Friends, in sign #3,727,841 that I have no idea what I'm talking about, today Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Wow! He's been doggedly claiming that OF COURSE he's running for president, and only "God Almighty" could shift him out of campaign mode. Well, it would appear that we've seen two instances of divine intervention in the presidential election in less than two weeks: Trump's narrow escape from death in Pennsylvania, and now Joe Biden's epiphany, leading to his departure from the race. Holy moly!!! What else can you say??? Obviously, Biden's crumbling support within the Democratic Party -- among Congresspeople and Senators, among donors, and perhaps most damningly among the gentlemen (and ladies) of the Fourth Estate -- dictated his miserable fate. It all goes to show you what a farce the Democratic primary process was, which Biden won hands down, and how grossly irresponsible the media's suppression of candid discussion of Biden's physical and mental deterioration was. Seldom have we seen a clearer demonstration of the fact that these people are, to be blunt, full of sh**!
Having said all that, now the country, and the Democratic Party, must move on. Joe Biden issued a bland statement about his decision to resign, which it is fairly clear he didn't write himself, and he apparently has no plans to talk directly to the American people or the press about the matter until several days have passed. Shortly after he announced that he would not be running, he further declared that Vice-President Kamala Harris had his "full endorsement and support". This statement, however, felt like an afterthought, and Biden's endorsement was not developed with, for example, any reasons why anyone would want to vote for her. I would say, therefore, that it would be more accurate to say that Harris has Biden's half-hearted endorsement and support, and that describes how a lot of Democrats feel about one of the least popular vice-presidents in recent history.
Needless to say, fierce battles are, as we speak, being fought in smoke-filled rooms to determine the shape of the process that will decide the new Democratic nominee, with an eye to ensuring that the "right" candidate emerges. Who is that right candidate? That depends largely on how much more uncertainty the Dems can stand. Coronating Kamala would be the easiest, most straightforward thing to do, but that risks leaving the election stuck in a Trump-friendly groove, given Harris's obvious weaknesses. If various candidates are permitted to announce their interest, and to campaign for the support of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, then a better, stronger candidate might emerge -- or the party could tear itself to shreds and large portions of the party elite and rank-and-file might come away from the process believing that it was misguided or even illegitimate. The new Democratic standard-bearer might be fatally wounded before he, or she, even took the field against Trump.
To make a long story short, therefore, the Dems are now -- still! -- in a position where they have no good options about how to move forward. They've just disencumbered themselves of Joe Biden, yes, but they've simultaneously taken on a host of other challenges and burdens. They're lucky, though, that they have a compliant media to help them pick up the pieces, which must give them some hope that, when all this chaos has ended and the party has settled on a candidate, the talking heads will do their best to make us forget that Joe Biden ever existed, or that the Democratic Party has ever been anything but united, focused, and ever so disciplined. In other words, expect a campaign, come September, October, and November, straight out of 1984, in which the Democrats ask us to love and obey Leader X, and to fear and hate Donald Trump, without engaging in any unnecessary critical thinking, and certainly not with the aid of our faculty of memory, which, they might point out, isn't nearly as sound and trustworthy as, say, the judgement of the editorial board of the New York Times...
What an election year this has already been, and what an exciting finale we have in store! The prognosis for the country may not be great, friends, but at least it's been a fun ride and not boring in the least. Bullets flying, geriatric presidents retiring mid-campaign -- what will happen next???
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/21/biden-drops-out-presidential-election
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Take heart! I have been wrong approximately 3, 727, 842 times and I persist in insolently presumptuous oracular recklessness. One thing I am very glad to have been wrong on is the clintons' apparent (for what that is worth when it comes to them) endorsement of Kamalafornia. Can it be? Now I sue to "all the Gods Romans bow down to" that this mark the end of that disgraceful "couple"s onerous participation in our public life. May Gov. Hirsute be sincere in continuing just to rule his fief just now. His quick demurral may be indicative of his expectation that DJT will win.
ReplyDeleteSpeaker Johnson is right to call for Biden's immediate resignation. It would help us and if Maga can raise enough outrage about Biden's continued pitiful tenure, perhaps it will happen.
Good gravy! The bubbling cauldron this year has become no doubt has more in store to keep us in an unrelenting state of fascinated agitation. Our prospects are good; a prominent national pollster said on Fox that the Senate is probably going to be relieved of Schumer's haughty control in January.
