost as terrifying as Project 2025.”
Indeed . . .
It’s a kind of test. Biden and Biden supporters could prevail, but likely would need to employ some harder tactics. I have read here of a voter in a very blue state say he/she won’t vote for any Biden replacement. As a personal statement that’s admirable, but kind of a shoulder shrug as far as how this works out. What could be effective is 40,000 Pennsylvanians saying they will vote Trump in that circumstance. That said, the credibility of such a claim would be low. I have now seen the debate and the Lester Holt interview. It’s pretty much Biden’s “fault” he’s struggling to stay afloat here. If you can’t reliably look and sound like a whole lot of voters expect from their President, that’s a significant drag on your prospects, particularly in a tight race. But for Trump, Biden would be gone already. Trump holds the race close. Trump is the energy for both campaigns. What’s others take on these polls? I think they are manipulated to help force Biden overboard. Biden is not “behind” in Wisconsin. But neither is replacement “X”. Find “X” and a week later read polls that having “X” is 4% better…..’see, we were right!’ The party is going to dump Harris, too. Hey, maybe that’s his final play: ‘I’ll quit the race, but I’m quitting the job, too. Take up the rest of this with President Harris.’ I’d imagine the golden parachute is contingent on not promoting Harris though.
The chickens are coming home to roost–
Q&A: THOMAS FRANK ON THE DEMOCRATS’ DISGRACE: ABANDONING WORKING-CLASS AMERICANS
The GOP’s Big Working-Class Bet – by Ruy Teixeira (liberalpatriot.com) It might just work.
I never believed the characterization of Biden, the ultimate Big Money swamp creature, as “lunch bucket Joe.” And I find it inconceivable that Trump, who routinely cheated his employees, would see working class voters as anything more than people to be conned into voting for him.
Democrats’ neglect of working class deplorables–their New Deal base–turned them into low hanging fruit, ready to be plucked.
Sure other issues like climate change and Social Security are very important. But for those living paycheck to paycheck, kitchen table issues are paramount, a basic consideration the Democrats chose to ignore at their own peril.
JohnH:
Hmmmm, did you read the first article? Are you sure this is about Biden? Lets read what question 6 is:
“As the Democrats seem ready to nominate a Wall St.-friendly Hillary Clinton and Republicans to nominate an anti-free-trade Donald Trump, could we be witnessing a seismic party role reversal such as happened with Democrats shifting from a segregationist to a civil rights party?”
trump over Clinton was a disaster.
Trump has become the first president since Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression to depart office with fewer jobs in the country than when he entered. His economic legacy is defined by his failure in leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic that exacerbated the financial downturn, domestic policies that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, and international trade policies that hurt U.S. industry while simultaneously alienating allies.
What is not said here is his $2+ trillion debt which mostly went to the upper income brackets. If those tax breaks were eliminated for the upper 20% in income, it would pay for the other 80% of the population. Trump’s economic was a massive failure. His bigotry and sexism is unsupportable and yet people like yourself flock to it.
Did you try the bleach?
Angry Bear has had enough of your commentary and the spreading of falsehoods. There is not one grain of truth in what you wrote and say in your commentary. Please do not come back to Angry Bear as JohnH or anyone else.
It’s hard to understand how working class voters see Trump as the answer to high prices. The first time around, they seemed to think he’s a rich businessman and will somehow magically figure it out.
I recall the mayor of a western Pennsylvania town interviewed on PBS about the 2016 race reporting that his people believed Trump would build some kind of factory in their town to provide employment. You’ll be shocked to learn he didn’t. Working class people aren’t stupid. They really ought to remember how things went in that first Trump term.
It wasn’t just Covid. It was the benefit the to wealthy policy and it did them no good. The Democrats should be preaching anti-trust enforcement and other measures they are proposing to help with the cost of living, Further, the should be emphasizing that Trump won’t do any of it. All he’ll do is impose tariffs that will increase everyone’s costs, and give the wealthy more tax cuts. A good explainer, as Obama christened Clinton, could help.
