Good morning all yinz yinzers! Another day of happiness! Some people aren’t.
Look at the times: 1 hr 11 mins ago, 59 mins ago. Two conflicting messages.
President Biden Insists ‘I’m Staying in the Race’ During Campaign Rally in Madison
Jul 6, 2024 | 11:07 PM
To a defiant Biden, the 2024 race is up to the voters, not to Democrats on Capitol Hill
Updated 11:31 PM EDT, July 6, 2024
The Biden campaign drafted questions for the president’s interviews on a pair of radio shows
Date lined July 7
It's total confusion, total incoherence. He is unfit to carry on in the presidency. But...I will vote for him if he stays in.
Saturday, July 06, 2024
“We’ll probably know in the next couple of days..." if Biden stays in the race--Hawaii Gov. Josh Green
"I’m standing by the president until he tells me otherwise,” said Green.
As AP notes, "Biden has repeatedly insisted that he will remain in the race..." So, he didn't tell you, governor? Did he not tell you and all of the Democratic governors that he was staying in the race?
What is this, Brave New World? Alice in Wonderland? Gas Light? Has he "repeatedly" lied, to the public, to his own campaign staff? "I give you my word as a Biden!" is how the president expresses to us that his words are his bond.
...if Biden decides not to run...Green told The Associated Press on Saturday that he believes the president will designate Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket.
What do you know that the public doesn't, Gov. Green?
What in the world is going on?
Live Wire Radio
I just went to the grocery store, turned on NPR and heard a segment of this for the first time. When I got home I googled it.
Live Wire Radio is a radio variety show that was launched in 2004 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Which explains why one musical guest said to audience laughter that Bilbao is often referred to as "the Portland of Europe".
Live Wire is built on various elements such as standup comedy, guest interviews, and musical performances.[4][5] Its emphasis is on the quirky local character of Portland.[4] Each show is recorded in front of a live audience, every other week, which is then edited into material for two weekly shows.
It makes such a difference.
In February 2003,[7] Kate Sokoloff approached Robyn Tenenbaum with the idea for Live Wire, a younger, "hipper" version of Prairie Home Companion... (Wikipedia)
It is very much like the old PHC that I used to listen to in my young, single days also on Saturday nights (I was never a live wire, even on Saturday nights.), which was also recorded live.
I listened to, I guess, parts of three segments. Every one was funny, none were stand-up comedy, just interviews. The guests and hosts were just naturally funny. The first segment I heard was an interview of Jay Werthem (sp), a LGBTQ+ person who just had something published in NYT mag. They are also finishing writing a book. They were funny, too. It was refreshing to hear a LGBTQ+ person be light-hearted about their identity. So much that I hear, or read (or at least expose myself to) is "serious"--about the problems they face and faced coming out, fitting in. Werthem read from her NYT piece I guess it was, about going to a LGBTQ+ nude beach for the first time in Mexico. It was funny and charming.
HIGHLY recommend Live Wire Radio.
This is where we are.
Those of us who believe that President Biden were not assuaged by his 20-minute interview to George Stephanopoulos yesterday. He viewed everything through rose-colored glasses: his physical fitness, his cognitive fitness, his electoral fitness. "He downplayed. He denied. He dismissed.", was NYT's characterization.
The deception that the president, his family, his White House team, and his campaign employed in the past year and one half is of course galling. Some donors are snapping their wallets shut in anger. But be real, the campaign has got $240M on hand. I think that is enough to last him a four-month campaign 🙄. I take back something I wrote previously, that cutting off his cash flow would cause him to leave the race.
The president is dug in. Only if "the Lord Almighty" came down and told him to withdraw, would he. He's not listening to it from mortals.
The deception provides an argument for ignoring his votes in the primaries and attempting to force him out. The voters were deceived, too. But historically, candidates, even incumbents have gotten away with deception. JFK and Addison's Disease. FDR. In 1944 Roosevelt was literally on death's door. He had no business running for reelection. The voters didn't care. They could see their president wasting away before their eyes. They didn't care. The stakes were too high. Not going to change course while at war. In my view, it is little different this time around. The mortal enemy is domestic, not foreign, is all. Registered Democratic voters are sticking by him.
Trump never released his medical records, never submitted to an independently administered cognitive test, maybe a lie detector would have been better, but he did neither. Nor did Trump release his tax returns.
I believe President Biden unfit to carry on the presidency; I wonder of his physical ability even to campaign strenuously enough to win reelection, especially in the summer heat.
But he is not getting out. Democracy is not supposed to work this way, but it has. We have a Hobson's choice and as this here undersigned wrote in "Declaration of Independence", President Biden will be my choice until he is no longer an available choice. The stakes are too high.
Feeling Deceived: A Separate, Related Concern
A slew of Hollywood heavyweights are calling on President Biden to step aside following his disastrous debate performance last week. Several feel deceived by the White House and top campaign officials for keeping Biden's age issues a secret while they promoted his candidacy and donated millions.
... The Democratic party has for decades relied on Hollywood to drum up support in the final months of the general election. Now, that alliance is being tested.
Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel began sounding the alarm the Saturday after the debate, telling journalist Tina Brown at the Aspen Ideas Festival, that Biden shouldn't be running. "He and his cohorts have told us that he's [been] healthy for over a year," he lamented.
...
IAC chairman Barry Diller told The Ankler that he and his wife, designer Diane von Fürstenberg, were no longer supporting Biden as the nominee, after having contributed to his campaign.
The comments aren't just disastrous for the Biden campaign, but the party writ large, with some Hollywood donors vowing to yank all funds down the ballot until Biden is out.
Abigail Disney, a longtime Democratic supporter, told CNBC she planned to stop any contributions to the party "unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket."
Several Hollywood A-listers have expressed frustration with movie mogul-turned-investor Jeffrey Katzenberg, who serves as co-chair of Biden's reelection campaign, per the Financial Times.
Donors feel deceived by Katzenberg and other campaign officials for failing to disclose how serious Biden's aging issues had become, per the FT and The Ankler. Katzenberg has himself donated millions to Biden's reelection campaign.
Biden has relied heavily on the support of Hollywood heavyweights throughout his campaign.
Good morning-a
Imagine throwing the PRESIDENT under the bus for the PRESIDENT’s debate performance!…Wait, what?
Physical violence is so cathartic and sometimes efficacious. I would like to experience that cathartic release again and have asked for a meeting with Jill and Hunter Biden and have my blowtorch and hammer packed.
Friday, July 05, 2024
I have been taking my daughter-in-law to the library so that she can study for her medical boards.
I had such a great day with Ana today. For an hour and a half after she had studied on her own, we studied together! She explained to me her visual puzzles so well that I actually understood about 25% and then we did her flash card quizzes together. We were like a team! I got so into it with her that we got a complaint for being too loud! It was awesome and it helped her; she wasn’t just reading, she was explaining to a complete laymen; she was using more of her senses which is so key to learning and she had to explain to me, which is hard, and is proof that the teacher understands the material. At the end she got 7 or 8 flash card answers EXACTLY right, down to the precise wording. We were high-fiving! When I dropped her back off she gave me a hug in the car. We’re doing it again Monday.
To Our British Cousins, With Love and Shared Joy
There's a new world coming
And it's just around the bend
There's a new world coming
This one's coming to an end
There's a new voice calling
You can hear it if you try
And it's growing stronger
With each day that passes by
There's a brand new morning
Rising clear and sweet and free
There's a new day dawning
That belongs to you and me
Yes a new world's coming
The one we've had visions of
Coming in peace, coming in joy
Coming in love
Yes a new world's coming
The one we've had visions of
Coming in peace, coming in joy
Coming in love
Coming in love
Coming in love
Coming in love
Coming in love...
I just listened to the first clip that ABC has released of Stephanopoulos’ interview with President Biden. He said that he was “exhausted and sick with a cold” at the debate. Right before listening to the president I had an 8-minute phone call with my Big Brother that ended at 6:18 because “I’m too tired.” The president tonight and in the debate sounded IDENTICALLY to my brother. The president still doesn’t have strength in his voice. My brother has got something that has lasted for a month. He doesn’t even have the energy to go to the VA. He sounded like a person near death—he’s NOT, but that same far off voice as if he has one foot in this world and another in wherever we go. I was alarmed and told him that if I was up there, I would physically take him to the VA.
The only relevance to this is that I am convinced that both my brother and the president, 83 and 81 respectively, have the same thing, probably one of the new COVID variants going around, but something. I have never heard my brother like this, not even right after his wife died. I don’t know if he even has the strength now to grieve as he did two years ago.
?
The US labor market added more jobs than expected in June while the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose, reaching its highest level since November 2021, another sign that the job market continues to cool.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed the US economy added 206,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in June, more than the 190,000 expected by economists.
REDS! Labour Won 412 (!) Seats, Surpassed Exit Poll
They have a majority of 174, larger than the total number, 122, seats that the Tories have left. HISTORIC night in Merry Ol’.
Thursday, July 04, 2024
256, 70 Seats Away. The BBC Now Forecasts 410 Seats For Labour, Exactly the Exit Poll's Prediction
At this road race pace Labour will have secured it's majority my midnight.
A lesson for Western democracies from recent history: don't call voters' bluff. David Cameron was a very successful Conservative PM, but he was fed up with the threats from mounting evidence that British voters really did want to leave the European Union and so called for a nationwide referendum. Brexit won and Cameron immediately resigned. Theresa May concluded the Brexit withdraw. She survived two no-confidence votes and resigned after three years. That made Boris Johnson, the face of Brexit, Prime Minister and not even he expected Brexit to pass. His term ended in multiple scandals . Then came the "head of cabbage", Liz Truss, who lasted less than two months. Truss lost her seat in Parliament tonight. Then Rishi Sunak, the current. He called a snap election amidst dire predictions of the Tory electoral devastation comin' true tonight.
Across the Channel, I thought Emmanuel Macron's snap election gambit was going to be a brilliant success. Instead, Marine Le Pen's fascist party is going to win, perhaps not a majority in the French Parliament, but a win which will neuter Macron and his party.
