Yves here. Quelle surprise! The result, irrespective of timing, is an undemocratic train wreck. And this goes back to Biden’s colossal selfishness. Even though there is no Dem bench, with enough lead time, a colorable billionaire or even mere CEO could have been brought to the fore and sold to the public. I am very loath to say it, but the pickings are so terrible that Jamie Dimon winds up looking not bad. The David Ignatius Washington Post op ed in September telling Biden to decamp was widely recognized as a missive from the intel community…but even then it was too tardy to get a ball rolling. So expect bad outcomes.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
Not that it’s likely to happen, but recent events have set minds to wondering: What would actually happen if Biden were to step aside or be somehow unable to run?
To set the stage, there are two scenarios in play. First, what if he stepped aside before the Convention? And, what if he stepped aside after it?
If Biden Drops Out Before the Convention
If Biden were to remove himself from the race, the answer to what would happen is already before us. Just examine the 2016 primary race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and consider the role of superdelegates.
Sanders v. Clinton in 2016
This is a map of primary states won by the two candidates based on the popular vote, Sanders states in green and Clinton states in yellow. The map shows the pledged delegate allocations. (Pledged delegates are required to vote at the Convention for the candidate who won in their voting district.)
And this is a map showing primary states actually won based on total delegates, pledged plus unpledged, the so-called superdelegates. In 2016 superdelegates could vote as they chose, even on the first ballot.
Consider a state like Michigan, where Sanders won the popular vote. The pledged delegate allocation was 67-63 Sanders. But with superdelegate preferences added in, Clinton won the state — it was reported as such on the national news — and the delegate distribution changed to 75-67 Clinton. Several states went from the Sanders column to the Clinton column in this way.
But worse, consider states won by Clinton in the popular vote, Iowa, for example. The pledged delegate count was 23-21 Clinton. With superdelegates added in, the count went to 29-21 Clinton. In Connecticut, 28-27 Clinton became 43-27 Clinton. The differences are most striking in states like California and New York, with their large delegate totals.
In all, with a total of 712 superdelegates available, Clinton started the race with an opening lead of 572-42. In the end, without her superdelegates, Clinton would not have won on the first ballot, even with the skewed reporting that served to depress the Sanders vote.
The 2016 Convention would have been brokered. As Lee Fang points out (see link below), in the 1968 convention Hubert Humphrey won without winning a single Democratic primary — and lost to Nixon.
Side Note: Sanders Would Have Won in 2016
Just an aside. I’ve often written that had Sanders won the Democratic nomination, he’d have beaten Trump handily in the general election.
There are many arguments for this, including the fact that in many “open” primaries, where a voter could choose either a Democratic or a Republican ballot, Sanders beat Trump in most of them.
For example, in the open same-day primary on March 8 in Michigan, these are the popular vote totals:
- Sanders: 595,222
- Trump: 483,751
The story is much the same in most of the open primaries.
But a second argument comes from the states won by Clinton in the 2016 primary. Here’s the map by state:
Clinton beat Sanders in states where Republicans were strongest — the South and Southwest — and in states where no Democrat would lose a general election — California, New York.
In Pennsylvania — a closed, same-day primary state which Clinton narrowly lost to Trump 48-47% — the top Republican vote-getters garnered a bit over 1.5 million votes. Clinton and Sanders together received 1.65 million votes. If you add just Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Clinton lost to Trump but where Sanders was strong, to the Democratic electoral vote total, Sanders is over the top. This is before considering states like Arizona and Florida, where Trump only narrowly won, 48-47%.
This thought is borne out by logic. After all, Trump ran the Sanders campaign in the general election. That strategy would have failed against Sanders himself. A lot of Trump voters would have chosen Sanders instead, as shown by the open primary results.
But that’s neither here nor there, as people sometimes say. Trump beat Clinton in 2016 in the only arena that counts, the Electoral College.
And here we are.
A Biden Pre-Convention Withdrawal
The rules for superdelegates have changed a little since 2016. They’re now not allowed to vote on the first ballot. In this case, though, that wouldn’t matter. Since the Democratic leaders chose not to hold a real primary, almost no one but Biden will enter with a delegate count. Without Biden to vote for, the convention would be brokered from the start, and anyone could win — so long as they had superdelegate support.
Who are the Party’s superdelegates? The bulk are DNC members while the rest are governors, senators, representatives and “distinguished party leaders.” Dozens are lobbyists and the like.
The bottom line: Superdelegates exist to put an Establishment thumb on the Party electoral scales. In a brokered 2024 Convention, they will do that again.
If Biden Drops Out After the Convention
If Biden drops out after the Convention, the voters would have no say at all. According to Lee Fang in a paid post, superdelegates would “maintain direct control of the process if Biden were to step down after the convention.”
Following Biden’s election in 2020, the president, as the de-facto leader of the Democratic Party, appointed former corporate lobbyist Jaime Harrison as DNC chairman. Harrison used his role to bring more business representatives into superdelegate positions and voted down proposals to limit the influence of special interests within the party.
Rather than limit the influence of lobbyists, the DNC doubled down. Harrison’s appointments DNC members include Lacy Johnson, who leads the lobbying practice at Taft’s Public Affairs Strategies Group, a firm that assists Koch Industries and a trade group for oil refineries with government outreach; Marcus Mason, a lobbyist who represents Google and Navient; and Nicole Isaac, a former Meta and Google official, now leads Cisco’s global lobbying operations.
The Harrison-led DNC has blocked efforts to curb corporate influence in the party. The Rules and Bylaws Committee has instead concentrated more power to a select group of DNC insiders. The committee is also responsible for the decision to remove Iowa and make South Carolina the first official primary election.
This is an ugly bunch of people:
[I]f Biden were to exit the race post-convention, the decision would rest solely with a select group of DNC insiders. According to the DNC charter, this process would be governed by rules established by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee [which] notably comprises establishment figures, including lobbyists representing corporate interests. […]
Minyon Moore, co-chair of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, is an influential lobbyist who previously served as an aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton and now works at Dewey Square Group. DSG has worked for a variety of corporate interests. Lyft tapped DSG to fight proposals in California and Massachusetts that would force the company to provide benefits and minimum wages to its drivers. […]
James Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is the other co-chair of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. He is a registeredlobbyist with the law firm Verrill in Boston, Massachusetts, where he guides various healthcare interests. He previously served as the chief executive of the Tufts Health Plan, a health insurance company that is now part of Point32Health. […]
The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee […] includes New Jersey lobbyist Tonio Burgos, who represents UnitedHealth and AIG, among other clients; Tonya Williams, a longtime D.C. lobbyist who now runs a firm called Blue House Advisors; and Gary Locke, President Obama’s ambassador to China who now works at a U.S.-China law firm.
