The Biden Irony
The NYTimes is reporting what all of us can just imagine, that Biden is pissed about his long term allies abandoning him after long years of loyal public service. He’s still isolating at his Delaware beach home, trying to get over yet another case of Covid as his campaign crumbles around his ears. What’s happening is tragic, and most certainly not fair to Biden, especially after the events of 2016. 2016? Read on.
I find it pretty rich that the very people who are whining and hissing through gnashed teeth about the calls for Biden to step aside in 2024 are the very ones who gleefully celebrated pushing him aside during the 2016 election because it was Hillary’s “turn”. It was unfair, unwise, and strategic blunder. Pushing Hillary in front of Biden is the precise reason that TFG is even around today. Let’s review: Immediately after the 2012 election, Obama handed Hillary the keys to the DNC. She immediately fired all of the senior staff, installed her loyalists, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz, unwound all the reforms that Obama had put in place, and began building a huge wall of money to keep out all other viable candidates before the primaries even started. Those efforts were aimed directly at Biden to push him aside and keep other candidates like Bernie at arm’s length. How? I’ll tell you how.
The Joint Fundraising Agreement Hillary forced onto the DNC in 2015 was actually a giant money laundering operation that washed money from donations to state parties through the DNC and then immediately to her campaign coffers. That kept the DNC and state parties starving for money and all of the control in Brooklyn, not in DC. DNC staff had to run EVERYTHING by Brooklyn, including hiring, press releases, primary process, EVERYTHING. The result was that a candidate, who had not even been nominated yet, was in total control of the primary process. Another irony is that all of this was discovered through WikiLeaks’ leaking of DNC emails which marked the trail that Donna Brazile later followed to get to the bottom of the corruption. The public scandal was “Hillary’s emails;” the actual scandal was Hillary’s complete control of the DNC and rigged primary process fully ONE YEAR before she won the nomination.
Mad about Biden now? Blame Hillary. And those who supported her. The Queen of Coasting blew it by pushing Biden to the curb, and not taking TFG seriously, and not campaigning in battleground states when she desperately needed to as she started slipping in the polls. Add her incompetence to meddling by the Russians, Clinton Foundation scandals, and the ridiculous “Hillary’s emails” scandal, and you get the disaster we all witnessed live on national television. Hillary was clearly qualified to be president, but as I’ve said many times before, a TERRIBLE candidate and incompetent manager. Oh, and one last thing; Biden didn’t pull out of the 2016 campaign because his son Beau died; that was a diversion. Biden bowed out because Hillary boxed him out with Obama’s assistance. Those are the facts.
So, while you’re all pissed off about Biden being treated unfairly in 2024, remember that you probably supported him being treated REALLY unfairly in 2015. And, in 2015, he was a vibrant well conditioned, fast on his feet 72 year old. The tragedy is that, but for Hillary’s corruption and mismanagement, added to Obama’s benign neglect of the DNC, Trump would still be playing golf and losing money while putting his name on cheesy buildings in Asia rather than getting ready to waltz back into the White House in 2024.
So, get over yourself and read the objective numbers. It’s a cold hard truth, but the 2024 election is already lost unless Dem leaders move quickly and decisively. After all, they’re 4 years behind, and they’ve got three months to have any chance of pulling this out.
Listen to AOC – at this stage, the choice is between:
* Unifying behind the nominee with all the pledged delegates; or,
* In the unlikely event Biden does withdraw,
-unifying behind Kamala Harris; or,
– an open convention, where whoever gets chosen eventually will have to contend with the angered supporters of the also-rans.
We’re all worried about Trump winning. We’re all reliving the depression and fear after Hillary’s loss in November 2016. However, it’s not enough to simply fantasize about a situation where a replacement candidate suddenly unifies the Democratic Party at the convention’s close. Remember when Bernie’s supporters all flocked to Hillary’s support after she won the nomination? No – because it didn’t happen!
Biden isn’t going to withdraw – so deal with it.