324 seats left to report in the UK and Labour leads the Tories in seats won 240-42. The Reds are now just 84 seats away from officially capturing 10 Downing Street and a supermajority in the House of Commons.
Britain's renowned exit poll predicted 62% of seats in Parliament for Labour. Right now Labour has won 73.8% of the seats. There are still 410 seats outstanding. Labour has 177, up 74 seats already from 2019; the Cons have 28 seats, down 88 seats already from 2019. 326 is a parliamentary majority. The BBC predicts Labour will have 405 seats, a 2.6-1 majority over the Tories when the vote-counting is done. In the two centuries of representative democracy, I don't know this for sure, but I think it likely that never before has a nation's political landscape changed as comprehensively from one election to another, as is happening in the UK tonight.
The Reds are already +29 and the Cons -34! HAHAHAHAHA!
Sloppy
Students of film, film historians, are sloppy. One example of several. On the glorious :| 50th anniversary of Chinatown some guy wrote of the many scenes of Los Angeles in the movie. Where Gittes first espied and photographed Hollis Mulwray and his assumed young lover was MacArthur Park, this guy intoned.
No reason to doubt him, he knows L.A., I don't. I took it as the truth.
Then today, rewatching the film I heard the character Gittes appears to be filming say on the phone to Gittes that he was in Echo Park where he saw Mulwray (in background rowboat) with the young woman. Didn't mean anything to me, they change the names of places all the time in movies. So I looked up MacArthur Park bridge.
Which that does not look like the bridge in the film.
There is no fucking googly poogly image of "MacArthur Park bridge" that looks remotely like the one depicted in the film.
So, I googled Echo Park. It was a real name.
All the sweet, green icing flowing down🎵. Lay off the LSD when you're writing, smart guy.
🌹 🇬🇧
Labour obliterate Tories with historic election win — exit poll
Keir Starmer on course to be most powerful British prime minister since Tony Blair.
LONDON — The Labour Party is heading for a landslide victory in Britain’s general election, consigning the ruling Conservatives to their worst result in history, according to the official exit poll.
As voting ended across Britain at 10 p.m. local time, the poll projected a stunning Labour majority in the House of Commons of 170 seats, the largest held since Tony Blair’s famous win in 1997.
…
…PM Rishi Sunak…is widely expected to resign in the coming hours.
The exit poll predicts the Tories will collapse to just 131 seats — the lowest total in the party’s illustrious history, comfortably beating its previous nadir of 156 back in 1906.
…
By contrast the poll puts Labour on a mighty 410 seats — almost two-thirds of the House of Commons’ 650 total.
Such numbers would make Starmer the U.K.’s most powerful leader since Blair, with complete command of parliament and confident of winning a second term in five years’ time.
"There it is. Take it."
Declaration of Independence
When I made a decision the practice of law via the "difficult-hard" construct I have explained, I didn't look back. I had thought it through to my satisfaction, I trusted myself and my process, and I had to start the trial on a fixed date. I had to decide and I decided. In as dynamic an exercise as a jury trial, I still had to be nimble, to adjust to changing circumstance; rarely, but sometimes, to change course dramatically during the trial. But I had to have a course. I decided that course and didn't second guess.
As in a jury trial as one of two principal actors, so in an election as one of 150,000,000 actors. I have given the thought that I deem sufficient to my decision, considered at length and in depth alternative courses, and have decided. It will be the right decision or it will be the wrong decision, as it was in jury trials. I control the things that I can and see by available light. I am becalmed to not be riding the waves, the daily crests and troughs.
I will not be updating the polls or the daily leaks of the president's words to others. This is my declaration of independence from that news. When the president tells us of his decision I will note it here. He is my president until he is not. He will get my vote so long as he is a choice. Any other Democrat will get my vote in the alternative.
Wednesday, July 03, 2024
Polls that have been conducted exclusively since the debate...*
*Updated
Wall Street Journal June 29-July 2: Trump +6, “the widest in Journal surveys dating to late 2021 and compares with a 2-point lead in February.”
Six is the new normal.July 3, 2:05 pm:
NYT/Sienna June 28-July 2: Trump +6. Up three from same poll pre-debate (June 20-25).
July 3, 10:01 am:
CBS June 28-July 2: Trump +2
Reuters/Ipsos July 1-2: Tie
Yahoo June 28-July 1: Trump +2
Where's the beef, ABJ'ers?
July 2 12:45 pm:
CNN “conducted after the debate”: Trump +6. “Identical to the results of CNN’s national poll on the presidential race in April”.
July 2, 9:27 pm:
St. Anselm's New Hampshire poll June 28-29: Trump +2. This is a major shift from this poll's last, in December, which had Biden +10.
6:42 pm:
Harvard/Harris June 28-30: Trump +4. Trump's lead is down 2% from this poll's May survey.
4:26 pm:
Morning Consult June 28: Biden +1
Data for Progress June 28: Trump +3
SurveyUSA June 28: Trump +2
Morning Consult June 28-30: Trump +1
Joe Must Go
There is one man whose voice would outweigh all others combined and instantly make this happen: Barack Obama.
