Democrats: Joe Biden is precious and delicate. The Dean Phillips campaign is a disaster!
They can chill out. It's OK.
In fact, it is good.
On March 12, 1968, Democrat Eugene McCarthy got 42% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary election against the incumbent Democratic president Lyndon Johnson. It sent a message so loud that even an incumbent president could hear it inside his cocoon of power, inertia, and affirmation. Johnson saw that a great many people who supported him in the past, now did not. Democratic voters weren't buying what he was selling on the Vietnam War.
I was "Clean for Gene" back then. I wanted McCarthy to do well. McCarthy did not cause a weakness for Johnson. He revealed the weakness. Vietnam wasn't something Johnson -- or Democrats -- could sweep under the rug.
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| Dean Phillips, candidate for president |
By this morning most readers will have heard the news that Dean Phillips, a Biden-supporting Democratic U.S. Representative from Minnesota, has filed to run for president in New Hampshire. I am not there to record it, but he would have stood at this desk amid cameras, given the New Hampshire Secretary of State $1,000, and signed an affidavit swearing he was a Democrat. He will be on the ballot.
Biden and the DNC decided to game the nomination system and arrange that the free-for-all New Hampshire primary will not be the first in the nation primary for Democrats. The Biden/DNC rules forbade candidates filing there if they want their delegates counted. South Carolina must be first, the DNC declared. This decision is part of a larger project to assure Biden would run for re-nomination without opposition. And it worked. The restless Democrats in the on-deck circles could wait, or face reputational exile among Democrats. The message was driven home to governors Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Jay Polis, Josh Shapiro, Jay Inslee, and senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Bob Bennett, and more.
Don't touch Biden. His re-election hangs by a string. Don't weaken him by making him sell himself to Democrats. He can only save the world from Trump if he doesn't have to win any contests.
There is an unsaid message hidden in the Biden/DNC position. It is that Biden is fragile, not strong. That implied message hurts Biden.
Dean Phillips decided to break the code of silence. He praises Biden. He says Biden has done a fine job. It is rather similar to the campaigns being run by DeSantis, Haley, Scott, and Ramaswamy. They are all younger, less baggaged versions of the person they want to replace. Dean Phillips has an advantage here. Republicans who love Trump are in love with Trump, the person, the personality, the Trump-specific schtick. Democrats respect and like Biden. Biden served an important need, and still does. But Biden does not lead a cult of personality.
Dean Phillips will be an opportunity for Democrats who now tell pollsters that they want an alternative to Biden to say so at the ballot box. If Biden is indeed loved enough to beat Trump in a general election, we will learn something useful in New Hampshire. Phillips does not intend to draw blood or give sound bites to Republicans. But he gives Democrats a chance to vote what they say they want -- someone new.
Write-ins for Biden will send a welcome message to Biden supporters. It might happen. If it does not, then it is better Democrats learn it now, not in November, 2024. Biden wants a coronation. Biden can win a coronation, of course. But November will be a knife fight, and his fitness for office will be a central question in front of voters. This is a chance for Biden to prove-up. Biden should embrace the contest, and win it.
If he does not prove up, then I expect a period of Democratic chaos. I do not fear a wide-open Democratic convention, with delegates hearing from several viable candidates. It might put some excitement into the Democratic race. And the victor would stand up against Trump and a Republican party that nominated the same old baggaged-up Trump. And possibly it will be Biden who would have emerge from that chaos, stronger because he will have been chosen.
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Tomorrow: The Easy Sunday post will be links and excerpts from smart people who write that I am dead wrong.
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12 comments:
I am a lifelong Democrat who grew up with JFK. I still feel the hurt. However, I am against Biden running again. He did his job and kicked Trump out of office. Thank you very much, Joe. Now it’s time for someone younger and stronger. Trump is vulnerable now and any decent Democrat should easily beat him. The Democrats just have to figure out the right one. Be it now or at the Convention. There is still plenty of time. Watching Trump go through his many indictments will be fun and take up a lot of his campaigning time. I doubt he would go to jail, but it will cost him a lot of money. Fun times. He will always have his base, but that’s about it. He can only beat Biden because of Joe’s age. So, the answer is obvious. Joe has to step down. At some point someone has to tell him. And convince him.