I would love to see Biden's phone log from Saturday through Sunday! Better yet, just a few snippets from those who made contact. Those convos are ripe for satire.
ReplyDeleteAnd where did the $50 "grassroots" donations really come from?
Yes, Jack -- the threat of a Clinton resurgence is receding...unless Chelsea is starting to feel the itch?
ReplyDeleteCan Kamala put up a good fight? Both sides are going to be spinning like crazy in the coming days, because much of the country will still have a half-open mind about Kamala. She hasn't exactly had a high profile, after all. In any case, I wouldn't underestimate her, or the powerful institutions whose bidding she does.
Richie, you and me both! I wonder what tipped him over the edge -- or what tipped Jill over the edge, since she seems to wear the pants in the family (as opposed to the diapers)...
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Biden has served his far left "fundamental transformist" handlers well. His unseemly tenure is nearing completion having disastrously encouraged and enabled a massive illegal invasion which greatly advances the anarchic intent of the antiamerican left which harnessed his obsequious and foggy minded mid'60s kumbaya outlook with grim and cynical expedition.At their behest he has of course degraded our Federal judiciary grievously but not as much as to put remedy beyond the reach of a DJT administration. As for Scotus, he so far has managed only to trade one leftist for another: BFD. Except, we do have to sweat it out on that accord until at least Jan. 22. So far so good. It will be a redeeming thing to see this overmatched man turned out to pasture.
ReplyDeleteNow the big, big question is: what will the Obama dynasty decree? If they support Kamalafornia our prospects are good. Most dems may see an advantage in accepting Kamalafornia's very chancy candidacy and concentrating rather on a new Speaker Pelosi dictatorship, the better to set the impeachment machine to its by now routine task of regular Presidential harassment. Should they by long chance win the Senate, then peachier still! And yeah, Kamalafornia could pull off a Kafaesque metamorphosis into apparent competence and even win.
But America is well positioned now for a redemption which once seemed a distant possibility. Even faultless Mrs. Obama might not be able to prevent it.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Should the antiamericans consummately fluff in Nov. , their thermonuclear, cosmic chaos will be a sight to behold, at least at a distance.
ReplyDeleteAfter their '72 creaming they grudgingly went "establishment "intending unrelenting undermining and discreditation of our civilization. They managed to put an amoral draft dodger and his man hating ehh, companion in our White House, which they blithely degraded beyond measure. They put a commie tutored "community organizer" seemingly dedicated to "fundamentally transforming"us whether we needed it or not there to. But he succumbed to the material perks of office which dulled his radical resolve.
Nonetheless, those were haymakers which set America staggering and in 2016 the slavering radicals were set to land the finishing blast. The prevention of their glorious decisive triumph (which would have handed them a rubber stamp Scotus) almost drove them into the barricades, Paris Commune style. Their always delicate psyches, driven close to insanity by the long wait for the reward of their entitlement and for its terribly unjust detour since 2016, may well drive them underground if they lose this time to their very definition of evil, DJT. The previously unthinkable political barbarism they have displayed since 2020 may well, with defeat, turn inward and consume them in a whirlwind of bottomless despair. As if simply enduring America's gross imperfections, which only they fully perceive, is not more than enough for the poor dears,such an injustice might drive them to irremediable distraction and dissolution.That is "a consequence devoutly to be wished". Let's make it happen in NOV.!!!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I have the impression that Chelsea Clinton is a decent person. Yes, if she were to achieve office she would no doubt use it to advance left wing convictions. But she appears to lack the vindictive deviousness of her parents, counterintuitively so when considers the amoral example they set her.
ReplyDelete". . . when one considers. . . " rather. Jack
ReplyDeleteI agree: Biden served his masters well, even selflessly in the end. I never thought he could swallow his pride, but politicians have a remarkable ability to self-congratulate even in the course of being humiliated. To a true egomaniac, a loss is never a loss. It's an injustice, or maybe, as in this case, an act of supreme nobility. One does has to wonder, though, how okay Biden is with this about face. He may harbor resentments against, oh, Kam-Kam, for example, that could meaningfully dent her ability to surmount her long list of challenges.
ReplyDeleteJack, probably the best case scenario is that the Left, defeated at the ballot box in November, decides to go the Jeremy Corbyn route and become even more radical. It well might. The Bernie Sanders wing of the party could argue...now it's OUR turn! Even better would be a descent of the lefties into anarchic violence, which would be a gift to Trump beyond price, if you ask me.