Puck reported a leaked poll from a top Democratic firm that Biden is losing ground in states like New Hampshire, Virginia and New Mexico that were previously noncompetitive and may now be swinging toward Donald Trump. At the same time, the poll found that Harris is now, for the first time, polling better in one-to-one matchups against Trump than Biden is.
I’m Switching Camps: Joe Must Go
Politically, societally, and nationally the last nine years have been humiliating to America, embarrassing personally, invalidating of the legitimacy and efficacy of democracy, and emotionally fraught. Democracy is not supposed to work this way. It is not supposed to keep people in a decade-long frisson. It is not supposed to leave voters with the choice between the unfit and the unfitter.
Now the president is ghosting us. He has other people he speaks to who then tell us what he said. It’s insulting. Democracy is not supposed to be insulting to the people. For me, all he had to do today was personally tell us, the voters: In or Out. Instead, in less than 24 hrs he told “close ally” his decision was contingent and was coming soon. Close ally told us. Then he told campaign staff he’s absolutely In. Somebody else had to tell us that. He can’t make up what of his mind he has left. I will vote for him if he doesn’t withdraw from the campaign. As political strategy, to increase the chances that we dodge the far greater evil, President Biden should resign the presidency and confer the patina of President on Kamala Harris. That is what I believe in my heart and head would be best: President Harris.
"I'm running. I'm in this race to the end."
I can't square that with the statements by "close ally" of his phone conversation with the president last night. "Close ally" was not lying. The president did not lie to him, it was a candid conversation. The president was "clear-eyed"; staying in the race was not certain, it was contingent on 1) polls 2) his performance in the Stephanopoulos interview Friday and on the stump in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin 3) fundraising. The president's decision would be timely, made immediately after those events this week.
Then today, "I'm running. I'm in this race to the end" to his campaign staff? Either that was a lie or his phone convo with "close ally" was a lie. For the life of me I cannot understand why he would lie to his campaign staff less than 24 hours after the phone call, and after the accounts of the call were published by NYT and CNN.
"I am running. I'm in this race to the end."
"Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can and as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running.
"I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. No one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving. I'm in this race to the end, and we're going to win because when Democrats unite, we always win."
President Biden, with Vice president Harris on a conference call with his campaign staff today.
The Case For President Harris
I hope that the president does not make a decision with undo weight given the Times/Sienna poll. It is in line with CNN's poll the day before, which was unchanged from CNN's poll in April, and both are outliers compared to other post-debate polls. However, I think the Bidens put more stock in the Times/Sienna poll than the others. It may be consistent with their internal polling. If so, then the first leg of their decision-making triad is weakened, perhaps, in their minds, cut off. I hope that the president waits on other polling, even if it is just through the weekend, but honestly, I don't put much stock in the other legs, the interview/campaign stops and fundraising. Those, to me, are disqualifying but not qualifying. That is, if he speaks gibberish to Stephanopoulos, he's done, but if he is silver-tongued, he has not made the mental competency issue go away at all. Similarly, if the donors snap their wallets shut right now, he's done; but if they keep them open he hasn't increased his viability. Advertising is not going to close this sale. To me, therefore, it's all on the polls. To me, a 3-point decline in support since the DebateDebacle, a 6-point deficit on July 3!, even if those polls were exactly how people would vote on July 3, is not close to being convincing evidence that the president cannot win. Especially given that no plausible Democratic alternative beats Trump in the polls. Be that as it may, I do believe that there is now a 50-50 chance that the president will drop out.
Which brings me to the subject heading of this post. In the CNN poll Vice president Harris did better, -2, than Gov. Newsom, Sec. Buttigieg, and Gov. Whitmer. Harris, I think, also gets Democrats a bit out of the antidemocratic selection process of a replacement. It is true that Joe Biden personally won all those primary delegates. The candidate line was not Biden-Harris. But I have read in two places that according to Democratic Party rules, Kamala Harris, as Biden's incumbent veep, would inherit the Biden-Harris campaign funds. Simply, if President Biden died, Harris would automatically become president. She would not inherit the Democratic Party's nomination for president but she would inherit the Biden-Harris campaign's money if she wished to contest the nomination in Chicago. It is a distinction without a difference, to me. OBVIOUSLY, the Democrats would nominate the incumbent president with a $200M war chest over Gretchen Whitmer.
And that brings up this consideration. If Joe Biden decides not to seek reelection, should he also resign the presidency?
Deciding not to seek reelection would mean that his presidency has four months left. On the normative prong of my personal "difficult-hard" decision-making construct, I decided that Biden is unfit to be president. Four months or--especially--four years, he is unfit to carry on in my judgment. I supported him, I support him now, and I will vote for him if he continues because of the infinitely greater unfitness of Donald Trump. On the pragmatic prong of my analysis, I concluded that Biden had a better chance of beating Trump than any of the other named, floated Democrats. I still feel that Biden has a better chance of beating Trump than does Kamala Harris, but if Biden decides to not seek reelection he would greatly enhance Harris' prospects by resigning the presidency and having President Harris run.
