Conor here: The group behind the effort to push Biden out, “Pass the Torch, Joe,” is only described on its website as “a network of Democratic activists, organizers, and voters who came together around the belief that nothing matters as much as making sure Democrats have a ticket that can beat Donald Trump.” I wonder how the Democrats will try to preserve this way of doing business for future elections.
By Jake Johnson, a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday delivered a defiant response to those within the Democratic Party urging him to drop out of the 2024 race, characterizing his abysmal debate performance against Donald Trump as a “bad episode” rather than validation of longstanding concerns about his age and cognitive health.
At a rally in Wisconsin and in a later sit-down interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden acknowledged his poor debate showing but said emphatically that he’s staying in the race, a message that came as Democratic activists and organizers launched a campaign imploring the president to step aside in the interest of ensuring Trump’s defeat in November.
“I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me,” Biden declared Friday, downplaying recent polling data showing him faring worse against Trump than potential Democratic alternatives, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
Asked how he would feel if he stayed in the race and Trump—a would-be authoritarian who’s plotting a devastating attack on basic freedoms and the planet—won another four years in the White House, Biden suggested he would be at peace “as long as I gave it my all.”
“That’s what this is all about,” the president said.
Hours before the ABC News interview, a network of Democratic organizers, activists, and voters teamed up to launch the “Pass the Torch” campaign in a coordinated attempt to push Biden to “make good” on his 2020 pledge to be a “transition” president.
“President Joe Biden has achieved great things. His administration led us out of the pandemic and has been rebuilding our economy, standing up to corporate greed, taking urgent climate action, and so much more—domestically, he is arguably the most accomplished progressive Democratic president in generations,” the campaign’s website states.
“All of that—and much, much more—will be lost if Donald Trump takes back the presidency,” the website continues. “Democrats need the strongest possible ticket to maximize our chances of winning in November. It has become very clear, based on both long-term polling and the recent debate, that Democrats’ current ticket is not the strongest one we can put forward.”
The campaign includes a petition urging Democratic members of Congress and delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to join calls for the president to step aside.
Today Democrats across the country are launching a grassroots campaign to call on Biden to #PassTheTorch, step aside as the nominee and support the candidate best able to beat Trump. Follow the campaign at @PassTheTorch24 and sign our petition at https://t.co/2dftntqMR3
— Aaron Regunberg (@AaronRegunberg) July 5, 2024
Thus far, five sitting Democratic lawmakers—Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and Angie Craig (D-Minn.)—have urged Biden to drop out of the race, but more are expected to do so in the coming days as the party’s August convention approaches.
The Washington Postreported Friday that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is “attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to ask President Biden to exit the presidential race.” Earlier in the week, Reutersreported that “there are 25 Democratic members of the House of Representatives preparing to call for Biden to step aside if he seems shaky in coming days.”
Major Democratic donors, meanwhile, have “undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure” Biden to drop out of the race, according toThe New York Times.
“A group of them is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund, called the Next Generation PAC, that would be used to support a replacement candidate,” the Times reported. “If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down-ballot candidates, according to people close to the effort.”
But Biden still has the support of top congressional Democrats, with both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) backing the president in the wake of the debate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the upper chamber’s leading progressive, has also declined to join calls for Biden to end his reelection bid.
“He’s not a great debater, he’s not necessarily a great speaker,” Sanders told Semafor. “People are just gonna have to say: Okay, you know what? Yeah, he’s old. Yeah, he’s not as articulate as he should be. But you’re voting for somebody whose policies will impact your life.”
“Biden is the candidate,” the senator added. “I suspect he will be the candidate. I’ll do my best to get him elected.”
House progressives, too, have thus far not backed the push for Biden to drop out and pave the way for an alternative candidate.
“There has been not a peep from the Squad or the other members of Congress known for barnstorming progressive activism,” Slate’s Alexander Sammon noted Saturday. “The reason is that the question of whether Biden should run again is an internecine fight within the centrist wing of the party. Joe Biden has, for his lengthy, decadeslong career, always been the man in the middle, if not slightly to the right, of the Democratic continuum.”
“Now many of the same centrists who previously pushed for Biden are freaking out about his ability to win the election,” Sammon wrote. “There’s no real upside for Squad members to put themselves in the line of fire during an already bitter public deliberation.”
The Timesreported late Friday that Biden’s interview with Stephanopoulos appears to have done little to change the minds of people on either side of the question.
“A handful of current and former Democratic officials who had called on Mr. Biden to end his reelection campaign said the interview had done little, or even nothing, to address their concerns,” the Times observed. “Reliable supporters of the president’s reelection campaign similarly fanned out to television networks, declaring once more that they were sticking with Mr. Biden.”
“Other Democrats who had raised concerns about the president’s performance, but had not gone as far as to call for Mr. Biden to drop out, said the interview did not significantly change their views of his candidacy,” the newspaper continued.
Doggett, who was the first congressional Democrat to urge Biden to step aside, toldCNN following Biden’s Friday interview that “the need for him to step aside is more urgent tonight than when I first called for it on Tuesday.”
