At long last, TFG is on his 3” lifted heels, is already demanding changes to the next debate and has even suggested he be reimbursed because Biden stepped aside for a dynamic and unflappable candidate almost 20 years younger than him.  Whine, whine, whine.  After hurling personal insults at Biden about his age and mental acuity for almost a decade, suddenly TFG has become the dribbling octogenarian who can’t successfully assemble a simple sentence in English, doesn’t know where he is, can’t tell the difference between Pelosi and Haley, and has to wear Dependz for THAT unmentionable problem.   I’m very much opposed to ageism and discrimination against older adults; however, in this particular case, there is a sweet poetic justice that TFG is now the “oldest candidate for president in US history” and has the same insults he hurled at Biden now being heaped on him.

TFG, along with Yale Hillbilly, doesn’t know weather to fish or cut bait, and are still talking about Biden because character assassination was their only campaign strategy.  They’re just trying to change the name of the target from Biden to Harris.  It’s also clear that TFG doesn’t want to debate Kamala and he’s already moving the goalposts, demanding that the broadcast network be changed from ABC to…wait for it…Fox Noise (because it has a smaller and friendlier audience).  What’s really rich is that he’s complaining about having to change his campaign strategy and wants the Dems to reimburse him for the trouble.  Talk on MSNBC earlier today was that Kamala should quadruple down and propose 5 debates, one specifically about Roe v Wade.  I agree.

Kamala has hit the ground running, which was the nightmare scenario for TFG.  I find all that to be most entertaining.

Now that Biden is out and Harris is in, it’s time to speculate on who gets to be the Democratic Veep nominee.

Isn’t that weird? TFG had to pick a new shill because the old one didn’t dance to The Orange One’s tune and tip his hat for a coin, and Kamala has to pick one to replace herownself.

But who’s it gonna be?

Well, for some obscure reason, it can’t be our man Newsom because of something about Article II, The 12th Amendment, and tight Electoral College elections. Indeed, Dick Cheney had to sell his Dallas home and move into his Wyoming vacation home so he could be Dubya’s Veep. Good thing, too. That election was so close that Bush likely lost it.

So Gav’s gonna have to wait.

That brings us to swing state governors and senators, the obvious go-tos. They are all saying this race will be a tight one – something I still can’t get my head around. So swing states it is.

In no particular order, they are: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

Governors of those elect states are, respectively, Tony Evers, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Roy Cooper, Some Republican, Katie Hobbs, and Some Other Republican.

I’m going to discount any US Senator because of the whole narrow majority thing we have in the Senate right now.

Of these, North Carolina has the most electoral votes at 16, closely followed by Michigan at 15. So that narrows it down.

So Roy Cooper or Gretchen Whitmer.

I’m not really too jazzed about either one to tell you the truth. Either would be fine, but.. just fine.

But I just had an idea. Why mess around with electoral votes in the teens? We have Texas over here with 40, count ’em 40 electoral votes. We have ethically challenged and well-hated Ted “iHeartMoney” Cruz with a target on his back the size of…well…Texas. And Texas could use a record voter turnout against him to finally rid the country of this scourge in favor of Colin Allred. 

Why not Beto?

(Just asking).

As you already know, Biden announced today that he was stepping aside from his candidacy for president as expected.  It was the right decision, and even though I believe he should have never tried to run again, I appreciate him coming around.  He’s been one of the most consequential presidents in modern US history and his legacy is secure.  He’s endorsed Kamala Harris as his choice for president.  As I think about it, she’s probably the wisest choice for now, though personally not my first choice to run against TFG.  However, she has the qualifications and the moxie to take the fight to him.

Kamala will need the right VP choice to have her back and to bring votes from the battleground states.  I have two picks: First, Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania.  He’s taken on TFG’s election lies directly as an AG, and is super well spoken like Kamala.  My second pick is Roy Cooper of North Carolina.  He’s also a former AG, and has fought (and beaten) Republicans on the own ground.   A third possible in my view is Mark Kelly, senator from Arizona, husband to Gabby Giffords, and retired astronaut, but his election could cost us the Senate through a special election.  All of these guys are stronger than dirt, and, at the risk of pissing off some customers, they’re white guys, which is going to be important to help bring in votes from a broader base of voters.  Sorry, but it’s a fact.

Anyway, good on Joe for stepping aside.  It was a tough, but correct decision.  Nate Silver and other analysts won’t have numbers for a week or so; then we’ll have an idea how uphill the battle the Dems have.  But at least they now have a chance.

Well that’s that.

I hope that there’s a plan.

Here’s mine. You can put a mid grade refrigerator at the top of the ballot next to the Republican nominee and it’ll be President on January 20th.

I’ll vote for it, but it darned well had better have a working icemaker.

Biden is still isolating at his beach house in Delaware recovering from his latest case of Covid.  While that goes on discussions are still swirling about his ultimate decision about his candidacy at pretty much all levels from party leaders, talking heads, WH staff, and the rest of us.  His numbers are terrible and getting worse as this controversy drags on.  Here are few interesting items this morning:

The Washington Post has an interesting infographic about how a new nominee would be elected by convention delegates describing different scenarios should Biden step aside.

Federal staff is already dusting off their resumes preparing for a Biden loss.  This is not unusual in election years or during times of serious uncertainty but is pretty urgent right now.

Here is a graphic of the changes in battleground states from 2020 to 2024.  The outlook is nothing more than dismal for Biden:

Finally, the NYTimes has an article about the what if question of Kamala Harris as the nominee should Biden pull the plug on his campaign.

I believe this will be decision week for Biden.  TFG/Hillbilly are already ramping up attacks against Kamala anticipating she’ll be the nominee.  His laughable “unity” reset lasted something like 28 minutes during his speech at the RNC;  he’s already in full TFG bullshit mode while Hillbilly is calling for DOJ investigations of writers and researchers who dare criticize the Dictator Wannabe.  It’s a snapshot of what the world would become should the unthinkable happen.  I’ll post a link about this when CBS posts the video about it from Face the Nation this morning.

There are many who could not watch the RNC Convention this past week as the full on CSPAN production because of fear of IQ point loss.

Like the swallowing of rat poison, viewing an RNC production is best done in small doses.

So I nearly missed the debut of the New Congressman Matt Gaetz (R FL-01)

At first, I thought Ted Cruz gave Matt the name of his brow shaper. Then he turned his head to face the camera head on and we all got this:

Yikes.

What the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks are those new folds above Matt’s eyelids?

I have heard that some botox injection treatments have unintended results such as more rapid than anticipated reactions. And now that we have a before/after botox photo of Gaetz, I get it.

But now I have to wonder if this type of reaction is the commonality between Matt Gaetz and the Cat Lady.