Trump is Trump. He is a nasty, name-calling narcissist, and there is no fixing that.
Biden is Biden. He looks vacant and way past his prime, and there is no fixing that, either.
First Trump:
The GOP problem is that Trump is popular with GOP voters, notwithstanding saying things evaluated and judged untrue. It requires a suspension of belief, a positive unwillingness to observe the obvious. Liz Cheney was booted because she said the Emperor had no clothes--something also observed by judges, election officials, and Trump's own justice department. McCarthy has to somehow concede her point but say it is irrelevant. McCarthy said:
I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election, I think that is all over with. We're sitting with the president today, so from that point of view, I don't think that is a problem.
Of course someone is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. Trump is, and a great many voters believe Trump. Trump said:
The major Michigan Election Fraud case has just filed a bombshell pleading claiming votes were intentionally switched from President Trump to Joe Biden. The number of votes is MASSIVE and determinative. . . . If a thief robs a jewelry store of all of its diamonds (the 2020 Presidential Election), the diamonds must be returned.
And Trump keeps attacking Republicans. Here is no mushy, safe middle ground. Trump's "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" boils with newsworthy score-settling comments, with three to five posts a day like these this week:
May 10: After being loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party Convention, Utah’s Weber County censured RINO Mitt Romney in the strongest of terms. Washington County Republicans also censured Romney in April. He is BAD NEWS for our Country!
May 12: Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country.
May 12: Miles Taylor and his fellow RINO losers like Tom Ridge, Christine Todd Whitman, and Crazy Barbara Comstock. . . .
Democrats have their own problem: Biden.
The inevitable problems facing the country emerge and the story is no longer about the handoff from Trump. It is about Biden and how he deals with COVID, with unemployment, with the southern border, with Israel, with gasoline prices, with inflation, with everything. The drama level is way, way down, and that was Biden's primary electoral promise--not to be Trump.
The problem for Democrats is that Biden's low-drama manner gets easily interpreted as low energy incompetence. Since there are problems it must be because Biden hasn't fixed them. He is easily photographed looking slack-jawed and vacant-eyed. People with any familiarity with elderly people know that look of someone who appears to be tracking, then isn't, and then is. Biden gives that impression, especially to people looking for it, but also for people hoping not to see it. This is a cruel, unfair interpretation of Biden, but it is one that is easy to document in photos, even if, in fact, a keen mind may be at work.
Is, in fact, a keen mind at work behind the face and sometimes un-fluent speech? Who knows? Humans judge by what they see and by what they are told they are seeing. Fox News chooses photos that capture that look, but no news outlet can avoid it. Fox used this photo of Biden on two different stories today.
Regardless of the media venue, there are cringe-worthy instances of Biden appearing to be, at first in control and speaking extemporaneously and confidently, then getting oddly confused:
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdfvIvYPPRo |
Republicans and Democrats both find themselves with a less-than-ideal situation. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously said, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Donald Trump and Joe Biden are what each party has.
The solution in each case is the same, the wit and humility of Trump and Biden to back away gracefully and hand things off to someone who can start fresh.
7 comments:
Disappointed to see you parroting FOX talking points, I have not seen anything from Biden that concerns me or that is close to the level of documented Trump disfunction unable to walk talk or pick up a bottle of water, let alone a plethora of bizarre statements such as drinking bleach.
The answer to FOX attacks is not clutching at your pearls but to ignore them as the sideshow they are, they have been long reduced to their captive minority audience unreachable by reason in any case, nobody else watches or believes them, unless people like you dignify their garbage by repeating it.
Bidden is more than a caretaker or placeholder. He is the embodiment of the senior statesman. Seasoned with all the rough flavors mellowed and disagreeable traits softened. Whether he has the desire to run again depends on the field of Democratic candidates and whether there are any that can carry-on and expand the programs begun in the Bidden administration. We are less than 200 days into his administration and already his administration is preforming the triage of our governmental foundations that is in need of repair. Construction zone ahead.
Trump on the other hand is continuing to lie to the American people; and, using his influence, attacks those with the truth. The last four years of Trump have severely damaged America both at home and abroad. Trump remains a anchor attached to the leg of the Republican Party that will sink it into the abyss unless the party is able to cut the tie and save its self. Your assent of a Liz Cheney-type person may be just the tool that will free the Republican Party. But when you cut the ties you leave frayed ends that can unravel taking time to reassemble. A wrecking ball remains the likely possibility.
I try to write about what I see. I wish Biden presented in a little different way than he does. My sense is that Biden is, in fact, "old for his age." My goal is for people with good politics to deal with the reality that exists, not to cheerlead for what we would like to be true. What I would like to be true is for Biden to have the verbal and mental acuity of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Biden has other strengths--but appearing sharp as a tack is not one of them.
Senile-Biden is, indeed, a Fox talking point. Alas, it has traction because Biden's manner helps document it. They exaggerate something. They are dishonest. They cherry pick. But they don't try to sell somethhing that is not partially there. I saw Biden up close many times. He walks and talks like a frail man. I tried not to see it. I tried to deny what I saw. But I saw it.
Now Democrats need to deal with the reality of those optics.
Thanks for the comment, though. I agree it is a talking point.
Age is really just a small part of the issue. He's sharp enough, but more importantly he has a very sharp VP and some extremely smart, experienced and respected people advising him.
Trump has no one, and is reduced to name calling and the Regressive peanut gallery is doing the same. They try to distract voters with irrelevant subjects because they don't have anything of substance to counter with. It's frankly pathetic.
But the really pathetic part of this are the Republicans who know better, and cynically pander to weak minds in the electorate who labor under all manner of delusions and prejudices divorced from reality, some of whom will land in jail for their fealty.
Biden will not run for reelection, and my bet is that Trump won't risk running, but he'll tease and fund raise til the last minute and I wouldn't be surprised if he ran a fake candidacy to continue the fleecing after the convention. There's also the wild card of the SDNY.
Democrats will be united in 2024 and will be following a successful administration. I have a theory that Manchin is actually onboard but is waiting until he has a reasonable excuse to endorse ending the filibuster, and McConnell may just give him one.
I find it hard to imagine Republicans able to unite behind any of the prospective front runners, sans Trump. As it's shaping up they are all going to try to out Trump each other, and it will be uuuuugly! Trump was a hail mary that paid off, without him Republicans are doomed, and they know it...but, so does he.
Biden is not a problem. I would vote for him again.
The Republicans' problem is that to be a Republican in good standing, they need to grovel before Trump's Big Lie. Anyone who refuses is labeled a Wacko In Name Only and cast out. Democrats have nothing comparable. Yes, Biden is past his prime, but being crazy or a liar isn't a prerequisite for Democrats.
I heartily endorse Liz Chaney's struggle to draw and solidify the anti-Big Lie Republicans. I encourage the Trumpublican internecine conflict that will emerge and render three party races routine. The Grim Reaper of the Senate will continue to block benefits for working Americans further thinning the elephant herd. President Biden needs to stay the course and up his use of the bully pulpit. We also have the first female president in waiting continually engaging and building.
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