To a substantial extent, the aftermath of the oogy Presidential debate this week has been more revealing than the debate itself. Nobody who has been paying attention should have been surprised by President Biden disturbing performance. Just the fact that he was willing, or was allowed, to participate in the debate at all had me thinking that day, “Well, I guess they must have figured out some way for Joe to keep his dementia at bay for 90 minutes.” They hadn’t. Biden could have pulled out of the debate with relatively minimal damage, citing his health (he did have a cold) or something else. The blow-back and speculation would have not significantly more critical than what he received for skipping the traditional Presidential live appearance on the Super Bowl broadcast.
There is speculation that Joe was deliberately set up to fail. In the previous EA post about this debacle—and anyone who was pleased or amused by Biden’s distress needs an ethics transplant—I attributed the President being subjected to the national and international humiliation to his party’s, campaign’s and staff’s incompetence. Hanlon’s Razor still compels that verdict, but I must say some of the recent conspiracy theories sound increasingly plausible.
In this post from May 21, I harshly criticized George Mason professor Jeremy Mayer’s USA Today column headlined, “How Biden Can Save America From Trump’s Return To The White House: Drop Out of the Race.” Professor Mayer was gracious, good-natured and gutsy enough to come here to defend his position and also join the comment wars. He’s an admirable person and a thoughtful one, obviously. I just realized that I never apologized for calling him an “idiot” in my post. I still disagree strongly with his article, but he’s not an idiot, and I hereby apologize for that slur. It was unfair and wrong. I’m sorry, I regret it, and I will try to restrict my use of “idiot” in the future to genuine idiots.
But I digress. I would be fascinated to know how the events of this week have altered his position, if at all. To quote the USA Today piece: “Biden could announce, anytime this summer, that he’s out. He could use the same logic that got him the nomination in 2020. He sincerely and accurately believed that he was the Democrat with the best chance to beat Trump. Now, he is one of the few national Democrats who could get Trump reelected.”
Based on Biden’s defiant rally yesterday, I don’t see how he could reverse himself and withdraw without looking bullied and being further humiliated. One thing we know about Biden’s personality is that he is insecure, and as a lifetime over-achiever he bristles at criticism and being, in his view, underestimated. Many are evoking the model of President Lyndon Johnson, who withdrew from his re-election campaign in 1968. Johnson was more popular than Biden at the time, and he withdrew much earlier, in March. He also had a divisive and much hated Republican looming as his likely opponent, Richard Nixon. But Johnson really was, as George W. Bush claimed to be, “a uniter not a divider.” He saw his presence in the race as further dividing what was already an ominously divided country, as well as his party. Biden has actively encouraged division as President. Biden’s no Johnson.
Other points…
1. That cringey moment above from Biden’s after-debate event did nothing to dispel the suspicion that Dr. Jill Biden is an aspiring Edith Wilson, Woodrow’s wife who hid her husband’s disabling stroke from the public while she and his doctor essentially served as acting-President. Jill’s talking to Joe in the clip like he’s a toddler, and declaring his performance in the debate as “great” is yet another in the long, long, long trail of “It isn’t what it is” Machiavellianisms (or Orwellianisms?) the Democrats have employed in recent years. How can anyone trust this party?
2. Jill also apparently had been given the official Axis talking point that Joe babbled and slurred the truth—it was in there somewhere!–while Trump lied. Last night I heard Anderson Cooper on CNN refer contemptuously to “Trump’s torrent of lies.” Then he played a clip to illustrate the “torrent” that I would assess as substantially true, and far truer than many of Biden’s whoppers, such as claiming that he had been endorsed by the Border Patrol. Message in that one: his illegal immigrant policy must be good, because the Border Patrol approves of it. “To be clear, we never have and never will endorse Biden,” the Border Patrol union responded. We’re used to this double standard by now, or should be: Trump lies, and Biden is just being Biden.
3. All of the networks, their reporters and talking heads really earned the “Casablanca” clip….
…for acting like Biden’s revealed mental decline was a horrible surprise to them. And they wonder why so few members of the public trust today’s news media? They have known all along, and simply lied about it. When a journalist has broken ranks and wrote or said that Biden was foggy and getting worse, he or she has been pounced upon and declared a villain. The same journalists who gleefully published leaked stories of President Trump’s characteristically intemperate remarks when he foolishly thought he could trust those around him have routinely suppressed information that would show Biden for what he has become.
