Against Prosecutor Brain
Plus: Ukraine and Biden's Destiny
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PHIL CHRISTMAN: Against Prosecutor Brain.
PROSECUTORS HAVE A GOOD DEAL IN COMMON with conspiracy theorists, and with the sorts of people who write manuals about feline rescue for screenwriters, or self-help books called, like, StoryTime For Grownups: How the Magic of Aristotelian Narrative Logic Can Supercharge Your Sales. All of these sorts of people want reality to boil down into a nice, clean, linear chain of cause-effect relationships, in which the reason that things happen the way they do is because of clearly understood choices made by beings of undaunted agency.
The purveyors of these kinds of stories proceed as though character were fateāwhich it sometimes is!āand thus that fate reveals characterāwhich it frequently doesnāt.
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DALIBOR ROHAC: Bidenās Destiny Is Linked to Ukraineās.
THEREāS A NEW CONVENTIONAL WISDOM in Washington, best illustrated by the recent New York Times story featuring nameless Biden administration officials venting their frustration with Ukraineās conduct of its defense against Russian aggression. Ukrainians are brave and deserve our support, goes the thinking, but the conflict will end in a stalemate.
If true, it would also be terrible news for President Biden, who needs his administrationās record in Ukraine to be an asset, rather than a liability, as he runs for re-election in 2024.
A.B. STODDARD: To Beat Trump, Democrats Need a Whitmer-Warnock Ticket.
IT HAS BEEN LESS THAN SIX MONTHS since President Joe Biden announced he will be running for re-election next year. His pitch to votersāthat he can serve as leader of the free world until January of 2029, when he will be 86āwas risky in April. Now, more than 14 months before Election Day, itās alarming.
A new Associated Press-NORC poll showed 77 percent of Americans say Biden is too old to carry out a second term, including 69 percent of Democrats. Those numbers have been rising over a series of similar findings. If most voters see Bidenās age as disqualifying now, it's not hard to imagine what polls on his viability will show us a year from now.
This vulnerability cannot be wished away with Bidenomics or some Red Bull and vitamin B shots. Biden canāt effectively counter the impression that he is too old because he canāt interact with voters, or reporters, frequently and vigorously. Being up to the job in private is another story, to be sureāhe can nap and do his job quietly and effectively with help from an able staff. But if he were capable of portraying himself as possessing the requisite energy to publicly carry out the duties of the hardest job on the planet for another five and a half years, he would simply be doing so.
šØ OVERTIME šØ
TNB is back! Be sure to watch tonight at 8 Eastern as Chris Cillizza joins JVL and Will Saletan tomorrow night on TNB to discuss the end of the summer.
Holy Cow, Ukraine has cardboard stealth dronesā¦ Watch this.
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Georgia normie Republicansā¦ Have poured cold water on the hopes for a MAGA special session.
Check out County Highwayā¦ A 19th Century style newspaper that isnāt on the internet.
Happy retirement, Walter Oleszek! A longtime fixture of the Congressional Research Service is retiring. He started when Lyndon Johnson was President.
Justice Clarence Thomas Disclosesā¦ Trips Paid for by GOP Donor Harlan Crow.
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