On this Monday morning in July, the overwhelming and compelling evidence of a criminal conspiracy to violently overthrow the legitimate government of the US is a leading news story. A prime-time hearing this coming Thursday is eagerly awaited.
The very existence of America as we know it depends on putting down this continuing insurrection.
What is Kamala Harris talking about today? She is appearing at the 113th national NAACP convention where she is expected to talk about abortion rights. Just another leisurely day for our token black woman making sure that she’s checking all the boxes that our Democratic Party base cares about.
What is Joe Biden talking about today? I don’t know — whatever it is is not being reported on any of the mainstream news outlets. Those outlets are therefore talking about his age.
Why isn’t this White House talking about saving democracy TODAY?
Summer is more than halfway over and the White House continues on cruise-control.
We are losing this war in no small part because we refuse to even fight it.
Surely you got the memo that the Supreme Court just made abortion THE issue for lots of people who need to be motivated to vote for Dems this November? As for Biden, he told us during the campaign that we would not see or think about him every day.
That “memo” you sarcastically refer to amounts to a surrender.
Are you seriously arguing that attendees of an NAACP convention need to be motivated to vote for Democrats this November?
In the battleground states that matter, abortion rights is NOT a winning issue. Voters in those states are evenly split on abortion rights.
In those same states, the voters who need to be motivated to turn out and vote this November are those voters who are OVERWHELMING in favor of preserving democracy and appalled by the criminal behavior of the GOP candidates on their ballot.
That was two LONG years ago.
You’re making excuses for horrific performance in a crucial mid-term campaign.
I disagree about abortion not being a motivator, but agree that Biden and now Harris have made the mistake of only seeking friendly audiences and limited appearances. They need to take interviews on national television and even go on Fox as Buttigieg does and even Obama did a few times.
As for abortion Democrats need to focus on restoring the status quo and not overreaching as the Proressive Caucus consistently does. There’s a real middle ground between Manchin denying the Dems any win and the go for broke progressives.
New Democrats and Third Way put out a great anti inflation agenda even Ezra Klein liked, and Biden needs to be hammering this constantly. I did like Biden’s tweet slamming the gas companies for not bringing prices down now that the cost per barrel has dropped. We need more of that on television and in the real world on the ground in swing states.
I think Harris spoke to the NAACP knowing full well they would not be the only ones to hear her message. I think there are suburban women in swing states for whom this issue may be a tipping point. You keep saying we need to do everything to elect Dems to protect democracy. Surely this is one of those things.
Abortion is only the 4th or 5th issue in the polling and that is after Dobbs propelled it into the top 5. I think it gave a shot in the arm to vulnerable house candidates in suburban districts (like Elaine Luria, Elissa Slotnick, and Tom Malinowski coke to mind). Definitely helped Democrats running for Senate in NC, OH, PA, and WI and for Governor in MI, PA, and WI. Helped Kelly and Cortez Masto for sure. That’s it though, and I think if we want to stop the bleeding and win a bigger majority in the Senate we need to run on more than just opposing Republican extremism and run on an actual agenda to lower costs, fight inflation, secure the border, and keep Americas enemies at bay. I do not see a contract with america agenda addressing those problems, but we need one fast. And it would be nice if it came from the President in a prime time address and all members of our party could read from the same playbooks
Aside from a few odd races in specific districts, if Democrats run on abortion, climate change, tans rights, forgiving college debts, and so on, they lose the house, senate, and Biden gets impeached a few times. Trump walks into the White House in 2024 and I would not be shocked if Ivanka was his running mate. Call me looney but if I told you in 2004 while watching “The Apprentice” that Trump would be president in twelve years, you’d call me loony then, eh?
Yup, inflation and fears of crime at the border, in the cities, and dangers abroad matter most to most voters. There is no division in those demographics.
Improving the margins in a few specific districts may be all that is necessary.
There’s a huge difference between being ever present like Trump was and absent like Biden is. It’s called the bully pulpit for a reason and he should use it so he is not solely defined by Fox and or mainstream media harping on his age and low approval rating (which has also turned on him). Maybe some of the low approval rating comes from Democrats and independents who won’t ever vote for Trump but are disappointed Biden hasn’t delivered or even been present?
I absolutely believe your last sentence is true, which is why I wish approval polls would have three options: approve, disapprove on account of bad policies, and disapprove for not doing enough. I’d personally like him to be more visible and actually think when he does come out he acquits himself well explaining what he is doing. I’m just pointing out that we knew what style we were getting when we voted for him so we shouldn’t be surprised.
I think most of us understood that as meaning he would be a more disciplined communicator than Trump, not an absent one. If we want to play the semantics game, Biden also made a strongly implied commitment to serve only one term and maybe we should hold him to that and find another Democrat willing to take the fight to the Republicans and corral the Democrats into a cohesive legislative force. Mr. 36 years in the Senate was unable to do either.
I consistently see a president unable or unwilling to use his power to improve his party’s chances in the Fall or his own chances in 2024. This strategy of running out the clock on this Congress and hoping the GOP implodes is not working and since I do care about democracy I want a leader with the backbone to defend it.
I never heard any implied one-term commitment and I strongly disagree with the rest of this comment. It is way too early to write 2024 political obituaries. I’m also beginning to think many on our side have bought into the cult of the presidency and the unitary executive theory when we expect a President to just wave his wand and fix everything.
His aides were openly floating a one term presidency as early as 2019. He called himself a “bridge to future generations” of Democratic leaders after introducing Kamala Harris. I think it was strongly implied. I know my parents and brother all voted for him with that assumption in mind.
I am not arguing for a unitary executive, I am arguing for a president willing to use his bully pulpit to get things accomplished. Clinton and Obama frankly had more legislatively productive second terms with the opposing party holding Congress than Biden has had in his first term with his own party holding down both houses. And there is plenty of blame to go around.
The Progressive Caucus held the infrastructure bill hostage for too long, Manchin and Sinema moving goalposts, Biden and progressives pushing the inflationary ARP first over the legacy defining BBB. Cutting popular things like paid leave out of BBB. Not going with Manchins initial targets. Etc.
Yet at the end of the day the buck stops with Biden. He and he alone has the power to save his presidency, just as Obama and Clinton did with theirs. The ball is in his court and he has to do more than lay back and hope for things to get better. You have to concede that point.
Well, I never inferred the one term, though I simultaneously thought it might both make some feel better while also making him a premature lame duck. I did agree that he can/should get out more (though maybe not this week since he tested positive for COVID), but I tend to be loathe to second-guess styles. I’m not even conceding that his presidency needs saving yet.
I agree it would have been problematic for him to directly state he would only serve one term for the lame duck reason, but it did seem the original plan was save us from Trump and then hand it off to Harris. Unfortunately she is in an even worse political position than Biden is today.
I do not want to make it sound like I am rooting for him to fail or even want another nominee, I just want him to start fighting harder to save his presidency. His approval rating is averaging around 35%, well below where one term presidents Jimmy Carter and even Donald Trump were at this point in their presidencies. I just do not see the urgency on the part of Biden to change course until after the midterms, and I think that is a mistake on his part.
Obviously getting Covid is out of his hands and I wish him full rest and recovery. Friends and relatives who have used paxlovid say it is a wonder drug that really gets you back on your feet after Covid. So I will pray for his quick recovery and I look forward to seeing and hearing more from him.