True, this is in a not-so-grand tradition of reporters covering Presidents, but JFK was supposedly the last POTUS whose serious health problems were covered up by the press. Clearly not.
4. Speaking of the news media: it would be nice if it at least attempted to provide context to their reporting. While breathlessly speculating about Biden being replaced as the Democratic nominee, our journalists have largely ignored a rather crucial fact: at least three states don’t let parties switch out candidates like Elizabeth Taylor changed husbands. It’s already too late to remove Joe Biden from the ballot in Wisconsin. As of yesterday, the fourth Friday in June, it was too late to remove Biden from the ballot in Nevada. Only a few weeks remain before it will be too late to remove Biden from the ballot in Georgia. South Carolina does not allow candidates to withdraw for political reasons. So the professor’s “anytime this summer” assessment isn’t quite right (if Trump said that, it would be a lie). Of course, I have little doubt that when it comes to “saving democracy,” the patriotic Democrats in these states will do what their party usually does in such situations: ignore the law. Democracy!
5. Many commentators have been using revolting levels of equivocation to try to minimize Biden’s flop. “Early debate was a gamble Joe Biden may regret,” declared Sky News. May regret? If he doesn’t regret it, Biden is completely senile. “Joe Biden’s debate performance was among the worst by any presidential candidate in history, if not the worst,” concluded Martha Kelner. Uh, Martha? It was obviously the worst, and nothing before it even came close. “Never mind Dukakis,” said Presidential historian Doug Brinkley yesterday. “That was the worst performance in a presidential debate in our history.”
But you didn’t need to be a Presidential historian to make that assessment, just eyes, ears, and a memory.
6. Another correspondent on an MSNBC panel yesterday said that “one bad night” shouldn’t cancel out Biden’s 30 years of public service. Hack. Even for an MSNBC panelist, this was too much to swallow. Another member of the panel scoffed and said, “It wasn’t ‘one night’!We’ve been seeing that Joe Biden now for years. And the question isn’t what he’s done in the past 30 years, but what he’s capable of doing in the next four!”
I bet they don’t have that guy on MSNBC again.
7. Further grasping at the “one bad might” straw, a dispiriting number of talking heads tried to compare Biden’s implosion to Barack Obama’s first debate with Mitt Romney in 2012, which briefly had his campaign in panic mode. “Candidates have recovered from bad first debates before!” I have heard more than once. Obama—he is such a weasel—even endorsed this insulting deceit, writing on X, “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
I see that Obama got the “Joe babbled and slurred the truth while Trump lied”memo. Heck, he might have written it. Ironically, comparing his “bad debate night” to Biden’s is itself a lie. Obama was sluggish in countering some of Mitt’s points, which is a long way from sending multiple exhibits into the Authentic Frontier Gibberish Hall of Fame.” (“Rarit!”) and looking like an extra on “Fear the Walking Dead.”
Naturally, the New York Times picked up and ran with Obama’s falsehood: “The former president faced a similar crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign after a bad debate performance in 2012” the Grey Lady declared. Obama losing a debate to Mitt Romney was “similar” to Joe Biden showing the world that his brain is shrinking by the minute? Brilliant analysis.
8. The efforts to turn Biden’s disaster back on Trump were similarly risible. “Trump tripped, too. He called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, a documentary filmmaker, a “fil-i-maker,” noted Politico.
Wow. I guess Trump better withdraw from the race too.
9. Finally, it looks like Biden’s cynical choice of a VP is finally paying off. It seems to be dawning on everyone that the Democrats can’t replace Joe with anyone but Kamala Harris without sparking revolt from the DEI wing of the party. When Nicholas Kristof, good Times progressive he, tweeted out this during the debate…
…he was immediately accused of being a racist. “Please shut up. And I notice that you skipped clean over our BLACK VICE PRESIDENT and all your named folk are WHITE. We see y’all,” tweeted one reader. “Why not Kamala, Nick? Never mind, we know why,” wrote another.
Why? Because Kamala only makes marginally more sense with all her faculties intact than Joe does in the throes of dementia.
ADDED: 10. Oh goody! I can get to ten! Here’s an example of progressive media desperation and bias: this article in The Hill headlined, “Biden lacked oomph, but the transcript tells a different tale”. Is that what this answer lacked…
…”Oomph?”