1The highly skilled, erudite, and almost always on the mark writer Hunter, over at Daily Kos already refuted this yesterday.
“Journalism, or press-led mass hysteria? Probing the ‘Biden panic’ ”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/19/2255682/-Journalism-or-press-led-mass-hysteria-Probing-the-Biden-panic
[some abbreviated, really, quotes from it; an extremely long article .. :]
“…But I’ve been extremely dubious about the supposed “evidence” that Biden is now allegedly unfit for office, because literally every news story we’ve seen consists not of anybody actually asserting it to be true, but with somebody’s rampant speculations about what could be true, based on what other people might have said, or didn’t. Entire frontpages are filled with stories based on the speculation presented in other stories, and all of it is based on looking at a debate performance that focus groups and new public polls found considerably less objectionable than the supposed Poseidon Adventure-level crisis many of the rest of us announced it to be.
…
What’s clear at this point is that it will have very little to do with his actual health, but instead will be based on whether the Democratic donor class and power brokers make his bid untenable by withholding money, leaking “concerns” to the press, and citing extremely dodgy internal polls showing a supposed Biden collapse in the polling that none of the public polling can support. Nobody’s calling him unfit, they’re simply saying that too many people are calling him unfit and that’s the reason he’s got to go.
…
The entire rest of the news cycle is based on those facts and only those facts; everything else is speculative chum spread into public waters by The New York Times and other egregiously biased outlets stuffing their own frontpages with as many sensationalistic “what if?” stories as will possibly fit. Everything else.
…
And hey look, after frontpage after frontpage filled with sourceless, factless stories speculating that maybe Joe Biden has mental problems that nobody ever brought up until the debate happened, a lot of important people in the Democratic Party who backed Biden before and who themselves don’t have a lot of contact with him these days are themselves quite convinced that he’s been eating tourists at the be—sorry, that his health has completely collapsed.
Do they know that? Does Barack Obama, or Nancy Pelosi, or Adam Schiff or Chuck Schumer know that for real, or do they know that because People Are Saying So? And if they knew it for real, why the hell didn’t any of them pipe up about it until after it became the new press summer obsession?
…
Democrats are pressuring Biden to leave the race not because he is unfit for office, but because “other people” think he’s unfit for office, which will lead to a “collapse” in the polls that at the moment is evinced only by one extremely dodgy pollster with likely motives of his own, which is all so great a risk that abandoning Biden, foregoing the usual party processes and launching into a public spasm of disarray that will likely cause several dozen political reporters to orgasm themselves to death, is seen as the better option.
…
we’ll have to seriously consider whether all of this, this whole damn rotten performative skeevy-journalism New-York-Times-led mess, was yet another moment in which the press intentionally manufactured a brand-new mass hysteria—all for the sake of getting their precious damn clicks. ”
[As a political junkie from my single digit years in the early 1950s, I’ve followed Joe Biden since he came on the political scene 50 years ago or so [among many others]. He used to be the foreign policy go-to guy from the earliest of the PBS Newshour episodes and WF Buckley’s Firing Line.
2IMO, he’s still functional and can do the job; he does have some assistance with the position after all.]
From Sandridge’s@2 comment: “Does Barack Obama, or Nancy Pelosi, or Adam Schiff or Chuck Schumer know that for real (that Joe Biden has mental problems), or do they know that because People Are Saying So? And if they knew it for real, why the hell didn’t any of them pipe up about it until after it became the new press summer obsession?”
Reminder: “press summer obsession” started after The Debate. I cant see into Obama’s or Pelosi’s or others head, but I KNOW what I SAW. Mental problems or not, it left ME with the unpleasant feeling that my party’s presidential candidate can not effectively protect me from Trump’s presidency. Therefore, I want that candidate replaced with someone who CAN protect me. Is it an unreasonable requirement?
3People feverishly shielding Biden seem to forget that the bomb just did not go off by itself. It was detonated by The Debate. Would Joe have done at least OK, we most likely would not have that conversation today. But it was FAR from being OK. It was a disaster. At least in my opinion, but I’m just an ordinary citizen and voter, what do I know?