The Texas Democrat warned that “every day he delays” dropping out “makes it more difficult for a new person to come on board who can defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden, Doggett added, “does not want his legacy to be that he’s the one who turned our country over to a tyrant.”
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Predictably, they are all doubling down. Lol
Fingers crossed that this continues… for maximum megatonnage in the final implosion.
His mouth hangs open and he drools. He has trouble walking up and down steps. He’s often confused about his surroundings.
Nobody wants to see this shit anymore.
Under American Feudalism what the people want is irrelevant. Freedom has been and will always be a lie.
Partisan Democrats do not understand this simple reality: elections are not about issues (except tangentially), they are about emotions.
The president is the symbolic father of the American nation. People will not vote for a president who looks and talks like their aging, ailing granddad, rambling about how he needs to get more sleep (yes, he actually said this to the Democratic governors). No matter how much they may care about climate change or health care or what have you (and per polls, most of the electorate does care about those issues).
The electorate wants a vigorous, dynamic “father” because they want to believe that America itself is vigorous and dynamic. Trying to push an obviously failing, cognitively compromised octagenarian on them for their president will dismay and repel them. That embodies weakness, and the electorate wants strength in its “father.” These emotional considerations outweigh any policy considerations.
Trump may not be the picture of mental or physical health, but he can bluff and bluster and BS his way through this campaign. He gives a superficial impression of being energetic and confident because any time he’s backed into a corner, he just doubles down on the nonsense and talks more quickly.
Having the debate moderators limit Trump’s speaking time by cutting off the mike backfired because it made him seem more cogent and concise, instead of letting him ramble forever and expose how nuts he really is.
At this rate, Trump is headed for a 350+ Electoral College win, a 55%+ popular vote win, and huge GOP majorities in both Houses of Congress. I suspect the coattails of this win will extend to big Republican victories at the state and local government level as well. And all this due not to the Republican Party being overwhelmingly popular, but to mass abstention of voters who could (with the right candidate and campaign) vote Democratic.
This is an extinction-level event not only for the Democratic Party but for any semblance of the Constitutional system of governance conceived of by the Founding Fathers. And the Democratic politicians, having created this situation by covering up Biden’s cognitive issues and cleared the field of any alternative candidates, are paralyzed, just sitting and waiting for the onrushing train to hit them.
No president has “run” anything since FDR.
“..and the Democratic politicians, having created this situation by covering up Biden’s cognitive issues..”
dont forget our media, always partner in crime with the governing power.
thumbs up, Mike Liston
Conor Gallagher: Thanks for slogging through the swamp of cliché and melodrama for us.
Recently, my FBk feed has devolved to the point that people are posting ethical advice from Anne Lamott, whose oeuvre consists of chirpy bromides and leftover Presbyterianism. Heather Cox Richardson, spook-adjacent media creation, is having some angst. My strongest impression is that the U.S. emotional gamut ranges all the way from self-absorption to resentment to panic, emphasis on panic.
This crisis couldn’t happen to a nice group of people.
Let us not forget Wasserman Schultz having to resign over her messing with the Sanders campaign in 2016. (Going on later to that famous Joe-McCarthy-inspired interrogation of Matt Taibbi in the House.) Let us not forget the mysteries of Iowa 2020, where the Dems suddenly had a veritable plethora of non-Bernie candidates, with a “surprise” winner, the remarkably talent-free Buttigieg. Who then resigned to assist the assisted-living Joe Biden to the nomination. Let us not forget the 2024 primary season, when all of the Democrats feigned being dead (not that one can tell) so that Joe Biden, poster boy for Parkinson’s, could be renominated without effort.
I’m a leftist. I’m supposed to get all nervous because right-thinking liberals are having still another moral panic?
I say: Pass the vitello tonnato (emblematic dish of the Undisclosed Region, and rather politically incorrect in white-liberal circles in the U S of A).
Call me when these people have a political program that isn’t about them and their careers and instead is about peace, justice (not “social” justice), and concrete material benefits for working people who have been treated so shabbily in the U S of A for the last fifty years or more. If they aren’t talking single-payer health insurance, I don’t want to hear about their self-caused, self-centered Apocalypse.
[And yes, I know full well that U.S. Republicans are moral zeroes and worshippers of the golden calf. Come on.]
And a further signal that these people aren’t serious, except about their oh-so-deeply-felt moral jitters. The graphic design of the Torchy web site is horrifyingly bad, so bad that it impairs reading:
https://www.passthetorchbiden.com
This isn’t about communication or choices. This is about office politics writ large.
Pass the vitello tonnato.
You said the magic words – vitello tonnato. My partner made the best, learned during his apprenticeship to an Italian master over several summers in Umbria (Spoleto) and often served back home, untranslated, to USians. I noticed their trepidation when I’d tell them “it’s veal with tuna sauce” and that they’d shy away hence, preferring the other delectable morsels he’d serve with… leaving more for me! Yum!!!
>This crisis couldn’t happen to a nice group of people.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts about it. Actually your entire comment does.
…and this
I’m a leftist. I’m supposed to get all nervous because right-thinking liberals are having still another moral panic?
You nailed it. Whatever vile cabal of donor-servicers has actually been pulling the Dem strings have brought this upon themselves.
