President Biden suffered a huge self-inflicted wound with his debate performance. He'll be the first to admit he fell flat on his face. However leading up to it, and ever since he's been doing his incredibly difficult job and doing it exceedingly well. He's also been making appearances including some unscripted ones. Was it fair for people to look at the debate and ask questions? Yep. Is it fair that Trump did NOT answer questions and spouted lies, and has made increasingly rambling and nonsensical pronouncements without having HIS age and mental fitness put under a microscope? Hell no! However, the state of affairs in the news world and in Democratic circles has been to keep stabbing the President, while giving short (if any) attention to Trump's mental decline.
I keep saying the powers-that-be in news organizations want, even crave a brokered convention. So does much of their "talent" for that matter and if they can force the President to step aside they will pocket gobs of money from huge ratings. (The good of the country and world don't factor in) News coverage has been deliberately shaped to scare the hell out of Democrats, many of whom are outright cowards so THEY have brought out their own knives and started slashing away at the President. There have been and will continue to be numerous articles and TV segments with a theme of 'Biden is too wounded to continue' and I'm convinced they will keep moving the goalposts. Typical is this article from Reuter's yesterday which is worth a read. One small part really stuck with me:
More Democrats are expected to ask Biden to leave the race in coming days. For now, the White House says it plans to "turn the page" on the incident, despite some opinion polls showing Trump's lead widening and swing states leaning Republican.
Note the use of the word "some" when it comes to opinion polls. History teaches us that Presidential debates seldom move the needle with voters. For all the hype about them beforehand maybe one percent of voters change their mind. And while we are in times where polling isn't nearly as accurate as it used to be, both focus groups the night of and the day after the debate, as well as polling suggests this debate didn't really impact VOTER'S views much. It's been two weeks now and yesterday I wrote about a new WaPo/ABC/Ipsos poll that shows the race virtually tied. However Democrats, no doubt in reaction to the constant drumbeat of doom and gloom in the "news" are increasingly running scared.
As the linked Reuter's article indicates full-throated support from the Congressional Black Caucus has helped shore up support, but the media (and therefore too many Democrats) ignore other support like new union support for the President. Could it possibly be that VOTERS do NOT like pundits telling them what to think and how to vote? That they can look at things, be it the Jan. 6 insurrection riot, the too few instances of the President doing his job and campaigning, and last night's press conference and make up their own minds? Believe the evidence of their own eyes and ears?
And decide the "talent" in the news biz are full of sh!t? And that Democrats calling for the President to step aside for some unnamed "unicorn" candidate are cowards?
I've also written recently about this growing phenomenon of Democrats who are stabbing the President couching their calls for him to withdraw in mournful terms, and that he should protect his legacy and "dignity" with a "graceful exit." I call bullshit. BULL SHIT.
The President has had a busy and critical (from the viewpoint of doing his freaking job) week and handled it with aplomb. He even found a bit of free time to drop in to the AFL-CIO meeting which was in DC (endorsing him I might add) and in an unscripted performance kicked butt. However, what we heard from the chattering class of pundits and too many Democrats was how critical his press conference would be. Could he prove he still "had it", that he was in command of a wide range of facts and could handle a long, unscripted grilling from the "vaunted" press corps? Well, I don't know what YOU saw, but I saw a President in control, even at times enjoying the back and forth.
President Biden straightforwardly handled the inevitable (and ridiculously stupid) questions about whether he'd stay in the race, dashing the Pulitzer hopes of "journalists" who thought they'd be the ones to elicit the "I'm bowing out" announcement. Oh the butt-hurt they must have felt (and be feeling) over no big book advance over their oh so clever question that changed history. The President gave a master class on policy summoning detail at a level that had many in the room (and in newsrooms) saying to themselves "damn - he's really got his sh!t together and everyone can see it." It exposed the b.s. they've been peddling about the President no longer being up to the job. Of not being able to grasp complex matters. Oops.
As the title indicates, the President walked out there bleeding from multiple wounds. Not the self-inflicted one from the debate, but the proverbial death of a thousand cuts from news outlets and Democrats they've scared the crap out of. Did I say cuts? More like stab wounds. Like the fictional Rambo, unfairly arrested and hounded and injured escaping a vengeful deputy he pulled out a needle and thread and sewed up the bloody wounds. And what happened. The pundit class, even freaking MSNBC (except for Lawrence O'Donnell) got out their knives! So did more Democrats, one of whom was platformed by MSNNC's Alex Wagner after his appearance being hyped beforehand during Chris Haye's hour. I didn't watch other networks but I'll bet all I have it was even worse elsewhere.
They want their goddamned brokered convention! So NOTHING the President does will be enough. He could defend dissertations and be awarded multiple Doctorates on complex academic subjects (related to domestic and foreign policy) in the next week, then go to Paris and win the f**king Decathlon. Setting world records (not just for Decathlon records but for the regular track and field versions), engineer a successful end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and implement the start of a Marshall Plan for each place. It STILL wouldn't be enough because the news biz wants their goddamned brokered convention and will say/do whatever they have to to scare the bejezuss out of Democrats from elected officials to donors!
The thing is, there is NOT some magical unicorn candidate that can appear this late in the game and beat Trump. I love Kamala Harris but she's got two strikes against her. She's a woman and she's not white. Hillary proved the country won't accept even an extremely well qualified and experienced woman as President, and white WOMEN proved it as the voted for Trump in large numbers. And while we thought the country had turned a corner with President Obama getting elected and re-elected we now know there remained a pent-up fury at the thought of a non-white President. Trump/MAGA proves that. So bypassing Harris for some white candidate will fracture the Democratic Party and Trump will win in a walk. Well, ride in his golf cart. He couldn't walk a single hole on one of his golf courses but I digress.
The point is that the desire, the overwhelming LUST in the executive suites of news outlets (and again, much of the "talent) for a brokered convention and the ratings revenue from it and the fallout has them seeing not Red, White and Blue but GREEN. Cash. Money. It's 2016 and CBS's Les Moonves It might not be good for the country but it's good for CBS all over again. Moonves only said what his cohorts heading up other news outlets were thinking. I saw one pundit since the debate slip and admit to realizing some of us are on to their ploy. He was all defensive, accusing others including and especially the WH of gaslighting about President Biden. Say WHAT? Does he really think we're all so stupid as to not realize he and people like him are the ones that have been doing the gaslighting? Polling suggests to a degree it's worked, but it also suggests many are seeing through it hence his defensiveness.
We'll have to wait and see but I say light up the phones to Democratic politicians and tell them to knock off the cowardice and start working like hell to support the President. Loudly and proudly. Every time they talk to a reporter they should be pointing out Trump's crap and asking why journalists aren't every day questioning HIS mental state and both physical and mental fitness. Ask why the aren't asking if TRUMP will even make it through another four years. I worry that Democrats have, even if now they could be convinced have the spine to do that.
My dad was I fear correct back in 1979 when he forecast the rise of Reagan to the WH. He said I'll live out my life under a different (and worse) form of government than I grew up in. Because of news business greed and cowardly Democrats.
(Originally posted on politizoom.com)