As Politico notes in an article on the same subject, “The truth is that a backup strategy can only be deployed if Biden voluntarily steps aside — or is physically unable to stand for nomination.”
And here we are.
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Biden will be the guy unless he croaks. Democrats don’t like uncertainties in who their candidate is nor primary battles. A brokered convention could be appealing in garnering public interest in some odd “democratic” way as forces vie for support or it could be a complete disaster. But to the Democratic establishment the very idea of it is so frightening they won’t let it come to that. There has to be one candidate for them and one alone and between Biden’s people, Harris’ and anyone else there won’t be agreement.
I’m not so sure. The way Biden’s team made or allowed him to do that press conference about his memory suggests they want to replace him and know how. They would never let him take questions like that so I think they wanted to make him look bad. The party is softening Dem voters up for what they feel has to be done.
I’m coming around to this point of view. Up to now, things have been carefully managed to shield Biden’s mental capacity from any scrutiny. Granted, he still has agency (I assume) and he could go around them if he wanted. But something about that just felt like a bit of a setup. Combined with the press finally noticing, it seems like they’re foaming the runway.
I know it’s not good to speculate but honestly this is the only part of the latest “most important election of our lifetime” that I find interesting. The actual horserace I couldn’t care less about.
Biden’s team did not make him do it. Biden was furious and wanted to prove Hur wrong.
Biden cannot be stopped when he is in a mood. Look at how often he lashes out at reporters, or goes completely counterproductive, as he did when he confirmed he thought Xi was a dictator right after a meeting wth Xi to repair relations.
“Biden cannot be stopped when he is in a mood. Look at how often he lashes out at reporters, or goes completely counterproductive, as he did when he confirmed he thought Xi was a dictator right after a meeting with Xi to repair relations.”
Biden has been and is a very strong willed president.
People with dementia can be very stubborn, angry and strong-willed. He hasn’t lost all his cognitive abilities, but they sure are impaired.
People with dementia can get furious over nothing. He’s clearly one of those.
Puppets don’t have a will.
Which means if Biden has a will, then Biden is not a puppet.
If ” being a puppet” means ” not having a will”.
Why has Jill Biden not been locked up for elderly abuse?
“Biden has been and is a very strong willed president.”
A triumph of the will, there.
Minion more…
For creepy genocide joe.
It’s not as if Dem voters have any say in the candidate selection process anyway.
Exactly.
Yeah. This line made me laugh out loud: “If Biden drops out after the Convention, the voters would have no say at all.” That train left the station ages ago. Most voters don’t want Biden. Yet the table has been tilted so he is the only option.
Small quibble… They would still have a say. They could vote for Trump.
But yes, I understand what you are all saying about the process.
> This is a map of primary states won by the two candidates based on the popular vote …
> And this is a map showing primary states actually won based on total delegates …
Is this a trick question and I’m just too thick to get it? To my eye, these maps are identical.
By the way, the same is true for the later pair of maps in the article.
Yeah, same observation. Something is wrong with the paste of the maps from the original article. I had to go there to understand the reference.
Thanks Bugs. I thought I was going mad for a while there. Clicked through to original after seeing your comment and realised what happened.
I’m a voting nerd and have used results like the 2016 Iowa Primary to dissect preferences from a slightly different perspective and explore counterfactuals using ranked choice and related systems. You could have quite easily, using observed votes from 2016 and some very small assumptions, got an even more “open wide” contested convention in 2016. Though I take the point that the blob never wants such a scenario so such musings are whistling in the wind.
The original article from God’s Spies has the correct maps and charts.
But, the entire 2016 comparison section is beside the point. There was no primary this year. Elites will select this year. Nuff said.
Sorry. There was LOTS of garbage HTML in that post and I screwed up. Fixed now.
Not fixed where I am, as of 10:15 EST.
My eyes and my operating system see 00-biden-2.jpeg inserted into the HTML twice.
Open the page in a new browser window. You are getting your cached version.
Nope. I occasionally make that mistake, but I’m a telecom engineer and it doesn’t happen often.
Both files, 00-biden-2.jpeg and 00-biden-2-1.jpeg are identical (that’s likely why your OS named the -1 file that way) when loaded on two different browsers with cleared caches, as of 11:47 a.m. EST.
Both files have valid CRC 32 hash checksums and they are identical: bec6f1f9.
There may be a cached copy of the file on a server somewhere out there in the wilds of the internet that is repeatedly serving me old versions of the file, but it’s not happening on my machine.
Hillary to the rescue for the sequel rematch!
Ack! Phhhtt! – Bill the Cat, says.
Can Biden even win at this point? With a lost war and a genocide on his back, as well as a terrible economic performance, I don’t see a substantial voter turnout during the elections. This usually hands the Republicans the victory.
No. Biden ducks hard fights and is a classic bully. The guy sat out 2016 as the sitting VP in fear of Hillary. He’ll dip out as his numbers stay terrible or get worse. Hillary, AIPAC, the GOP, Manchin and so forth scare him. He didn’t expect Russia to fight and win. Moscow was just supposed to collapse like a Yuri Smirnoff joke.
Even with Kamala, he’s afraid of Clyburn. Eventually, he’ll bow out because of sudden neath news and vow to cure super cancer which is why he wasn’t running in 2016 to cure cancer.
If he were up against your stereotypical Republican presidential nominee, I would agree with you; but he’s up against Trump and even though Trump’s supporters are a loud and raucous bunch, they represent (IMO) a diminishing minority of voters. Meanwhile, the ranks of the anti-Trump voters are expanding. And not just anti-Trump, by the way—the ranks of folks who are fed up with the MAGA GOP and all of their shenanigans is growing. If Biden has a pulse on November 5th, he will win.
ASIDE: I would, of course, feel much more comfortable if Biden would find a way to replace Kamala Harris. She is the Dan Quayle of the Democratic party.