When I audition an actor for a role, I require him or her to deliver an audition in front of me. Is the actor compelling? Does the actor have a strong voice? Register character, intelligence and presence? It he or she a skilled communicator. Do they understand what they are saying? It would be useless and absurd to just require them to hand me the text as their audition. What the Hill is essentially arguing with this ridiculous piece is for viewers to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.
Ethics Alarms 
“Nobody who has been paying attention should have been surprised by President Biden disturbing performance.”
Exactly, they have watched him for four years. They knew he was declining. They lied. When they were called on it, they said, “Who are you going to believe, us or your lying eyes?” and a big slew of Democratic voters in this country covered their eyes and said, “You, sir!”
Anyone who has watched the President on television should have seen it. There has been visible evidence each time that he is not fit as a fiddle or whatever euphemism they used to present him as a nice old man with a bad memory. This is why he campaigned from his basement, this is why he doesn’t give press conferences and this is why he has avoided unscripted interactions. I have experience in public speaking. I know that anyone who speaks in public from time to time will misspeak – my particular foil is the alliterative kind (Texas instead of Tennessee) – or make other verbal gaffes. It’s part of life. Presidents are not immune. But what we’ve seen from Biden is not the occasional word fumble.
What viewers saw Thursday night was what reasonable people (including political opponents) have been saying for years. The man is not well. They have been forced to acknowledge that this is not a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Rather than admit they’ve been running interference for – checks notes – the only person who can prevent the Existential Threat to Democracy Donald Trump from seizing power, they have circled the wagons and are now throwing out excuse after excuse for his bad performance.
I firmly believe that Biden was never intended to last this long. I could be wrong. I’m not omniscient nor do I have the power of knowing what other people are thinking the way a lot of people seem to just know what Trump is thinking. I do think that Biden was intended to win the election, serve for a little while, then gracefully bow out so that we could have our first female President (and a BIPOC, too!).
But something went wrong. For reasons they could not predict…somehow…VP Harris turned out to be massively unpopular and spectacularly incompetent. Instead of grooming someone younger and more fit for the job for 2024, they just crossed their fingers and let the news media whitewash everything.
Comparing Obama’s performance to Biden’s is as stupid as that ridiculously reductionist meme that now-multiple people have posted on Facebook using Batman as a metaphor: Just because you think Alfred is too old to take care of [the] Batcave, you don’t replace him with the Joker.
To which I have commented:
Why is it a choice between keeping Alfred or putting the Joker in charge? Are there not any qualified butlers/confidantes in Gotham City?
Bruce Wayne, once he realized Alfred was aging past his ability to perform the important functions he does at Wayne Manor and in the Batcave, should have begun the process of finding someone capable enough to take his place. This person should not only be trustworthy enough not to steal the Wayne family silver, but also not to reveal Bruce’s secret identity.
Yes, this will be a painfully emotional moment. But it is better to plan for it so that he can make a smooth transition on the day when he thanks Alfred for his years of service, retire him with a generous pension and replace him.
Suppose, though, when Robin, Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon all come to him and express their concerns about Alfred’s health, Bruce angrily denies there’s a problem, accuses them of making things up and insists Alfred is as able as ever, he has only himself to blame when Alfred appears at a Wayne Foundation gala wearing the batsuit, spilling tea over everyone and calling his boss Clark Kent.
If Trump defeats President Biden this November, it won’t be because of MAGA Republicans, white nationalists (or whatever they’re called now), Russia, fake news on Facebook or conservative women who let their husbands and fathers tell them how to vote (thanks a lot, Hillary!). The Democratic Party will have only itself to blame.
Regarding your statement that “The Democratic Party will have only itself to blame”, I could not agree more. They shoved a DEI hire into the VP role; she is incompetent for even that role, but if they try to name another person to run for President, the frothing far-left wing of the party (which is increasingly the bulk of the party) will absolutely explode. This is actually the only reason I can fathom that they wanted a debate so early in the calendar year; perhaps they are hoping that if they insert some other viable candidate, they will still have time for the far-left to calm down before November. In other words, they will rely on “TDS” to win the day.
I am weary of pointing out Biden’s addled state to my friends and family – and they’re sick of hearing it from me, too. But we’re living the tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In the tale, the wisdom from the child makes everyone wake up immediately; however, in real life, apparently the kid needs to keep on shouting it for a while while people slowly get the message. I think the child is obligated to continue arguing for the truth for as long as he can.
At least people are starting to wake up. For a while, it felt less like I’ve been shouting ‘but he has nothing on!’ and more like I’ve been hollering that ‘Soylent Green is people!’ They’re both right, but only one ever gets listened to.