Family blog them — they can stew in it.
I served vitello tonnato at one of my dinner parties in the 1980s, before I gave up on that sort of thing. So there!
Right on Brother!!!
A difficult decision needs to be made because Biden must be replaced. It’s no surprise the Dems want him to quit so they can avoid the decision.
Who’s going to throw Biden under the bus and risk having his replacement lose to Trump?
The Dems don’t even have the courage to put the country first and stand up to the Israel lobby. Why expect them to stick their necks out and make a tough decision for the sake of the nation?
“Who’s going to throw Biden under the bus and risk having his replacement lose to Trump?”
I think this is a very relevant question. The Democrats have no one who could beat Trump, in my opinion. Who does want to risk their political capital for such a doomed effort? Who could the disgruntled donors possibly find for such a task? If Biden makes it to November then they all can blame him for Trump 2.0 and continue with their all-out “resistance” efforts to prevent Trump from doing anything they don’t want him to do.
Sometimes, you launch a coup as a demonstration of power and influence. If this is a fight between the media-donor class on one side, and the aging party leaders on the other, then the donor-media combo might want this instance to serve as a reminder of who’s really in charge.
It’s not about winning or losing the presidency, it’s about who calls the shots in this very powerful political institution.
Nailed it!
The last thing the donor, media, DNC insiders want to demonstrate is that they are in charge.
They will go to great lengths to maintain the illusion that this is a democracy and ultimately the people decide.
listening to biden state he expanded nato to take on the putin and the etc to that which followed I thought he sounded kind of dictatorial/strong man and it left me wondering how the dem party became so completely the warmongering party. Did not resonate at all with me. I don’t doubt the donor class is worried biden losing will open he door for the left to re enter (the left as political force is completely neutered these days) the field, what with the specious claim of joe is the most progressive ever…maybe the most progressive republican ever.
The smartest people have unsurprisingly botched the whole show, but being the smartest people think they can bs their way out of it. It’s truly pathetic.
The moment of truth for the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” zealots has arrived. The strategy either works or the “who” actually matters a lot. It can’t be both.
Imo all the possibles have healthy egos and think they have a shot. Imo it will at best be close though, dems must carry Wisconsin, Michigan and penn. I’m no dem, but imo their best shot is Pritzger and Gwen Moore.
Otoh, we survived trump before, imo we would again… and maybe we’d stop confronting Russia.
Yeah, but if polls show Biden continuing will bring down a lot of Congress Critters this November, self-preservation might kick in. With the Critters back in DC next week, an environment ripe for defenestration plotting, it would seem that if that happens, it will happen soon (as in the next two weeks). The negotiations about who will take Biden’s place and how the process will be sold to the rabble will make for a juicy, even entertaining spectacle. Also, will orange man be able to keep his big mouth shut? At the most, he could murmur that Biden is his “preferred” opponent.
Doubt it. Gerrymandering has made most seats safe.
Not in the senate. Imo odds now are for rep to take all 3 branches.
By now the Democrats have had time to take internal polls on whether they want to go into November with Biden still at the helm but realistically there is only one poll that they are really interested in – the poll of their donors. And it seems those donors refuse to throw their multi-millions into the dumpster fire of Biden as they see him as a lost cause. That might leave them with only Kamala but at this point it would actually be an improvement which is something that I never thought that I would be typing. He has liability written all over him and by dumping him, they can pin the blame on him for some of the US’s most disastrous policies. There might be another reason why those donors might be sore at Biden. I have little doubt that a coupla years ago he was getting them to invest their money into Project Ukraine which should have some spectacular returns, especially if it achieves regime change in the Russian Federation. Well that didn’t pan out and maybe some of those donors have money stuck in the Ukraine and are blaming old Joe for this.
Now is a good time to revisit the Kubler Ross 5 Stages of Grief. I am thinking that Biden is somewhere between Anger and Bargaining right now.
Denial: “I am fine.”
Anger: “I am not going anywhere.”
Bargaining: “How about a few more interviews and speaking events to set things right?”
Up next, Depression and Acceptance.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507885/
So the main reason for these geeks to ask Mr. Biden to quit is because he is too old and too stupid…not because he and his advisors tolerate genocide and war propaganda everywhere….stay in the race joe…humiliate them even more….in fact, what a surreal national humiliation…if u win….
The pause we are experiencing in Biden’s exit is due to the ongoing search for, and selling of, a more vibrant torch bearer to follow the will of those same “advisors” hiding just behind the curtain.
That growing chorus demanding more, more, more.
More Newcomers to bankrupt cities, to rape and assault, to sow chaos everywhere as long as they can vote as directed.
More hare-brained foreign policies that ignore reality and diminish any remaining stature.
More nepo-family opportunities, after a decent interval, to resume the endemic grift.
More ignoring of, i.e., less pursuit of, any Epstein colleagues as statutes of limitations expire.
Business as usual. :(
Turns out California Xtra creepy governor flew very obviously carbon neutral to Michigan over the holiday weekend to experience an 80 degree summer day, celebrate absolute corruption and encourage the brainwashed. Local plutos did similarly orbit. There may have been other business as well.
