Like George Clooney, I love me some Joe Biden.  With decades of experience in the Senate, then as Obama’s VP, and then as President who pulled us back from the TFG and Covid abyss in 2020, Biden has been in the right place at the right time for years.  I supported him strongly in 2016 when Hillary boxed him out and handed the White House to TFG the first time.  I backed Biden in 2020 because he was the only Dem candidate running who had a chance of unseating TFG.  He succeeded magnificently and has done a great job shoveling out the manure that TFG piled into the White House the previous 4 years.  However, the Biden of 2024 is clearly not the Biden of 2008, 2016, or 2020.  Like many others whose opinions count for a lot more than mine, I agree that Biden cannot beat TFG, period.  Clooney says that, three weeks ago when he was with Biden in NY for a huge fundraiser, Biden was the same Biden we all saw on national television who totally and completely fumbled THE debate.  The orchestra is playing, and it’s time to gracefully exit the stage.

I know this is not a popular opinion among many of the party faithful and a lot of customers of the Salon, but the numbers support my opinion.  Though Biden is statistically tied with TFG in national polls, he’s LOSING EVERY SINGLE SWING STATE by an average of over 5 points.  At this point in the cycle, that almost guarantees, barring a miracle, a Biden loss.  To believe Biden can win the electoral college in 2024 requires complete suspension of disbelief and blindness to facts.  In a word, if Biden doesn’t drop out, and I mean RIGHT NOW, we’re all fucked in 2024, because we’ll not only lose the White House, but likely the House and Senate.  That means, especially with a packed and corrupted SCOTUS, that there will be no guard rails to stop the goons who will be running the entire federal government and most of the states.  That, my dear readers, is unacceptable risk.

Like LBJ, Biden must graciously withdraw and then actively support a plan to replace him as a candidate.  Carville published a great plan a couple of days ago that outlined a short, transparent primary process moderated by 42 and 44 to select a new candidate.  This opinion will also piss off some of our customers, but I disagree that Biden should just endow Harris with the nomination.  Her numbers are almost as bad as his and won’t garner the support of undecideds like an open process.  This needs to be thrown open to other very strong candidates like Witmer, Newsom, Buttigieg, Moore, AND Harris in a process that is public, transparent, and fair.

I don’t want to hear the bullshit argument that the “primary voters have already spoken”.  That’s nonsense.  There was no real primary process; no debates, no real alternatives (including Dean Philips), and no active process, so the voters have NOT spoken.  There must be another alternative and that needs to happen NOW.

Americans should have one goal, and one goal only for 2024: soundly thrashing TFG at the polls.  We have to kill the cancer of MAGA and the cult of personality and that needs to happen now.  The DOJ has failed us; the federal and state courts have failed us; the SCOTUS has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the majority is profoundly corrupt and ruling for their actual constituents (the billionaires and extremists) and not for the rule of law.  None of our guardrails are working.  To save the US and our almost 250 year old form of government, we have to save ourselves.  And we, as voters, need someone to coalesce around, and that ain’t Joe Biden.

So there.

Not surprisingly, Trump has endorsed criminally indicted and federally investigated Ken Paxton for yet another term as Texas AG.  The irony is so thick that you can cut it with a knife.  Paxton belongs in the top law enforcement spot as much as beans belongs in Texas chili.  Uh, uh.  He has so far avoided trial on his original securities fraud charges for over 5 years and is now under federal investigation after his staff blew the whistle on him for everything from bribery to garden variety corruption.  With all of his troubles, it’s not surprising that he’s being primaried for the 2022 election.  What’s surprising is that George P. Bush, hoping he saw a weak target, threw his hat in the ring to do that.  Worse, he also decided it was a really good idea to humiliate himself and embarrass his own family by publicly kissing Trump’s ass to do it to earn the MAGA vote.

Well, that didn’t work.  Yesterday, staying completely in character, Trump endorsed Paxton probably because of his criminal indictments and his embarrassing performance in , rather than P, who’s just an opportunistic lightweight.  And according to a Trump confidante, Trump reveled in P’s ass kissing, saying,

“…George P. has played this exactly right, and he’s definitely more conservative than his dad, and Trump knows that,” said one Trump confidante who discussed the race with him recently. “But I can tell you the president enjoys the prospect of knowing how much it kills Jeb that his son has to bend the knee and kiss the ring. Who’s your daddy? Trump loves that.”

I’ve always thought that P was a lightweight and a cynical partisan taking advantage of Daddy’s last name. But I never thought he was just a dumbass, but a dumbass he most certainly is.  Not only has he humiliated himself, he actually allowed Trump to weaponize his weakness and stupidity to hurt himself, his father, uncle, and grandfather.  Hopefully the electorate will see these facts and send him packing back to Florida or wherever.  He definitely has no business holding any elected office, especially in Texas.