@FrauFree, I guess you’ve never had an off day at work. Or if you did, maybe your entire office didn’t judge you unfit to do your job because of a 90-minute presentation or meeting. And then never shut up about it.
Come on, people, @Repubanon is right: all of this is happening because the press just needs its clicks. The Dems were doing well, staying on message, so something had to give.
And AOC is right: unite behind Biden (like we were before), unite behind Harris (yeah, right, with this sexist, racist electorate), or have an open convention and factionalize the party. The only sure loser is the last one.
4I don’t give a damn who the candidate is. I have had no respect for a Biden since he screwed Anita Hill. He did not call the other 2 women who were sitting in a hotel room waiting to testify the same thing happened to them.
If he is as incompetent as we saw during the debates, who knew and when did they know it? And kept it to themselves. Is he in a protected bubble?
What do all those in Congress know that they are not telling? What Democrat could step in now and beat Trump?
Changing horses in midstream has risks, too.
5Peon@4 – of course I have had some off days at work. The thing is, my job wasn’t to be (or become) a President of the United States 🙂 Debating against Trump had TOO high stakes to fail, for whatever reason (cold, jet lag, etc). Failing was simply inexcusable, IMO. Like I said, it made me feel that my party’s candidate can’t protect me from Trump. The following (interviews, press conference, “the black man” etc) haven’t done much to restore my “we can win with Biden” feeling.
6What comes to uniting (behind Biden or any other Dem candidate) – I’m pretty sure democrats will do it. At least I shall do my part. BUT, as much as I understand, the elections will be decided by independent and undecided voters (+ both parties turnout of course).
2008: Obama beats out Hillary for the nomination.
2016: Obama provides Hillary with a professional courtesy
2020: Biden gets his turn. If he steps aside he owes Harris.
On the other side almost all Republicans act as if they owe Trump. For what? Stealing their party? Turning them into an idiot puppet show?
7“2016: Obama provides Hillary with a professional courtesy
2020: Biden gets his turn. If he steps aside he owes Harris.”
“Providing”, “owing”… It all sounds very Shakespearean to me 🙂 Like a Medieval kingdom, not a 21st century democratic state, where the VOTERS should decide.
8FrauFree
9Thanks for giving me another POV and something to ponder. You are 100% correct. IIRC, the candidates agreed to the terms of the tv appearance. Whatever issues might sink Biden and the rest of the field running cudda shudda been examined by all who saw him up close and personal before agreeing to the terms.. I read a Stormfront light discussion group on City Data, Politics and other controversies. Those MAGA clones have been saying Biden is challenged enough to be considered a congenital idiot for years. That debate gave them all the ammo they needed. I can see the commercials now.
And now we’re sourcing news and actionable tactics from the fucking Ameri-Nazi Stormfront group of mental defectives…
JFC, it’s looking like the effing Democrats really are going to the bottom with the sinking ship, as the goddamned gossiping landlubbers pull the throughhulls out one by one. Just because some other idiots are stoking them up on bullshit.
10Sandridge, sourcing? Knowing what the opposition is up to sometimes proves to be productive.
11I thought Biden did not run that time due to his grief at losing his oldest son to cancer. Also, Hill won the popular vote, something that really needles tRump.
Just heard from a source in Michigan. Word is there that tRump orchestrated the attempted assassination, including the offing of the shooter.
After all this time, yup, considering how nutz the guy is, it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the REAL story.
12Maggie @ 12 – Biden was certainly mourning Beau, but used that as a reason to not run rather than say publicly that he’d been boxed out by Hillary and Obama. He’s been a team player for decades and took one for the team here. If you read the articles I linked in the post, they talk about how angry Biden is about that.
13So Biden got screwed then. That qualifies as a damn shame . That does not qualify as a reason to push him out no.
14@maggie
That was my initial thought. Can you say more about the source?
In my previous post, I meant out now.
15