You seem to be ignoring the increasing number of people who despise Genocide Joe at least as much as they do Trump. Young people and people of color are abandoning Biden in droves, and there are not enough suburban soccer moms to make up the deficit. There may be a lot of Never Trumpers out there, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who might otherwise vote Republican who says they will vote Biden just to spite Trump. I’ve encountered quite a few people (there are some on this forum) who would at least consider voting Trump to spite Biden and the corporatist democratic party.
Meet one of those people. I haven’t voted for Trump yet but it may be coming up. And yes it would be purely out of spite because Biden will stand no chance in this state anyway.
Patrick Lawrence says Biden is the worst president of this century, perhaps the worst of the modern era. It’s amazing that the Dems haven’t paid more of a price for foisting him upon us.
Larry Johnson has a theory that the reason Putin didn’t mention Obama is that he is the president Putin really didn’t like and sees as the spider in the center of the web of Maidan and the current mess. Obama gave us Biden, Russiagate, the bank bailout, the unaffordable care act and much else. This is the result of a political party that is no longer about anything but PR.
“Obama gave us Biden, Russiagate, the bank bailout, the unaffordable care act and much else.”
And most of all, Obama gave us Trump.
“…gave us Biden,…”
I remember back in 2008 when Obama announced Biden, it seemed like a good pick at the time because Biden would be too old to run for president after Obama. But little did we know that Mr. Hope and Change was going to be all Hope and no Change, and by not doing anything to improve the lives of everyday citizens he primed the country to be receptive to Trump’s version of change.
I think you’re delusional. People even Dems hate the demented old man. Sorry to break the news to you.
i’m lost.
Which demented old man? no reply necessary….. there are a lot of demented old men running around.
You forgot to mention the border scandals, and the billions of dollars spent on a failing Ukraine lol
My sense is that if None of the Above or No One On This Ballot was a choice and threw out the choices that Trump and Biden would each garner votes in the low 20’s percentage wise. Replacements would garner same or less. Third parties a percent or so. And between high 40’s and low 50’s it would be the reject them all category. With the exception of some die hard cheerleaders, I do not sense any real enthusiasm or even trust for what both parties have wrought.
I could be wrong but my take on the last big elections that what people want is their government to change and consider them first. Biden’s win challenges that somewhat, but the offering left it off the ballot. The Democrats and Biden’s problem this time around is that even though it is the same non choice as last time . This time they don’t win the only comparison left. Most people really cannot say their life is better now than in 2020.
Could this be it, finally? When the American public realizes their so-called democracy isn’t a democracy, that their voting system is broken, rigged? Perhaps. I feel like the MAGA folks are already there.
Will they mobilize to change it? Nah. MAGA folks did try. Stop a genocide? Nah. Stop apartheid? Nah. But look who won the Oscars! Look what [insert Hollywood reference] is wearing! What was the question again?
Thank you, Yves.
In the past month, I have attended events involving the Labour Party and Bank of England, it appears that the government and opposition are more than comfortable with the prospect of a Trump administration.
Blair has cosied up to Trump since his election. The Labour Party and government are engaging the likes of Colby, Lightizer and Pompeo.
The government is also staying close to the Trump campaign. Labour has to build links with them.
It will be fun watching the heads of the TDS mob explode, both in the UK and EU, as their leaders cosy up to Trump.
At an evening with the Labour Treasury team last month, it was us banksters who had to raise the idea of a rapprochement with the EU. Labour is not interested. At a Bank of England event yesterday evening, it was not even mentioned.
Last year, Aurelien / David introduced the idea of an inner party and an outer party. The outer party’s illusions are painful to watch ringside.
Colonel
Re: Labour
Your comments endorse my/our observations from left- left and one awaits the astounded future reaction of many disappointed people with glee.
No surprise either about Europe.The refusal by the right wing of the L P. to accept the No vote and and their superb marshalling via Starmer of ‘The Remainers ‘ and that short lived movement, served it’s major purpose ~ to bin Corbyn.
The refusal to accept the vote incensed many, especially those from a TU background – and their were many among the Brexiter’s , where one is brought up to respect the vote,however unpalatable the result
Thanks Colonel, that’s really interesting. Much of the world outside Europe and the Anglosphere never really had a problem with Trump, they knew where they stood with him.
I do wonder if this applies to continental Europe – a deep dislike of Trump seems much more engrained there, inside and outside the establishment.
Incidentally, a little bird told me that Trumps Irish golf establishment on the west coast is doing spectacularly well financially. Its benefiting from its proximity to Shannon Airport and the strength of dollar vs the euro and seems very well run. It is a fake Balmoral type pile next to a links course which consistently ran into financial trouble until he took it over. It didn’t help that it is on top of an EU designated habitat and had a long running legal dispute with local farmers over rights of access (and Irish courts will always favour a poor local farmers land rights over anyone, even Trump). But somehow these have been smoothed over. Trump may have terrible taste in lawyers, but he does know how to hire good managers.
Thank you, PK.
It’s not dissimilar to his courses in Scotland, despite what the SNP’s TDS sufferers pretend.
Say what you will about Trump but the guy cleaned up the RINO wing in the GOP and cast them into the ‘outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth’. He did it with the able help of his MAGA crowd who need to be credited with ‘fire in the belly’ to kick out the rich and entitled Country Club crew. One of the more masterful reversals that Trump made possible was to mobilize MAGA public opinion against forever wars. Till Trump came along, there was never a war the GOP RINOs did not like, but after he took over and started pointing out the amount of money we were dishing out to ‘protect’ Europe via NATO, the rank and file Joe the Plumber crowd understood what was going on and starting talking about “America First”. Contrast that with the utterly pathetic picture a couple days back in the news of doddering old Schumer and McConnell issuing quavering warnings about ‘US soldiers will be fighting the Russians’ in Europe. The Democrat party needs a Trump but that will not happen any time soon because the voters who used to be in the Dem camp and might have supported a Trump like figure have mostly crossed over to the other side. We are now left only with Suburban Moms and tenured faculty along with the large crowd of politically illiterate hi-tech moxxns in the Blue states like California and Massachusetts. We have a long way to go yet on the Left while Trump has already made the GOP the anti-war party, no small achievement. I think this was largely due to the huge Vet/Cannon Fodder contingent in the “Deplorables” section. They know what war is.