G’retchin’s where/who unknown at this time and FBI says peasants must never inquire.
Biden 2024!
They can quit with the “it’s because he’s old.”
All three branches of the govt. often have the attributes of a geriatric ward.
They need to write and say his illness and THAT is the reason.
As long as they say “because of his age,” they are still trying to play gaslighting games.
That is curious to me too. When KJP or Pelosi say that they hope the press is asking the same questions to the “other guy” they can’t do it in a way that lands. If they had a disease or a status which showed the President was not competent, they’d have a powerful attack against Trump.
“Hey, Trump is only 3 years younger than Biden. He may not look like it now but do you want him to be this bad when he nears the end of his term?”
Because right now, they can say anything they like about Trump showing signs of dementia. It doesn’t matter. People know what they’ve seen with they’re own eyes. Trump is still Trump and Biden is a drooling puddle of wrinkles and whispers.
This is actually familiar territory. Remember Reagan’s second term.
Nancy (or her astrologer ) was in charge. What kind of ‘president’ would
Jill Biden be?
What kind is she now?
But it’s hunter attending the meetings/calls. Looks more like he’s coming into his own… pass the torch! What king of pres would he be?
@Mikel
I disagree, we should talk about the repercussions of a United States and a congress led by geriatrics. Other countries have younger people in positions of power.
Any country that faces toward the *future* should have younger leaders. The US is only facing its own *demise*, exactly as it’s geriatric elder leaders are!! We can even argue that the accelerated demise of the US is due to its geriatric leadership. (Unwilling to listen to advisors, unwilling to find out how the world outside operates, thinking they know everything, and being aggressive)
Also, let’s talk about accountability! Biden is guilty of war crimes, but we already know that he’s not competent enough to stand trial for himself. We should acknowledge is that when a person is in their 80s they’re not as concerned about being held accountable. The courts might even give them humane treatment and not put them in jail at all. This lack of deterrence could lead to much criminal behavior.
Since the debate I’ve been fairly convinced that “what cannot be, will not be” meaning humiliation for the PMC/media as Biden dribbles his way to November.
If they can jettison him now, they can pretend that the dementia came on over the last few months and they couldn’t possibly have known 4 years ago. In fact, they will have done something difficult and heroic for the good of the nation (pass sick bag).
Just as Palestinian history did not exist before Oct 7th, Biden’s historical dementia pre-debate will be memory-holed.
If Kamala wins/loses in a presidential election is irrelevant to this. All that matters is getting rid of the embarrassing drooling man.
Donors, naturally, may have different priorities.
> they can pretend that the dementia came on over the last few months
For something as consequential and visible as this, there would have to be a lot of cooperation to keep the pretense up. Perhaps the cooperation is collapsing. The recent report of a Parkinson’s specialists repeated visits to the White House clinic is a story that could have been reported months ago. It may be that as the consensus about the desirability of maintaining the pretense crumbles, more and more things like this will be “noticed” (or, perhaps more accurately, will have attention drawn to them). JRB’s unwellness was apparent as early as the 2020 campaign, and now that it is clear that the people around him have been concealing his decline, at least a part of the public is going to be keenly interested in the question “how long has this been going on?”
We’re back to these questions: who knew and when did they know it?
Caitlyn Johnstone called his brain Swiss cheese as early as 2019.
Particularly I want to know who in the media *knew*. Everybody should be really angry with the media as itwould have been their job to have found this out in the first place!! And also, this thing where they shout down anybody who says something different from the narrative, that’s how we get here people!!
“it would have been their job to have found this out in the first place”
How quaint.
Quaint indeed!
The Media’s job is to make money. Period.
Disagree, the media’s job is to push the Official Narrative!
Also, I remember a pungent phrase from the lips of Krystal Ball during the 2020 primaries, in which she supported Bernie.
If memory serves, Krystal called Biden “a rotting husk of a man”. After that, I figured that she would probably not be offered a job in the new administration.
Matt Taibbi said recently that he knew about Joe’s condition in 2019. Not sure if he shared the info.
Thank you Conor.
Could this be the bump in the road that finally destroys the corrupt Democratic Party? As enunciated above, Biden’s intransigence, and the party’s response to it, completely focused on Orange Man, are all about them: not the average American, nor America’s constant wars, not the cost of surviving in this country, nor shit wages, etc., etc., etc. If Biden is “the most accomplished progressive Democratic president in generations”, then why are his poll numbers in the toilet? Gee. I guess we are all just too stupid to cooperate.
Biden is the death face of a corrupt party that devoted all its resources to extinguishing any real alternative from the left, suppressing anything resembling an American version of George Galloway. Oh no, we couldn’t have that. So, now, they have nothing, no one. But will this prompt any real self-examination on the part of the DNC? Pelosi? Schumer? Jeffries? F no, out of the question.
.Agree completely DJG.
One can hope this is Biden’s (unintentionally) finest moment as he helps destroy the war mongering, donor serving Democratic Party.
From my experience with a close relative who was decimated by Parkinsons, If Biden is suffering from Parkinsons, he may be having delusions/hallucinations in which he is comforted by long dead relatives and friends. He may have happy thoughts of others getting their deserved comeuppance.
