Apparently some voters like to see an old guy defying the media and the pundits. The crowd in Wisconsin roared its approval when a “defiant” Biden said he was running. Maybe that’s why the new film “Thelma” is a big hit; it’s about a 93-year-old grandmother who gets scammed out of $10,000 and wreaks vengeance on the scammers. Filmed as an action movie, with high-speed races and and an explosion.
The New York Times, which leads the clamor to oust Biden, posted this story at 4:02 p.m. today.
President Biden just wrapped a brief but animated and defiant speech at a campaign event in Wisconsin, asserting that he would continue in the race and describing former President Donald J. Trump as a liar and threat to democracy.
“I’m staying in this race,” Mr. Biden told the crowd, to cheers. “I’m not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out three-and-a-half years of work.” Mr. Biden’s speech in Wisconsin is the first of two appearances on Friday that will be closely watched as doubts among Democrats intensify about his ability to beat former President Donald J. Trump. ABC News will air an interview with Mr. Biden on Friday evening that will be recorded after the speech.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Our president has my support.
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Me too.
My first reaction the morning after the debate mirrored what some are still thoughtlessly shouting from mountain tops, ignoring Traitor Trump’s threat, the danger of another Trump presidency, soon turned dictator after he lies the second time when he takes the oath to defend a constitution he plans to trample and ignore … if he takes the oath.
Since, thanks to the traitorous fascist six on the US Supreme Court, a President Trump will be immune and free to commit any crimes, even murder, he will also be free to refuse the oath and turn to his cult wearing their red MAGA hats and start one of his rambling speeches full of hate and… well nonsense, that some say are signs of dementia getting worse.
Cornell expert says Trump’s frequent phonemic paraphasia ‘are signs of early dementia’ | Cornell Chronicle
When Monday, January 20, 2025, arrives, if Trump wins the Electoral College through hook or crook, that will be the end of the country the Founding Fathers fought for and launched with the same US Constitution Trump plans to ignore.
The next link should be required reading for all of the Never Trumpers who are shouting that Biden must go.
Donald Trump, Joe Biden and dementia: Why not to diagnose from a distance | Alzheimer’s Society (alzheimers.org.uk)
Then, if Biden has to go due to allegations of dementia, then Traitor trump also has to step down.
How can anyone, who says they are a Democrat or a Never Trumper, ignore the traitor’s alleged dementia and lies while attacking an honest President Biden for the same accusations that are often not signs of dementia but are normal for someone our age (I turn 79 in August).
Last Monday I met with my VA approved PTSD counselor, and during our talk, I told her that adapting to getting old isn’t easy. Ten years ago, I worked for hours in hot weather like this. Hell, when I bought the fixer-upper I live in back in 2016, I worked 12-to-14-hour days for three months getting it ready so I could move in. Tearing out floors and drywall. That was only 8 years ago.
Now I have to get up at 06:00 AM so I have time to get the yardwork done before 9:00 hits when the heat drops in and steals my breath and any energy I have left, energy that still seems endless on cool days.
I’m slower not because I can’t go fast but gong fast can be dangerous at this age.
I’m also fortunate I don’t have to run around making public speeches like Biden does, because even sitting at my desk, I have to stop to gather my thoughts to come up with the right words when I’m working on a blog post, or another chapter in my next thriller.
Alone in front of my desktop, it doesn’t matter how long it takes. But in front of a camera… with an audience of millions, some waiting for any sign of weakness they can pounce on. I shudder at the thought.
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Great post, Lloyd. Both links should be read. My take: we have no reason to claim either candidate is a victim of dementia (altho Trump seems to show more potential signs of it than Biden– & we know there is some family history in his case…)
IMHO we should stick to these two candidates, but take a close look at their back-ups, i.e., their VP’s. For Biden, obviously, Kamala Harris: 6 yrs AG of CA, 4 yrs Sen from CA, nearly 4 yrs VP. Trump? We don’t know. A recent NYT article suggests JDVance, Doug Burghum, and Marco Rubio…
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And yet you are still remarkably coherent. By the way, I can’t remember a time when I could have worked in extreme heat. Be careful, Lloyd.
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Fine, as long as Biden and his cheerleaders understand that it’s not the media’s job to prop him up or hide his flaws. It’s their job to report all relevant information regardless of whether it “helps Trump”. If Biden can’t handle presenting himself favorably, that’s on him, not on the rest of us for noticing.
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Haha. The media “propping him up.” That’s a good one. They love the idea of driving him out of the race: more clicks for them. Trump drives more traffic than any other candidate. The combination of Trump and a Democratic Party in chaos is red meat for the news media.
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Exactly what I’m talking about. The media report on Biden’s increasingly frequent gaffes, his wandering awkwardly off stage, his mumbling incoherence – as they should. You consider that reporting somehow unfair, out of bounds, even as you pounce on Trump’s every misstep. In other words, you want the media to only report negatively about Trump and positively about Biden. That’s not their job.
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The media’s job is to explain to the public that the election of Trump is an existential danger because he is a fascist.
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Any comment that includes the word genocide is deleted.
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Go ahead and deny. History will judge.
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Many years ago, now, we said never again. And we have long held that our media were supposed to play an important watchdog function. Well, here we are. It is exactly the case that our media should be HOWLING about the Fascism of Donald Trump and of the Trump court.
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That George Stephanopoulos was definitely “propping Biden up”. I guess he learned how to excel at “propping Biden up” from the NYT reporters whose headlines he kept quoting back to Biden.
“The NYT reports that very important people say a sign of your severe cognitive decline is that you stare off into space more frequently. Please defend yourself while remembering that if you deny you frequently stare off into space, it’s because you are too cognitively challenged to recognize it and need to step down. If you do admit it, it confirms you are cognitively challenged as we have been reporting and need to step down.”
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I guess the Times couldn’t point out that he slurred any words or blinked too many times.
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They will, Fred. Just give them an hour or so.
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Diane Ravitch continues to defend Biden for reasons of blind partisanship. If only she had the integrity and wisdom of David French.
“…But if you have real knowledge of Biden’s limitations and if you then sally forth into public to defend his competence in the face of known contrary facts, then you’ve become a version of what you hate. You’ve become a blue-hatted version of the red-hatted party loyalist.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/opinion/democrats-loyalty-biden-trump.html
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That’s silly. The red hats pushed to deny women the right to an abortion; gave the President immunity from criminal activity (even bribes are okay); struck down the power of federal agencies to regulate health and safety (the Chevron decision); insists that climate change is a hoax; pushes the demolition of public schools; tears down the wall of separation between church and states; undermines voting rights, etc.
