Agonizing About Biden’s Age Is Worse Than Irrelevant
Plus: A Whiffed Attempt to Claim Moderate Mantle for Trump
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ROBERT TRACINSKI: Agonizing About Biden’s Age Is Worse Than Irrelevant.
LAST WEEK’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS probably ought to put to rest discussions about Joe Biden’s senility and decrepitude. Yes, he really is very old and physically frail-looking these days—but he gave his speech in a sharp and vigorous manner. In a perverse bit of reverse-reverse psychology, Biden’s political opponents spent so many months building up his diminished capacity that anything but a desiccated corpse would have appeared vigorous compared to the low expectations they established. And he certainly seemed much more on the ball than Katie Britt in her weird histrionic Republican response.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: The High Stakes for Foreign Policy in the 2024 Election.
WE ARE FAST APPROACHING a historic moment of choice. If Donald Trump returns to the White House next January, odds are he will pull out of NATO and abandon Ukraine to the Russian wolves. A chain of other ills will follow. Vladimir Putin will be a menacing force on the doorstep of a diminished NATO. American deterrence in Asia will be shredded, putting the independence of Taiwan at heightened risk. The prospects for freedom and democracy will be severely impaired around the globe.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell: Is the Wishcasting Over? [Ad-Free🔐]
The Focus Group: Taken for Granted? (with Ashley Allison) [Ad-Free🔐]
Bulwark Goes to Hollywood 🎧: 'Beetlejuice: The Musical,' Indie Film, and Life on the Road
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CATHY YOUNG: Whiffed Attempt to Claim Moderate Mantle for Trump
THE WRITER AND EDITOR Batya Ungar-Sargon has lately been offering up some truly bizarre takes. A progressive turned left-populist who treats Donald Trump as a hero of the working-class revolt against the elites, Ungar-Sargon asserted last week that “Biden stands with Ukraine and Trump stands with Israel” because Trump likes strong allies and Biden likes weak ones. She has rightly been derided for this remark, which is mistaken in about four different ways.
CLARE COFFEY: The Unspeakable Longing that Moves the World.
LAZY CITY, RACHEL CONNOLLY’S debut novel, is a book about Belfast, grief, and the insides of bars and churches. The first time it made me laugh out loud was during a scene that had Erin, the unmoored twentysomething protagonist, chatting with an American over drinks.
Due to an editing error, the link to Clare Coffey’s piece has been fixed.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! Hope you made the best of a windy weekend. Are you prepared for Republicans to do a ByteDance now that pauper Trump is singing a different tune?
You’re going to hear a lot about ‘Employee #5’… Who doesn’t think the Trump charges are a ‘witch hunt’ (CNN).
Lessons I learned… in a Ukrainian military safe house (The Counter Offensive).
In Saint Louis… Fontbonne University to close after 100 years (Post-Dispatch).
It’s a bloodbath at the RNC… as the Trumps slash staff at committee (Politico).
Trump tries the ever-expanding… Presidential immunity gambit.
Huge findings… From House Republicans on January 6. Just kidding.
He set out to walk across the U.S…. A year later, he reached the East Coast (WaPo).
Tyson Is Hiring New York Immigrants… for Jobs No One Else Wants (Bloomberg).
Moms for Liberty Is Slowly Imploding… and That’s Bad for MAGA in 2024 (The New Republic).
Why Haley Voters… Should Support Biden, David French in the New York Times.
Call it a Dynasty… Congratulations to Coach O’Rourke and the 2024 Ice Cats on winning St. Ignatius’s 8th State championship.
A gratifying return to the mat… and to youth coaching, by one of my English teachers (Plain Dealer)
Why the Supreme Court must return to its roots… In Marbury v. Madison, Justice Marshall put the rule of law over politics and ideology, argues Kim Wehle.
A DC Indie-Rock Musician… Is Now CEO of Amtrak (Washingtonian).
Turning Point… A new Netflix Cold-War doc to add to your list.
As a RINO, I knew Trumpers would win… I didn't know how they'd make me feel, writes B+ member Lynn Schmidt (Post-Dispatch).
A Boeing whistleblower… Turns up dead (BBC).
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