I ran across this in, of all places, a Time Magazine piece. It’s a quote given by a Bidenista. I think it summarizes where I think the Democrats are and will remain:
“Things are dark. No doubt about it,” says one hand who has been sitting in the West Wing since Day One. “But onward. That’s the only option that’s on the table.”
“The sun’ll come up, tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun….”
“Adelante!” was evidently Columbus’s motto. Funny a Bidenista would deploy the motto used by a guy who was trying to convince his crews they were not going to sail off the edge of the world.
I’ll believe that Joe Biden is less fit to run the country than Donald Trump when I see more former employees who have worked in the Biden White House come out and say he is unfit than there are former Trump White House employees who have come out and said Trump is unfit for the job.
Until then, I will continue to believe that of the two options, Biden is more fit for the job than Trump.
Oooh! That’s really clever, Not a Lawyer. Got any others? Is that the pick of the talking point litter this morning?
Ok Old BIll, but only since you asked nicely:
One left-wing talking point I’ve seen since the debate is that when Biden accused Trump of “sex with a pornstar” and “molesting a woman in public,” Trump denied sex with the pornstar, but did not deny the molestation.
This is, of course, completely unfair. Donald Trump cannot deny the molestation without having to pay further financial damages to E. Jean Carroll, whom he molested and defamed.
Because the amount of disgruntled former employees who try to get their 15 minutes of fame is a good measure of someone’s ability to lead. That makes no sense.
You really think they’re all just “disgruntled” and have no legitimate concerns? Many were totally loyal to Trump until he did something so bad that they quit, like Bill Barr. I mean I guess you can say Mike Pence is “disgruntled,” but for pretty good reason!
If any company had a new boss take over and suddenly the amount of “disgruntled employees” skyrocketed, you’d of course be suspicious of that boss’s leadership skills. If employee satisfaction and retention then went way up under the next boss, you wouldn’t say we should rehire the last one who resulted in a ton of company turnover. Your spin here just shows the lengths people will go to in order to justify putting a guy you wouldn’t trust to run an Arby’s in charge of the country.
“If any company had a new boss take over and suddenly the amount of “disgruntled employees” skyrocketed, you’d of course be suspicious of that boss’s leadership skills.”
Is that how you feel about Elon Musk?
Of course. Musk is also an extremely irresponsible and poor leader.
surprised we haven’t heard too much from Rex Tillerson or Jeff Sessions.
Others were selfish and thinking only of themselves, and I’d put Mark Milley, James Mattis, and Gina Haspel in that latter category. They all feared their reputations and post-administration futures would be unfairly damaged because of association with this administration and turned coat.
If you don’t like who it is you work for and have decided you don’t want to work for him anymore, then you resign, quietly. You don’t then stab him in the back, which all of them did. Maybe they figured because it was Trump and they believed he was done, backstabbing him didn’t matter. Backstabbing is backstabbing, though, no matter who you direct it against, and no one should trust someone who backstabs.
Bill Barr has rather embarrassingly reversed himself, after resigning, saying he’ll be backing Trump because Biden is no longer fit. Elaine Chao quit with 15 days to go, and her husband is known not to be Trump’s biggest fan.
You’re going to have to do better than what you’ve said so far to persuade me.
Yes, I do believe some, like James Comey, like Anthony Scaramucci, like Omarosa, were disgruntled, the first because Trump wouldn’t let him bully him, the second because he was a ten-day mistake and humiliated, the last because she was shown to be useless. I’m surprised we haven’t heard too much from Rex Tillerson or Jeff Sessions.
Others were selfish and thinking only of themselves, and I’d put Mark Milley, James Mattis, and Gina Haspel in that latter category. They all feared their reputations and post-administration futures would be unfairly damaged because of association with this administration and turned coat.
If you don’t like who it is you work for and have decided you don’t want to work for him anymore, then you resign, quietly. You don’t then stab him in the back, which all of them did. Maybe they figured because it was Trump and they believed he was done, backstabbing him didn’t matter. Backstabbing is backstabbing, though, no matter who you direct it against, and no one should trust someone who backstabs.
Bill Barr has rather embarrassingly reversed himself, after resigning, saying he’ll be backing Trump because Biden is no longer fit. Elaine Chao quit with 15 days to go, and her husband is known not to be Trump’s biggest fan.
