Is Joe Biden in trouble?
I suppose it depends on who you ask. Most kneejerk Democrats and devotees to the liberal side of the anyone-but-Trump cause would most definitely answer in the negative, doing so simply to perpetuate the myth that there really isn’t anything wrong with the first-term president and that everything drummed up by those in conservative media, and some of his own party members regarding his age, frequent cognitive stumbles and general inability to tell the truth – about anything – was just a figment of some overactive Biden-hater’s imagination.
Many of these same Democrat honks would insist that there isn’t anything bad about Kamala Harris, either, and that the entire nation was so infuriated by the “tourism riot” on January 6, 2021 that they’re not capable of choosing a candidate that is as closely associated with the “insurrection” as Trump is.
The emerging Biden doubters aren’t all about age, though, as last week the current Democrat chief drew his first “official” primary challenger – Minnesota Democrat Representative Dean Phillips – to stave off the generally accepted notion that Biden can just do his typical cakewalk (or is it a cake-shuffle?) to the nomination without a single “But wait!” voice interjecting in the interim. It’s true, no one’s heard of Phillips (his main claim to fame is he’s the grandson of the original “Dear Abby” and son of the current gal writing the column, his mom) and he doesn’t have a realistic chance in heck of knocking off the incumbent, but still, a warm body not named Marianne Williamson is now competing for the Democrat nomination along with senile Joe. That could be trouble, right?
Don’t leave out the fact that the broken-down Delawarean dolt is possibly facing a revolt among his Democrat party-members in Congress over the situation in Israel, where many of the Jew-hating anti-Semitic newer members of the caucus are competing for microphone time with miscreants and outcasts on college campuses, and there could be storm clouds on the horizon.
And, according to one old political hand, there are other harbingers of distress for the 46th president. Speaking of an early season Democrat ad campaign that went nowhere, in an opinion piece titled “Biden’s Ad Blitz Is a Sign of Weakness”, Karl Rove wrote at the Wall Street Journal:
“What are the president’s options? One is to go thermonuclear on Mr. Trump, hoping the mother of all negative campaigns beats him. That’s dicey. The former president has held his own in polls while under four indictments. And if the GOP candidate isn’t Mr. Trump, Republicans will have a clear shot at the presidency no matter how far down in the gutter Mr. Biden goes.
“The other option is for Mr. Biden to call it a day. Announce that America faces grave foreign challenges with wars in Israel and Ukraine and growing acrimony with China and big issues at home including inflation, jobs, climate and a woman’s right to choose. These require all his energy and attention. A re-election effort would divert him from these responsibilities, so he’s reluctantly ending his campaign.
“Democrats would (quietly) cheer in relief. Americans who viewed him as a transitional figure would applaud…”
Would they, Karl? Rove has been on the national commentary scene for a long, long, time, but it’s doubtful that his word carries much weight in Democrat circles, and among the liberal voting base, assuming they even know who Karl Rove is, his name is probably about as welcome to them as Donald Trump’s or Mitt Romney’s would be.
Democrats have their own unique methods of assessing political talent, that’s why they tend to follow fill-in-the-blank Affirmative Action candidates (resume-less Barack Obama in 2008 and feminist “glass ceiling” shattering screecher Hillary Clinton in 2016) and career swamp politicians like senile Joe who carry the impression that they can win… because they always have.
Of Rove’s options presented above – thermonuclear or call it a day – here’s thinking the Biden team will choose the former, because tossing as much slime at their Republican opponents is really the only thing they’ve got as potential difference-makers in close elections. It’s not like Republicans don’t push red buttons, too, but Democrats, since they possess no souls and have no shame, have proven extra adept at plunging to new depths.
The ad campaigns Rove referred to were multi-million-dollar spots on cable news in swing states, you know, the ones that are always hotly contested and will be again in 2024 because there are high concentrations of Democrat-type voters there who don’t give a squat how bad the country has gotten under Biden and vote for the party candidates for fear that they’ll lose their slice of the bloated, fat-filled federal pie if they don’t.
I don’t give most Democrats credit for tremendous honesty, but I once had a fascinating conversation with one of my kids’ teachers on a bus heading to a field trip who candidly admitted that he and his fellow minority teachers loved Obama because they knew the first black president would deliver the goods for them. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing most Democrats feel the same way – and hence senile Joe, or whomever the Democrats nominate, will have a fighting chance no matter what. The party leader could be comatose on a gurney somewhere and the Democrat base would still turn out for him, because if they didn’t, the new Republican Speaker and reenergized GOP House majority will cut their subsidies.
