So choose, America.
I’m done with all the liberal self sabotage, pearl clutching, second guessing, holier than thou purist perfection, circular firing squads, what aboutisms.
This is a binary election. So, make up your minds now.
Who’s it gonna be? Joe Biden or four more years of Evil Monster dystopia?
Please share widely!
SomervilleTom says
This is a media election. The pandemic means that online streaming is the only way candidates will connect to voters.
The dark side is KILLING US. The media presence of our candidate is shameful. Whatever efforts the campaign is making are being completely overwhelmed. This is worse than spitting in the wind.
We are losing every battle AND the war.
fredrichlariccia says
So who are you voting for, Tom?
SomervilleTom says
Fred, if Joe Biden is the nominee, I’ll vote for him that’s not the point.
Why is Andrew Cuomo the only Democrat taking it to Donald Trump? Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race a full month ago. Joe Biden has had no primary opponents.
WHERE IS JOE?
fredrichlariccia says
Tom, Joe Biden is the presumptive nominee so I don’t understand why you keep saying IF he is the nominee like you’re wishfully hoping for some other magical candidate to swoop down from Utopia and replace him as our nominee.
This is supposed to be reality-based commentary so the point IS that Joe Biden is the only force on planet Earth in a position to stop the Evil Monster on November 3.
What’s the point of pissing all over Biden’s campaign when it’s only giving aid and comfort to our enemies within and without?
SomervilleTom says
Fred, I keep saying “if” because Mr. Biden does not become the nominee until he is actually nominated. If you’ve ever purchased real estate or finalized any similarly important contract, you know that the deal isn’t done until the contract is signed and the money in the bank. As a good friend of mine once said “Until the money is in the bank, it’s all just courtesy.”
I understand your argument, I’ve made it myself.
We easily talk about the Emperor’s new clothes when we don’t like the Emperor. What do we do if we realize that the “Emperor” is our own candidate?
Let me ask what you have me do. I ask you to take, as a given, that I have become convinced that Joe Biden cannot and will not win in November. What would you have me do? I know that you and I are friends. I respect and like you, and I think that feeling is mutual.
It sounds like you are asking me to sit down and shut up. Is that what you mean?
fredrichlariccia says
Tom, first and foremost you are my friend and I could not respect and like you more.
I am not asking you to sit down and shut up. To the contrary, I am asking you to use your considerable intellectual and communication skills to help save the country that I know you love.
Christopher says
It is extremely unlikely that the convention will dump the nominee chosen by the voters in favor of someone else, and there will certainly be howls of protest if they did, though unlike your paranoia regarding cancelling the general election that is technically possible according to the party rules.
SomervilleTom says
@Christopher:
It was extremely unlikely that Chris Matthews would resign on-air, even though his family knew that he was declining. There is no way that a high-profile high-visibility media personality can hide the ravages of age once they appear. His family (each of whom is very close to him) have said that they were “concerned” about him and felt strongly that he needed to get himself off the air because he was hurting himself more and more frequently. The Democratic nominee for President is a high-profile high-visibility media personality.
I’m not trying to be negative about Mr. Biden. I’m genuinely concerned about him, and of course what his state means for all of us.
ALL of the political insiders I know emphasize that at this stage in a presidential campaign, every hour counts — this was a staple and centerpiece of West Wing. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the longer Mr. Biden stays hidden the more “explanations” — most of them hostile — we’ll see.
I think Joe Biden needs to be front-and-center leading his own campaign and the rest of us. If there is some combination of factors that preclude that, I think the campaign owes us a credible explanation.
bob-gardner says
@Christopher. If ” the convention . . . dump(s) .the nominee . . . there will certainly be howls of protest .”
No worries, Fred can just yell at everybody to shut up. That’s an effective, well-tested strategy. Right?
fredrichlariccia says
Tom, I assume you voted for Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary, right?
Doesn’t it mean anything to you that Senator Warren endorsed Joe Biden to be our next president?
SomervilleTom says
No. Endorsements mean little or nothing to me. Of course Ms. Warren endorsed Mr. Biden, it would be foolish for her not to.
bob-gardner says
Done with the name calling, Fred?
fredrichlariccia says
The Evil Monster and his corrupt sycophantic ass-kissing minions will be destroyed forever in 175 days on November 3.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Bob.
SomervilleTom says
Fred, I’ve answered all your questions — as I generally always do — honestly and courteously.
I’d like you answer mine.
Where is Joe? Why has he been so absent from the media this month?
FOUR WEEKS have elapsed since his last primary opponent (Bernie Sanders) dropped out. Where has Joe Biden been during these crucial weeks?