Biden is has the best record of legislative accomplishment since LBJ. He cares about regular people, not just the 1%. Trump belittles our military and mocks those who gave their lives. Biden lost a son who served. Neither Trump nor his sons ever wore their nation’s uniform.
I know Biden will protect Medicare and Social Security. I don’t trust Trump or his party to care about the poor or the middle class.
My beliefs are grounded in years of experience. Biden has better character and ethics than Trump. He cares about people. Trump cares about Trump.
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most of the people here hate things that rob the people of representation. We have not become people who do not want our opponents to vote.
Most of the people who post here hate to see truth hidden or simply ignored. We have not become deniers of climate change or vaccine efficiency.
I will grant one thing. We hav become supporters of ideas we think are right. What we have not become are a group that blindly follows a man who tried to blackmail a foreign leader for his own gain, who undercut allies across the world, who gushed over world autocrats like Putin and Kim—no, we have not done any of those things.
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Thank you, Roy.
It’s a fairly simple issue:
Biden is a decent man with good values and a desire to rebuild the middle class. Trump is none of the above.
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Octogenarianism today, octogenarianism tomorrow, octogenarianism forever! I am an octo-guy, doesn’t mean I’m a bad person.
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I watch all channels to understand different perspectives. What we had over the last week was media running amok falling for MAGA talking points on Biden’s age. Often it is all about ratings. The NYT has been trying to bolster readership by bashing Biden over the last month.
CNN has suddenly engaged in both “sideism” since new mgmt took over after they canned some long time hosts. their efforts have been dismal.
MSNBC has been falling over backwards trying to cover this story
Fox just plain sucks on all points.
CSPAN often allows all sides to make their point but refrains from acting like pundits. Watching Congress live is often a scary proposition when you realize some of these MAGA jokers actually have been elected.
I watched the debate..I was with Biden after that, I watch the Rally the next day..I was still with Biden and made another donation. I watched his rally today and I am still withBiden.
naysayers be damned, I say full speed ahead with our Biden/Harris ticket!
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My suggestion of what Biden should do:
Call the media’s bluff with a speech like this:
I hereby announce that I am staying in the race and releasing all my delegates. I am proud of my record, and I stand by it. At the Democratic convention, the delegates are now free to nominate the Biden-Harris ticket – or free to choose another candidate to stand for the Democratic party. Regardless of who gets the nomination at the convention- myself or another Democrat – the America people who value honesty and integrity in a candidate will rally to support him or her. I am confident that the American people who are shocked and saddened at the extremely troubling views now being advanced by a extremist Republican party will rally to support the Democratic nominee. I am confident that the American people who don’t agree with the Republican view that Trump should be the first authoritarian president and he is above the law will rally around whoever is the Democratic nominee. I have confidence it will be me, but I will support whoever it is, just like I know every person who believes in honesty and democracy will support whoever the democratic nominee is.
In 2020, we all witnessed what happens when an unfit president who believes he is above the law is given power. Threatening election officials to “find me the votes” because his opponent had more votes. Inciting a violent insurrection to stay in power. Calling for his supporters to punish the politicians who disagreed with him or criticized him — even when they were Republicans like Liz Cheney. Even before the 3 Supreme Court Justices he installed ruled that the Constitution allowed presidents to act with the power of an authoritarian and never be called to account, we all witnessed the openly corrupt acts of a president who spurns the law because he believes he is above all law. Now he wants another chance at unlimited power and all of us who are patriotic and love America and democracy know that is wrong.
Ever since I declared for president in 2020, people have been questioning my mental fitness to do the job. They continued to question it for the 4 years that I led the most successful presidency in decades. In 2020, this country was suffering. An inept Republican administration so badly mismanaged the pandemic that more Americans died in that first year of Covid compared to much lower deaths in other western countries. Instead of looking for real solutions, as a good leader would, the Republican president was praising himself for being the smart guy who figured out that injecting bleach seemed like a likely cure. The Republican president was golfing and entertaining rich donors at Mar-a-Lago while more and more people died, including those who could not get medical help for other urgent health problems because hospitals were overwhelmed with covid patients. This unfit president held a super spreader event and then got an expensive medical treatment rarely available to working Americans. And even then, this president abdicated his leadership and told Americans that covid wasn’t a big deal – he survived! – instead of working to make that expensive life-saving treatment he got available to working folks who couldn’t access it. So many Americans died because they believed their leader who told them covid wasn’t a big deal.
When I became president in 2021, this country was desperate for real leadership. This country wasn’t just suffering from the inept Republican response to the covid crisis that caused so many deaths. There were economic problems. Unemployment was sky high. This country had been led by a Republican leadership who passed a huge tax cut for their billionaire friends – and themselves. That tax cut caused a sky high deficit and tanked the economy. And the Republican party that rewarded their billionaire friends and caused that deficit then turned their backs on working Americans — they told them this great country just couldn’t afford to help them.
I knew that was a lie in 2020 and I knew it was a Republican lie now. I won the election and finally this country could be run to help Americans who weren’t billionaires. We fought for legislation like my infrastructure bill that helps working Americans. Under my leadership, unemployment has been at historic lows. Stock market at historic highs. Inflation has been a problem for every country in the world, and it was a problem here. But this wasn’t like the pandemic where the Republican leadership did nothing but make the problem worse. My administration addressed high inflation, and that meant America now has one of the lowest inflation rates in the world. That’s what leadership means. Working on very tough problems to MINIMIZE the suffering of working Americans instead of doing what the Republican leadership did during the covid crisis and making the problem much worse. Good leadership isn’t golfing and vacationing and holding covid super spreader events. Other countries with good leadership were saving the lives of their citizens, while in America, the Republican president golfed and partied while lots more Americans died. And this leader now brags about his superior golfing skills — as if all the Americans who suffered because he was out golfing instead of doing his job are supposed to be impressed.
Donald Trump brags about his golfing skills, not his leadership skills. Donald Trump thinks voters care more about his golfing handicap than how his leadership damaged this country because Donald Trump cares more about his golfing handicap than he cares about leading the country in a time of crisis. He may have improved his golf game during his presidency, but he failed as president. Trump is unfit to be president.
People have been trying to convince you I am too old to be president since 2020. They have never once explained how my administration was so successful if I was too old to be a president. I think those folks believe that it’s possible for someone who has severe cognitive issues to just hire very good people and they do the job themselves without any leadership. But the people calling me too old are the ones with memory problems — they seem to have forgotten that hiring good people doesn’t matter if those people have an unfit leader like Trump. Things just get worse — a lot worse. Good people need good leadership. I stand by my leadership for the last 4 years, and I hope the folks at the convention believe I will continue that good leadership in 2025 and beyond.