But is Rove right? That dumping tens of millions of Democrat dollars into TV ads promoting doddering dolt senile Joe Biden signals weakness? Is senile Joe in trouble? As far as Democrats and their nomination goes, I’d say definitely not. There’s been wild speculation for months that unnamed Democrats were plotting a potential coups to replace Biden with Gavin Newsom or Michelle Obama or Gretchen Whitmer or Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (okay, maybe not the faux Native American, but it sounds good, doesn’t it?). None of the rumors even came close to fruition. Meanwhile, Biden has carried on about his business, deflected questions about his age and mental condition and pretended as though none of the dirt that James Comer and the House Republicans dug up could touch the one in charge of the United States Justice Department and military forces.
Not even the recent scandal over Biden’s dog, Commander’s, biting habit has served to dent the man’s resolve.
Why? Because it’s only 2023, Democrats still believe that when they do put the slime machine to full use that it will pay dividends like it always has, and besides, the Republicans have their Trump problem. The former president is having a grand time of it working on his various indictments and enjoying the publicity which keeps his name in the news 24/7, just like it always has.
In 2020, Democrats had the novel Chinese coronavirus and the nation’s mass panic to lean upon and mask senile Joe’s shortcomings. Who’s to say there won’t be another media-fostered “crisis” to help bring the Republicans down again? In 2022, Democrats fed off the hysteria over phony-abortion bans at the federal and state levels, which scared the bejesus out of their core voters – young and single females – and, if the local ads for our Virginia elections (November 7) are any indication, they’re banking on doing it again!
There’s no such thing as tradition in the Democrat party. Heck, senile Joe Biden didn’t even file paperwork to appear on next year’s New Hampshire primary ballot by the deadline because the party’s new rules moved African-American Democrat dominant South Carolina to the front of the line in their nominating calendar. Therefore, senile Joe won’t have to endure the embarrassment of getting thumped in the Granite State as the first to vote -- again! (Note: Iowa Democrats are holding their caucuses on January 15, just like the Republicans, but they won’t release the results until Super Tuesday in March). Note: New Hampshire Democrats expect senile Joe to win anyway, as a write-in candidate.
If by “weakness” Rove meant that the Democrats will rue pouring resources into ads promoting Joe, I doubt they should be worried. If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, which he certainly looks destined to be, Democrats will have all the dough they can spend in the lead-up to next year’s election. And this isn’t even counting the contributions from foreign sources that will somehow make their way into Democrat coffers. Overseas interests know that a regime switch to Trump could equal curtains for maintaining their own slush funds, and will intervene accordingly.
As for Dean Phillips’ “challenge” to Biden, if you can call it that, it shouldn’t prove to be much inconvenience at all. From the start, the Democrat powers-that-be did everything feasible to trip up Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the New Englander’s family name alone engendered him about a fifth of the party’s primary voters. But RFK Jr. won’t be on Democrat ballots, either, giving senile Joe pretty much a clear shot to be the Democrats’ headliner again.
It's the same set of barriers confronting anyone who launches a campaign against the establishment favorite. Where is Phillips going to get the money? Does he have the legal team in place to tie up the loose ends in all fifty states? Do party rules allow a challenger this late in the process? Can he somehow convince the Democrat poohbahs to hold a primary debate or two?
Not likely.
I’m not sure what Phillips’ motivations were to enter the Democrat primary race, but he won’t get far. Perhaps it was to bolster his mom’s “Dear Abby” column, or to make a name for himself outside of his famous relatives. But this doesn’t change the fact no one outside of the Gopher State has even heard of him.
Debate will rage on as to whether Joe Biden is in trouble. Pundits like Karl Rove will continue to point to certain factors as elucidating weakness, but the big picture suggests otherwise. Biden will remain in position to wage a full-on campaign as long as he stays in the race. And there are no surefire signs he’s planning to leave.
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
January 6 Committee
Liz Cheney
Build Back Better
Joe Manchin
RINOs
Marjorie Taylor Green
Kevin McCarthy
Mitch McConnell
2022 elections
Donald Trump
2024 presidential election
Comentarios