Why are the few media appearances he makes so shamefully awful?
Please tell me how this apparent rope-a-dope lay-low strategy helps us win this crucial election.
doubleman says
Maybe disappearing and letting Trump fail could win an election. That’s a very risky gamble, though. People will go with a candidate that looks strong. Trump can still fake strength and the press won’t help in showing the truth of who he is (they gave up that mission in 2015 when they decided he could be an actual candidate). Joe Biden, currently, is projecting ZERO strength. We know his digital operations are trash, and ground game doesn’t or won’t matter this year (if it actually matters ever – the past few election cycles imply it has limited value and earned media is the way to win).
I think we know what’s going on. Joe can’t do a lot of TV. He’s not well and can’t speak coherently for more than a few minutes, and if he gets pressed on something he gets flustered and angry. His campaign is betting that lying low won’t hurt as much as bad performances and increased scrutiny.
I don’t think the campaign has a clear strategy (nor did they in the primary) other than just hold on and hope to get lucky.
jconway says
Joe Biden is prevented from campaigning because of a sensible state and national orders to stay home. I am not sure what else he could be doing other than appearing on any show that will have him on, doing the podcasts, and having online fundraisers. I think Sanders would be facing the same quandary.
The election is fundamentally a referendum on Trump and Biden was the safest candidate to make that case. Someone with 40 years of legislative and executive experience or a guy who is clearly doing a piss poor job of leading the country?
This article is very illustrative of how active Biden is. He starts his day on a Peloton, has hours of phone calls with economic and medical experts, his political team, Barack Obama, the governors (particularly Inslee, Whitmer, and Cuomo). He has a daily call with Chuck and Nancy. He’s assembling a transition team and vetting VPs. He’s planning an FDR style presidency and consulting with Senate candidates.
Did anyone watch the final Bernie/Biden debate? I thought Biden did quite well. Laying low ended up being a smart strategy in the primary as he stayed above the fray while his rivals attacked one another. When it came down to a two man race, he laid out a sensible agenda for dealing with the virus while Bernie played his greatest hits one final time.
GA, MT, TX, IA, OH, and SC are increasingly in play. He has a double digit lead with seniors who are half the Trump base. They are his second best group after young people. Huge leads with African Americans and Latinos against Trump. 9 in 10 Americans have heard about Reade and 6 in 10 still want another president than Trump.
Democrats always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to unite and failing to project confidence in their positions and candidates. We usually do it while we’re down, it would be a shame to do that while we’re up.
Anyone suggesting Biden should not be the nominee should propose an alternative the party could accept without consulting the primary voters. It’s an impossibility.
SomervilleTom says
@Joe Biden is prevented from campaigning…:
The constraints on Joe Biden are no worse than those on Andrew Cuomo.,
I fear you’re missing my point. There is a war for the attention and either affection or revulsion of every television viewer and web user. It is being waged every day. It is happening in live shots of Donald Trump shaming reporters and showing that he is a tyrant and in daily live shots of Andrew Cuomo (I see the latter primarily on CNN).
Like the infamous bus tapes, millions of Americans LOVE the way Mr. Trump lashed out at the reporters today. Every day Mr. Trump beats the drum that this pandemic is Chinese, and millions of Americans eat it up.
Who is speaking to the others? Who is rallying those who love our freedom and diversity? Not in magazine articles, not in scripted 10-minute pre-recorded pieces, but LIVE. Chris Cuomo broadcast his segment every day for weeks while he fought the virus.
Our presumptive nominee is absolutely invisible in all that. Making excuses and offering links to magazine articles doesn’t change that.
With Joe Biden himself missing from action, the only exposure he’s getting in real time is from the relentless and groundless Tara Reade rubbish.
Polling results are great. They also change in heartbeat.
This administration has been EXPLODING the rule of law in just the last week. I invite you to offer links to ANY mainstream video of Mr. Biden responding.
How is it possible to snatch defeat from victory when our guy is barely in the fight?
If our nominee can’t or won’t fight the fight, then we have no choice but replace him with someone who will — even if it upsets primary voters. Had Abraham Lincoln not fired George McClellan and promoted Ulysses Grant, America would almost surely have lost the Civil War.
jconway says
Biden has been on late night shows which young people watch and local tv which old people and less politically aware people watch.
He was on Morning Joe and I’m sure he’ll do the Sunday Shows at some point.
Cuomo has the bully pulpit of the governorship of the state with the largest number of Covid cases. That’s substantially different from being an elderly private citizen who used to be Vice President and is now the presumptive nominee. You’ve seen a lot more Cuomo than any other Democrat for that reason. He’s also someone who got primary challenged from the left and would be unacceptable to half the party.