Thank you and well said, Paul.
I would just add that much of the hawkishness in Europe, not just the UK, comes, but that may soon be came, from the comfort that there was a supply of deplorables from the US to do the fighting.
There was some of that at the Bank of England yesterday evening when one civilian adviser to the Ministry of Defence hinted that Ukraine may have to be sacrificed to protect Taiwan or, as he explained, the US’ reputation in Asia and its ability to keep allies onside by deterring China.
C.S., did you read Big Serges latest essay? He lays out the strategic conundrum for the US very clearly.
Obviously, with the mess that is the US establishment, its anyone’s guess as to who can make a clear decision, but as Big Serge implies at the end his essay, the US will have to make a strategic withdrawal, the big question is where. Its not incapable of doing so, as Biden showed us with Afghanistan, which history may judge to be his one good decision among many terrible ones (or maybe two, if you include the IRA Act).
Historically, the US has usually shown an ability to declare victory and get the hell out and so save the empire from overstretch several times (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan). I wonder if Trump could be the one to do it. I suspect that he would more happily abandon Europe than the Middle East or the eastern Pacific, he seems to have a particular loathing for the European establishment, but is too tightly bound to the Christian apocalyptic types to give up on the Middle East.
I have to disagree on the IRA act, with the big caveat that I may have read your comment wrong, and you’re saying that the IRA act was a bad decision.
That may go down as the straw that broke the camel’s back, in terms of creating inflation. Note that there is a history of Congress passing bills with names that are Orwellian – the Patriot Act, for example, did the opposite in destroying privacy as well as assaulting the Bill of Rights.
Likewise, the IRA is probably partly responsible for the inflation we got last year, as well as the latest nascent uptick in the CPI. The extra $500B in spending unbacked by taxation is more than the total spent so far in Ukraine. To the extent that it meant to give tax breaks to big business, it is hurting the revenue side of the budget and I would say it is not quite a total disaster, but most of the spending will not result in any productivity and is a sop to big corporate interests.
Thank you, Chris.
Your thoughts are shared by the City and Bank of England.
Thank you, PK.
I haven’t yet.
That sounds timely and a fascinating conundrum.
You’re right to highlight Trump’s motivation. On the one hand, there are the likes of Verhofstadt and, to a lesser extent, Macron pushing for the EU to do its own thing, but the Atlanticists are still a big faction.
Michael Moore warned about the Flyover war cannon fodder backlash effect months before the 2016 election.
Isn’t there still a question of when before the convention? If he drops out now then Harris would be the only real option for substitution. If he does so after Super Tuesday then those delegates are pledged to Biden and not to Harris. That would make a difference in the brokerage. Or, most likely I guess, I don’t understand much about how this works.
It seems to me like the DNC would be jumping into another kind of PR nightmare if they throw Kamala under the bus for a more electable candidate, especially if it were Newsom, or some other white male. It appears that they may have completely boxed themselves into a corner this time.
Yeah. But it’s not just a PR nightmare for them. It’s a political nightmare for us and a life-or-death nightmare for many others.
I get the feeling they’ll just tell the k-hive to “vote blue no matter who or Trump will be their fault.” The k-hive will fall in line with minimal grousing. If there is one thing I’ve notice about partisan Democrats is that they tend to be followers who fall in line on command.
Actually, getting Dems to “fall in line” is comparable to herding cats. The GOP, conversely, is known for playing follow the leader quite well. Maybe, recency bias suggests otherwise.
The election won’t be decided by the partisan Dems. It will be decided by the people who aren’t committed to either party, who will look at their wallets.
I know it sounds petty but it really does come down to the forceful rejection of Bernie that doomed the Democrats. Beyond Bernie, the forceful rejection of his universally popular proposals.
It was a mask off moment with Hillary bots tearing into ‘Bernie Bros’ in the first primary. Didn’t seal the deal in my mind until the second primary that FDR and JFK’s party is dead.
I’m going to anti-campaign. I’m going to call family and try to convince them for voting 3rd party. We’ll probably get Trump but that’s not our fault. A couple more election cycles and I think the Democrats will be permanently crippled.
The true ideological nature of the Democrat party lies in the Andrew Jackson and Franklin Pierce end of the big tent. Even Jackson might be too far left, as he actually took on bankers. FDR and JFK are outliers.
Agreed. I know lots of people who voted for Obama twice & then switched to Trump.
In any case, it’s strange to hear no one much talking about RFK Jr. I’ll be voting 3rd party too.
I always tended to anyway. When I voted for Ralph Nader in my first election as an adult, somehow it was “my fault” according to “friends” that G. Dubya got elected instead of whoever it was, Gore, I guess.
Yet that election was “stolen.”
It seems like so many elections have been contested since I came of age to vote. That’s now happened on both sides.
I think eventually the Dems and Reps will implode into new parties. After all, we don’t for Whigs or Federalists anymore. I wish there was more multiplicity in the parties, instead of this dastardly binary of locked horns.
I loved RFK. He was pretty close to getting my feeling on the strangeness of public healthcare during covid. Promised actual international diplomacy. Expand the peace corps as the next CCC. I even liked his cheesy ‘heal the divide’ shtick.
Then he kept siding with Israel while they bomb kids so… no more.
Same, I liked him until he pledged allegiance to the Jewish state. Good riddance to him.
Kucinich jumped off the bus immediately. Spoke volumes.
I feel that. But I don’t know who is a “better” choice now, considering both Biden (if he is still alive) and Trump might also continue to fund Israel.
This might help:
The problems with First Past The Post voting explained
https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo
The “organization Ds” did much the same thing years earlier for Al Gore and against Bill Bradley.
Bill Bradley – the last, and only, good Democrat of the past 3 decades.
On behalf of the late Paul Wellstone, I resent that. But they are few and very far between.
And also on behalf of Dennis Kucinich, who bravely fought, and continues to fight the good fight.
It appears that the Democratic leadership is more interested in crushing the progressives than in beating Trump. The Democratic leadership seems to believe they will be replaced if the progressives become the most powerful faction in the Democratic party, but will maintain their influence in the party if Trump is the president.
At the same time, it is very important to be consciously aware that the Trump phenomenon has been a thoroughly democratic process. The Republican voters have had a chance to express their opinions, and they have taken over the party as a result of the power of their votes. The Republican party is what it looks like when democracy reigns, and the Democratic party is what it looks like when autocracy reigns. So which one looks like the good ideology.