The torch that Biden is reluctant to pass may help burn the party down by scaring away donors and exposing to many citizens more the rot in the Democratic Party.
Dr. Jill may prove important to this effort.
Go Joe, go Dr. Jill.
Just as Macron midwifed the rise of the French Right, so have Clintonian Dems done the same favor for the Trumpites. Who should we hate most for this? First of all ourselves, weak minded, completely irresponsible and utterly selfish idiots that we’ve proved to be, Mike Liston
what do you mean “we” kemo sabe’ ?
Thank you for reminding me of this musical interlude from Oscar Brown Jr.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWuMevc6G4w
Keep up with the news, Bucko! The French Right is still singing, but suddenly
they’ve been singing in a castrato key.
Let him stay in the race, since whatever leads to the destruction the Democratic Party as currently constituted should be welcomed.
While I have no illusions about Trump and the lowlifes surrounding him, the spectacle of PMC and #McResistance heads exploding, as a direct result of their hypocrisy (always served with a huge helping of insufferable moral vanity), political blindness and tone deafness, is just too delicious to pass up.
The way to “beat Trump” is not by beating him down and engaging in lesser of two evils debates, it is by changing the party and its candidates to clearly demonstrate that they they place the will of the governed above the fine advice of elites and their technocratic (or more aptly Machiavellian) advisors.
I agree, but the obstacle is that the people who control the Party would rather lose to a Trump – he is, after all, a fundraising bonanza and rhetorical bludgeon for them – than permit the sort of candidates you suggest.
100%
Both party machines have discovered the value of harvesting fund raising dollars from forever rhetorical arguments against certain opponents and issues. There is financial incentive to keeping Trump in the game and having long time platform issues unresolved. There is also the added bonus in that focusing constituents on endless debate about pet issues and villians allows them to slip in just about any outside agenda plank unnoticed.
Exactly. Why do you think the right to abortion wasn’t codified in Obama’s first term when the Ds controlled both houses?
Speaking of that, the Democrats once again should be thinking about future restrictions on abortions: https://19thnews.org/2024/06/comstock-act-repeal-congress-democrats/
If there’s been discussion at naked capitalism about the Comstock act, I have missed it. But project 2025 has resurrecting this no longer used law to ban all materials relating to abortion from the US mail, not just abortion pills.
And this happens because of money in politics. Because political campaigns have become a way to increase wealth.
I hope that we can see more discussions of sortition. I think it would be particularly helpful to try the sortition process at a lower level of governance. I think that would help people have less fear of giving power to just “anybody”.
They’re being very well paid to not allow any progressive near the nom, and the pay will continue even if reps get a landslide. Donors far prefer trump to any real progressive.
Indeed. I am here for the volatility if only because the stasis has become untenable.
Yes, and lets add in a good old fashioned ass kicking come November. I’m talking a landslide type kicking. That should send the message; fix your party or STFU.
I don’t expect that to happen (fix the party) but it would be icing on the cake. I’m so tired of all the BS. These people, on a daily basis, insult our intelligence.
I won’t say anything about the media as they are a lost cause. Most of the MSM should dry up and blow away. They are nothing but willing tools.
The interview did provide a valuable service, clarifying that Emperor Biden answers only to his god. Okay then.
At least nobody had to bother the pope for a pointless intervention, so that’s good.
Interesting that our upcoming tyrant has just said that not only does he not support Project 2025 but that he doesn’t even know what’s in it. This I believe. Meanwhile our current nice guy president says that Madeleine “the price is worth it” Albright is his hero and that he’s running the world. If megalomania is the issue Joe has to go. Trump we can deal with.
The Bernaysian all about the PR approach to government may have finally met its Waterloo in Biden. If Trump made the deep state look bad what about the child-like mind currently declaring himself in charge?
He “doesn’t even know what’s in it” but then he “disagrees with some of the things it says”. How can he “disagree with some of the things it say” if he doesn’t know what those things are? And how can he know what those things are if he “doesn’t even know what’s in it”?
Trying to polish the turd a little, the thought occurs that “to the extent that the cognitive status of the Chief Executive is important but has in the past been, for the most part, respectfully ignored, perhaps the current episode is clarifying. And perhaps, for the sake of greater future caution about this, a memorably bad (but one hopes not existential for the human race) outcome now would actually be useful.”
But this also leads to a 2nd thought, that “to the extent that the cognitive status of the Chief Executive matters, the spooks will make sure that it doesn’t interfere with their agendas.”
As they say, you can’t shine a turd.
If Uncle Joe does not step down voluntarily–and at this point, he seems unlikely to do so–then the Democrats are in serious trouble. The 25th Amendment requires that two-thirds of both congressional chambers vote for his removal, but why would the Republicans vote in favor? They (and The Donald) are sitting pretty as the Democrats tear themselves to pieces trying to un-do what they have wrought. We might even be treated to the spectacle of the Democrats trying to remove Uncle Joe using the 25th but the Republicans refusing to play along (while hypocritically taking the high ground and speechifying about the sanctity of the Presidency and their patriotic respect for Uncle Joe). Here’s a good summary of how the 25th is supposed to function:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxv
As for the Epstein option, I doubt this will work. Uncle Joe is extremely well-protected and doesn’t get out much anymore. And I imagine his physician and bodyguards are loyal to him, let alone his family members and closest advisors.
