Sometime in the noon hour Eastern Time today, July 6, 2024, a fateful email was sent (mine was time stamped 9:46 Pacific time, how about yours?) and the world took a massive lurch towards disaster. Its header was: “The pundits have gotten everything wrong”; it was sent by Joe Biden, but the fact that we don’t know who wrote it, who ordered it, and who really sent it, is just part of the problem.
Folks,
I understand you can’t turn on the television or get on the internet without seeing some pundit talking about how I need to drop out of the race.
Nonsense.
I want you to ask yourself, what have these people been right about lately? Seriously. Think about it.
They were wrong when they said I couldn’t win the Democratic nomination in 2020.
They were wrong when they said we wouldn’t beat Trump (and there were many) months later.
They were wrong when they predicted massive Democratic losses in 2022. Remember the red wave?
They were wrong when they said we couldn’t take on the NRA and pass the most significant gun safety legislation in three decades.
They were wrong when they said we couldn’t take on big Pharma and allow Medicare to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
They were wrong when they said we could never take on the oil companies and pass the most significant climate change legislation in the history of the world.
And they are wrong again today.
Folks, listen. Forget the pundits.
As long as we are in this together — me and you — not only are we going to beat Trump again this November, but we are going to go on to do what many think impossible in my second term: codify Roe, ban assault weapons, expand Social Security, and more.
But I cannot do this alone, and I’ve never needed you more than I do today. Everyone is looking to see if the grassroots support we need to win is still there.
I’ve seen it since the debate, but we have to keep going. So please:
Can I count on you to contribute $25 or whatever you can afford directly to my re-election campaign today? The amount isn’t as important as the number of people donating while everyone is paying attention.
If you’ve saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: $25 >>$50 >>$100 >>$250 >>$500 >>Other >> [Links removed] I will never forget your support. I mean that.
Joe
Joe Biden
Email sent from info@contact.joebiden.com on July 6, 2024
President of the United States
The obvious take from this is that Biden is digging in his heels and fighting back. He’s jumping over the pundits and the donors and going directly to the people. OK, it was foreseeable that Joe would not go down without a fight. And it was foreseeable that he would conflate this latest degradation of him with previous ones that — he’s right on this point — did turn out to be wrong. (The question is: is this time something new — and worse?)
The less obvious take is what comes next. This is the opening shot of the Battle of Kamala Harris. I frame it that way because she is less a general, in this battle, than the terrain over which it will be fought.
Joe saying that he wants to stay is obvious. But the same sentiment coming from Kamala — the only other person with the keys to the kingdom of Biden-Harris 2004 donations — would be something different, because she might have to crush her own credibility by getting fully behind him and thereby vouching for his continued suitability. Or, she could simply refuse to cooperate with him, setting up a cold peace between them that would be taken for overweening ambition and likely removed from the 2024 ticket. (My bet is that the VP nomination would go to Karen Bass, who almost got it in 2020, and this would turn out to be Kamala’s high-water mark in politics.)
My guess is that Kamala would try not to sign the document placed in front of her by the people who wrote a complete and unreserved testimonial of a clean bill of health. She would try to come up with an effusive and laudatory statement that, given her lack of medical expertise, stopped short of saying that he should remain on the ticket. And Jill Biden or someone else would slap her across the face with a shoe and tell her that that was not good enough: it was either unconditional and full denunciation of those who would try to remove Biden or nothing. She might not even be allowed to talk to Joe beforehand.
This conflict is now elevating from novelistic to operatic. If Kamala won’t vouch unequivocally for Joe’s mental fitness, that sends a strong message, regardless of how many layers of velvet wrapped around it. If she does, then she can only run herself by exposing herself as having lied to save her skin. (The exception would be if Joe had a public episode strong enough to warrant either his resignation of her and the cabinet’s invoking the 25th Amendment. I don’t even want to handicap those consequences now.)
Kamala is in a miserable position — unless Joe will announce that he doesn’t want her to comment because asking for it is unfair to her. That would be gallant and possibly a way out of this war. I don’t expect it to happen.