Americans know that bad leadership – like we had when Trump was president – is always disastrous for this country. Imagine that bad leader now that the 3 Justices he appointed have joined the other right wing justices and gave this bad leader the powers of an authoritarian, under the pretense that was what the founders wanted. Regardless of who the nominee is, we must gather around because we all know that it is indisputable that there is one cognitively unfit candidate on the ballot and he already got his chance to run this country into the ground from 2017 to 2020. He didn’t want to leave when this country rejected him because of the suffering his bad leadership caused, and this unfit candidate tried to force himself on the country anyway, inciting his followers to violence to keep him in power. He came very close to being successful. Give him another chance and next time he will be.
After Biden gives a better (and shorter) version of this speech, his delegates are released and they OVERWHELMINGLY vote for the Biden-Harris ticket at the convention. With endorsements from all the leading contenders who make it clear that they are strongly behind Biden for all the above reasons.
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NYC Nutcase chimes in yet again. If he releases his delegates, no way that Dementia Joe gets nominated,
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Biden can challenge Trump to do the same — release his delegates so that someone who isn’t a convicted felon who incited an insurrection can be nominated.
Roberta Fleck, do you think the insurrectionist, convicted felon Trump can win the nomination if he releases his delegates? What does that say about Republicans?
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Our country rebounded economically stronger than most other nations from the EU and elsewhere due to the Biden administration’s sage leadership.https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/tracking-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic-recession
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Yep. Which means that Biden should keep pointing out that the folks who have been questioning his “age issues” for 4 years haven’t explain how he could have led such a successful presidency.
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We have explained about a gazillion times how he could have such issues and have run a successful presidency. I did so first on the evening of the debate and then on the following day. A presidency, I said, is a group effort. Biden’s presidency is the work of Biden’s TEAM. Same was true of Reagan in his second term, I pointed out. He was not all there. But his team ran the show in accordance with Reagan’s blueprint.
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Bob, whatever you think you said “a gazillion times” never made any sense to me. your point never made any sense to me.
Ronald Reagan’s White House was a mess. So was Donald Trump’s White House. Joe Biden’s was not.
Good people can’t get things done without someone in charge. So since you don’t seem to think the decider in chief (so to speak) is Biden, who do you think is the leader in the White House?
There is zero evidence there is some secret committee or maybe one person who ultimately decides because the guy who was cognitively impaired the last 5 years could not function.
After watching the ABC News interview I want Biden to stay just to say F you to the media. “Biden, we hear you beat your wife. Prove to us you don’t beat your wife. Sorry your answer doesn’t address the issues that polls show people believe you beat your wife. Mr. President, your answer did not give a good enough explanation of why you beat your wife. Will you take a lie detector test in which you answer the question of when you stopped beating your wife?
Joe Biden: look at what my administrative did?
ABC: That’s in the past, now how about you explain why so many people are worried about you beating your wife.
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I am certainly glad that whether or not I eat and have a roof over my head does not depend upon your understanding what I say.
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Let me try once more.
Reagan set an agenda. Other people carried it out.
Biden set an agenda. Other people carried it out.
Whether you agree or not with the agenda is irrelevant to the point that a presidency is not just the president. It’s the president and his or her team. And we have had cases in which the president was not fully functioning, and still the team functioned. You and I both don’t like a lot of what Reagan did. But he delivered perestroika and detente and breathtakingly important nuclear arms limitations and verification procedures. He was a cold warrior, but as president, he learned that a nuclear war was unwinnable, and he ACTUALLY CHANGED HIS MIND and DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I have to give him that. He set the agenda. His people carried it out.
That should not be that difficult to understand.
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Every president “sets an agenda” that their administration carries out. But their administration doesn’t go along swimmingly.
Jimmy Carter may have been a younger man, near his cognitive peak. Carter had good people. But Carter lacked the political judgement and knowledge that Biden has and Carter’s leadership led to a presidency that was a failure.
You act as if you proved something but you didn’t. If I took your comment at face value, I’d say that we should elect cognitively challenged presidents because Bob Shepherd says very good things get done in their White House. But even the worst presidencies can point to some success. I would call Reagan’s presidency a failure, and Biden’s a success. You seem to be presenting them as parallel situations. So again I have no idea what your point is.
For the record, I believe there is a relationship between a very successful White House with unprecedented accomplishments, and a president who is a good leader of his staff.
You seem to be arguing that there is no relationship between a very successful presidency with excellent accomplishments and the person who happens to be president during a very successful presidency with excellent accomplishments.
Carter may have cognitively superior to Biden – he was certainly much younger and very smart. But he was a lousy leader. His presidency – like Reagan’s and even Trump’s – had some successes but it was overall a failure. I have no idea if you are blaming that on Carter being too incompetent to hire good people, or if you agree with me that Carter’s people were fine, but Carter did not have the political savvy and leadership qualities that Biden does.
Maybe Carter’s presidency failed because he hired terrible people. Maybe whoever the new “cognitively superior” nominee is will hire terrible people. We already know that Biden has the sound judgement to hire excellent people and the leadership quality to know when to listen to them.
You can tell me a “gazillion” more times that it is an indisputable truth that a cognitively impaired president can have a historically successful presidency if his staff is good. But you aren’t going to convince me that Biden’s knowledge of how to get the best people and make sure they worked together had nothing to do with his administration’s success. You aren’t going to convince me that Biden’s superb institutional knowledge isn’t why his White House managed to get important legislation through despite the barriers put up by Manchin and the Republicans. Especially when you don’t have any evidence that Biden’s strong evidence that Biden’s leadership had nothing to do with it. Biden looks too old or Biden had a terrible debate isn’t a convincing argument.
I’m sorry that makes you so furious. We can agree to disagree. I certainly disagree with you about the “success” of Reagan’s White House. Even Trump has some “successes” to hold up against the utter and complete failure of his presidency. Reagan’s presidency wasn’t a success either – and I include his first term. But the media sure propagandized the majority of Americans to believe it was such a rousing economic success that he deserved re-election. Biden’s was a success and the media won’t even talk about it! And folks like you act as if Biden being president was completely irrelevant to why it was a success.
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Exceptionally fine Bob bashing. Even more vituperative than the usual Flerp bashing. Makes me blush with pride.
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” If I took your comment at face value, I’d say that we should elect cognitively challenged presidents because Bob Shepherd says very good things get done in their White House.”