Jack:
A 2+ trillion dollar deficit awaits a solution when the tax cut for the upper 1% did not pay for itself as promised by trump and Repubs. The bill was passed using Reconciliation which requires 50 votes and a tie breaker if needed. Its requirement is the nill must pay for itself over ten years.
trump joined the Bushs in leaving a huge deficit behind for the next administration to resolve except this time a pandemic was the major issue and Biden paid attention to the citizens regardless of political beliefs. trumps concerns are those in the upper income brackets and favoring them over lower income people in comparison to the 1 percenters.
Someone else needs to be called to the table for a reckoning. And it is not Biden.
“The bill was passed using Reconciliation which requires 60 votes.”
should be:
The bill was passed using Reconciliation which only requires 50 votes.
Arne:
Yep, fifty votes plus a tie breaker (if needed).
JohnH
the trouble with your argument is that you assume the Democrats are responsible for the “bad economy” or hard times in the working class. you forget two things: the “natural” forces that create economies and hard times, and the Republican contribution to that economy and hard times.
i tend to agree that the Dems are complicit in failing to solve the problems of working people, but it seems to me that is true only to the extent the Dems embraced Republican policies in order to get elected.
The danger to working people, and the whole world, is the concentration of money and power in the hands of people who only think about money and power. The Dems at least talk about helping people “the economy” has hurt, and solving the real problems we all face. The Republicans tell us “damn the poor, damn the environment, damn justice. vote for us and we will make you rich.”
I can’t imagine anything more helpful to Trump’s chances of winning than Biden dropping out. Voters hoping for real change would not feel motivated to vote for a party which had just set aside the overwhelming verdict of the primaries because of a phony media firestorm and pressure from billionaire donors. Unless the party could quickly unify around Harris, there would be a long period of squabbling between contenders for the nomination, with all the damage such squabbles typically do. None of the contenders except Harris is even nationally known outside of political-junkie circles. It would be an absolute trainwreck.
Infidel
I think you are right. But the Dems, it seems, have chosen not to fight because they believe Biden cannot win….because they haven’t tried to fight. It may be…it is said that…they know that Biden cannot convince the people he is still able to fight.
i believe in fighting, but if your friends are fitting you with concrete shoes, maybe it’s time to say to hell with them and go find a nice lawn chair and watch the sun go down.
Interestingly, Biden has continuing support from Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren.
The very people least ideologically disposed to willingly bow to pressure from billionaires. I’d also add Fetterman.
For all practical purposes, trump is as old as Joe. And fat …
And irrational.
Putin’s having a good laugh. The Democratic Party base, the voters, want Joe Biden. Many Republican voters want Joe Biden. A sizable population of the independently minded, no party affiliated “swing” voters everybody till yesterday was in a dither over what to do about, wants Joe Biden. It’s not The People who want Joe Biden to step aside
It’s the DC Insiders, the Corporate Democrats, Republicans Lite and election doppelgangers; big-headed academics and the Mainstream Multi-Millionaire Media crotch-shots and cocktail party heroes who want Joe Biden to step aside
It’s the centrist democrats ~ his old gang ~ that are behind the calls for Joe Biden to step aside; and the monkey media and their multi-million dollar salaries and breathless horse-race horse-shit. All wrapped up in a big bowl of dope’s worth of a white-bred and mayonnaise dream-team utterly disconnected from what The People want
DC Insiders, Corporate Democrats, Republicans Lite, election doppelgangers; big-headed academics and the Mainstream Multi-Millionaire Media … herding the rubes, leading them around by the nose like so many cows, and dragging the rest of us with them. They don’t give a good goddamn about any of us. They can hide in their ivory towers and congressional cloak-rooms, it isn’t hurting them. It’s a game they’re playing for fun and profit.
Joe Biden / Kamala Harris is the winning ticket, else is throwing it to Trump and the Traitors …