Plus, the MAGA crowd added to the moderate liberals means that the American electorate is strong majority autocratic.
To borrow from Joni’s old song: it’s life’s illusions I recall, I really don’t know life at all…
Both their houses are infested with rats and misguided people lorded over by a misleadership class.
2016: #BernieWouldHaveWon
2025: #BidenIsToast
I assume you mean 2024. If Biden is still alive in 2025, I wonder if anyone will think much about him, aside from Dr. Jill. By this time next year, the DNC’s election gambit (likely Zugzwang, a la Big Serge) will have been played.
> I assume you mean 2024
Yes! #Typo … :)
Bernard Sanders stabbed his followers in the back many times by not running as an independent and endorsing HRC, then JB. His treachery, cynicism and hypocrisy should be well noted. We “must” “vote” for the D because the R is worse? What a scumbag.
Besides, at the end of the day, his voting record reveals he is a Zionist and an imperialist – just like the people he criticizes.
These are my sentiments as well. Bernie was the last straw for me. He taught me how naive and foolish I was to put faith into any politician or elite. A lesson for which I am grateful. When I look back I feel ashamed at my child like view of the world and how it works. It took many, many years and betrayals, plus discovering sites like NC for the veil to finally be lifted. It’s an ongoing process but is liberating in the end.
Yes, while all this is true … he still would have won … and perhaps … just perhaps … we would not have found ourselves down the path of BiBi the Thug thinking he could have kept doing what he has been for the eight intervening years. Multiverse be damned, I’d still like a peek into that timeline …
I’d like to see that Styxx hippy podcaster in Rutland run against Bernie for senator.
Trying to pick a replacement for Biden will be a nightmare and they will probably find some obscure politician to be their candidate. But the Democrat party has a problem – a black problem. No, not what you are thinking. They may want to go with a female black candidate and therein lies the problem. So let us imagine the party officials interviewing a potential candidate and it goes like this.
Party: ‘We are really impressed with your qualifications and your beliefs in neoliberalism, Israel and American worldwide dominance. Now a personal question about your colour.’
Candidate: ‘Saywhatnow?’
Party: ‘Can we ask the source of your blackness?’
Candidate: ‘Well my distant ancestors were brought over as slaves but after the Civil war they came north.’
Party: ‘So not recent Kenyan or Jamaican or anything like that?’
Candidate: ‘Nope. American born and bred. My family has fought in every war starting with fighting with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil war up until Afghanistan.’
Party: ‘So no recent infusions from Kenya or Jamaica or even Trinidad I see. Yes, well thank you very much for your time. Don’t call us – we’ll call you.’
The next so-called “election” will ride on the who will be the vice president choices.
Either Trump and Biden will have to deal with ongoing impeachment threats that will gather more or less steam depending on relatively small changes in the congressional makeups. And both Trump and Biden are too old to have good prospects of surviving the next five very difficult years. So the next VP will have a very good shot, even a likelihood, of taking over. You can count of the dems to select a bland corporate-approved non-entity (could even one out of ten voters name Hilary’s 2016 running mate?). Trump could make the race more interesting by selecting someone more dynamic and attractive than Pence.
Maybe — especially if both presumptive low-standard-bearers go away, and we get to see the major-disappointment parties trying to make sausage, each for its own competing sets of big donors — this could be a year when more voters see their way out of the smoke-filled kitchen.
Maybe polls like this one:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
which have shown for years that more of us identify ourselves as neither R nor D than as either (almost as many as both combined!) — but have diluted that voting power by nudzhing us to say which of the two they are less disappointed by (“lean to”; not even “lean toward”!) — could finally, at least once, ask the flipside of that question too . . . something like this:
“If you could cast the deciding vote to elect anyone you like [OR anyone of those most likely to be on your ballot], who would it be?”
Heck, maybe — in this year of “great replacement” talk — Gallup will test a poll replacing the Ds and Rs, or our derangers-in-chief past and present, with the leading national alternatives.
Why am I so cock-eyed optimistic? Well, I suppose part of the reason may be that I’ve been permanently out of the duopoly spin cycle myself all this century. But even before that, I went independent two decades earlier — campaigning for John Anderson. At the time, I was advised of privately-commissioned polls showing that he was ahead of both Carter and Reagan if voters were asked to presume that he had a chance to win.
I believe that belief needs to rise up through all the weeds that have been trying to choke it for so long. And I believe it could, in a volatile year like this one. If people like the commentarians here could help grow that belief, it could expand its yield thirty-, or sixty-, or a hundred-fold.
Imagine this:
Joe Biden suffers a massive, debilitating stroke in October.
Kamala Harris immediately ascends to the presidency and selects for her vice president and future running mate…
(drum roll please…)
(wait for it….)
(hold your breath, and…)
Joe Manchin
RIM SHOT!!
The center/right leadership of the DNC determines that the left has no other viable choice and the winning strategy is to attract possible Trump voters from the right. The logic behind Manchin, a rightist Democrat can be demonstrated with a simple Venn Diagram. The left could not be won over to Trump in sufficient numbers but as they are discouraged from voting at all, the only potential for DNC gain is from the right.
Cymbal crash swell
The hope is that Kamala contracts a highly communicable-but non fatal malady other than constantly inserting high heels into her mouth, but it isn’t prudent to do a Hail Mary pass early in the first quarter as it practically reeks of desperation.
To not select her to be the Chief Executive would completely vilify the DNC in their ability to pick only the best people for the job, besides that potential broad side look at all the woke possibilities to be had with Harris, she checks a lot of boxes having much in common with the electorates largest segment: those with an IQ around 100.
Besides, you know whatever Buttigieg, Newsom or other carrion my wayward sons, would get walloped by the Donald.
If you’re gonna lose, go out a trailblazer with a woke Cinderella story, the first woman to have run for President.
” you’re gonna lose, go out a trailblazer with a woke Cinderella story, the first woman to have run for President.”
Trailblazer — well, Hilary did have that long walk in the woods.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/mother-and-daughter-run-into-hillary-clinton-hiking-facebook.html
She is truly the Dan Quayle of the Democratic party.
