Whitmer made the point over the weekend of referring to it as the Harris-Biden administration.
Some may know that Emma Hayes has now taken over the US women’s team and her first big call was to not select the now 35 year old Alex Morgan for the Olympic squad. Whitmer’s AG, Dana Nessel, has made several comments praising Hayes for bravely moving onto the next generation and Morgan for accepting the passing of time with dignity and class.
Morning, Joe. Nothing’s happened.
Whether he has been good (he hasn’t), whether he should have been allowed to get this close to re nomination without a legit primary given the known concerns about his age (he shouldn’t have and I argued that from the beginning), or whether he should step down now having shown he isn’t up to arguing his case in a critical campaign (he should) are all different questions to whether his performance at the debate was reflective of a critical decline in his faculties his team knew about, hid from us and hoped they could get somehow get through a campaign without it coming up.
Biden has an unusually strong record and yet has been underwater throughout most of his presidency with polling showing that people are generally unfamiliar with the things he actually accomplished. That showed the follow of the theory that accomplishments = reelection, and so they needed to get out and actively campaign. Presidents typically start their reelection campaign later than their challenger (The Hatch act and requirements to completely firewall campaign activities from official presidential duties and appearances make this a reality…or at least if you don’t just fuck off the hatch act completely as Trump did). We have been waiting for that campaign to start and it just hasn’t been enough. Even in response to the bad debate performance they have been unable to show the response needed. We’re left to conclude that he allowed sentiment about his record to get to where it is because he was not capable to doing what was necessary to challenge it. Beyond the optics that typically drive reactions to debate performances, his message just hasn’t been there.
I’d argue his decline has been on display for several years (I made that point in 2021 on here) but a lot of his supporters have been in denial. Perhaps you’d suggest those that work around him every day should be competent enough to have noticed it. But perhaps they were in the same trance that general Democrats have been in for years.
Id just like to also point out the irrelevance of Trump’s performance in the debate as if Republicans and Democrats have ever been held to the same standard. Teflon Trump can pretty much say anything and it’s probably not going to damage his chances too much.
For Biden who has had the age issue hanging over him for some time, the debate was a catastrophe. I don’t believe in him but we could do with an intervention from god in some way right now to save the world from Trump.
I feel I am close to backing out of the conversation for fear of where unproductive conversations go, but that just isnt what is being debated. It is a meaningfully different idea to say he has declined (even to the point of wanting him to step aside) than it is to say he is mentally incapable and his team (and the press) have covered that up and just hoped they’d get through a campaign without anyone noticing. Has anyone even really rejected the idea that he has declined from even 2020 when age was then still the biggest question about his candidacy?
I agree with you about his performance and what that means for his candidacy and I think I’ve been pretty clear about that. But that does not require validating the worst, most salacious hatchet jobs
You can type though, he cant.
Fuck sake, Biden called up Morning Joe this morning and spent most of his time attacking doubters in his own party rather than advocating for himself, or prosecuting cases against Trump or the Supreme Court.
Beyond the issue of age, and whether that is just optics or an issue of competency, his message since the debate has fucking SUCKED. Don’t keep telling us you’re going to run a great campaign, just fucking do it.
The thing is, and he doesn’t get it at all, he could still come out of this well. A graceful acceptance of the situation, and an emphasis on achievements of his presidency, would leave him with a good legacy.
Hanging on by his fingernails while insulting all around him and paving the way for a Trump landslide will leave him as a villain to all sides.
And even beyond that, even if he wins, which looks increasingly unlikely without some version of
Comey’s last minute public reopening of the Hillary email case, he is likely doing meaningful damage to the Dem brand. Handing it over to his VP, whether from dying or just needing to step aside would be one thing if he assuaged concerns about his age with his campaign. But if he somehow scrapes through a win and then does that, which would be inevitable, the damage to the Dem brand would likely last a generation.
This was a good conversation on the fall in perception of Harris around her 2020 campaign
Short summary is the political environment shifted very quickly during the campaign that left no room for a “smart on crime” prosecutor. She was then unable to figure out a message the voters wanted to hear that she could authentically pull off.
The flip side of this is this is an election that can be won with a rhetorical prosecution of her opponent and the SC that is enabling him. She is the right person to run that campaign. But like the rest of the Biden campaign, right now she is not doing that and instead answering questions about Biden’s fitness.
This same morning Joe!!? LOL
I genuinely don’t know what that is a response to, or what I’m supposed to respond to 
The guy’s a total WUM. Probably a Russian Bot in fact.
Ohhh yes, definitely a Russian bot 
. Just funny how 3 months ago Biden was the sharpest, most intelligent, cognitive and blah blah. And now you and the other propaganda media are saying the opposite. When 90% of every American knew Biden wasn’t mentally there way even before this election.
Nobody said that, but a lot of people did point out that Trump is at least as bad, if not worse. Somehow his garbled nonsense doesn’t bother you.
If someone trips Biden down the steps as he alights Air Force One… but just enough to break a couple of bones and incapacitate him for the next 4/5months - Harris could step-up as interim, leave Joe in the background with his leg up in a cast.!
Winner Winner…
Biden’s opponenets have said nothing the whole world doesn’t know.
He is old. Check.
He is declining. Check.
All this has been known.
But What about Trump’s age and unfitness for office?
Nope, nada on that count… but the whole world knows!
The fact is Biden appears to have declined further, recently. The debate showed that. So every bugger has been speaking up.
Looking for something deeper is wide of the mark.
Nobody is hiding anything. Well, apart from the GOP. They are hiding lots on Trump, and utilizing all the levers of government and justice to stop the public seeing him clearly… even if the whole world can see.
It’s a peculiarly American thing to fall for a conman grifter, and then double down on it by the millions.
Ugh.
https://x.com/LettieriDC/status/1810300055733051518
Somewhat perversely, I think this shows another wasted opportunity from not having had a “friendly” primary where a challenger (a credible one, not Dean Fucking Phillips) presents themselves as a continuation of the Biden administration, just younger, and allows them to force these results in to the public debate in a way that hasnt happened as part of the normal press cycle.
There are two very useful aspects of messaging that are not coming across under Biden.
One is the record since he has been in office. The accomplishments are solid, or better, and this news is a welcome part of it.
The other message that is not getting across is the case against Trump - numerous angles there, but Biden isn’t getting it across either.
There is a powerful message to bring to the American people that could sway this election, but it needs a leader who can deliver it.
Two things he’s not got a chance of getting through, illegal immigration (border) and the real “economy” (inflationary prices across the board), in other words, not some number posted by economists. Two of the top issues reported by voters.
He should ignore the Trump legal issues as they have not helped him in the polls at all, while Trumps poll numbers have also shown to be steady.