Utterly bizarre. I guess it is too late for you to go back to school and learn to freaking read.
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Bob,
Obviously you speak in a language I don’t understand.
Are you saying that it does make a difference whether a president is cognitively impaired or that is does NOT make a difference whether a president is cognitively impaired?
“Setting the agenda” and having their staff execute it is what presidents do whether they are a sharp as a tack 45 year old or an 82 year old who is slowing down. Are you making the argument that a cognitively impaired president like Reagan can have great success in enacting the agenda he sets? (That’s what I thought you were saying).
It’s possible we agree, but since I have no idea what it is you are trying to say, I don’t really know.
If Biden is supposedly cognitively impaired and yet he set an agenda that his staff carried out superbly, and so did Reagan, then why is the cognitive fitness of presidential nominees the most pressing issue this year? If I understand you correctly, their cognitive fitness has little connection to how successful their presidency will be.
I am happy to stipulate that Biden may have had huge cognitive problems for 4 years but that didn’t stop his presidency from being a great success. Are you?
Is the media focusing to much on an issue that is unimportant?
Sometimes I think you are arguing that you shouldn’t assume a president is cognitively well enough to be a president just because his presidency is a success. And sometimes I think you are arguing that it is a very serious problem to have a cognitively unfit president.
Clearly you believe I join Biden in being cognitively challenged. George S. would demand I be tested.
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Wow, NYSPSP! l love this!! From your mouth to Biden’s ears!
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Thanks very much, bethree5, that means a lot coming from you.
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I like several aspects of your bold, out-of-the-box proposal:
Were Biden to throw the convention open to the delegates–he would be re-nominated in a huge vote of confidence. This would silence his backstabbers. It would give the Dems enormous motivation going into Labor Day–mobilizing their support in every state and unifying them in time to deliver the message to the disaffected and voters who (believe it or not) are still undecided.
By the way, the NYT and other “objective” sources have knowingly created this year’s version of Catch 22. Call it Catch 24. It goes as follows: President Biden can’t recognize he is cognitively impaired–thus proving he is cognitively impaired and disqualifying him from further service.
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While I’m at it NYCPSP: Your rendering of the Snuffaluffagus (thanx Bob!) interview as a “When did you stop beating your wife” interrogation was hilarious and spot on.
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Agreed
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We’ll see how he fares with Stephanopoulos. But either way folks, don’t blame the bearer of bad news. The NY Times editorial board wants Trump out too, and if the Democrats risk making a choice that makes that less likely, no matter how good a man Biden is, they do us a solid by warning us. It isn’t personal. It”s strategy. No shame in declaring victory and moving on.
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I’m watching this ABC interview. This is painful to watch. The man deserves more dignity than this.
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That’s really sad to hear. I will watch later.
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I can’t watch it. Another utter disaster.
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It’s not spectacular like the debate. It’s just depressing.
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I can’t get over the eyes. His plastic surgeon should be sued for that Botox job. I can barely look at him.
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I was just saying this to a friend. The plastic surgery was a terrible decision. “I don’t like looking at him” is not an ideal vibe for voters.
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I’m glad at least for this, that the number of young people who watched that interview is probably barely north of 1.
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Biden looks and sounds like a freaking hospice patient. It’s truly extreme. But that said, ANYONE BUT TRUMP. The piece of dog shit on my lawn over Trump. It won’t order kidnappings of babies and abandon our military allies in the field and rave about how he would love to date his daughter.
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FLERP, I don’t like looking at Trump. I despise the sound of his voice. I hate his venom, his lies, his boasts. I remember thinking in November 2020, “Thank God I’ll never have to see or listen to him again!” I blame Mitch McConnell. Remember how he stopped the second impeachment? He said if Trump had committed crimes, he would be prosecuted by the normal justice system. Haha. Now Trump wants to arrest McConnell for not kissing his feet.
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FLERP and Bob– I remember when Dr Phil got his first face lift. His eyes looked like he was trying out for a role in the Mikado. Normal affect returns gradually. Biden will look fine by year #2 of his second term! 😉
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Haaaa!!! I remember that about Dr. Phil.
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George Snuffaluffagus conducted a hatchet job. Biden sounded like a hospice patient.
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Sums it up. Snuffy was basically trying to convince him to step aside.
Worst answer was to the question, how will you feel if you lose to Trump: “I’ll feel like I did my best.” Well gee that’s just great, Joe! But the correct answer is you will feel devastated for losing an election where democracy is at stake. Or even “that’s just not going to happen, George.”
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I saw a different interview than both of you.
Biden looked like a normal older guy sharing some of his wisdom and ideas. He wasn’t out of it for one minute.
The entire interview — every question – was basically “Convince us that you are not cognitively impaired”. And it was clear that no answer was going to be enough.
No matter what Biden said, Stephanopolous said “but polls say people are concerned your awre cogntiively deficient” How do you respond?
Biden says something perfectly reasonable, and Stephanopolous quotes one of the many NYT headlines about how unnamed people have been saying Biden is a huge problem.
Biden explains what he is doing – EVEN THIS WEEK – and Stephanopolous’ just keeps saying “but people are concerned, how do you respond?”
George S. was obsessed with Biden taking a cognitive test – and he was not going to take no for an answer. That took up a lot of time. What you saw is George S. saying that Biden must take a cognitive test or the default – no matter what Biden does – is that Biden is unfit for office.
Frankly this made me like Biden a lot more. He stayed polite (I would have gotten mad).
The entire interview shows exactly what is wrong with the so-called liberal media. They believe this is fair and balanced reporting. The media makes the only narrative: when will you step down because you are too old to run the country.
And a lot more talk about Biden’s “disastrous” night despite the fact that Trump ALSO had a “disastrous” night.
Unfortunately the definition of “disastrous” is “how much did the media amplify how disastrous your debate performance was”. Therefore, Biden’s was disqualifying, and Trump’s debate performance was terrific.
Lots of candidates have had bad debates. I LIKED Biden in the ABC News interview, with a “fair and balanced” supposedly left wing reporter trying to prove his “neutral” bone fides by treating Biden the way a Fox News reporter would. Biden stood up to it.
But there is no way Biden can “prove” to the so-called liberal media that they should stop saying he is mentally unfit to be president.
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There’s a range of reactions one could have to the interview. Yours is one of them, within that range, and I had some of those emotions myself. And yet.
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I am horrified at the hubris that has led Biden to stay in despite his OBVIOUS and EXTREME issues. However, I will take the hospice patient over the dangerous and traitorous criminal Trump any day, and Harris is a good backup.
