"What a fool believes, he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be"
Lyrics, from What a Fool Believes, Doobie Brothers, 1978
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| Joe Biden in Iowa in August |
Prediction: The news we are seeing right now is looking at the wrong thing.
The big news is not Bolton. It's Biden.
The establishment news people--NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC--plus all the conservative news--Fox, Breitbart, Daily Caller--are spending most of their energy looking at the John Bolton revelation.
(My local newspaper, the Medford Mail Tribune, too. The top political story on page one is headlined: "Bolton book roils GOP, adds pressure to testify.")
Bolton is the "bombshell" news.
Bolton is the "bombshell" news.
The news and political commentary look at whether Bolton totally blows a hole in the Trump story of "perfect phone call," whether this will require a Trump defense shift, how GOP officeholders will negotiate the news, whether there will be impeachment witnesses, what Romney thinks. The Trump media allies, too. Fox opinion hosts are now blasting Bolton-the-snake, saying they always knew their eleven-year colleague had bad character, isn't to be believed, and besides, he is just doing it to sell books.
None of it matters. Trump won't be removed from office. At the end of the day, Trump will say he was vindicated. Bolton doesn't change much.
None of it matters. Trump won't be removed from office. At the end of the day, Trump will say he was vindicated. Bolton doesn't change much.
The Trump attack on Hunter Biden is the news. It is slower than a helicopter crash, but it is just as certain. Biden is in a death spiral..
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| The New Yorker |
This feature story in the NY Times Magazine says what this blog reported months ago, that the key to understanding Joe Biden appeal--and vulnerability--is his deeply felt, sentimental empathy with working class families, and most especially the duty of a father to support his children.
I have seen him multiple times. He doesn't have a set stump speech, but he does have a singular general message, which is more a statement of values than a clear policy. He says we all have to take care of each other, that America is better than Trump, that we need to make sure that good, hard-working families can get by and we need a government that understands that.
His talks ramble. They are irritatingly disorganized as he goes from incident to incident of human pain and struggle, reflecting respect for institutions, for neighbors, for hard work, for families.
I have criticized him in this blog. He is unfocused, smarmy, endless. But Biden is absolutely genuine. A moderate liberal. An urban Catholic. A union guy.
I have criticized him in this blog. He is unfocused, smarmy, endless. But Biden is absolutely genuine. A moderate liberal. An urban Catholic. A union guy.
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| Click: NY Times Magazine |
Pam Bondi, Trump's attorney said it: "You've heard from the House Managers. They do not believe that there was any concern to raise here, that all of this was baseless. And all that we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue. And that was enough."
I like Joe Biden. But he screwed up, big time. He was blind to the danger his son put him in, how it looked, and how it undermines his ability to contrast with Trump. He didn't want to stand in his way of the troubled son. Good dad. Sentimental fool.
The right wing media is starting up on this, with photos like the one here, and in time it will bleed into the mainstream media that sticks to the House story that the Burisma charge was found groundless. Maybe most of it is, but that won't matter either. It looks swampy, like a sweet deal for the undeserving Hunter Biden, and people resent that. That is enough.
It won't go away. It will weigh on Joe Biden in Iowa, and then it will get worse. The big news today isn't Bolton.
The big news is that Joe Biden is finished. Like the news with Kobe, it saddens me.
It won't go away. It will weigh on Joe Biden in Iowa, and then it will get worse. The big news today isn't Bolton.
The big news is that Joe Biden is finished. Like the news with Kobe, it saddens me.
2 comments:
I tend to agree, but I hope we are both wrong. This is indeed a sad end to an admirable career.
So far it seems that the VP doesn't have way to counter this allegation and neutralize it. What they are doing now, stonewalling, isn't going to work in the long term. In fact, the longer they keep it up the worse it looks.
The tabloids are chasing Hunter, he is news and it's not for his charitable work. It's child support and Porsches and dodging paparazzi.
The real problem is that a lot of Democrats are willing to overlook Burisma and the implications out of respect for VP Biden which is supporting his polling, which is keeping him viable in the primary. They don't realize it's a deal breaker in the general. He loses, after a vicious contest ('lock him up") that will hurt the party going forward as well.
Just like Bill Clinton.
"Absolutely" genuine is a bit strong. At the peak of his political powers, this middle class son of a used car salesman--who wants to take on a real estate salesman on the basis of credibility and character--committed serial identity theft against British pol Neil Kinnock, by passing off on the campaign stump whole anecdotes from Kinnock's genuine working class coal-mining upbringing as if Biden's own. After some futile blustering and lying, Biden left the 1988 presidential race in well-deserved ignominy. Today the same puffery continues, but against the backdrop of conspicuous senility. His son Hunter somehow has managed to fall even farther from the same tree.
Democrats against Trump above all need someone who is a sharp contrast with Trump. That means someone with consistency of character and of principle, not an even older and even more marble-mouthed huckster than Trump himself, but with no good economy now, nor any history of leadership success to run on. Foreign policy was supposed to be Biden's contribution to Barack Obama, but per Robert Gates, Biden has been wrong on every single major foreign policy debate in modern history. Moreover, he's recently been caught on video either lying about or forgetting that he alone in the situation room with Obama advised against taking out Osama bin Laden.
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