You’re going to have to do better than what you’ve said so far to persuade me.
Trump, unlike every other President, was prevented from appointing experienced, reliable loyal veterans of other adminitsrations because so many of them were intimidated and threatened with exile from the DC Merry-Go-Round if they agreed to work with such a pariah. The whole Bush orbit was so hostile against Trump for his gross insults against George II and poor Jeb as well as Cheney that Trump had few Republicans and no Democrats (the Clinton orbit, the Obama-worshipers) to turn to. So he ended up with a disproportionate number of military types, who put country above emotion and partisanship—a terrible match. They thought they could manage Trump, but as a CEO, he refused to be managed. And as a non-military veteran who had alienated THEM with his stupid remarks about prisoners of war (thus making a life-time enemy of John McCain, among others), Trump was bound to frustrate these types sufficiently for them to turn on him.
All true, but that’s not saying much for those other folks, who ultimately put being petty above serving their country faithfully.
All of that is Trump’s fault, and evidence that he’s a bad leader.
Not a substantive, supported or reasonable answer. Do better.
How is it unsupported or unreasonable? These were your words:
”for his gross insults against George II and poor Jeb as well as Cheney…he refused to be managed. And as a non-military veteran who had alienated THEM with his stupid remarks about prisoners of war (thus making a life-time enemy of John McCain, among others), Trump was bound to frustrate these types sufficiently for them to turn on him.”
So Trump’s words and actions aren’t the problem, but the people who had totally rational responses to them were? It doesn’t make any sense. There is never any expectation from anyone on this blog that Trump should or can make better choices. Some leader.
Here’s what you don’t understand and apparently are incapable of grasping. You and the mindlessly partisan think “Trump’s fault” is beating Hillary Clinton and getting elected, as well as being a “bad person.” Democracy works only when the public agrees that the democratic decision of their fellow citizens is respected, and that the President-elect, regardless of what has happened before in his life, career or the campaign, must be accorded the same deference and respect, as well as loyalty,as Washington, Lincoln. FDR or any of his predecessors. That means that every President must begin his term with the good wishes and patriotic support of the public. The job is, in part, a human flag. Trump, and only Trump, was denied that crucial element of his job from the start, before he was even sworn in. That was NOT his fault, because, as I said, what went before is irrelevant.
I am not making this up: there are volumes and volumes laying this out as the evolved nature and functioning of the Presidency. Trump alone faced a “resistance” immediately. He was not allowed to ever benefit from the symbolic prestige of the Presidency—for example, those chosen for the Kennedy Center Honors, which the President had always hosted, refused to attend if Trump was there. Don’t tell me that’s fair because he was a “bad man”: he was PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING UNITED STATES. Prominent entertainers refused to participate in his inaugural balls, and that participation has always symbolized the nation’s unification around a new elected leader. Trump wasn’t able to even throw out the first pitch of the baseball season.
This crippled his Presidency, as it was designed to, and then the Democrats and media set out to hobble it further, with the Russian Collusion investigation and more. The best thing Trump said in the debate was when he said that he wished Biden had been a great President, because if he had been, Trump wouldn’t have had to run. Whether he really believes that or not, and I doubt it, it’s still the way he and every other civically competent and patriotic American should think. You don’t, and the people like you don’t—and, like you, they don’t comprehend how our system must operate if it is to function, probably because they were never taught about the Presidency’s origins and history. Heck, I wasn’t, but I taught myself.
When Mitch McConnell said, early in Obama’s term, that the goal of his party was to make Obama a one-term President, he was excoriated as un-American (and, of course, racist). It was un-American, and Mitch backtracked, but the same people whoattacked him set out to make make sure that Trump couldn’t even have a first term. It’s despicable, divisive and destructive, and the basis of the long-running tag here, the 2106 Election Ethics Train Wreck.
One of the most infuriating accusations against Trump, one of the Big Lies used against him, especially by “experts” and scholars, is that he defied “democratic norms.” No President in history has had so many democratic norms debased, defied, and ignored to harm him, #1 among these being the crucial norm of allowing an elected President to have a chance to be President, with everything that implies.
I almost didn’t bother to write this, because talking with you on this topic is like arguing with an old brick. But what the hell—I don’t sense from what you’ve been writing here that you are capable of learning or remotely open-minded, but hey, ya never know. You’re welcome.
And I may make this a Comment of the Day.
”what went before is irrelevant.”
