Tag Archives: Joe Biden

The Con Man And The Old Man

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Peggy Noonan:

“From the moment he shuffled out with a soft and faltering gait, you could see how much he has declined. He was pale and waxy, and there was something almost furtive in his gaze. His voice was hoarse and feathery, with no projection. His answers were scrambled, halting. At some points he made no sense. At some points he seemed out of it.”

Nicholas Kristof:

“One of the perils facing this country, I believe and Biden believes, is the risk of a victory by Donald Trump. And after the debate, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that Biden remaining in the race increases the likelihood that Trump will move into the White House in January.”

Biden has been an extremely successful president and is universally well liked and deeply respected by those who know him best. I believe, if the election were held today, he would lose. And were he to prove me wrong, I believe he’d be way too diminished in a year, two, three, or four to have anywhere as successful a second term. Because biology is undefeated.

You need an example? This morning I ran around Capitol Lake, a scenic 5-mile loop with views of water, birds, and the State Capitol dome. The last mile is a 2% decline and today I decided to flip the turbo booster switch and see what kind of mile I could do downhill. At my athletic peak I had very average speed at best, by which I mean I’ve always been slow. But my consistency over decades resulted in above average endurance. Leading to decent performances. For example:

Less than seven years ago, 7:46/mile 26 times. As Adam Sandler sings in the Chanukah song, not too shabby. So, back to this morning’s time trial. Felt good. Movin’. Watch vibrates signaling the mile split. “Seven what?” I thought to myself. Glance down. 8:09.

I was planning on running the 10k in the (d)US Olympic Trials until The Good Wife and my close friends staged an intervention. They said I was jeopardizing my legacy as the Seattle Marathon age group winner and beloved figure of running fans near and far. And that the selfless thing to do would be to acknowledge my time in the running limelight has passed and to kindly step off the track before I lose badly to Grant Fisher and company.

Thank goodness for their objective tough love.

Biden Should Take A Cue From Cable News

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Six months to a year ago, CNN replaced its middle aged prime time male anchors with 31 year old Kaitlin Collins and 34 year old Abby Phillips.

Shortly thereafter, CNN platformed The Former Guy with their right wing “town hall” and I swore to never watch any of their programming again. But I’ve backslidden. As one does. CNN’s Middle East coverage has been solid and I like Collins and Phillips a lot, especially compared to the oldy and moldy former guys. Among other strengths, Collins and Phillips do not get ruffled. And, to borrow from some other cable news outfit, they come across as fair and (relatively) balanced.

I’m sure Collins and Phillips both aspired to rise to the top of their profession, but I’m guessing they were surprised by just how fast they got there. And yet, they’re excelling so much maybe the CNN suits should’ve promoted them earlier.

Among other broadcasters, MSNBC has countered with 45 year old Alex Wagner, 41 year old Ana Cabrera, and 44 year old Jen Psaki.

Cable news, at least on the left, has become a youngish woman’s game.

I’m guessing I’m not alone in watching a little more of CNN’s and MSNBC’s newer programming.

How many Kaitlin Collins and Abby Phillips are sitting on the bench—in politics, in business, in every economic sector—patiently waiting for the coach to call their number?

The answer is a hell of a lot. There are a lot of smart, caring, talented men and women in their third and fourth decade who we are not asking enough of. Who we are not providing sufficient opportunities to lead.

The President, who has and is doing a fantastic job, should announce he’s not running for reelection, that he’s passing the baton to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Handing off to the Gretchen Whitmers, the Gavin Newsoms, the Andy Beshears, and the 41 year old Pete Buttigieg. Among others who we don’t even know are on the bench because the “starters” are sucking all the air out of the room.

Not because of a widely reported poll that has appeared exactly one year from the election, but because everyone declines a lot in their 80’s. Maybe Joe isn’t too old to do the job well today, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to do it as well in 1-5 years. Why should we risk hoping Joe’s decline is going to be much less noticeable than on average when we don’t have to? When we have such a deep bench?

CNN had an executive who whacked his starters and then elevated his second stringers for an obvious win.

The Executive Branch is a different animal. A large ego is a prerequisite. Absent Jill, or some other confidant whose perspective the President implicitly trusts, all we can hope for is he decides himself to raise his hand and signal to the coach, I mean country, to take him out of the game. Doing so would secure his legacy.