If he decides not to seek reelection, what is the case for Biden remaining president? Normatively, there is none (to me). Practically, there is none, especially as a lame duck.
This is the other poll the Bidens were awaiting
Trump Widens Lead After Biden’s Debate Debacle, Times/Siena Poll Finds
Donald Trump is ahead of President Biden by six percentage points among likely voters
Mr. Trump now leads Mr. Biden 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters nationally, a three-point swing toward the Republican from just a week earlier, before the debate. It is the largest leadMr. Trump has recorded in a Times/Siena poll since 2015. Mr. Trump leads by even more among registered voters, 49 percent to 41 percent.
Same “close ally” spoke to CNN
It’s the next few days, the Stephanopoulos interview and the campaign stops in PA. and WI, the polls and the fundraising. If “It’s just not working” he will get out. The substance of the CNN talk is the same. There are different quotes:
If “the polls are plummeting, the fundraising is drying up, and the interviews are going badly. He’s not oblivious.”
“He sees the moment. He’s clear-eyed.”
In Tuesday’s private conversation, Biden was also “chastened” as he “blamed himself” – not his staff – for the debate performance.
“He said: ‘I have done way too much foreign policy.’” He said to me: ‘I have over done it. I did too much travel. I did too much back and forth. I did too much time change. I had a cold. That was a mistake.’”
This is new and portentous:
…at one point in their conversation, Biden asked this person for advice – and then there was silence, the person told CNN, as the president waited for input.
If this is Jim Clyburn, and to a standard of satisfy the conscience it is, then if the president asked Jim Clyburn for advice and Jim Clyburn didn’t respond, then it’s over. Biden cannot lose Jim Clyburn.
If “the polls are plummeting, the fundraising is drying up, and the interviews are going badly. He’s not oblivious.”
“He sees the moment. He’s clear-eyed.”
In Tuesday’s private conversation, Biden was also “chastened” as he “blamed himself” – not his staff – for the debate performance.
“He said: ‘I have done way too much foreign policy.’” He said to me: ‘I have over done it. I did too much travel. I did too much back and forth. I did too much time change. I had a cold. That was a mistake.’”
This is new and portentous:
…at one point in their conversation, Biden asked this person for advice – and then there was silence, the person told CNN, as the president waited for input.
If this is Jim Clyburn, and to a standard of satisfy the conscience it is, then if the president asked Jim Clyburn for advice and Jim Clyburn didn’t respond, then it’s over. Biden cannot lose Jim Clyburn.
CNN, NOT this ally on the Virginia fundraiser, “nearly fell asleep” line:
The remark was met with brief laughter from those in attendance, according to a recording of the president’s remarks.
Multiple reporters who were in the room said that they believed the “fell asleep” line appeared intended to be a joke and that Biden was trying to make light of the situation in a self-deprecating way, but it did not land, in their view.
Unnamed but this is going to be Jim Clyburn, who had a call scheduled with Biden last night
Biden Told Ally That He Is Weighing Whether to Continue in the Race
The president’s conversation is the first indication that he is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta. A White House official said the claim was false.
President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job after a disastrous debate performance last week.
The president, whom this ally emphasized is still deeply in the fight for re-election, understands that his next few appearances heading into the holiday weekend must go well, particularly an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place” by the end of the weekend, said the ally, referring to Mr. Biden’s halting and unfocused performance in the debate. The person, who talked to the president in the past 24 hours, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
...
Campaign officials were nervously awaiting the results of a new poll on Wednesday, recognizing that bad numbers could fuel the crisis. A CBS News poll released Wednesday morning showed former President Donald J. Trump edging ahead of Mr. Biden since the debate with 50 percent to 48 percent nationally and 51 percent to 48 percent in battleground states.
So there is a poll in addition to the CBS that they're awaiting? That is how I would read that.
Tuesday, July 02, 2024
Very Strange
Trump has not campaigned since the Friday after the debate either, has no campaign rallies on his schedule this week, and never announced his veep selection, which it was thought he would announce the day of the debate.
The Zogby Representative Democracy Proposal
A longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, James Zogby, is urging the party to establish a process to replace President Biden this summer.
Zogby, formerly part of the party’s executive committee, made the suggestion in a memo to Jaime Harrison, the D.N.C. chair.
…
The process Mr. Zogby outlines in the memo, however, starts with an unlikely prospect:
Something very close to that.
Zogby, formerly part of the party’s executive committee, made the suggestion in a memo to Jaime Harrison, the D.N.C. chair.
…
The process Mr. Zogby outlines in the memo, however, starts with an unlikely prospect:
1) Mr. Biden announcing that he would drop out of the race.
2) Biden instruct the party not to simply designate Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee, but instead
3) meet after the Fourth of July to “lay out a one-month campaign schedule to select the party’s nominee.”
4) Potential candidates would then need to secure the endorsements of 40 current D.N.C. members, including four from each of the party’s four regions. “Given the relatively small number of D.N.C. members,” he wrote, “such a process will most likely result in not more than five potential nominees.”