To paraphrase Kenny Rogers, probably the best the Democrats can hope for is that Uncle Joe dies in his sleep.
Even if Biden died tomorrow it would only prove that the party was supporting and promoting a POTUS unfit for office, just as they accused Trump of being. The Republicans will win the next election even if both candidates died and had to find replacements
Kenny Rogers, The Gambler: You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em – when to walk away, when to run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hx4gdlfamo
Old Joe is past that point…
Are you kidding?
They just have to change out floor runners and carpets so that they’re 0.25 inch too high. Or set up a school visit where there are sick kids in the background who appear asymptomatic. Or have the controls of Airforce One slip a bit when Biden isn’t buckled in safe and tight. He is locked inside that trap with them. He has no family or friends who will rescue him. There is no saving him if the spooks or some other aligned interest decide they’re done with Ol’ Joe.
lol. no one has a plan, no one is playing “4-D chess” ….the DNC created this hydra (back in 2008 and 2020) and now has to slay it.
the arc of the universe bends to karma and when you hang with fleas…. Thanks, Obama.
And the Clintons. And the donor class.
We went from talking about Joe’s process of elimination on stage a fortnight ago to the process of eliminating him on the ticket, shift happens.
“… shift happens.”
That Depends.
Much like my alcoholic family, I am so glad I finally severed my connection to the Blue Borg a long time ago.
Thanks, Obama!
These comments have covered the subject with insight and impact. Along with them, I would add the need to have an discussion focused on the nature of the office of the presidency rather than the political/election issues. The condition of Biden and Reagan at the end of their presidency calls into question whether we even need and president, and even more so, what is the president actually doing. It seems that the office of the presidency is no more than a facade for an institutionalized conspiracy and should be recognized as such. We need a real discussion about the future of the presidency. But who can we depend on the do that, not the academics.
I don’t know about the future, but the past is exposed in grim detail in Aaron Good and Peter Phillips American Exception: Empire and the Deep State
Instead of all the public hand wringing, maybe just leave the door of the White House unlocked at night. He might just forget he’s POTUS and wander off.
Like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk0PgB1LlDk
(The Sopranos: Junior begins the Search for His Brother Johnny)
Those Crime Families all act alike.
Doesn’t matter in the end, I’m pretty sure this is how TPTB of both parties, really all of the ruling classes, feels about the average person in the go old USA.
https://youtu.be/pevli82AqBc?si=ssjhZipA1mi4Fl0G
Careful, f bomb in it.
How would he know? He’s losing his marbles.
Ok, I’ll put on my devil’s advocate dress.
Biden has an accident or an unexpected heart attack (there are ways, like god or something) and Kamala is the new empress. At least she wouldn’t push the red button unless she was told to (she would be reliable to do what she is told). The Dark State hates Trump, who might not push said button even if he was told to. The damage he would wrought would be in other forms.
And Biden, who knows what he would do? He is in an advancing state of dementia. This is the age of instant planetary annihilation being carried around in a small suitcase right behind the emperor, or empress.
There is nothing that either of these two parties could say or do that would make me support them, or their candidates. They should go away.
I think the issues with Biden and whatever happens next could be the straw that breaks the camels back. This might result in open factional conflict in the US. Ironically, I can imagine Trump and his supporters being aligned with the efforts to keep the Union together. Whereas the Team Blue Zombies will propose carving of the “dynamic, growing parts of the country” for their own purposes.
Vive la France! Look at what just happened there vis a vis their election.
The ‘Media’ was all in for the Right. The people thought otherwise!
I wonder if we might have the same maladroit problem with the US media.
A typical ‘half hour’ news program on national TV delivers only 13 1/2 minutes
of actual news, a good bit of that in the form of videos. The rest is commercials.
As has often been pointed out, what TV is selling is ‘eyeballs’ for their sponsors.
In other words, YOU are what’s being sold on television. And with cable,
for instance, you are paying for the privilege.
Back in 2020 Bernie Sanders looked to be winning but after a private conversation with Biden, announced he was stepping out of the race to the suprise and dismay of supporters, especially the youth contingent who were driving his success and felt outright betrayed. Even more so because Bernie was the perfect Trump killer, there was much less of a hypocrisy/swamp/corruption factor for Trump to exploit compared to Biden, which would have left Trump with no strategy. Also, Bernie is a sharp dude, so would utterly wreck Trump in any debate.
I now wonder if Bernie stepped down because during that convo he saw that cognitive decline and either took pity, thought it would be better to give the poor man his dream, or thought it strategically advantageous to let the decline play out. Another possibility is he himself is experiencing cognitive decline and felt it better to step aside for that reason.
Ah well, speculation…
It is a source of enormous frustration that the real reason is kept well buried.
His staffers stabbed him in the back.
That was admittedly due to the fact that in 2020 he decided (and this was not a bad decision) that he needed a more experienced the team to run a more professional campaign, which included setting up ground operations all over the US. That meant they were NOT longstanding Bernie loyalists but Dems of a maybe a bit more leftie orientation than party norms.