I can’t agree. I don’t know of any president that’s ever gotten a blank slate from the public. Trump was treated like a bad man unworthy of respect because he was a bad man unworthy of respect. The idea that he should be treated as anything else because he won the presidency is to me an authoritarian stance.
But even if you do condemn all those who didn’t show Trump the proper respect during his presidency, 2024 is a contest between two men, Biden and Trump. Biden attended Trump’s inauguration. Trump did not attend Biden’s. If you truly believe that Trump was robbed of what was owed to him in 2016, why do you overlook that he tried to rob Biden of the very same?
You can’t agree because you are ignorant and obstinate. Where do you think the “honeymoon” period term came from? Every first term President was given a blank slate, even Richard Nixon. (Not so unelected Presidents, the VPs who took over.)
You really should comment less.
If you truly believe that Trump was robbed of what was owed to him in 2016, why do you overlook that he tried to rob Biden of the very same?
1. I truly believe everything I post.Imply otherwise at your peril.
2. I knew you would make this evasive argument. I was talking about Trump. The fact that Trump and his supporters were not fair to Biden does not make the conduct against Trump magically ethical. Again, Ethics 101.
Care to explain how? Or do you think you win with just a drive-by attack?
The explanations of how are literally embedded in Jack’s comment.
I know what Jack said. What do you say?
I am not trying to persuade you.
Then why are you here? Just to tell us on the right we are wrong? Or just to be a shit-stirrer?
Steve, the two options you suggest do not need to be mutually exclusive. As I said in a previous post, I make it a point not to argue with geniuses, idiots, and zealots. It is a waste of time.
Not a Lawyer’s incessant sniping does not contribute to this blog. It detracts from it. The only time NAL shows a modicum effort towards common ground is with Jack for fear of getting banned by him again.
That type of pattern suggests dishonesty to me; however, it is difficult to truly know what is in one’s heart.
Good answer! And as Trump pointed out in the debate, Biden won’t fire anyone, because (he didn’t say this, but its true), jobs in this administration are based on ideology, loyalty to the Cause and group membership. Performance and character are irrelevant.
Good work, Not A Lawyer! You got everyone to jump down a rabbit hole after you and not talk about The Demented One. How are you compensated? Annual salary? Hourly? By the word? A fixed sum for each blog you soil daily?
At the beginning he said he’d personally fire anyone who he saw abusing another. Mmmhmmm. Anyone who believed that is an idiot.
Well he himself is a victim of elder abuse. he’s just too far gone to realize it.
Not a Lawyer wrote, “I’ll believe that Joe Biden is less fit to run the country than Donald Trump when I see more former employees who have worked in the Biden White House come out and say he is unfit than there are former Trump White House employees who have come out and said Trump is unfit for the job.”
In other words, there are worse things?
Be careful around Ethics Alarms, many of us know the unethical rationalizations list almost as well as Jack does.
Jack wrote:
The same journalists who gleefully published leaked stories of President Trump’s characteristically intemperate remarks when he foolishly thought he could trust those around him have routinely suppressed information that would show Biden for what he has become.
Which once again shows Robert Hur was an ethics hero. Not only did he laudably refrain from prosecuting a clearly infirm Biden for crimes for which he had plenty of evidence, he honestly pointed out the weakened condition of Biden’s capacity from his experience interviewing him. This was the dying canary in the coal mine (I know, it probably died long before to those actually paying attention) that the media not only ignored but attacked relentlessly, and promoted every voice critical of Hur’s report.
And now, I think we clearly understand why the administration has raised the risible “executive privilege” argument to refuse to release the tapes of Biden’s interviews with Hur. It’s clear from his debate performance those tapes would’ve been further irrefutable evidence of his decline. So they make a clearly flawed legal argument to delay the inevitable release of the tapes as long as possible, hopefully beyond the election.
But if we see them come out soon, we’ll know why — the Democrats will by trying to pressure Biden to step aside.
Or maybe whoever has custody of the tapes will decide that Biden isn’t worth protecting anymore. He really never deserved to be protected and protecting him now is putting the nation in danger.
“…I will try to restrict my use of “idiot” in the future to genuine idiots.”
Even non-idiots are capable of holding idiotic ideas or adopting idiotic positions from time to time. Bias can make most people act like idiots from time to time.
“…the question isn’t what he’s done in the past 30 years, but what he’s capable of doing in the next four!”
