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Whither Biden and the Democrats?
What are these people going to do?
Forget the Vice President’s peculiar peccadilloes vis a vis touching and sniffing and (allegedly) forcing himself on women. There’s an easy way around that: the Democratic press can simply ignore it, knowing full well that the Republicans have a glass houses problem when it comes to sexual misadventure and so can’t throw many stones.
The real problem is that Mr. Biden is pretty clearly mentally incompetent; not merely to be a good President, he’s always been that, but even to successfully compete for the office.
I think it is extraordinarily doubtful that this man, who now seems unable to utter a diagrammable sentence of more than three words with or without a teleprompter, can take part in any debate that doesn’t immediately make his growing mental disability obvious even to his supporters. The current epidemic provides him a convenient excuse to hide from the cameras, but that can’t last indefinitely. When he eventually surfaces, the contrast in energy, coherence, and focus between him and President Trump will be glaringly evident.
It seems to me that long before November one of two things has to happen: either Vice President Biden must be gently escorted from the stage, probably with a modest acknowledgment on his part that his failing health leaves him no longer up to the task or he has to strategically choose a running mate with the explicit understanding that the running mate, and not Joe Biden, will be the de facto President.
I don’t know if that last is possible, politically speaking. But I don’t think this is something the Democrats can do with a knowing wink; I think they have to make it very clear that the ticket on the ballot is printed upside-down, and that Biden will relinquish the top position as soon as practical once assuming office. Because if that isn’t widely understood and acknowledged, the charge that the Democrats are knowingly running a mental incompetent for the highest office will stick, and that’s not a good look.
It seems likely to me that Biden will step down before November, probably well before. That brings up the Bernie problem: if he’s still sorta kinda in the running, how bad will the collateral damage be if someone other than everyone’s favorite unreconstructed communist gets the nod?
My own thinking is that someone perceived as popular and charismatic and suitably identitarian will be pulled in, Michelle Obama being the obvious and extraordinarily unpleasant pick. That’s my personal nightmare scenario, that we’ll get an awful person with high name recognition but an essentially opaque past, who will then enjoy a campaign season honeymoon and hagiography that will last as long as the press can sustain it, while the Republican opposition is savaged with ever more unhinged ferocity by a deeply and now openly corrupt press.
Not that I’ve called an election right in the last ten years, of course.
Published in Elections
At last count there were 8 women accusing Biden. Then there are all those creepy pictures…
As to Trump’s accusers, I will look at them once the rabid media finds some substance to their claims. With all the smears, hoaxes and unfair and unsubstantiated attacks on Trump, apparently they were unable to present a compelling enough case for these supposed victims. And we’ve seen how they can make molehills into mountains, so if there was a there, there, I would certainly have heard about it.
You are also factually incorrect. He never claimed he “grabbed” any woman by anything. He said, referring to a certain type of woman, “if you are rich and famous, they’ll let you grab them by the pussy”. It was an observation which has quite a bit of merit actually, and profoundly embarrassing for feminists because they know it’s true and they don’t want to face it.
Personally, I don’t think 20 or 30 year-old claims should have any credence. I understand the situation various women were in, but as a practical matter the statute of limitations should prevail. After a certain amount of time has passed, it’s impossible to determine if something happened or didn’t with any accuracy.
I would welcome Biden as the nominee. He will lose badly. It looks to me your analysis is narrow and emotional. Biden is more of a loser than McCain, Romney, Kerry and Dukakis. He’s a pathetic candidate – and that’s not counting his possible mental decline.
I couldn’t disagree more. I have my views about what is and is not “beyond the pale” when it comes to sex. But you do you (and whoever else’ll have you).
There’s worlds of difference between weird sexual behavior with willing partners and normal sexual behavior with unwilling partners. Getting golden showers (if that ever happened, what do I know?) is just plain weird. But if thats what you want and you can get someone to do it to you without forcing them against their will…well, that’s between the two of you. We can have a conversation about what that means about character. It’s something altogether different when you force your mouth on an unwilling victim, and force your fingers up inside that same willing victim. As to evidence, well the left don’t seem to require it unless it’s a Democrat.
So until someone can show me credible evidence that Trump has done this, beyond him just talking like a middle schooler about it, then I’ll maintain that we Republicans aren’t living in glass houses on the subject.
Another blatent lie…
The bible says, and I paraphrase: “Do not judge. For the manner in which you judge is the manner in which you’ll be judged.” I’ll continue to judge Democrats the way they judge. Biden did it, and no amount of denial is enough to say he didn’t. Now…maybe he didn’t do it. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because in the meta…he did do it. Because all of us old white dudes do it. Right?
That’s goin’ on Facebook, Henry.
The difference here is that she told many people about it at the time.
I am and it sounds like you are trying to prop up Biden.
SmackDown! It’s awun! It’s awun like dawnkey kawng!
I recognize her credibility. Much stronger case – by far – than the Blasey-Ford allegations. I believe her as a human – from the picture I’ve been presented – but I’d like to be more informed of her political affiliations. She could still be a Democrat or maybe she transformed into a conservative, possibly as a result of her horrible experience with a powerful Democrat who ultimately presumes himself worthy of the nation’s highest office.