It is an utter disgrace that both the Dems and Repubs have been working so long to make entry of a politician at any level , the barriers of money – pay to play – the real barrier to progress and to any competence in office. Everybody everyday raising money to get in office. After so many years of perfecting the money game – those folks willing to run in the deliberately toxic game are the one most willing to be bought, bribed, and sold to the highest bidder – why would anyone willingly want to run? For the personal prestige and money – for the most part IMHO.
Some people do want to do good and get rid of the rot (not T or B) and run at great personal sacrifice – they are usually good people but, have been educated and indoctrinated into the neoliberal / predatory and extractive financial capitalist view point.
One person running is against big money in politics, wants to tax the rich but not the financial preditory system that made them meta rich, and – what lost me was that she/he want to tackle the housing affordability crisis by encouraging wall street investment into housing units (to me – that is just supplying more chickens to the hen house where the all the fox are looking for more guarding opportunities).
But you know, it’s been said before.
The speculator, . He adds nothing to the riches of the country, but merely takes toll from those who do employ labor and produce wealth. If part of the speculator’s income – no matter how large a part – be taken in taxation, it will not decrease employment or lessen the production of wealth. Our lawmakers will do well, therefore, to pay less attention to the rate on incomes, and more to the source from whence they are drawn. 1925 IMHO -unfortunately now, our politicians draw their wealth from the same pool and have mastered the art of Kabuki
or
However, the evolutionary process by which monkeys made men of themselves was considerably slower than the reverse process.
Incidentally, the best way to put an end to all wars is not to begin any.
or
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”
Election eve speech at Madison Square Garden (October 31, 1936)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Biden may have mounting problems that hasten or at least complicate his departure, according to this morning’s John Solomon article.
I still can’t believe that an octogenarian who can’t find his way out of a room and can’t read a teleprompter is being propped up for “election” again. It’s elder abuse.
I agree, but that begs the question; Jill, what you you doing?
That’s DOCTOR JILL to you, pal.
Dr. Biden:
“Joe is 81, that’s true, but he’s 81 doing more in an hour that most people do in a day.”
https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1756494305244430787
It seems safe to say Trump is up again for a full self pardon, or even a series of them, unless Biden bails and someone convincing is found to replace him and even then, as per above, na ga ha. For success in electing this genocidal poster wreck of memory loss and senility, it would take some very powerful campaign voodoo. I don’t see how it can happen. And if there is so much as one debate where Biden creeps out of the cellar, Trump is going to tear him to shreds until either Biden bails voluntarily from the sting or even die hard democrats are repulsed by the whole catastrophic mess and stay at home.
I agree, no matter what, things look terrible. The corruption is deep-seated and institutionalized, so no matter which puppets are in Warshiton, there will be no improvements to the unfolding dystopia.
There is no way to “vote” against the interests of the ruling oligarchy. It is sad to see so many informed people still believe that Democracy Inc. can produce meaningful choice.
On the other hand, the vast majority of US voters don’t want DT or JB which is a positive development
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/americans-dismayed-by-biden-trump-2024-rematch-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2024-01-25/
Have we reached peak kakistocracy yet? I hope so
>>>Have we reached peak kakistocracy yet? I hope so
Nope, just look at Pakistan right now.
Aside from all theorizing and prognostication, whatever minimal legitimacy our system in general and the parties in particularly has left is going away. People often discount the necessity any regime needs for legitimacy to rule, but it does exist, and without it only raw force is available and that is usually not enough.
I do see the Democrats or the Republicans acting that their store of legitimacy is unending, and because they are only focused on power, usually for continued pillaging of the American nation, despite the damage they are doing to both the United States and the world, they will lose whatever they have. The establishment as a whole cannot guarantee clean water, food, power, roads, bridges, jobs, education, housing, justice, or even the most basic emergency assistance including floods, fire, and epidemics; this is because of the pillaging, the emptying of the various government agencies that are suppose to help the average Americans.
Indeed, the police and family services are being used to rob the people they serve because they do not want to raise taxes. It is often illegal on paper, but not always, and it does not matter. If your government not only will not help you, but is not only encouraging the active destruction of what you need to live, and is usually blatantly unfair, even illegal, to stay in power and continue, why would you listen to it and obey it? Without meaning any hyperbole, I predict that it will be gone between the end of 2024 and mid 2025, if not sooner, which means war. If not outright war, then serious unrest at the level of the 1960s, but our government lacks both the legitimacy and the competency of the one of fifty years ago. They will overact, which will mean pushback, then more overacting and reacting onto a war.
As a child, I did not get a good opinion of the government from my family, but I think they would have preferred the Nixon Administration.
You see, that’s what I don’t understand. No one forces you to pick a candidate with a D or an R next to their name. If you who fault RFK for supporting Israel turn right around and vote for the D or R who are self-admitted Zionist, then what you really are doing is eating your tail. If that prerequisite is what is stopping you from voting for an Independant or 3rd party candidate, how in the hell can you just go ahead and vote for what you abhor?
Here is what I would like to hear from a candidate.
Congress can no longer pass continuing resolutions to keep government agencies running between budgets. No debt ceiling shenanigans. Balance the budget, annually.
That’s it. Three things needed to re-install our legitimacy.
” …how in the hell can you just go ahead and vote for what you abhor?” I don’t. I haven’t voted for a D or R in this century.
It looks like you misunderstood my comment, or got me confused with another one.
Besides that, you might have heard that unlimited political bribery is legal, and money is legally equated with free speech. So it’s all about who can raise the most money – it’s the best Democracy Inc. money can buy!
Part of restoring legitimacy will involve teaching people how fiat money works, and explaining to them how it can be used wisely within the limits of physical production to create an economic system that works well for ALL USians. #MMT
Well said. That’s kind of what I was thinking with reference to my comments above.
It seemed an insurmountable task to get rid of Nixon until suddenly Agnew was knocked off the board. Gerald Ford taking over from Nixon was way less threatening to most people (although, as it turned out, he gave the evil neocons their first big break into positions of power).
So for Biden to go, Kamala must go first. If this was a monarchy, a dire case of food poisoning or a fall down a particularly long flight of stairs might be the “accident” required to alter the line of succession. Since we’re an oligarchic plutocracy rather than a monarchy, that won’t work. So probably some inconvenient legal problem that was previously overlooked will result in her exit. Then we will see what unspeakable noisome Lovecraftian horror masquerading as a “serious” and “electable” Democrat gets the VP job. Only after that has been settled will Biden suffer whatever scripted disabling event leads to his riding off into the sunset.