For me, the more urgent question is what he’s capable of doing (or not) in the next six months. As anxious as I am about a second Biden term, I’m gravely concerned that he’s President right now! The image of that doddering old husk as the “leader of the free world” is tragically comic. He couldn’t lead a one-car funeral procession.
There’s a military adage that you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had. As much as I wish we had a true conservative choice for President, we now must go do political battle with the candidate we have, flawed though he is, to try and stop the rot and begin to restore our constitutional republic. Time is not on our side, and I pray it is not too late. There is a big difference in being loyal to a Presidential candidate and being loyal to our Constitution, our country, and our freedoms. Trump just happens to be the one guy in the race who supports those things, is willing to do the work that have to be done, and has his finger on the pulse of conservative Americans’ beliefs and concerns. He will (hopefully!) have a term to begin (but only begin) the work, which will have to be continued by others. That next generation of conservative leadership must be identified and prepared to move forward in 2028 after Trump’s term.
For Biden to call anyone else a liar is really rich. “Kettle to Pot!!” Biden lies all the time, about things large and small, important and trivial, and has a long history of blatant prevarications, always excused as “storytelling.” He tells and retells lies long after they have been exposed and debunked, even by his own side. Like all narcissists, he makes himself the center of most every “story,” trying to always become the hero of his own nonsensical epic life story. Only a narcissist could fail to see the folly in his own lies. “Corn Pop was a bad dude.” “Cannibals ate my uncle.” Please.
I read that Republican Representative Chip Roy is calling on VP Kamalamadingdong to invoke the 25th Amendment. I’m not sure if he’s serious or merely making a point to the Democrats and the position they are now in.
And Doctor Jill is an evil Svengali.
”“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
—Donald Trump, great supporter of the Constitution
Yup, one of his most stupid and irresponsible comments. I posted on it, in fact. (The Trump dossier here is so huge, its almost futile to try to search through it.) Yup, he just says stuff. Too bad. I hate it.
But “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” is so wildly hyperbolic that it doesn’t mean anything. All rules? Gravity? Chess? The speed limit? Roberts Rules of Order? The Model Rules of Profesioanl Conduct? This wasn’t a planned out statement but just a spontaneous expression of outrage. Still disturbing from anyone in politics or seeking office.
But “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” is so wildly hyperbolic that it doesn’t mean anything.
Yes it does. It means he doesn’t believe in Democracy.
No, it means he doesn’t understand the law. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to, Presidents have lots of lawyers and a Justice Department for that.
No it means he doesn’t believe in our Democracy since he doesn’t believe in the laws that actually govern our Democracy and make it possible in the first place.
He understands the law, he doesn’t think they matter.
He understands Democracy, he just doesn’t think it matters.
Don’t come on here and just make unsupported assertions like that. This isn’t a random opinion site. You have no idea what Donald Trump knows or doesn’t know. He’s not a lawyer, and probably has the same understanding of the Constitution as the average citizen, meaning very little. If you want to be Trump-Deranged troll do it elsewhere. If your next comment isn’t substantive , then you’ll be banned. I promise.
Hello again! This is Jack. “Lucas” is now banned. He was an easy one: all he wanted to do from the beginning was to shout “Trump BAD!” to the skies.I’ve wasted too many hours and brain cells with these jerks. Any idea why they’re crawling out of the woodwork now?
Bye Lucas. You’re banned. Get lost.
“For Biden to call anyone else a liar is really rich. “Kettle to Pot!!” Biden lies all the time, about things large and small, important and trivial, and has a long history of blatant prevarications, always excused as “storytelling.” He tells and retells lies long after they have been exposed and debunked, even by his own side. Like all narcissists, he makes himself the center of most every “story,” trying to always become the hero of his own nonsensical epic life story. Only a narcissist could fail to see the folly in his own lies. “Corn Pop was a bad dude.” “Cannibals ate my uncle.” Please.”
Yes, I continue to marvel (or be depressed) at how thoroughly the “Trump lies but Biden tells stories” lie has wormed its way into the brains of so, so many otherwise intelligent people, especially when the vast majority of what the Washington Post’s database calls “lies” of Trump are not.
The biggest baddest ethics villain in this Orwellian political nightmare is our faux plucky First Lady Jill Biden. Her oversized ego and willingness to sell her soul made her the perfect handler/enabler for dementia-jo. Propping up her husband despite the increasingly glaring humiliation the last four years can’t be for some financial deal considering all the dirty money the Biden family has stashed away. One must question just what kinds of feelings she harbors for the Big Guy.