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flerp!
sorry, I just spit out my drink when I read you had some of the same reactions to the tone of the interview as I did. It almost seemed like you thought the very pro-Democrat George S. acted a bit biased in his attempt to make Biden admit he was clearly cognitively unfit to be president and should step down for the good of the country. “Cognitively unfit Biden refuses to step down” seems to be the main news hook coming out of that interview.
I also had the same reaction I have had before – that there is no way for Biden to stay the nominee if the so-called liberal media’s “true” narrative is “there’s no question that Biden is cognitively unfit, the only question is if and when he will step down for the good of the country and who will replace him.”
That’s basically the Fox News propaganda being presented as truth by the “liberal” media.
I think Biden could win if the media treated him the way they treat Trump. Presenting all criticism of him as partisan in nature.
Biden doesn’t have it in him to fight back against this. Not because he is cognitively impaired or a guy who has no business leading a country. But because that is not his style. And his stutter makes it worse. Biden isn’t quick on his feet, if he ever was. I don’t dispute that — I just dispute the lie that because he isn’t quick on his feet, Biden is too cognitively impaired to be president. The success of his presidency proves the lie. Biden tried to say that, but George S. said what mattered more was polls and what mostly anonymous “very important Dems” are saying.
I’d love to see Pete Buttigeig or AOC being asked to defend their support for a cognitively impaired Biden who has no business running for president. I think they’d make mincemeat of these kind of supposedly liberal reporters trying to prove they were fair and balanced.
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BIDEN IS IN DENIAL
I’m 82 years old, and I know how difficult it is to admit to the frailties that come with age.
Joe is in denial about his frailties, just as Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Diane Feinstein were — and because of their denial, democracy has taken a hit, especially with RBG being replaced by a right wing Nationalist Christian, giving the Nat-Cs a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court.
Joe has indeed been a good President; and he is a fundamentally good and moral person. The cheers he’s receiving are tribute to him for the job he has done. Nevertheless, in the world of practical politics, he is all too likely to lose to despicable Trump who would bring our republic to its knees. But —
JOE SHOULD RESIGN so that Kamala Harris can become THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT of our nation. She already has the best odds of defeating odious Trump and would have even better odds if she were already President.
HARRIS TIES TRUMP!!! The latest CNN/SSRS poll, reported in The Washington Post which says that this poll “is a quality, well-regarded poll,” shows that Biden is losing to Trump by a huge six-percent margin — but that Vice President Kamala Harris is in a dead heat tie with Trump, just two points behind and well within the poll’s margin of error.
All of the other Democrats — Newsome, Whitmer, and Buttigieg — touted as replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket are shown losing to Trump by the same six-percent margin as Biden.
The CNN/SSRS poll also shows that Harris is favored over Biden by the critical swing voters: women, non-white voters, and under-45 voters.
The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 72 percent of all voters said Biden “does not have the mental and cognitive health to be president.” These numbers are not disputed by the Biden campaign. With numbers like that, Biden cannot win even if every loyalist Democrat votes for him.
And major donors are saying they recognized in Biden’s performance some of the deterioration they have observed in smaller meetings and donor events. So, Biden must not be the Democratic Party candidate for President in the November election.
America is long, long overdue for a woman President.
Long overdue.
Within the next few weeks, Biden should resign as President, citing health reasons, some of which are clearly evident. That would give Harris national exposure as America’s first woman President and would ignite women of all ethnic backgrounds to want to see her continue as President. That block of voters would tip the election in her favor over Trump.
HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT!!!
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I wish I could wave a wand and make this happen. She would be a great president.
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I think many people here will disagree that Harris can beat Trump.
The reason there weren’t any serious candidates throwing their hat into the primary is because of “grave doubts” about all of them defeating Trump. The 3 or 4 “anonymous” people “very close to the White House” who now are sources for NYT reporters (and WSJ reporters and WP reporters, etc.) who supposedly have known all along that Biden is a near vegetable – they all (3?) seem like the same types of self-serving hacks who said they knew Dukakis should never get into a tank.
I trust AOC and Bernie. If Biden was even close to the near-vegetable that the so-called liberal media keeps characterizing him as, they would never have endorsed his re-election so early.
Biden has slowed down, he had a terrible debate performance. But that interview explains how Dukakis and Gore were destroyed so easily. The framing of every question in the ABC interview, every question in every NYT story, is that Biden is cognitively unfit and he has no business running for re-election.
So far, the few Democrats who have confirmed that this narrative is true (as opposed to the anonymous sources) are conservative Dems. I don’t think that is a coincidence. The progressive Dems aren’t rushing to legitimize this narrative.
In fact, progressive Dems aren’t appearing on these news shows to bash Biden. Maybe only bashers are invited.
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I trust AOC and Bernie. If Biden was even close to the near-vegetable that the so-called liberal media keeps characterizing him as, they would never have endorsed his re-election so early.
They coalesced around the inevitable nominee. This was not some sort of ringing endorsement. This was holding their noses and accepting the reality.
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“I think many people here will disagree that Harris can beat Trump.”
I did not say that she could, NYC.
In fact, I said that it is not likely that she could beat Trump because her poll numbers are even worse than are Biden’s, which are abysmal.
But as usual, you misread what I have said. I did not say that she could beat Trump. I said that I wish I could wave a wand and make her president, meaning that I wish it could be January of 2025 and her Inauguration Day. And I said that because I like Harris not because I think it likely that she will be president UNLESS Biden wins and dies in office, which given his clearly extremely poor health, seems a tragic possibility.
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Loosen up! Calm down!
(just wanted to respond the way people you approve of respond, in the hopes it will make you more civil when you reply to me.)
Bob, mea culpa. I accidentally pressed the button to reply to you instead quikwrit, who started this thread. I would have made an additional post whose only purpose would be to say “this reply was intended for quitwrit, obviously”. But I re-read the thread again and figured it was obvious, since quitwrit was advocating for Harris, and I never said that “Bob Shepherd” said that Harris could win, but I can see that you felt it was necessary to emphasize that you never said something that I never said you did say! Apologies that you took my post that way because I hit the wrong reply button. If there was an edit function I would have added:
“I think many people here will disagree that Harris can beat Trump AS QUIKWIT SUGGESTED ABOVE.”