Despite his faults, I would much rather have Richard Nixon than any of the current crop of kakistocrats -it’s that bad.
It might be worse than that. The few PMC I know who actually admit Joe is a little slow, think he should be replaced by *drum roll* Hillary.
Both teams benches are bare, very bare. Meaning neither bench gives one good $hit about we the people. We would be better off with the water boy.
True, but even some informed commenters here are “hoping” for “change” and DT will somehow stop the wars, bring peace and things will be great. That looks intellectually lazy and a bunch of wishful thinking. Dude had 4 years, and nothing happened except for the bipartisan TaxCutsForCronies. His supporters make pathetic, irrational excuses. He is a genocidal Zionist just like JB. We can give Israel more billions, bomb Syria, Iran and China instead of Russia, that’s what we call “peace”.
I would like to believe in Santa Claus but…
Nixon was the anti-Biden: he eased tensions with the USSR, opened up relations with China, and played those two nations off against each other. Biden is raising tensions to a near war state with both countries and forcing them together into an alliance that probably would’ve taken way longer to develop otherwise.
But Nixon was still despicable and had hundreds of thousands of deaths and mutilations on his conscience. He was pushed to be way more “liberal” than Biden by the large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress back then. And he was intelligent and not completely incompetent, so a cut above any of the upper strata of the Democratic leadership today. Still, no telling what evil he would conjure up if he was at the top in the current political environment.
I suspect you [JonnyJames] were in diapers when Nixon was President. That is the only explanation that justifies your preference for Nixon over anyone as the President.
Nixon was presented with the opportunity to change the electronics in TVs so the government could automatically turn them on “in case of a national emergency.” He was told that the really good thing about this system was it could be used to selectively eavesdrop on conversations in rooms without the occupants being aware of it. He decided not to do this as it “wouldn’t be right”. It wouldn’t have been legal either. Please name me one recent president after Carter who would have done that.
I was young but out of diapers, and Obama made me nostalgic for Richard Nixon. That was the moment I realized that between the never ending illegal wars, the torture, the destruction of the American working class, the cover that had been given to the outright selling of the political class so it could not be called corruption anymore that we had two two term Presidents in a row, one from each party, who had less respect for laws, ethics and even the American people than Tricky Dick Nixon. Nixon might have been worse if he had also had a Congress as venal as they had, but the Nixon years actually produced several lasting and useful things. Even the supposedly good things from Bush2 and Obama administrations are deeply flawed and corrupt. We got Medicare Pt D and expanding the privatization of Medicare from one and the ACA from the other both selling out the public on healthcare rather than providing real improvements just for one. Don’t get me started on their successful attacks on civil liberties, Nixon would be jealous….
I think anyone who hasn’t realized that Bush2, Obama and Biden are as deeply flawed as Nixon and with the help of Congress have been even more destructive is in deep denial about how much our laws have been perverted and how normalized the sociopathic tendencies of our political and corporate donor class have become.
I’d always associated John Ehrlichman as being one of those in on Watergate and thus no good, and then reading up about the only Boy Scout camp in a National Park, here in Sequoia NP @ Wolverton, Ehrlichman was an avid outdoorsman and walked many of the same trails as I did, in the early 1940’s.
He won an early ecological legal victory in Washington state in the late 1960’s, combined with having volunteered for Nixon in the 1960 & 1968 campaigns, and it was his doing largely that created the EPA, and I was a beneficiary as growing up in LA in the 60’s & 70’s the smog was atrocious, and greatly improved by the early 1980’s.
My dad detested Nixon, and would have made Nixon’s enemy list if only he was a somebody rather than a regular Joe who despised him.
“….some inconvenient legal problem that was previously overlooked….”
surely there’s something in that file,lol…i mean she comes out of SF/Cali dempolitics, after all.
and, barring that, some scurrilous debauch could likely be found(as ive said, she reminds me overmuch of a chick i used to party/roll in the hay with)….surely the Castro District had street cams back when, no?
on that note…the latter type scandal has erupted right here in this far place: school board president(whom i know and like..i consider him rather a good guy) is being divorced by his wife because he had been not only cheating on her for years…but actually Swinging with another woman(whom ive also known for years)…and his wife made a big scene when she confronted the swinging partner at her job at my bank.
this is so far confined to the petit bougie set…lots of whispers at the basketball game, etc.
but it’ll eventually get loose among the hoi polloi…including that set of poor moms who are a continual thorn in the side of the ISDadministration over perceived slights to their respective spawn.
i’m monitoring local faceborg, etc….and listening to the jungle drums.
from my long term virtual duckblind anthropology of these folks, ive known about all this for quite a while,lol….lots of nefarious screwing going on behind the scenes…and usually among the more well to do and respectable…all while planting themselves in the front row at church, and pretending to be all upstanding.
(and to be clear…so long as there’s consent, i dont care who is screwing who…wife and i played with swinging, but those folks were too conservative, it turns out(!!!)…see: Susan Block, ethical sl#t/ethical nonmonogamy)
“…wife and i played with swinging, but those folks were too conservative, it turns out(!!!)”
I wouldn’t know about the swinging, but I can report that the nudist community also trends much more conservative than you’d think they would. It is a hobby mostly for older white people, after all.
in doing my virtual field study of the american right/locals…that tidbit made me dig deeper into “The Lifestyle”(not least, because i identify as “horndog”).
turns out, the modern american version began in the late 40’s among air force guys and their wives in southern california(shocking), and was initially about taking care of each others families if one of the pilots bought it in wartime.
so kinda analogous to the birth of the Airstream RV,lol.(repurposed aluminium fuselage)
Nixon (on tape) was not fond of Bohemian Grove.
>>>from my long term virtual duckblind anthropology of these folks, ive known about all this for quite a while,lol….lots of nefarious screwing going on behind the scenes…and usually among the more well to do and respectable…all while planting themselves in the front row at church, and pretending to be all upstanding.
Have you ever noticed that it is the loudly virtuous people that tend to be sinners? I also think that it is the quiet ones, the people who actually read the Bible or whatever, that are the most knowledgeable as well as the most morally formed inside. It is much easier to proclaim one’s goodness than to crack open some books, read them, and then think about what they read. Not everyone of course, but still.