There’s a lot of talk of Kamala taking the reins, but none at all of Biden taking the demotion to running mate. It seems she would do best with a moderate Midwestern male as running mate, but why lose a good governor or senator? I say Ohio’s Tim Ryan would make the dream team with Kamala.
I think that there are a lot of voters who still like Biden and it would be gratuitously insulting to ignore them. If he wants to be helpful to Kamala, that’s the best role, though I guess some sort of Special Advisor would also work.
But if Biden doesn’t want the position, then Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (age 51) or Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (age 72) would be better than Tim Ryan, because Ohio is not in play and Ryan is quite conservative and as I recall quite awkward.) I’d go with Evers, even though he would likely be too old to run after two terms (as we’ve now learned.)
Anyway, that’s more of a topic for the other post. This is about how Biden’s sharp elbows are putting Kamala in a big bind.
I don’t think you know much about many things, or many things about much that is particularly relevant to the election. Kamala would not make a choice with a concern about her future, when the menace to democracy is in our faces today. Her sole concern is to avoid a dictatorship, which is also Biden’s sole concern.
What a small ball you twirl around in your mind!
We’d like to think that’s both of their main concern, but it’s starting to seem that Biden may be equally concerned with proving himself.
Welcome back, “Rich.” I hope that you enjoyed the Copa.
Yes, they both want to avoid a dictatorship more than anything. That requires winning an election — stop me if I’m going too fast — and Biden is convinced that, as Trump once said, “ONLY I CAN SOLVE THIS.” But he may be wrong. In fact there is good, though not decisive, reason to think that he is wrong. So based on this self-confidence (and, frankly, grievance at being underestimated) he’s doubling down on that. No problem there, he’s entitled to do it.
But I think that he’s now likely to demand that Kamala publicly agree, thereby tying her fate to his. Demanding a circling of the wagons, if it does happen, may make him marginally more likely to win. But it could be that he’s just totally misunderstanding the situation, based on his emotional desire to believe in himself, and that enough people really do think that he’s too old that he won’t win. Or before the election maybe he’ll drop out, maybe he’ll fritz out, and when that happens Kamala will be his very likely replacement — all the more so the closer we get to election day.
If Kamala believes that Biden is better situated to win than she is, then she should publish such an email without delay (at least no later than Monday) without being asked If she doesn’t believe it, and is pushed into it, then she’s putting her loyalty to Biden above her desire to see Trump lose. (And Biden could give her no choice by leaking his request to her if she doesn’t do it quickly, because then it truly would make Biden look weak if she resisted.) But what he gets her to do does not itself change the underlying facts — all it does is make it more likely that if she does have to take over, she does so with the concrete block of having been publicly wrong about Biden’s health tied with iron chains around her legs. And that could elect Trump.
I would consider just trashing a pseudonymous post trafficking in incoherent insults like this, but because I think I know who you are I’m leaving it up as a polite gesture because my small turning mind ball says that I should be nice.
*Biden wins going away…….while they take back the House and improve placement in the Senate. Interesting to see how many Democrats are in toss-up races 14 Congresspeople and 5 Senators. The Republican party of Reagan has gone the way of the Dough-Dough Bird…..no pun intended. Will love to see a Race for President with Gavin and Gretchen against Cheney and Nicki Halley……Now we are talking a real Presidential Race…eh? Of course if the Trumpster Wins….will we have 30 more years of Trump, Putin and Netanyahu.
Ron. The Trump train is quietly heating up. All aboard.
It will be in southern CA faster than Newson’s HSR
Faster than High Speed Rail will be here? That’s a relief. We’ll all be dead. And so will he.
Good to know it’s heating up! We’ll pour lots of cold water on it!
And it will be more expensive. For everybody. Real conservatives despise Trump.
This whole shitshow has made it hard for me to think or write about anything else. It looks like we’re not getting anyone other than Biden, so we’re just gonna have to help him beat Trump however we can. I hope a lack of enthusiasm for the Presidential race doesn’t hurt Derek Tran and Dave Min.