Regarding Bernie and AOC, I have no idea where your confidence that they both had to “hold their nose” to endorse Biden comes from. Maybe that’s true, and maybe that isn’t, but their EARLY endorsement suggests that my theory is more plausible than yours. A progressive Dem could have run a primary challenge the way Ted Kennedy did against Carter. The VERY EARLY Bernie and AOC endorsement significantly helped Biden’s re-election nomination to seem inevitable — it wasn’t a response to Biden’s nomination already being inevitable. And the behavior you described – Bernie and AOC holding their noses and making an EARLY endorsement of Biden to help discourage possible challenges from the left – is uncharacteristic of both of them. Why not take it at face value that two people with integrity endorsed Biden much earlier than they had to because they thought Biden was doing a good job. It was a response to Biden’s successful presidency, which is far more in line with how the two of them have always acted. They gave honest endorsements because they respected Biden’s work, despite there being areas where they felt Biden could have done better. Not sure what a “ringing” endorsement is, but I prefer a truthful and sincere endorsement, and that’s what AOC and Bernie did.
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Shouldn’t you include A LOT MORE exclamation marks after “Calm Down!” Maybe put it in all caps and repeat it 20 times and then write 200 pages about why I and Flerp and the New York Times and everyone who has ever posted anywhere is wrong with particular emphasis on my wrongness and how I was contradicted by Bernie and AOC. Just a suggestion.
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You keep bringing up the fact that AOC and Bernie endorsed Biden AS IF THIS WERE PROOF OF HOW PROGRESSIVE BIDEN IS. Of course, it is not such proof. It’s proof that Democratic politicians tend to endorse the Democratic nominee, whoever it is, and it is extremely rare for them to withhold such an endorsement. And the fact is that both expressed their reservations in making their endorsements.
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In other words, that is what almost every prominent politician does. He or she endorses their party’s candidate. This means nothing except that they prefer their party’s candidate to the opposite party’s candidate. IT MEANS NOTHING MORE THAN THAT.
Insert 80-page screed here about how people of great integrity like AOC and Bernie would only endorse a saint.
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Calm down!!!!
Bob, I intentionally plagiarized a couple of flerp!’s two word responses to me. I hoped it might make you consider your double standard, so you’d show me the same civility you show flerp!
I should have known not to expect a gracious reply like “thanks for explaining and apologizing, I now see you weren’t responding to me”
I hope there is a time in the future when you can reply to the content of my comments instead of tone policing them for something you can take offense from. Just like you do with many other folks.
I won’t be responding so if you feel the need to make another post filled with insults, you can have the last word.
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BIDEN IS IN DENIAL
YUP.
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HOW DARE HE NOT ADMIT HE IS A NEAR-VEGETABLE! Only a near-vegetable would be so cognitively impaired not to recognize his own inability to function!
Never mind that he is getting good stuff done this very week. As he tried to say, but George would have none of it since it interfered with the narrative that BIDEN IS IN DENIAL of his inability to be a president.
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Some people don’t think it shameful or even that difficult to live in accordance with the Reality Principle. They consider it a matter of honor to do so.
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I just watched PBS NewsHour: Brooks and Atkins Stohr on Biden’s vow to stay in the race for the White House. Length: 12:06 minutes
Almost everything Stohr said matches what I’ve been thinking today. I may be biased since I was already in agreement with most of what I heard her just say, but I think she makes sense. And what I heard her say that hadn’t occurred to me, I think was right on point, too.
Brooks and Atkins Stohr on Biden’s vow to stay in the race for the White House (youtube.com)
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Lloyd– yes, excellent PBS discussion, all should watch. Stohr has very good advice for the Dem party.
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It’s pleasant to see the media discussing the candidate not named Donald. It’s been years since Donald didn’t dominate the press during an election year. From his perspective, all coverage is good, er, exposure. There’s actually something to be said for that. Keep saying Biden’s name. Keep it up!
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Biden is adamant, he’s in the race to win. I hope he does win since he will not step aside to let someone younger to pursue the presidency. The alternative to Biden is too depressing and horrific to consider but Trump stands a very good chance of winning, he made it one time before and he could do it again.
Ana Kasparian was interviewing Tim Ryan of Ohio who said that Biden should step aside and give the nod to the veep, Harris, to carry on. Ryan is a mainstream decent Democrat and he’s telling Biden to not run for the presidency again. The number of Democrats who are telling Biden to not run are growing by the day.
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It’s odd that the ones calling for Biden to step down so far have all been more conservative Dems. Tim Ryan included.
I see Tim Ryan joined the Progressive Policy Institute, which sounded progressive until I looked at its website and saw that their education agenda was DFER. I don’t think David Osborne is progressive.
From the PPI website: “America needs a 21st century model of public education geared to the knowledge economy. Charter schools are showing the way, because they provide autonomy for schools, accountability for results, and parental choice among schools tailored to the diverse learning styles of children.”
Just wondering when we will hear from Bernie and AOC and other real progressives.
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Vasimoc? From Jersey? Remember me? It’s Left Coast! From the Left Coast! Remember that time we went to that place? And there were those crazy people there? We should totally get together again soon. Tell me all about yourself these days! Do you have adequate life insurance?
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Left Coast Tracher: thanks for responding to the spammer, the prostitute who makes $165 an hour working from home and offers a link so you can learn how. I get this spam almost daily. Never click on that link!
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I like several aspects of NYC Public School Parent’s bold, out-of-the-box proposal:
Were Biden to throw the convention open to the delegates–he would be re-nominated in a huge vote of confidence. This would silence his backstabbers. It would give the Dems enormous motivation going into Labor Day–mobilizing their support in every state and unifying them in time to deliver his message of accomplishment to the disaffected and voters who (believe it or not) are still undecided.
By the way, the NYT and other “objective” sources have knowingly created this year’s version of Catch 22. Call it Catch 24. It goes as follows: President Biden can’t recognize he is cognitively impaired–thereby proving he is cognitively impaired and disqualifying him from further service.
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he would be re-nominated in a huge vote of confidence
Given the chorus of prominent Democrats calling for him to step down, that’s doubtful
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Bob, I’m not sure it rises yet to the level of a chorus.
So far a few v oices have come out and there are some unnamed background singers — and some who don’t dare piss off Dr. Jill.
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At this point, I think that there is nothing to do but get behind Biden. He’s not going to drop out. He’s not going to be forced out. So he is the only alternative to Trump. He looks and speaks like someone who’s in hospice, but he is the only alternative to a deranged and ignorant and dangerous criminal Fascist with a long list of enemies he wants to go after.
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I tried to copy and paste a brilliant twitter rant by climate journalist David Roberts that author/historian/activist Rebecca Solnit linked to on her facebook page. Although I hesitate to call it a rant as it is one of the most trenchant analyses of how the media does political reporting that I have ever read.