4) Potential candidates would then need to secure the endorsements of 40 current D.N.C. members, including four from each of the party’s four regions. “Given the relatively small number of D.N.C. members,” he wrote, “such a process will most likely result in not more than five potential nominees.”
5) The party would then host two televised events for the candidates to “make their cases before Democratic voters across the country.”
I could go for this with some small but significant, to me, tweaks.
i. Not DNC members, that’s smoke-filled room. The president would release all 3,894 of the delegates he won in the direct democracy elections in the primaries.
ii. Biden doesn’t say anything for or against Vice President Harris. If she wants to run for the renomination, and I am sure that she will, she should be permitted to.
iii. The campaign would be for a month, candidate to delegate and the top five delegate vote getters would then participate in debates before registered Democratic voters nationwide.
iv. The voters would then vote electronically for the delegates representing their candidate and the delegates would be bound to vote for that candidate on the floor of the Convention in Chicago, as they are bound now.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA):
“About 50 million Americans tuned in and watched that debate,” she told KATU News, appearing crestfallen throughout the interview. “I was one of them for five very painful minutes.”
After carefully considering her response to a question about whether the president should step aside, Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez said: “The truth, I think, is that Biden will lose to Trump. I know it’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done.”
She added that Democratic primary voters had already chosen Mr. Biden and that “a core tenet of democracy is that you accept the results of an election.”
“Biden is the nominee,” she said.
President Biden blames overseas travel for disastrous debate: 'I nearly fell asleep on stage'
Oh course that’s going to be the lede. I’m not faulting McPaper, he said it. But it was received by his audience as a joke and appears to have been a deliberate exaggeration to get a laugh. It does seem an “excuse” to blame the debate on his travel, but most readers have traveled overseas, even across time zones in the States. You DO get jet-lagged, it is disorienting, your schedule is thrown off, a week to adjust is not unheard of, and the 81-year old president flew to Europe twice in “those 23 days”, came back to the U.S. to the immense grief and stress of his only surviving son’s conviction. and then flew across the U.S., and then had a full week of intense debate prep.
He made light of his performance, which is healthy and wise, he absolved his aides of blame, ditto, and he apologized sincerely and winningly.
He needs to do this in public with voters and frequently. That is what he has not done.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday blamed jet lag from his recent travels overseas for his disastrous debate performance last last week, even though he returned to the United States 12 days before taking the stage with former President Donald Trump.
Biden, facing immense pressure from Democrats following his poor debate showing, made the excuse while addressing donors at a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia outside Washington.
"I didn't have my best night," Biden told supporters. "I wasn't very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times, going through I don't how many times zones.
"I didn't listen to my staff. And then I came back and I nearly fell asleep on stage," Biden said, prompting laughs from some of the donors. “It’s not an excuse but an explanation."
Biden then apologized to supporters, saying he was sorry for his June 27 debate performance, but stressed it was “critical” to win the election against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Biden's remarks could invite even more scrutiny over whether the 81-year-old president is up to the rigorous traveling, packed schedules and other demands of a second term in the White House.
Leading up to the debate, Biden spent six days at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland preparing with White House aides. He arrived there on the night of June 20 and left the morning of June 27 for Atlanta, the site of the debate.
Biden was in Italy from June 12 to 14 to attend the Group of Seven nations summit, returned back to the U.S. early in the morning June 15, and immediately took Air Force One to Los Angeles to attend a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser. Biden returned to the White House on June 16, made a quick stop at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home on June 18, and then went on to Camp David.
Biden was in France from June 5 to 9 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of D-day with allies and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Florida Silver Alert
The Florida Silver Alert is used to locate missing persons suffering from an irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties.
Criteria
- The person must be 60 years and older; ✅
- Must have an irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties
(e.g. Alzheimer's disease or dementia)✅
JOE CALL HOME!
POLITICO reached out to more than 100 Democratic Senate and House offices...on Tuesday...The vast majority did not respond to questions about when their members last interacted with the president and whether they’ve found him accessible.
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...none indicated direct outreach...from the president in the wake of the debate.
Some pointed to conversations with chief of staff Jeff Zients and White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, but not Biden himself. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday the president...planned to reach out to Hill leaders this week...
It’s an indication that efforts to tamp down the private worries among elected lawmakers about Biden’s capacity to remain president for a second four-year term are still in their infancy.
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...even top leaders and Biden allies hadn’t heard directly from the president in recent days.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a Biden campaign co-chair who played a key role in securing the nomination for the president in 2020, said he had yet to hear from the incumbent following the debate — but indicated he had a call slated for later Tuesday.
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Notably, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — usually a staunch defender of Biden — said Tuesday she had not heard from him since the debate...
...relative radio silence toward Capitol Hill...
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...roughly a half-dozen House Democratic aides, granted anonymity to speak candidly, acknowledged that while their bosses might hobnob with Biden at events, most of the day-to-day interaction with the White House is happening at the staff level.
The Antidemocratic Uprising Against Joe Biden
Millions vote for a candidate, propelling him to victory. Before the voters’ decision is formally certified, people who don’t like the outcome demand that the election results be thrown out and a different candidate selected in a closed process. That was America on January 6, 2021. And now, some in the Democratic Party want to follow a similar script.