I’m not sure about that. There’s still several weeks until the Convention. One more senior moment is all it will take. The dude’s on life support and his “doctors” continue to go along with his demented whims.
Michael Moore is right. This is elder abuse. Would any competent person let a dementia patient dictate his own terms of care? The fact that Biden can’t even recognize the threat his candidacy represents to the United States is prima facie evidence of his incompetence.
Joe gotta go.
Perhaps the wiley old codger knows he has a lock on the nomination and has masterly played the media for two weeks of non-stop coverage before the rep convention.
Huh?
1. Of course he has a lock on the nomination, unless he gives it up.
2. Nobody wants the kind of coverage he’s been getting.
3. He’s not a wily old codger. You are a wily old codger and you’re projecting. Except you’re not being wily now.
I’d make a slightly different argument from Steve’s. He has dug himself into a hole — so his returning to his previous advantage (if it happens) will seem like momentum.
But no, I don’t think for even a second that it was planned.
In that story I’d like to get to about reviewing the debate (which it will take me at least a dozen hours to do right), one of the points I have to make is that you just don’t see Trump and his side making much hay with the sort of ammunition he gave them. It’s overwhelmingly relatively tame, not focusing on the visual images he provided (that will resonate with low-information voters.) But they do have that ammunition — and it will be at the ready.
What I want to see happen now is for Kamala — whether she’s eventually running for the top or the second spot — to do the job of a Vice-President and start viciously attacking Trump wolverine style. Go get lessons from Rep. Crockett if it doesn’t come natural. She should be calling him a rapist, a molester, a voyeur of undressed teenage girls, a thief, a con man, a cheat, a fraud who sells things that cost him nothing to create and preys on poor people who can’t afford it, an inadequate man whose wife can’t even stand him and who buried his first wife on a golf course, a traitor, a spy, a coward, and someone who pals around only with dictators and despots.
Lather, Repeat, REPEAT, REPEAT!, REPEAT!!! Be the junkyard dog you can be, Kamala; you’ve already got the sneer down!
Biden is not wily, although it appears somebody has dropped an anvil on him.
Took me a moment. Funny. Meep-meep!
Don’t tell Matt Duncan.
Just watched the presser. A pretty good show overall. The pollsters say it’s even. Trump’s the one who needs a psych evaluation!
He’s making stupid mental errors that make for good clips, but he did a good job today overall.
Steve, you probably remember Eisenhower better than I do; wasn’t he prone to this same sort of malaprop? Like this, it had nothing to do with his capacity to govern. I don’t think that Biden can’t govern; I’m just worried about whether he can win against a team that has only two weapons, lies and ridicule, but the latter can really be a doozy.
Wait Ike left office in 1961. We’re you the ONLY 2ND grader in the world tuned into politics?
OK, this was the sole even half-sane comment in our Trash folder.
I was born about a year before Ike left office, but I was not aware of him as a 1-year old. This may shock you, but Presidents are written about and the more recent ones even have photos and clips of them talking, as well as people who have written stories, biographies, and books about them. Through these extraordinary measures, I have been able to gain knowledge of our 32nd President’s life, as well as his reputation, health history, and reputation for speaking. Yeah, I probably was a little interested in politics in Second Grade, and I have vivid memories of the 1968 election. (My second earliest memory is of my aunt and her boyfriend taking me to the park because my parents were crying miserably when JFK was assassinated.) Honestly, whenever it was that I was gifted a subscription to MAD Magazine is the latest possible point that I got interested in politics; I think it was no later than age 6.
But: I’d defer to Steve White’s memory of Ike because reading things in books and newspapers is not quite as good as having experienced them as they occurred. That’s why I asked him.
Same IP address as the asshole pretending to be “Paul Lucas” today. (In trash folder.) ‘Swhy I chose not to publish it.
Any thoughts on possibly a new top of the ticket candidate & Kamala remaining as VP candidate?
Don’t know why. Kamala would be a fine President. A running mate for her would need to be chosen.