Did love turn sour after years of draining and disinfecting his drool bucket without adequate recognition? Only those within the inner, inner circle know for sure. One thing that insiders let slip is that Jill desperately needs JB to be reelected because she was promised the cover of Time Magazine’s Person of the year in December.
Y’all have a great weekend and keep the faith…🤠
Indeed, she is reprehensible. I’ll even throw in the brief but devastating assessment I’ve noticed women default to when they detect a traitor to their sex: “She’s a bitch.”
Jack asked above, “How can anyone trust this party?”
Anyone that’s using any kind of critical thinking can’t trust the Democratic Party.
As I’ve said many times before…
There is a problem I’ve observed with the political left, the problem is with the core sheeple supporters of the Democratic Party. The party has a loyal flock of sheeple that will willingly step over the edge of reality and straight into totalitarianism by blindly voting for anyone that has a (D) after it without using a smidgen of critical thinking, and it’s been that way for about 60 years. I’ve talked to self-proclaimed left-centered moderate Democrats that mouth the words of party independence, like “I’d vote for a Republican if they had the best candidate”, and then turn around in the same breath and say something like “As a left-center moderate who votes for Democrats, I would like to see more Democrats win elections” and “I sometimes hesitate to identify myself as a Democrat, even though I always vote for Democrats”. These things are clearly in conflict with each other and show us that they cannot recognize the deeply rooted hypocrisy and bigotry within themselves. This sheeple core of the Democratic Party that “always vote for Democrats” would knowingly vote for the Antichrist as long as the Antichrist identified with the Democratic Party. Furthermore; the farther left that progressives drag the Democratic Party towards totalitarianism the more they demonize and eat their own while they openly alienate the self proclaimed moderates in the political center. The progressive left has turned on those that used to be considered moderate liberals and tar them as Republicans and fascists even though they still “always vote for Democrats”. Even if you “always vote for Democrats”, you better not openly oppose what progressives want or you’ll be subject to their wrath.
From my mid-west perch I see the big difference between the political left and the political right in the 21st century is that the actual actions of the political left to fundamentally change the USA are anti-constitution and anti-democracy while they openly project their anti-democracy traits onto the political right who are actively trying to stop the left’s shift towards totalitarianism. We’re in a period of time where the political left is openly using the same kind of demonization propaganda tactics “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” that Adolf Hitler used to maintain and grow his power base and they’re throwing in the same kind of “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” pure weaponization of the judicial system tactic that Communist governments used/uses to suppress their opposition.
The Republican Party does have a similar kind of voting issue but I’ve observed that it’s being driven primarily because of the socialistic tendencies and more recent blatantly anti-Constitution and anti-democracy movements of the progressive wing of the political left since the 1960’s. Card carrying Republicans don’t have much for options in the 21st century, they either vote their party into office to oppose the cultural and political shift that the progressives are trying to ram down our throats or they kowtow to it.
No Jack, we can no longer trust the Democratic Party as a whole right now because it’s been consumed by extreme progressives that are hell bent on transforming the USA away from its Constitutional Republic roots.
By the way; as a life-long independent I’m having a real problem these days trying to honestly maintain my previous stance to not vote for Trump. I’m very torn between that stance and the possibility of the election being won by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. I said before that “It would take an unpredictable act of God, an extraordinary turn of events, for me to vote for Trump or Biden in the 2024 general election”, that extraordinary turn of events might cause me to vote for Trump as a pure protest vote against the trends I’ve observed in the political left. The outcome of the Democratic Party convention might be the extraordinary turn of events, but then again, the convention does give them an opportunity to choose a different path.
I’m really torn these days.
Not competent to stand trial
or
Competent to lead the country
Only one of those two things can be true.
Willem,
The simplicity of your truism is magnificent.
Thanks. Working on my idiot-savant creds; have had the idiot part down pat for some time now.
Well, it is good to see that there is still a modicum of interest in the election on this blog.
Being coy, eh?
D T has always (or, at least, since I started hearing him in 2015) pronounced “film” as “fill-im” and “airplane” as “aeroplane.”
I attribute those pronunciations to his Scottish mother, since “fill-im” is characteristic of some dialects of Scots English. (“Aeroplane” may be as well, although of that I’m less certain.)
My father never could stop referring to helicopters as “heliocopters.”
“Get me a ticket for an aeroplane…”