So after the Weekend of the Long Knives, his team, led by Pramila Jayapal, told him to step down. Admittedly there had been a big argument and a lot of his staffers wanted him to continue.
But the point was a majority wanted him to quit. That = either they would also quit his campaign or continue in a very unenthusiastic manner.
It would be impossible for him to replace so many people mid-stream, particularly after the big loss and then all the defections would make working for him less appealing.
This was new to me, so I searched further on the keywords and found your informative 2020 analysis and discussion on this topic here on NC.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/04/some-comments-on-the-sanders-campaign.html
It was #3 on Google, even! In any case, thanks for the insight and a belated thanks for the 2020 piece!
I wonder what Sanders’ reason for still supporting Biden and not asking him to step down?
Thanks for reminding me of that final nail. I still think Sander’s even with his unwillingness to really step outside the party line, is the best shot the Dems have in beating Trump. He’s disappointed me since 2020 but, with a solid VP he might be a placeholder until 2028.
Never going to happen I know, “he’s not really a Democrat”. They would rather lose and fundraise off of Trump.
On the other hand, watching this slow motion wreck is mildly satisfying.
Matt Duss, his foreign policy guy, was a particularly nasty trojan horse.
People have to stop with the hand-wringing over what Obama purportedly did in 2020: much as I loathe him, it was garden-variety politics, based on simple political arithmetic. Yes, go ahead and hate Elizabeth Warren for staying in the race after the others dropped out, but all of those things are something that a broad-based and nimble political movement – Sanders’ in 2020 proved to be neither – should expect and be able to effectively respond to, and is the least a Left opposing the most powerful ruling class in world history can expect to face.
I define a useable Left as varied, compatible efforts to educate, organize and mobilize the working class. By that definition, there is no Left in the US, and that’s the problem.
So Bernie lost because Obama et al used Mayo Pete et al to load up Biden with votes and then his staff, which were actually “left moderate” dem plants horrified with the possibility of a dem socialist beating Biden, who really deserved the gig, burned down his campaign.
Obama was scum long before the night of the long knives, as his telecom immunity perfidy demonstrated very early and his aspiration toward billionaire status shows more lately. Not building any Habitat homes, our Barry.
So let’s all throw Bernie under the bus for his failures. Because the possible is the enemy of the perfect?
Not building any Habitat homes, our Barry.
well, maybe some tarpaper shacks for the help in marthas vineyard…and well hawaii too of course…and dc has some tenements left but that’s valuable real estate now so it’s only rational to throw up some snacks there (and if you’re homeless there’s a message there…you could clean the outhouse for a shack too ya know jes sayin ,”folks” and all, guatamalans do it by working seven full time jobs a day so if you weren’t such an uppity fentanyl addict etc…and etc…)…and chicago the trouble he has what with the help getting murdered every other day on the bus how do you get anything done? Asking for a friend…
I think bernie should be nice, it’s only proper (well bless their hearts…)…, and let them swing.
Here’s a campaign ad that should implore Dementia “need to get more sleep” Joe to pass the torch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_z9Tpdl9A&ab_channel=Endedrural/
Hillary Clinton 3 AM Campaign Ad
Having lived in the Washington area (but not anymore) for more than half my life, I’ve seen and smelled a lot of skulduggery and now from a distance I can smell it once again. Much more happens through plots and plots within plots, skulduggery in other words that people imagine because the media is rarely allowed to report it.
I think there are many, many wheels turning. This should be open and shut because the media is out front with this which means what George Carlin termed “our owners” are done with Biden. That Biden is staying put means that deals are being made all over the place and that takes time to iron out since Washington is full of many moving parts and this crisis, among many other crises currently simmering, has brought everyone (who is anyone) out swinging cutlasses.
JB will go when the right series of deals have been made and most of the factions are happy. This “debate” seemed to me to be a trap laid by whoever to force Biden out–their plan to bury Trump with policy details is exactly what any self-respecting campaign manage would have argued no to do–that’s what I was most shocked by. The managers could have gotten him to tell a few jokes, given shorter answers, smiled and looked conficent–that’s all he had to do because people who support him, even now, are fanatical about it–they have been convinced by their favorite propaganda organs that Trump wants to be dictator which is almost as silly as calling the Jan. 6 riot a genuine “insurrection.”
I have to say that there is a part of me that enjoys the shitshow.
Let’s Go Brandon!
Don’t stop at 11, turn it up to 13.
Are these calls for Joe to drop out a violation of the “ADA”?
Dementia is a disabling condition and now that Joe is a Black Woman these demands on the part of the “Abled Community” are discriminatory as well as being Racist and Misogynistic.
The Dems need to chill out over a double decaf chai soy latte ( Extra Foam) and stop this harassment of a Man who has dedicated his career to servicing the public.
Knock Knock
Joe: Who’s there?
God
Joe: God who?
Got to get you out of my life, that’s who.
LOL. I have not seen any evidence here in my locality that the debate has changed anyone’s vote. Most of the locals made their minds up a long time ago. They won’t be voting for DJT.