Rebecca Solnit writes: “this is the best thing I’ve read so far on the situation, and it’s some tweets a guy who has a Substack newsletter on climate did for free, while a thousand salaried media pundits are congratulating themselves while striving to outdo and imitate each other in pulling down the republic.”
My comment with the full text of David Roberts’ tweets (courtesy of Rebecca Solnit) disappeared when I hit the button. It’s possible it might eventually show up, but his tweets included profanity, so perhaps it is lost for good.
If anyone wants to read an incisive analysis of how we got here, and why Dems can’t win, go to Rebecca Solnit’s facebook page. Or David Roberts’ twitter feed. Roberts has tweeted a depressingly accurate description of the media. Well worth your time, if media criticism is of interest to you.
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Trying one more time to post the text of David Roberts’ twitter feed (editing the profanity), courtesy of Rebecca Solnit:
Solnit: “One more from (mostly) climate journalist David Roberts”:
David Roberts: “I haven’t written much about politics since the debate, mainly because I’m so overwhelmed by disgust & contempt toward this country’s media & commentariat that it has rendered me inarticulate with rage. Twitter probably doesn’t need more rage. I do just wanna make one point tho.
To be clear up front: I don’t give one tiny hot f**k who the Dem nominee is. I truly don’t. Biden’s fine. Harris is fine. A warm puddle of vomit is fine. *There is no conceivable resolution to the nomination fight that could change the basic calculus of this race.*
Preventing a fascist takeover of the US is my top priority–as a journalist, as a voter, as a human. If it isn’t yours too, you should feel bad about yourself. If you haven’t made the stakes of this election clear to everyone within the sound of your voice, you should feel bad.
But I’m not gonna rant. [breathes deeply] Just gonna make my one point, which is this: the idea that that the process of jettisoning Biden & choosing someone else will go well — will be *allowed* to go well — is a deeply deranged fantasy.
The idea that Dems will do this & will end up feeling unified, that Harris will come out popular, that “the dynamics of the race will shift,” all of that … f**king deranged. Deranged in such a perfectly characteristic Dem way.
“This person/policy/slogan/approach has been irredeemably slimed by Republicans & a hostile media — let’s throw it overboard!” That’s the Dem way. Always with this starry-eyed hope that they can reset, start over, get it right this time.
Just as one example — other people have aggregated these — there have been “calls” for every Dem nominee of the last 30 years to step aside. Dems practically delight in abandoning their own people, policies, & principles in response to bad-faith pressure. They f’ing love it.
But, as I’ve been saying for, oh, 20 years now, the situation is structural. The current situation is an outcome of a particular incentive structure & that structure will remain exactly the same if Harris takes over the ticket.
For centrists, journalists, pundits, *even Dem electeds*, the way you prove you are a Reasonable, Serious Person in DC is by sh**ting on Dems. For the left, the way you prove you are a true radical is by sh**ting on Dems. For the right … well, obviously.
Everyone’s professional incentives are to s**t on Dems. Dwelling on Trump & his fascist movement — however justified by the objective facts — just doesn’t bring that juice, doesn’t get the clicks & the high-fives, doesn’t feel brave & iconoclastic. It’s just … no fun.
So, say Biden stepped aside in favor of Harris tomorrow. How long until the vapid gossips we call political reporters find something wrong with her, some alleged flaw they just have to write 192 stories about? How long until the hopped-up mediocrities we call pundits …
…find some “counter-intuitive” reason that the new Dem ticket is flawed after all? How long until the irredentist left gets over the temporary thrill of its new Harris memes & remembers that she’s a cop & turns on her? How long before the ambient racism & misogyny in the US…
… lead center-leftists to conclude that, sure, they’d support a black woman, just not *this* black woman? In other words: how long before everyone reverts to their comfortable, familiar identity & narratives?
About 30 f’ing seconds, is my guess.
Dems uniting, feeling good, telling a clear story, receiving credit for their accomplishments–all of that is *impossible* in the current environment. It won’t be allowed. Dems can punch themselves in the face all they want, abandon whoever they want, apologize all they want…
… they simply will not be allowed to turn the page & start fresh, because everyone’s incentives remain the same. If they did that, elites, including media elites, would have no choice but to openly & frankly grapple with Trump & what he represents & they *don’t want to*.
Everyone feels comfortable sh**ting on Dems — it’s just a cozy professional space. You get to feel brave & independent (just like all the replacement-level pundits around you) with zero risk.
Yes, it’s abysmal, contemptible cowardice on a genuinely embarrassing scale …
… but it is what it is & we should have no illusions that it will change with a change in the top of the ticket.
As @whstancil has been trying to tell you people (good god how he tries), the information environment is thoroughly corrupted.
@whstancil For some reason, left pundits are pathologically averse to acknowledging that fact. And so they grasp at these straws — if we could just get rid of Biden, we could have a reasonable conversation! Yeah, sure. You absurd summer children.
@whstancil This election is not a choice between two individuals, it’s a choice between worldviews, between futures. Do we want to continue down the path to multiethnic democracy or do we want to impose a white patriarchal Christian autocracy?
@whstancil At stake is the entire federal civil service. The machinery of state built since WWII. Freedom & dignity for millions. Yes, democracy itself. That’s not an exaggeration. Yet this country’s elites have utterly failed to convey those stakes to the populace. A *grotesque* failure.
You can not look at this extraordinary media freakout this last week and not psychologize, not see all kinds of displacement. They can’t or won’t be serious about Trump & so they are f**king *giddy* at having permission to scold Dems again. Their safe place.
Anyway, my point is just: none of this will change if Harris replaces Biden at the top of the ticket. The idea that the media — with these soulless careerist court gossips in charge — will allow it is just fantasy. They *need* Dems in disarray & so they will engineer it.
The US is right on the precipice of falling into bona fide fascism & *the vast majority of the voting public doesn’t even know it*. That speaks to a deeply diseased information environment. Until Dems do something about that, all their self-flagellation will buy them nothing.
Not knowing what else to do, Dems s**t on their own”
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NYCPSP,
That’s a great comment. I intend to post it. It explains why the media have eviscerated every Biden misstep while ignoring the grave danger posed by Trump and his fascist MAGA movement.
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“As concerned as I was and am about Biden’s failure in the debate, I’m horrified by how our media continues to frame this election around personality rather than policy and the future of democracy in America and around the world.”—Thom Hartman
That sums it up for me.
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Yes.
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I watched last night’s interview. I was pleased, actually. What do people expect him to say? “I’m too old. I can’t win.” If he doesn’t believe in himself, nobody else will. I think Biden has had a pretty hard life, and over the years he’s pulled through. He probably thinks he’s a survivor and he will survive this too. He’s never been a great orator but what comes out of his mouth is sane. I think some Democrats and a lot of the media have gone way overboard. In the very end, we know what we will get with each of these candidates. We have to chose what that will be.