Hey one of my favorite things from Buzzfeed is when they run shocking things found out from a DNA test. They aren’t that shocking if you listen and paid attention. People are rarely as discrete as they think they are. Although it might be easier in smaller towns. There is almost always some relationship on the downlow.
i was well aware of this phenomena, by virtue of being the Help. for a long time ere i came way out here.
its a hidden feature everywhere(see:Epstein)
it aint po folks doing the swingin….save for ad hoc drunken/drugged.
its folks with money to spend.
same with bars, as a matter of fact.
….all the bs slander about the poors bein all debauched drunken sluts,lol.
when its really the very people spreading such slanderous myths.
i’ve witnessed it.
many times.
rich folks are far more lecherous and inebriated than poor folks.
as a rule.
The ending of H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator!
Clinton won California in 2016 because Alex Padilla did not count the 3,000,000 votes cast by those of us with ” No Party Preference”.
All according to the rules…
Exporting Democracy worldwide while none exists at home. Oh America! How selfless!
“The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”- Julius Nyerere
Great quotation
Data-point: I was watching a Youtube video recently (Sean Munger on the election of 1872!), and one of the ads was… Gavin Newsom, urging us to donate to Biden’s campaign. The really wild thing about it was that Newsome looked and sounded like a late-night TV host doing a non-offensive Joe Biden shtick (sans gaffes). His vocal inflections and hand motions were straight up Good Joe – nice Grandpa, assuring us that Everything Will Be OK.
I’ve been watching Newsome’s career, so I’m not surprised that he’s doing these ads. But I haven’t really watched Newsome on TV; is that his usual public persona? Or is he intentionally acting more like Biden?
Newsom will always be haunted by the Vanity Fair photo of him and his then wife (and now Donald Trump Jr’s fiancée) lying on a rug in a Getty mansion.
This photo could represent a politician subservient to the wealthy and of such poor judgment to be unaware that some photo opportunities should be declined.
https://twitter.com/kaylaxcx/status/1437989764100153348
Who actually makes the decisions for the U.S.?
Please send responses in both English and Russian, asking for a friend.
In short: the “five families” of oligarchy
TheBanksters/BigFinance; BigOil; The MIC (MICIMATT); BigPharma, BigAg
The politicians are a division of the sales and marketing departments.
Rip Van Winkle: Is your friend V. Putin?
Watching this from afar, I see very little genuine representation, no transparency, and no accountability. These are the three features that I (and many others) look for in a so-called democracy.
What little interest the government, politicians and ‘state’ organisations have in the people’s wants, needs, and reactions is rapidly dwindling. Less and less do these elites care.
This year is likely to be the year it all falls apart. Nobody will trust the election process or the results. So there will be civil unrest that will be supressed by the heaviliy militarised state governments.
It’s going to get nasty. Very nasty.
Am I the only one both disgusted and amused that one of the big Democratic Party attack items used against Trump is that he is such a threat to democracy. All while the Party subverts vote results, cancel primaries, aka elections, and do their damnedest to keep as many people as possible off the ballot. And though they have done it for years they don’t even bother trying to keep it behind the scenes or hidden anymore. It is very clearly a case of loudly accusing your opponent of your crime.
While Biden has a life-long habit of gaffes, not sure his acuity is so damaged. Personally, I find his amber-like frozen ideas about governing troubling. The Long Island, NY congressional election was about immigration. Though Biden couldn’t have dictated reform laws, there are things he could do, or could have done a year ago, but ignored. Alejandro Mayorkas is now impeached and can’t say I’m unhappy. Equally troubling is his “foreign policy” in Ukraine and Israel. The destruction of Western European economies. Another problem is that the Democratic establishment consists of money bags bankster fraudsters. So, the discussion about delegates is really academic. The bank always wins. That brings us to another point: the Biden’s Administration is an Affirmative Action for God’s Chosen, from the CDC’s Rochelle Walensky to Mindy Cohen to Janet Yellen to Antony Blinken, Victoria Nuland-Kagan, his Chief of Staff – all, inept and subpar. These people have to go.
Biden can survive if he selects a new VP. The Democratic bench is limited, but there are potential candidates: Governors Whitmer, Bashir, Newson. Senators Murphy (CT, Van Hollen. All superior to psychopath, convicted rapist and criminal, Trump. Just the fact that he’s using donations to cover personal legal expenses should give people pause.
Biden is a politician for an earlier time.
My 94 year old mother had early dementia. Trust me, Biden is in worse shape cognitively than she was. IM Doc has gone on for years about how Biden has all the signs of dementia.
The ugly bunch from “Doowee Cheatem & How” gonna have their way
Remember seven years ago when we were emailing each other the videos of the “Democratic National Committee Unity Reform Commission” with Nomiki Konst screaming about expenditures/corporates/rigged etc … and we were a little optimistic … apparently there was an “Option 2”, the reactionary forces would double/triple down and the Dumbocraps would be even more in the pocket of corporations (more in the pocket than Too Big To Fail Banks?!!?!?!?!?? YES !!!!) … and now with Weekend At Bernies as the “either him or the Orange Guy” ‘choice’ …….
I’d really like an explanation (or question from a ‘reporter’) that diagrams Joe Biden in five years; granted his body may make it that long, but his brain will not! Maybe ditto for Trump!
We lived through this with Reagan’s second term!!!!
As usual, we don’t learn, we don’t fix problems, so we’re going to live through Reagan’s second term again. Except 36 years ago the President didn’t have to be on media / The Socials continuously, Reagan’s Bad Days could be covered. Biden in his first term is approaching Reagan in his second term, and there were grumblings about using The Constitution to get rid of Reagan (no Constitutional requirements for Senaturds so Strom Thurmond / Dianne Fienstein / Supreme Court Justices are off limits)….
The US (and the world) was lucky Gerald Ford was graceful in a bizarre situation; lesser men would have bollocksed up the world. Given the age of Weekend At Bernie’s and The Orange Guy, we’re gonna need someone even better than Jerry Ford to hold the country together if Stuff Gets Weird. Imagine the Wingers if Trump loses the election, and Biden croaks, they’re gonna demand reverting to the Originalism of The Constitution and demand Trump will be sworn in, and they will have an interesting point … how far will they go to prove the point?