The Democratic Party held 57 primaries and caucuses; voters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories had their say, as did Democrats abroad. Joe Biden won 87% of the vote.
Yes, the case for change not met. Even if Biden suffered some incapacitating condition after all of those millions of votes had been cast, say, in“those 23 days” in June, then the proponents of change have met that element of the case for change and the nullification of those votes. But it is still required of them that they propose a feasible democratic process, a re-vote in a national primary for instance, to choose an alternative to the democratic winner of the Democratic Party primaries. I asked a virulent ABJ friend about this. He misunderstood the question at first:
What is the democratic mechanism to replace Biden?
There isn’t
People need to get him to walk away
If leaders and everyone had said drop out he might have
No: let’s say he drops out, how does his replacement get chosen?
Smoke filled room I guess
That is what would happen under current rules! The president would have to step down, then release all of his delegates to the Democratic National Convention, turning the convention venue into one humongous smoke-filled room where all sorts of antidemocratic horse-trading and deal-cutting and promise-making would take place. That is a non-starter for me.
Right! Negating all primary votes.
My friend sees the end justifying the means.
I’m ok right now with that
Process be damned
Trump is so dangerous and even more so with immunity I don’t care how sausages are made
And he may be right! In this unique situation, when Democracy in America truly is on the ballot, then the end is justified by all means (short of assassination). But my friend is convinced that Anybody But Joe will beat Trump democratically. ON NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER! To justify a thoroughly antidemocratic nullification of millions of votes in this emergency, I would have to be convinced that there is a product of the smoke-filled room who would beat Trump. AND THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS SUCH A WHITE KNIGHT!
Biden’s Lapses Are Increasingly Common, According to Some of Those in the Room
People who have spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced and, after Thursday’s debate, more worrisome.
In the weeks and months before President Biden’s politically devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta, several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations.
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The recent moments of disorientation generated concern among advisers and allies alike. He seemed confused at points during a D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June 6. The next day, he misstated the purpose of a new tranche of military aid to Ukraine when meeting with its president.
On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. On June 18, his soft-spoken tone and brief struggle to summon the name of his homeland security secretary at an immigration event unnerved some of his allies at the event, who traded alarmed looks and later described themselves as “shaken up,” as one put it. Mr. Biden recovered, and named Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
He is certainly not that way all the time. In the days since the debate debacle, aides and others who encountered him, including foreign officials, described him as being in good shape — alert, coherent and capable, engaged in complicated and important discussions and managing volatile crises. They cited example after example in cases where critical national security issues were on the line.
Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East. “Let me be crystal clear,” Mr. Biden said. “If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.”
Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks. “You do this,” Mr. Biden said forcefully, “and I’m out.” Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.
This account is based on interviews with current and former White House aides, political advisers, administration officials, foreign diplomats, domestic allies and financial donors who saw Mr. Biden in the last few weeks, sometimes just briefly, sometimes for more extended periods. …
…Kevin C. O’Connor, the White House physician, said as recently as February that despite minor ailments like sleep apnea and peripheral neuropathy in his feet, the president was “fit for duty.” He said tests had turned up “no findings which would be consistent with” Parkinson’s disease. The White House has declined to make Dr. O’Connor available for questions and did not respond to detailed health questions from The New York Times earlier this year.
When JFK ran and there were whispers of Addison’s Disease RFK, his campaign manager, put out “a cleverly worded statement,” that “Sen. Kennedy does not now nor has he ever had an ailment described classically as Addison’s disease, which is a tuberculose [sic] destruction of the adrenal gland”. JFK had Addison’s. Dr. O’Connor’s statement on President Biden and Parkinson’s is similarly “clever”: “consistent with.” Does Biden have Parkinson’s or doesn’t he?
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…by many accounts, as evidenced by video footage, observation and interviews, Mr. Biden is not the same today as he was even when he took office 3½ years ago. The White House regularly releases corrected transcripts of his remarks, in which he frequently mixes up places, people or dates. The administration did so in the days after the debate, when Mr. Biden mixed up the countries of France and Italy when talking about war veterans at an East Hampton fund-raiser.
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The picture that emerges from recent interviews about Mr. Biden is one of a president under stress — hardly unusual — as he tried to juggle nervous international partners, a recalcitrant ally whose continued war against Hamas was creating yet another threat to a second term and a family crisis with his own son, who was convicted of criminal charges that could send him to prison.
I predicted that the president would withdraw when Hunter was convicted, which I also predicted.
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…those 23 days before Mr. Biden met Mr. Trump on the television stage in Atlanta may be viewed by historians as the most critical three weeks in a consequential presidency, as the president faced an opponent he not only loathed, but viewed as an existential threat to American democracy. Were the wandering, inconclusive thoughts broadcast live to more than 50 million viewers just a bad night, a product of the exhausting month, or something larger? Had he not been crisscrossing the globe so frequently — including leaving Italy for a trip spanning nine time zones to a fund-raiser in Los Angeles — would it have made a difference?