We all know that as we age, we lose strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination and balance. It takes longer for signals to travel along our nerves, and our brains can't process information as well as they used to. This makes it harder to remember new things and react quickly.
Biden is in pretty good shape for his age – better than Trump, certainly – but competition from someone younger can only benefit the country. Those of Biden's and Trump’s generation have wreaked enough havoc. For example, interest on the national debt is currently $663 billion and is expected to double over the next decade, but we haven’t even maintained the nation’s infrastructure – the American Society of Engineers gives it a “C minus." It’s time to retire and let the kids clean up our mess.
Excitement would be nice, instead of another campaign from the basement. I’m Clean for Dean.
Wake me up when it’s over.
Raygan had Alzheimer's disease in his second term and a good portion of the country overlooked that.
It's kind of funny to me how people who "don't trust the media" suddenly believe the media narrative about President Biden.
Biden is doing great at what tje POTUS can control. He can't "end the divisiveness" when half the country peddles TFG's hate and wants to do China's work in destroying democracy.
People are using President Biden's age as an excuse, a kind of virtue signaling.
President Biden is doing a great job. He has my vote, my financial support and my time once the campaign gets underway.
Nice tabloid headline, but not taking the bait and not reading this post. It probably is mostly a repeat of other anti-Biden posts, another Biden hit job. Boring, toxic and a waste of time.
Most Americans, including Democrats and Independents, probably don't know who this person is. At least Kennedy (no longer a Democrat) is known to many Americans.
The following is dedicated to all ageist older people haters, including the self-loathing older people who have internalized American society's obsession with younger demographics.
It may be hard for you to believe, but in some cultures (and in previous generations here in the US) older people are (were) greatly valued, even revered. They are greatly valued for what they have experienced, survived, witnessed and learned over the decades. They have been there done that.
But I digress. Why are we wasting so much money (pensions, Social Security, Medicare, senior housing, food assistance) on these worthless old geezers and biddies, including our senior veterans?
We need to start getting rid of them now, before they waste any more of our money. We also need to get rid of them so they will stop voting for their preferred candidates and their social programs. They are the enemies of progress! What a waste of tax payer dollars!
We can round them all up and exterminate them in concentration camps. Or we can order their Medicare providers to get rid of them medically.
The sooner we get this done the better. God knows we don't want them voting in 2024! Sorry grandma and grandpa, but we don't need you anymore. Stop ruining OUR LIVES!
Headlines saying "Biden is doing a good job" don't generate clicks.
That's the problem with the media - every story needs conflict. Unfortunately, these days that conflict is between sanity and insanity.
If conservativism worked we wouldn't be in the shape we're in, which was worse under TFG and has improved with an experienced and sane person in the White House.
Biden/Harris are getting it done.
I’ve always known that aging affects performance, but this is the first I heard that admitting it is the moral equivalent of wanting to round up all the aging and “exterminate them in concentration camps.” That’s quite a hysterical leap, and I mean that both ways.
It has nothing to do with Joe’s performance. He would do just fine with another term. The problem is perception. Lots of people think once you hit 80, it’s all downhill from there. Right or wrong, that’s the way people will vote. That’s the problem.
Ok, folks. If you are not quite keen (yet) on Plan A, here is Plan B:
When someone turns 65 (or 60 or 70), because it is imperative that we contain them and protect ourselves from them, we MUST do the following:
* Force them to retire
* Take away their driver's license
* Take away their right to vote
In return, we will issue them a used rocking chair, a used cane and a lifetime supply (until they finally bite the dust and get the hell out of our way for good) of Geritol. The women also get yarn and knitting needles and the men get a checkers.
If "Anonymous" ever needs a neurosurgeon, I know one Biden's age who thought he should probably retire, but might perform discount surgeries on people as supportive as her.
PS - Even though all you elderly types are worthless and useless, DON'T FORGET to put us in the will. Thanks!!
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