Is Feinstein the Canary in the Presidential Coal Mine?

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From the New York Times:

“Many Americans say they do not want President Biden to run for re-election, and his age is a big reason. In an NBC News poll released last weekend, 70 percent of adults said Mr. Biden, who is 80, should not run again. Asked if age was a factor, 69 percent of them said yes. Other recent surveys detect a similar lack of enthusiasm, with many voters — including around half of Democrats — calling him too old to seek the White House again.”

Historians will look very favorably on Biden’s first term. I appreciate every single way he’s the complete opposite of the previous President.

But count me among the aforementioned 70%, 69%, and the “around half” group of voters. For one reason. Diane Feinstein.

I can’t criticize California’s voters for electing an octogenarian and then do the same thing. Especially in one’s 80s, as Feinstein demonstrates, mental and physical health can go south very, very quickly. Why take that risk when we don’t have to?

Paragraphs to Ponder

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Peggy Noonan:

“Most of those around Mr. Trump know his problems—bad judgment, little understanding of history, disordered ego. They’re for him for their own reasons. But to their credit, they never say, ‘He’s wiser than he was in his first administration,’ or ‘He’s mellowed,’ or ‘This is a good man.’

When your own people can’t say these things, that is a weakness. What they do believe, and will say, is the Democrats are worse, the media is worse, and Mr. Trump was never treated fairly. That is their sole unifying principle.

Those around Joe Biden believe in Mr. Trump, in that they believe they can take him. He can take Mr. Trump again. They can’t know that about other candidates but they know it of Mr. Trump because he does what Mr. Biden has long struggled to do, rally and unify the Democratic base. They long to read, ‘Trump Wins GOP Nomination.’ It means the November headline is ‘Biden Re-Elected.’ How odd it would be for Republicans at this point in history to give Democrats what they so long for.

Think FDR Not Obama

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Biden’s COVID Bill Is His First Step Toward an FDR-Style Presidency.

Strong opening paragraph:

“President Joe Biden and Democratic legislative leaders were extremely clear about how they hoped to govern when they won full control of Washington for the first time in more than a decade. Their mantra? Be more like Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress of 1933, and less like Barack Obama and the Congress of 2009.”

Interesting insight:

“Democrats may be able to pass a transformative agenda despite having just a bare legislative majority. . . . It depends on whether Republicans ever stop talking about Dr. Seuss long enough to fight back against the next big Democratic bill.” 

It also depends on whether the Republicans’ media allies ever stop obsessing about Biden’s mental acuity long enough to fight back against the next big Democratic bill. Whenever you hear Republican politicians and media rip the President as “out of it” ask yourself what they did to reduce childhood poverty. Two months versus four years and it’s not even close.

Inexplicably left out of the Slate piece was any mention of the significant expansion of the Affordable Care Act which was written into the Covid relief legislation.

Hot damn, all of a sudden we have the makings of a real-life safety net.

Are You Ready to Sip Unflavored Almond Milk?

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Biden Transition tweets of note.

Lachlan Markay, “One of the more remarkable—but unremarked-upon trends of the past three weeks has been the relative calm of the Biden transition in the face of Team Trump’s frantic shit stirring.”

Jake Sherman, “THE BIGGEST SHIFT in Washington in January won’t only be that Democrats are taking the White House. It will be that the BIDEN administration will be — as @ BrendanBuck pointed out — “delightfully boring”. 

@ harrispolitico calls it “Joe Biden’s Team of Careerists.”

Sherman, “By design, they seem meant to project a dutiful competence, as Biden creates a government overseen by those who have run it before. THEY BELIEVE IN A LINEAR, plodding purposeful and standard policy process. EXPECT INTERVIEWS with JOE BIDEN to be a big deal — meaning, they won’t happen often, which givens them an extra oomph. We’ll complain, and they won’t care.”

The end of Sherman’s thread is money:

“IN OTHER WORDS, if the TRUMP White House was like downing a vat of Tabasco sauce over the past four years, the BIDEN White House will be like sipping unflavored almond milk.

Someone pass me a dictionary. . . what do these words mean—competence, purposeful, standard? Yo no comprendo.