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A president who respects democratic institutions vs. a fascist.
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In the ABC interview, Biden laid the fault for the first debate on himself. He said, quoting from the ABC transcript of the interview:
“Yeah, look. The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault, mine. Nobody’s fault but mine. I, uh– I prepared what I usually would do sittin’ down as I did come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized–bout partway through that, you know, all– I get quoted the New York Times had me down, at ten points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t– I mean, the way the debate ran, not– my fault, no one else’s fault, no one else’s fault.”
As he said these words, he made gestures suggesting himself at a desk, looking at papers.
I think that this is exactly what happened. In a sane world, a person like this would prepare for such an important debate in the following manner: His advisers would make a list of the utterly predictable things that Trump could be expected to say about a wide range of issue. And for each of these, they would write a VERY BRIEF, pithy, devastating, fact-based rebuttal, and WITH A SPEECH COACH PRESENT, they would role play these over and over until he had them memorized and could spill them back readily. That’s how smart people would prepare him. What Trump would do was utterly predictable, and there is a clear way to prepare, given that, WHICH HE AND HIS PEOPLE DID NOT FOLLOW.
But what Biden describes is, instead, his sitting at a desk himself, pouring over lots and lots and lots of data in order to prepare. Purest hubris. The same sort of hubris that kept him from dropping out of the race in favor of a younger candidate, nine months or so ago.
And read the transcript. You will see that it is rambling and cannot complete his own thoughts–loses his way mid-statement, starts to say one thing but then says another. This is what happens with dementia patients. This is precisely what Ronald Reagan did all the time during his second term. Trump is also doing this a lot now.
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Among other things, I taught Speech and Debate, and I’ve done a lot of acting and public speaking. It has long astonished me when I see powerful public figures who do not know what a mediocre high-school debater knows about how to prepare and how to deliver. As far back as Dukakis, this killed me. Dukakis had this terrible habit of waving his fist in front of his own face ALL THE TIME as he was talking. It looked ridiculous and lessened him and interfered with his message and any speech coach would have taught him to stop doing that. But these people in positions of power tend to think themselves above such training. Hubris. And yes people around them are afraid to tell the boss, look, we need to get a speech coach in here.
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I don’t know. I’ve watched family members with Alzheimer’s and dementia and Biden didn’t seem like he was that bad. I definitely don’t think he looked like a hospice patient. But the Dems have to get behind him now and start talking about Project 2025.
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Trump claimed on his Truth Social site that he knows nothing about Project 2025, doesn’t know the people who assembled it. Some of 2025’s leaders had high level positions in his administration. It was assembled by the President of the Heritage Foundation. Another Trump lie.
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I, too, have watched family members and acquaintances with Alzheimer’s and dementia (my step father was one) and Biden seemed to me precisely like someone in the early stages of this. Nonetheless, he is our candidate. He’s not dropping out. AND ANYONE IS PREFERABLE TO THE BLOVIATING CRIMINAL AND TRAITOROUS PREDATORY MORON.
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In the debate, we saw him struggle again and again and again to call to mind facts that he knew he could use to counter Trump. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, he would squint his eyes, look up, try to remember, and fail. And in the interview, he frequently had the same tell that Reagan did in his second administration: he would start to say one thing and forget what he was about to say and finish with something different.
Not long after he left the presidency, LBJ succumbed to dementia. He doubtless knew it was coming. I suspect that this contributed to his decision not to run again. But Ginsburg and Feinstein and Biden are clear cases of not being that self-aware and lacking the necessary humility to do what should have been done.
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Well…he can still find words that aren’t completely nuts. I’ll take that over the other guy
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Same here, Mamie
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Exactly, Diane . The Dems have to get out there and start hammering on Project 2025. Time to close ranks around Biden, accentuate the positive and draw sharp contrast between the two candidates.
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It’s late in the 4th Quarter of the Super Bowl. We’re behind by a touchdown. Our QB is limping and has just thrown an interception. The ball is back in our hands with four minutes left. We have a couple of back-ups who could take the snap. Enough time to pull out a win. Do we stay with the veteran or take our chances with one of the subs?
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That’s a very apt analogy except maybe with a couple adjustments?:
It’s late in the 4th Quarter of the Super Bowl. We’re behind by a touchdown. THE REFS SMILED APPROVINGLY WHEN OPPOSING PLAYER BILL ROMANOWSKI’S 5TH LATE HIT LEFT OUR QB LIMPING, AND HE has just thrown an interception. The ball is back in our hands with four minutes left. We have a couple of back-ups who could take the snap. Enough time to pull out a win. OPPOSING PLAYER JACK “THE ASSASSIN” TATUM IS READY TO GO IN, AND HE AND HIS DIRTY TRICKS COACH DICK “NIGHT TRAIN” LANE ARE SIZING UP THE QB SUBS AND CONSULTING ON THE BEST WAY TO PARALYZE EACH ONE. KNOWING THE REFS ARE USELESS, do we stay with the veteran or take our chances with one of the subs?
Is there any good choice? Is it possible to win?
I remember a silly but very entertaining movie from 1981 called “Victory” starring Sylvester Stallone, soccer legend Pele, and a host of other early ’80s stars like Michael Caine.
****spoiler alert****
It’s WW 2, and Stallone and Pele are in a Nazi POW prison camp and the Nazis have arranged for a team of Allied POWs to play the German national team. The Nazi victory will show off their Aryan superiority.
****spoiler alert****
The game is played in a huge stadium in France, under the watchful eye of powerful Nazis, and the refs are in the tank for the Nazis, who have a big lead by halftime. The heroic Allied team gives up their chance to escape at halftime and instead chooses to go back and play the 2nd half for the greater good (not sure why this is really that honorable but whatever.)
It’s the 2nd half. Despite the refs calling back goals and ignoring illegal fouls, the Allied team manages to tie the game, but the dirty refs award a last second penalty shot to the Nazi team. Their star player takes it and it’s blocked!! The crowd – mostly French and thus quietly supporting the Allied team – goes wild! (The crowd looks like a bunch of extras from 1980, but whatever).
I won’t spoil what happens in the very last 3 minutes, but suffice it to say it is one of my favorite feel-good movie endings of all time, brilliantly shot by the esteemed director John Huston.
Moral of the movie: You can’t win when the game is fixed, but you might be able to save democracy if there is a huge mass of citizens willing to stand up and save it.
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