This comes as a surprise to who, exactly? Biden has been in politics for over forty years and the butt of jokes for most of that time. Being a Southerner, I suspect he only survived this long because he came from Delaware – they all knew him and couldn’t find anyone better who’d run in such a tiny state.
Okay, that’s probably not what happened. States get a really bad case of ‘familiaritis’ where they continue to elect the same old faces as long as those faces haven’t actively ticked them off recently. Delaware is not special in this regard.
Biden hit the national stage in the late Eighties with a comically bad run for the presidential nomination. He lost out to Dukakis. I’m still no fan of the idiotic way the media dismisses a candidate for some silly gaff – for Dukakis it was wearing a helmet while in a tank for a photo op – but the truth is, Dukakis was a pretty poor candidate overall and losing to him is not an auspicious start.
Getting called out every few months for yet another whooper told in front of cameras was even worse. Seriously, I have never understood the appeal Biden has for his constituents. I was a Democrat back then – I’d have voted for Bush Sr. over Biden. Heck, I almost voted for Bush over Dukakis! I couldn’t bring myself to do it – I felt sorry for Bush. Yes, really. A tale for another time.
Biden’s estrangement from the truth is legendary. When Dan Rather calls you out on CBS Evening News, you have seriously messed up. And yet, people kept voting for him.
I still think the Democrats are on borrowed time as a party. I give you Exhibit A: Joe Biden was the best candidate they could come up with to run in 2020. And they wonder why people are suspicious of the results. I mean, the whole thing sounds like the beginning to a bad joke. “Donald Trump walks into a bar and the Democrats nominate Joe Biden.”
Only no one’s laughing now.
So, what’s going on? Well, despite some improvement in the ‘not looking like a dementia patient’ category, Biden is already a lame duck. The Democrats are – a bit late – worried he will take their party down with him. Also they need to look at least kind of bipartisan on something. So they need rid of Biden and something to work with Republicans on – hmm, what ever could that be?
Oh, of course – a lovely impeachment. Harris is no threat as a lame duck – and her chances of even getting the party nomination are pretty pathetic. That paves the way for …. Okay, there may be a few holes in this plan, namely an actual potential successor, but the Democrat leadership is probably thinking that cutting their losses now is better than the hideous beating coming in 2024.
Yes, yes, I know. We’ve predicted a red wave before. However, this time, some things are significantly different. Twitter isn’t a leftist plaything. CNN decided to be a business again. Big Tech is in BIG trouble as they find out just how fickle politician friends can be. Several Democrat sacred cows have pooped on the American dream and a LOT of Americans are in the mood for barbeque.
Cheating your way out of this one is unlikely to be an option.
But the Democrat leadership will cross that bridge when they come to it. For now, they have a lame duck albatross hanging around their necks. Worse, the House Republicans suddenly decided to be an opposition party. Sacrifices will need to be made.
By someone else, of course.
Biden is deeply unpopular. I have literally NEVER seen sports events chant against a sitting president before. It may have happened, but only sporadically if so. This happened consistently for months at a variety of venues. I don’t think even well done polling could track that kind of depth. Regardless, Biden is a liability to the Democrats.
Out the knives have come. Who knew there were actually journalists at CBS, NYTimes or NBC anymore? They dusted off those journalism degrees real good. The US’ worst press secretary ever didn’t know what hit her. I’d feel sorry for her if she hadn’t been so danged annoying – Psaki is probably suddenly grateful to have lost that job.
Will it continue? Most likely. There is no upside to keeping Biden. He’s unpopular and could become a drooling idiot at any time. I dunno, has Biden had a hand in policy all this time? Perhaps some and if he were in better shape, that might have been a good thing for the Democrats. But the Ukraine War is the only policy upside. Everything else either ticks off his base or ticks off the entire country. Two more years of that would drag any party into oblivion.
Of course, the problem with politics is people. People, even political leadership (Kevin McCarthy, anyone?), have a way of changing their minds and doing weird stuff for no readily apparent reason. The Democrats could up and decide to stick it out with Biden but that seems unlikely.
Mostly because of all their knives sticking out of his back.