Sure, BIden is bad. But Trump is the worst of the two evils. Not only does the Career Criminal and adjudicated rapist have 30 something felony convictions, but his business skills are so good that he even managed to bankrupt his two casinos (oops, sorry, he went bankrupt with 5 casinos according to Wikipedia). I did not even know he had one at Canouan Island. You learn something new every day here.
Since DJT lies every time he opens his mouth, I don’t know how anyone can evaluate what his policies would be. Talk about buying a pig in a polk.
I find it curious that so many posters here brought up Jeff Epstein. Just last Monday a bunch of sealed documents from Epstein’s 2008 legal deal with Alexander Acosta were released. If you guessed DJT was mentioned in them 7 times, you guessed correctly.
Biden or Trump. Is that the best that the Billionaire donors can get for their money ?
I suspect that as long as the billionaire class gets the money, it doesn’t really care about trivialities like who’s president.
As for Epstein, his operation was too “bipartisan” to make it in anyone’s interest to dig really deep.
Whatever lies Trump has told (plenty) pale in comparison with those that have been told by the Biden administration and it’s enablers in the press regarding his condition.
A little verse i wrote about the Dems:
All of the faults you attribute to me
Are the things that are wrong with yourself
Are you too drunk to know or too dumb to care
Your problems start anywhere else
You’re a pillar of virtue, courageous and brave
You say this aloud ’till you’re blue
But saying these words a billion more times
Will never make them be true
You always leave the blame pointed at me as you burn through your sixth second chance
All the times I’ve looked you square in the eyes to tell you that you’re spouting lies
You reply
“how can it be that someone like me would leave you on the side of the road? I protect you from all those deplorable wolves, you just need to have some more hope”
All of the faults you attribute to me
Are the things that are wrong with yourself.
LOL. Projecting his crimes onto the opposition is what DJT and his enablers do best.
FWIW. I don’t like either Biden or DJT. There is plenty not to like about the choices in November.
What is the line from that move again? Oh yeah. “Winter is coming”.
Hey, Hey, JRB
How many hours of sleep
Did you kill today?
On the upside, we’ve a much better understanding of the lack of critical thinking behind Biden’s foreign policy which seems oriented towards wrecking your allies and empowering your enemies.
THINKING
We assumed thinking was involved – bad assumption.
I’ll be voting Green again the lesser of two evils has never been part of my voting pattern.
I won’t be watching the election, but it should fun when I wake up to who won. Who knows the war in the ukraine might be called due to a lack of intertest to the new Amerikan govt. Hopeful thinking on my part;-)
So . . . Sanders does not back the removal of Biden from the ticket? Leftists and progressives will predictably say this is just more sheepdogging from ” sheepdog Sanders”. But how will those leftists and progressives spin the failure ( so far) of the squad to call for Biden’s removal? Will the ProgLeft call all the Squaddies ” sheepdogs” for Biden as well?
I suspect the Squaddies are motivated by the saying: ” Not our circus, not our monkeys”. And they are staying out of it. I suspect that Sanders’s personal motivation ( never to be admitted to, of course) goes deeper and is more bitterness-based. The people who engineered him out of the primaries are the same people who engineered Biden into the primaries over Sanders’s dead body ( politically speaking). And Sanders wants to get total wipeout revenge on them. And all he has to do is to do his little bit to keep Biden on the Bridge long enough for the Good Ship Democratic Party to go down with its Captain.
This is just my intuition, of course.
These same Democrats won’t save themselves by getting a successful Captain Transplant anyway.
People will react against seeing them “pull an Eagleton” on Biden the same way they reacted against McGovern for seeing him “pull an Eagleton” on Eagleton. Biden’s fitness will be beside the point.
The DemParty leaders created their own Damned if the Do, Damned if they Don’t situation by engineering Biden onto the ticket to begin with. One is tempted to say: they have filled their own toilet. Now let them drink from it.
> This is just my intuition, of course.
I’m deeply disappointed in Sanders but, while I think this is an ingenious hypothesis (and something the D Party richly deserves), I suspect that Sanders is more public-spirited than to encourage a “frenemy” to pursue a course that he (Sanders) secretly considers to be bad both for the frenemy and for the Nation.
OTOH, burning down the D Party might be the best and the most public-spirited option that is accessible from where we are now.
There seems to be a synchronized delegitimation of mainstream political parties across the West. I hope that something better rises from the wreckage, but am not confident that what comes next will be better.
Simple solution to a simple problem, vote Jill Stein, write her in if she’s not on the so-called demo ballot. It will work if you’ve got the uh, sex organs, to do so, Mike Liston
During my morning walk in Carkeek Park, Seattle, I was struck.
The Virtue Signaling $ting Pulling Dem-0-RAT$ are terrified of the orange menace cuz,
when orange man decides by decree to grab their wealth,
what is gonna stop him & Protect The RAT$???
The American Public & …Their Love Of American Rule Of Law Ju$tice!!?? ha ha ha
The Ivy’d PMC Cla$$e$ Sternly Wagging Their Brows & Furrowing Their Fingers
is gonna motivate the wittle wittle peep$
to rise up in indignation and elect Al …
I mean John the war hero … I mean Hillary …
I mean oppose t_Rump!
rmm