Deval Patrick, former Massachusetts governor and current co-chairman of Bain Capital (yes, that Bain capital), announced today is candidacy for Vice President of the United States.  Yes, I said VP.  Patrick knows that he has zero chance of being nominated president, especially at this late stage.  He’s positioning himself, in my opinion, to be the go to person for the VP slot.  He has all the qualifications, and would be the perfect running mate for Biden (and others, but especially Biden).  Think about it – Biden has the best chance of beating His Orangeness, but he’ll undoubtedly be a one-term president.  Therefore he’ll need a Veep who can take on the 2024 mantel.  That could very well be Patrick.  He’s experienced, worked closely with President Obama, and is well liked among Democrats and New Englanders.  He’s the perfect presidential candidate – for 2024.  I think that’s the play, but others believe that Patrick will try to take New Hampshire and go head to head with Biden in South Carolina.  That approach virtually guarantees a win in SC for Warren by splitting the African American vote between Biden (who’s very popular there) and Patrick.  That’s unwise, and I believe Patrick knows that.

I like Patrick in the mix, which makes the whole thing very interesting.  Biden/Patrick?  I like it.  A lot.

Michael Bloomberg has dispatched staff to file for the Democratic 2020 primary in Alabama.  The deadline is Friday, and it looks like he’s going to keep his options open.  If he jumps in, he’ll turn the field on its head.  He’s been quoted as saying Trump must be beaten in 2020, and him making this move says that he’s not happy with the present field on the Dem side.

IF he jumps in, he’ll Hoover up the business community and mainstream Dems.  The party faithful will hate it,  but you have to admit that he (along with maybe Bill Gates) is the only American who can go toe toe financially.  He’s also actually experienced in running government, unlike His Orangeness.

This little development could make 2020 interesting again.

Right now, Democrats are doing what Democrats always do: They form into a circular firing squad and snipe at one another to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Currently, the Dems have three viable 2020 candidates – Warren, Sanders, and Biden.  Buttigieg, as great as he is, can’t get out of single digits in national polls, and let’s face it – it’s not his time and he should prepare to run for governor or Senator from Indiana and then come back in 10 years.  His time is in the future.  There have been no votes cast in any primary yet, but the intramural feuding is well underway with Warren supporters smearing Biden and amplifying Trump’s idiotic conspiracy theories, Biden supporters saying Warren is unelectable, and Bernie supporters hating everyone.

Warren is sticking to a Medicare for All plan that doesn’t have the slightest chance of ever seeing the light of day, wants to fund it by taxing billionaires, vows to shut down the US oil industry,  and is threatening businesses that she’s going to jail CEOs.  Sanders vows to also shut down the US oil industry and tax billionaires; he’s more circumspect on healthcare policy.  Biden is staying down the middle, making the electability argument as his main selling  point.

Let’s be blunt here.  As much as you’ll hate to hear it, big sweeping policy changes and turning industries and healthcare on their heads is NOT a winning strategy.  Dems have only one choice, and that is Trump, not Trump.  Period.  Short of him being removed by impeachment (which I believe is a slim to zero chance), or him keeling over from his artery clogging diet, getting him out of office through the ballot box is the only viable chance to rid ourselves from this metastasizing tumor sitting in the Oval Office.

The New York Times published their latest poll this week that pretty much sums up what Real Clear Politics has been reporting for months – Biden is the clear choice for the best chance to beat Trump:

This is the summary of the latest poll.  Sanders is second, Warren a distant third, yet Warren is catching up to Biden in the early primary states, though she is the worst of the front runners to face Trump, and her rhetoric is making it even harder for her to compete.

Before you say it, yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know, I know – Biden is old, failing, sleepy, confused, (insert your insult here _________).  What’s really weird is that none of those adjectives are used on Sanders or Warren even though he is older than Biden and is ACTUALLY suffering from a heart condition, and Warren is only a few years behind both of them.  The issue here, and the ONLY issue here is beating Trump.  Biden, especially if strengthened by a younger vibrant VP candidate is the highest probability candidate to beat Trump.  Warren and Sanders are not.  Period.  Want to lose suburbanites, and middle of the roaders?  Threaten to take away their healthcare and triple the price of gasoline.  It’s stupid, and a losing strategy.

As much as all of us hate it, this is NOT the election for sweeping policy changes.  This is the election of winning.  That is the only goal.  The choice is Trump, not Trump.  If you think things are miserable now, imagine if this SOB got another 4 years.  He has already destroyed the State Department and the Justice Department.  After he packs another 2 or 3 ideologues on the Supreme Court and hundreds of lunatics in the federal court system, he would have virtually destroyed our democracy.  The risk is too great to lose this one – the cost is too high.

The Dems just have to stop the infighting and focus on the only goal for 2020 – beating Trump.  It’s arithmetic.