You think America will elect a black woman? I wonder.
In many circumstances, I’d doubt it, but this is defeating Trump we’re talking about — and all of the virulent racists and sexists are already for him.
A fusillade of MAGA hatred towards her, and Trump’s having to deal with it, might be exactly what’s needed to convince low-info voters that we need to step away from the ugliness.
It’s a bold move, but it may be the best shot. Or I should say “bank shot.”
Ya know… at Thursday’s press conference Biden was asked why he changed his mind about his 2020 promise to “pass the torch to a new generation,” and his NEW excuse (which he seemed to have prepared) was to finish the important legislative accomplishments he’d gotten started in his first 3 1/2 years (which most us agree were impressive.)
1. Is he saying Kamala (or other worthy Democrats) couldn’t do that?
2. Does he really think that would be possible without regaining the Congress and getting the Senate, more and more of whose candidates are convinced they won’t win election or re-election if he stays at the top of the ticket?
More malarkey. Pass the torch!
Continuing my earlier point: he could do that work as Kamala’s VP. I doubt that she’d mind at all.
Stubborn and offended mule. He’d still be a good President if he won, though.
Here’s a good sign. Every day this year I’ve gotten texts asking me if I’m gonna vote for Biden, if I approve of Biden, send us a few bucks for Biden, etc. etc.
Today I finally got an anonymous text reading, “Kamala Harris: If the Presidential Election were Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris, who would you vote for?”
EASY answer.
Fuck you , you drunk piece of shit who should be in jail tossing salad
Is this really, really Dan? I saw your latest “post”, which I quote in full:
https://theliberaloc.com/2024/07/15/moving-forward/
“Donald Trump was shot at by a registered Republican who was bullied in high school; the weapon was an AR-15 that Democrats have long sought ot [sic] control.
“You can have empthay [sic] for Trup [sic] as someone who caught broken glass that cut his skin [false rumor]; but know he did nt [sic] acknowledge the death in the case or other victims of the shoot [sic] because he kept his tee time. [if that means golf, another false rumor.] Trump’s shooting doesn’t change democratic vptes [sic] to him because he got shot [did anyone suggest that retardation?] (and some leftists certainly wish he died … we dont).[sic] I would rather Trump be humilitaed [sic] into another electoral college loss.
“Regardless what happens to bind, [sic – Biden??] Trump remains a threat to our democracy and our republic. Trump is still a convicted felon; shap [sic – state?] charges have nothing to do with federal charges, regardless of what the Supreme Court ruled. Vote accordingly.”
Maybe the above commenter really IS Dan!
Vern, not even Dan can mangle his name that badly. I’m going to conclude that it’s not him, after which the mulish contrarian might insist on his own blog that indeed it was.
Day drinking
Ah .. I miss that sometimes.
File under TRUMOP.
What’s wrong with that?
Nothing except when you unnecessarily leave evidence of it. Poor form.
Btw, Tito watch claimed to be an attorney today. Just not a divorce or personal injury lawyer from Western States. Lol.
Don’t call the Troll “Tito Watch.” He’s been our anonymous troll under a hundred names, with an IP scrambler, for a decade, and he just recently started calling himself “Tito Watch” which is a name he stole from me. It’s a name I made up for a writer who was covering the short career of Tito Ortiz on HB Council.
He claims to have moved to Australia but he obviously has nothing to do there but continue to write obscene and slanderous blog comments, here (we trash ’em) and at Dan’s blog (he prints ’em.) Lately the only commenters at the Liberal OC are the Troll and Dan. (With Dan deleting all YOUR comments.)
By the way, Dan obviously knows who the Troll is, and communicates with him. This is someone who has sent dozens of obscene and slanderous pieces of mail, anonymously, through the Postal Service, all about us, sometimes pretending to be from us. Illegal. And Dan is covering up the crime by not saying who it is.
PS of course the Troll is not an attorney, he can’t even spell.
I only used that moniker for Id purposes. From now on we’ll call him chubby’s Aussie lover.