I am struck by the Quasis focus on "those 23 days", "the most critical three weeks" of his presidency. Did something happen? The Times does shit like that. It makes hardly veiled allusions to something that it knows but that we do not.
Mr. Biden’s trips to Europe were marked by moments of sharpness in important meetings — including a complex session on diverting income from Russian assets to aid Ukraine — mixed with occasional blank-stared confusion, according to people who met with him. At some points, he seemed perfectly on top of his game, at others a little lost.
The Quasis know what they are doing here, and above with "He is certainly not that way all the time." They well know that deterioration, physical or mental, seldom happens all at once, it's a gradual stiffness is the joints, when physical, with age, not an abrupt running-a-marathon-and-then-not-able-to-walk-the-next-day; that perhaps especially with cognitive decline it's not being able to recite War and Peace from memory and then not remembering your own name the next day. There are these glimpses of deterioration, these signs, sometimes so subtle that unless they are repeated they are not noticed. That is to say that "moments of sharpness" and then "occasional blank-stared confusion" in the same meeting are diagnostic of mental decline.
If the president has Parkinson's Disease, if he has been diagnosed with any specific condition that explains these mixed states the public has a right to know. But, and I think that this is more important than a specific diagnosis unless that is for an irreversible, continuous, serious decline, then a characterization of the president as merely an "elderly man" is not helpful. In that case, what the president must do is be out frequently with voters giving speeches and holding rallies. He cannot present like he did Thursday night and then present as he did Friday in North Carolina and quell "panic." In fact, those "Two Joe Bidens" are "consistent with" "something larger".
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...much like during the State of the Union address earlier in the year, he often rises to big occasions and once he gets the rhythm of a speech, adrenaline appears to kick in.
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After several days in France, Mr. Biden flew home briefly and dealt with the family crisis of his son’s conviction. He hosted an early concert marking the Juneteenth holiday where he was spotted standing stiffly during a musical performance. One person who sat close to the president said that he had a “dazed and confused” expression during much of the event. This person said Mr. Biden had shown a “sharp decline” since a meeting only weeks earlier.
Reinforces my supposition that it's Hunter.
After just a couple days at home, Mr. Biden turned around and flew back to Europe, this time to Italy for a summit of the Group of 7 leaders. Throughout the meetings, the pattern was the same, according to senior officials who attended.
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A senior European official who was present said that there had been a noticeable decline in Mr. Biden’s physical state since the previous fall and that the Europeans had been “shocked” by what they saw. The president at times appeared “out of it,” the official said, and it was difficult to engage him in conversation while he was walking.
Ms. [Italian prime minister, Giorgia] Meloni and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to Mr. Biden’s physical condition, discussing it privately among themselves, and they tried to avoid embarrassing him by slowing their own pace while walking with the president. When they worried that he did not seem poised and cameras were around, they closed ranks around him physically to shield him while he collected himself, the official said.
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Asked if one could imagine putting Mr. Biden into the same room with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia today, a former U.S. official who had helped prepare for the trip went silent for a while, then said, “I just don’t know.” A former senior European official answered the same question by saying flatly, “No.”
Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April. Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.
Note, this example given by WH officials occurred in APRIL, NOT during "those 23 days" in June.
After it was over, and almost all of the missiles and drones had been shot down, Mr. Biden called Mr. Netanyahu to persuade him not to escalate. “Take the win,” Mr. Biden told the prime minister, without reading from a script or extensive notes, according to two people in the room. In the end, Mr. Netanyahu opted for a much smaller and proportionate response...
Mr. Biden left Italy to fly directly to Los Angeles for a star-studded fund-raiser with Hollywood celebrities and former President Barack Obama...
But Mr. Biden appeared tired during a 40-minute discussion onstage at the event, seated between Jimmy Kimmel and Mr. Obama. A few times, the president stumbled over his words, and when the other men were speaking, Mr. Biden often stared into space, his mouth slightly open, like he would later do at the debate.
Two days after finally returning to the White House, Mr. Biden invited members of Congress, former administration officials and leading immigration experts to the White House to celebrate action taken under Mr. Obama to spare young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, from deportation.
Two people with a clear view of Mr. Biden said his quiet, soft-spoken mumbling and occasional fumbling over the right words despite reading from a teleprompter left some in attendance concerned over his condition. He momentarily appeared unable to say the name of Mr. Mayorkas, his homeland security secretary, before recovering, leaving some in the audience jarred.
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...some attendees shared their concerns about Mr. Biden’s condition with each other. “People were not feeling great,” one person said. Another person hoped it was just a “one-off” bad moment before Mr. Biden’s forthcoming debate.
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“He gave a strong speech, he didn’t stumble or mumble or look confused in any way,” said Judith Hope, the former chair of the New York State Democratic Party, who attended a fund-raiser in East Hampton on Saturday. “He was his old Uncle Joe self.”
“Are you aware of where he has been in the past seven days?” she said, raising her voice. “He continues to keep up a schedule that I could never dream of doing, that would totally defeat a younger person,” she added. “I think we need to examine our expectations.”