Well Deutschmeister, you be fatigued. It's fine. You're entitled! No one should forget that Donald Trump is also old, and unfit, or that he is an evil piece of gobshite. I don't know that anyone around here thinks otherwise. Those aren't the issues. The reality that I see from quite far away is that Biden is just not right for the job fo…
Well Deutschmeister, you be fatigued. It's fine. You're entitled! No one should forget that Donald Trump is also old, and unfit, or that he is an evil piece of gobshite. I don't know that anyone around here thinks otherwise. Those aren't the issues. The reality that I see from quite far away is that Biden is just not right for the job for another four years, even though he does it pretty well now! A lot of politics involves perception, and when a perception is embedded, even if it's totally wrong, it's hard to shift. And it's not totally wrong.
You might think people like Joe Klein who I'd say has some claim to being expert, is just not worth considering - "so-called" eh? Not like you, right? - but it ain't so.
It seems to me Trump gets plenty of scrutiny. Sure, he could use some more and I look forward to it and the day the turnkey slams the cell door shut. But Biden actually avoided a lot of that for a long time, and in some respects still does, and it isn't helping now. The Trump machine is formidable and takes the tiniest whiff of the slightest possible bad odour and turns it into a sewer.
There is some time before the next election, and the Democrats should use it to get Biden to be what he said he would be before the previous one: a transitional figure. He has the opportunity to massage a new slate and avoid the rancour and foolishness of the last time. If there is not a "Plan B" now he can cook one up. That's the great role he can and should play. The recent suggestion of a Whitmer-led ticket makes sense to me.
I fear that the "alternatives" mentioned so far will be seen as far too liberal by tfg-fatigued Republicans and Independents we need to win. Putting up a woman, POC, or LGBTQ+ would make me deliriously happy, but I don't believe for a moment that it's a winning strategy. Remember that at least some of the MAGA-types rose up because of a reaction against a Black President. To go from a moderate like Biden to a "politically-correct," progressive candidate is, I fear, a bridge too far. Even though those "alternatives" would govern well and honestly, with the best interests of the country in mind....
The problem is just what you said: "The Trump machine is formidable and takes the tiniest whiff of the slightest possible bad odour and turns it into a sewer." Whitmer sounds good because the right-wing media only feinted in her direction back when they wanted to see her kidnapped. If she were a viable candidate, there would be such a hate campaign against her, and we all know how that ends.
Kate thank you for your comment. You may well be right though I don't know what you mean by "feinted". Whitmer seems able and tough enough to take the hits and turn them back, but as you imply being a governor is not the same as being a candidate for president. However, that's going to be the same with anyone, and if the tests she's been given have been local, they were pretty serious.
To me, the most challenging issue is to confront and defeat the isolationist authoritarian movement represented by Trump and his clique. It's not just important for the US, but or the world. The rules based international order sponsored and to a large degree maintained by the US and its allies is under threat and to me it's the most pressing of all the issues involved. Truly wonderful strides have been made in many parts of the globe, and without diminishing the problems that remain it seems as if any progress in material well being by anyone else, is bad, and those gains are under threat. We see in Trump's recent wheeze of a uniform tariff applied to all imports the spectre of the Smoot Hawley tariff in the 1930s that entrenched the depression and lay the groundwork for Nazism to triumph in Germany. Biden hasn't been immune to this seductive melody either. What is worse is what seems to me to be an American predilection to think that those seeking undermine that order are amenable to persuasion, or at least honest negotiation.
Well Deutschmeister, you be fatigued. It's fine. You're entitled! No one should forget that Donald Trump is also old, and unfit, or that he is an evil piece of gobshite. I don't know that anyone around here thinks otherwise. Those aren't the issues. The reality that I see from quite far away is that Biden is just not right for the job for another four years, even though he does it pretty well now! A lot of politics involves perception, and when a perception is embedded, even if it's totally wrong, it's hard to shift. And it's not totally wrong.
You might think people like Joe Klein who I'd say has some claim to being expert, is just not worth considering - "so-called" eh? Not like you, right? - but it ain't so.
It seems to me Trump gets plenty of scrutiny. Sure, he could use some more and I look forward to it and the day the turnkey slams the cell door shut. But Biden actually avoided a lot of that for a long time, and in some respects still does, and it isn't helping now. The Trump machine is formidable and takes the tiniest whiff of the slightest possible bad odour and turns it into a sewer.
There is some time before the next election, and the Democrats should use it to get Biden to be what he said he would be before the previous one: a transitional figure. He has the opportunity to massage a new slate and avoid the rancour and foolishness of the last time. If there is not a "Plan B" now he can cook one up. That's the great role he can and should play. The recent suggestion of a Whitmer-led ticket makes sense to me.
I fear that the "alternatives" mentioned so far will be seen as far too liberal by tfg-fatigued Republicans and Independents we need to win. Putting up a woman, POC, or LGBTQ+ would make me deliriously happy, but I don't believe for a moment that it's a winning strategy. Remember that at least some of the MAGA-types rose up because of a reaction against a Black President. To go from a moderate like Biden to a "politically-correct," progressive candidate is, I fear, a bridge too far. Even though those "alternatives" would govern well and honestly, with the best interests of the country in mind....
The problem is just what you said: "The Trump machine is formidable and takes the tiniest whiff of the slightest possible bad odour and turns it into a sewer." Whitmer sounds good because the right-wing media only feinted in her direction back when they wanted to see her kidnapped. If she were a viable candidate, there would be such a hate campaign against her, and we all know how that ends.
Kate thank you for your comment. You may well be right though I don't know what you mean by "feinted". Whitmer seems able and tough enough to take the hits and turn them back, but as you imply being a governor is not the same as being a candidate for president. However, that's going to be the same with anyone, and if the tests she's been given have been local, they were pretty serious.
To me, the most challenging issue is to confront and defeat the isolationist authoritarian movement represented by Trump and his clique. It's not just important for the US, but or the world. The rules based international order sponsored and to a large degree maintained by the US and its allies is under threat and to me it's the most pressing of all the issues involved. Truly wonderful strides have been made in many parts of the globe, and without diminishing the problems that remain it seems as if any progress in material well being by anyone else, is bad, and those gains are under threat. We see in Trump's recent wheeze of a uniform tariff applied to all imports the spectre of the Smoot Hawley tariff in the 1930s that entrenched the depression and lay the groundwork for Nazism to triumph in Germany. Biden hasn't been immune to this seductive melody either. What is worse is what seems to me to be an American predilection to think that those seeking undermine that order are amenable to persuasion, or at least honest negotiation.