Biden cannot leave his home and the risk is great he could contract the virus. I think he’s setting a much better example than his successor who’s staff if sick after he walked around without wearing a mask, and his successors boss who is urging us to drink bleach on national television.
Biden has to do 3 things to win.
1) Not die
2) Not be Donald Trump
3) Not be derailed by a scandal
He’s got 2 in the bag. The jury is still out on 1 and 3, but 1 is a lot less likely if he stays home and obeys social distancing like he has been. As for 3 I think he has done all he can to weather this one, and most voters are not buying Tara Reade’s ever changing story.
Christopher says
Your WaPo link is broken.
fredrichlariccia says
Joe Biden will be on MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell’s show this Thursday at 10 pm and will be joined by Stacey Abrams.
SomervilleTom says
@Joe Biden on MSNBC w/ Stacy Abrams:
THAT is good to know, I’ll be watching. That is precisely the kind of thing I’m looking for.
jconway says
It wasn’t important. Basically he’s on a lot of late night shows and local tv, it’s just not the media Tom is consuming so he thinks he’s vanished.
SomervilleTom says
4) Not be suffering from “cognitive decline”.
I hope not. I want our candidate to win.
jconway says
Cognitive decline is somewhat irrelevant if he picks a younger Veep and is up against a guy telling us to drink bleach.
Trump will always have his 40% and they are hopeless. Either too stupid to realize they are being conned or too selfish about their investments to care how the rest of the country is suffering. We aren’t getting the hicks and the country clubbers.
I honestly think the rest of his margins came from two groups of people. People who thought Hillary had it in the bag and wanted to tell her to screw and people who thought Hillary had it in the bag and stayed home. I think these two groups are gettable for Biden and he is running the kind of campaign to win them over. Sanders or Warren would’ve been too polarizing to do that.
They’d be better prepared to govern during this crisis, especially Warren, but I am not sure if they’d be benefiting like Biden has from Trumps failures. Since their own brands are toxic with half the country. Biden is the one guy who can get you to 50%+1, and right now it’s +10 in May with six more months of unemployment and death to go.
bob-gardner says
Catchy campaign slogan–Vote for Joe, “Cognitive decline is somewhat irrelevant.”.
jconway says
What’s Trump’s slogan? 20% unemployment and 70k dead and counting? Want four more years of this?
I think people are talking past each other on this thread and not being reality based. The reality is, it does not matter who or what Biden is or what he does or has done. The choice is between continuing down this terrible path with this terrible leader or choosing an alternative. It is fundamentally different from four years ago since voters who hated both candidates thought that a) Hillary would win and b) Trump couldn’t be that bad.
Now they know that Trump could win again and that he is that bad. It’s a very different electorate than it was four years ago. Not to mention, his 65+ base is revolting to his indifference to their lives and retreating to the safe harbor of another old white guy. Not to mention million of 18-22 year olds who are voting for the first time, and the higher percentages of AA and Latino turnout from 2018. The party picked a lot of bland Democrats in 2018 too, and it ended up helping us win back the House. It will work again for the Senate and the Presidency. Then it will be up to the AOCs to hold the centrists feet to the fire, until then, its rally around the flag until Trump is gone. This election has almost nothing to do with Joe Biden.
SomervilleTom says
Cognitive decline is NEVER irrelevant. Perhaps you aren’t yet old enough to lose a loved one to Alzheimer’s.
I don’t believe for a moment that anybody will vote for candidate who is visibly senile because of the VP choice of that candidate.
If Mr. Biden truly suffers from this, then he has an obligation to step aside so that somebody else can run in his place.
jconway says
Biden does not have anything remotely like that. Biden is an average Democrat with the cognition of an average healthy 77 year old. Is he has sharp as he was 10 or 15 or 20 years ago? Of course not. Is he sharper than Trump? Yes. Is he sharper than Reagan at 77? Yes. Will he pursue more progressive policies than his predecessors? Yes. That’s what matters.
We already had an opportunity to pick better alternatives and the majority of the party stuck with the average Joe they knew. Now the case is not between him and a policy dynamo like Elizabeth Warren, but between him and the bleach drinker in the White House. It’s a pretty easy contest.
Interestingly the voters who hate both sides prefer Biden to Trump, the opposite of last time around. Mainly since they always vote against the people in charge, and Trump is accusing his opponents of murder rather than doing his freakin job.
Christopher says
Regarding murder, that is quite the confession since Trump’s MO is to accuse others of things of which he is guilty himself!
SomervilleTom says
@jconway: Fair enough!