However, I cannot agree that any crime committed over seven years ago unreported, is worthy of prosecutorial efforts.
For sex crimes, personal assaults, and such, the window should be narrower. This would encourage prompt reporting. Should it not be the duty of every rape victim to file a report for the sake of future victims?
Two thoughts:
If Biden actually gets on the debate stage with Trump expect him to chemically enhanced. Steroids work and won’t even be illegal if a doctor says he needs some. I think he was juiced this morning for his Morning Joe appearance.
Speaking of nightmare scenarios, if Biden was elected and shuffled off after inauguration then who would move up to the empty VP slot? Nancy Pelosi, a heartbeat away from being President.
Arghhhh!
She was, at least, a Democrat. I read some of her statements and she indicated that she’d always looked up to Biden, and worked for him.
And any departure from the Narrative must be punished immediately, for the same reason you have to patch the cracks in a concrete dam. Biden’s unfitness for any office is manifest, yet the Front Row must still hew to the Party Line.
We have a cartoon media. You can see the little thought bubbles over their heads sometimes. Jake Tapper’s is written in shaky fear-drenched characters, it says “No!! Telling the truth might be habit forming! All must bow down!”
Reade apparently was to the left of Biden in her support during the primaries, backing Liz Warren first and then Sanders. I suppose if you want to conspiracy theory it, she could be some deep cover MAGA supporter, but odds are better if she timed her complaint to hurt Biden, she did it as a last-ditch effort to save Bernie’s campaign, not to help Trump in the general election.
I’m perfectly willing to presume Biden innocent. His hair-sniffing and handy-ness never struck me as a big deal anyway, and it’ll take some serious evidence to convince me that he’s a rapist.
The big store is the media’s flamboyant bankruptcy. There are still good journalists out there, but journalism is dying.
Journalism’s ‘cleaner’ at the local levels, because too many people go to Washington specifically to be advocacy journalists, and too many networks and news outlets there, in New York and other major cities support that type of point-of-view journalism that picks winners and losers before the story is written.
Sadly, journalism is dying even faster at the local levels. I think that’s a big part of the problem, and there’s probably no one to blame for that. Online advertising challenges local media revenue, which make hiring local reporters problematic. Gone are the days of the 1950’s reporter on the beat, and that’s a shame.
Thank G-d we’ve still got James Lileks, last of a dying breed.
I think the main thing is the more local a news story is, the less anyone can put spin on it, because they’ll have readers in their back yard who are close to the story, while it’s easier to put a narrative on a Washington report and never get called on it. You’ve seen that in the past few years with the Stoneman-Dougulas shootings and the Jussie Smollett assault claim — in both cases, the national media was perfectly fine parachuting in and taking Sheriff Israel and Jussie at their word, because that fit the national narrative the big media outlets wanted to use. It was the local media outlets in Miami and Chicago that exposed the truth, in part because it would have been tougher for the local media outlets to lie to their readers and viewers who knew the truth. The Washington/New York based people could have cared less about that.
Incorrect. Nancy would be first in line until such time as a new VPotUS were nominated by the new president (Joe’s VP) and confirmed. Nancy would still be Speaker of the House unless she were the nominee as VP.
Biden also got help from the large number of other candidates, who took each other out leaving Sleepy Joe and Comrade Bernie. Although Bernie more likely reflected their beliefs, the Dem elites realized Bernie as the nominee would sink the Democrat ticket faster than leaving a girl in a sinking car to drown.
No, the Dems are stuck with Joe, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there are plans behind discussed in (purple) smoke-filled rooms . . .
There is something to be said for a young woman in Washington trying to accuse a powerful man. Mary Jo Kopechne cannot be reached for comment. Nor can the waitress in the “waitress sandwich.”
The Minneapolis Star News has had no problem ignoring the antics of Congress critter Omar.
True, but Minneapolis is one of those places, like Austin, that has lots of media people who really want to be part of the bi-coastal cool kids club, and not stuck surrounded by Flyover country troglodyte dweebs.
Speaking of which, Chris Dodd is back. Heading the Biden VP “search committee.” You cannot make this stuff up.
😲 How is that search being conducted?
All we have to do to know that the plan to replace Biden is on, is to look at how he gets treated by the DNC PR outlets MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times…It looks like it has begun.
Timing is important too. They have to complete the swap before the convention. They can best do it by waiting for Biden ( and the deep state) to select his VP, then nudge him out and have him endorse the VP.
When they start ‘reporting’ on these #metoo scandals, or any other scandals involving Joe, it’s a giant tell. Hillary and the DNC control these outlets. Metoo is their #goto method to undermine their enemies and opponents.
Other scandals are tricky to play up because they are all implicated. So the metoo thing will dominate, plus his diminished mental capacities.
Biden team: “Well, we know we need a female on the ticket–so let’s let Dodd pick!”
Edward M. Kennedy was unavailable for comment.
You’re definitely seeing something very different than what the rest of us see.
That’s pretty much the sine qua non of the anti-Trump right.
This is Joe before the decline. He can put sentences together, but this is the real Joe, a braggart, a blusterer and a bully. Also an exaggerator to the point of lying. Here he tells a series of lies about his past, his placement, his awards. It’s quite a display.