Everlasting GOPstopper
Before Joe Biden’s nervously anticipated press conference, I argued that he should enter the roomful of reporters the way Gene Wilder entered his Willy Wonka movie. That may have been the only way he could have stemmed the tide of calls for him to exit the race. Biden’s answers were good and he showed a breadth of foreign policy expertise in one discussion that Trump hasn’t shown in his entire time in public life. And maybe his delivery and occasional slips shouldn’t have mattered at all. But we are where we are, so when Biden referred to Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump, it was a very typical Biden gaffe at a remarkably atypical moment. One of the sad ironies of the day is that we were focused on the performative aspects of Biden’s comments at the same moment he was closing a successful NATO Summit and Trump was welcoming Putin lapdog Viktor Orbán to Mar-a-Lago. “Orbán posted on social media that he and Trump had ‘discussed ways to make peace,’ adding: ‘He’s going to solve it.'” The Dems better solve their issues before he has the chance.
+ While much of the post presser buzz was positive, many felt the way David Frum described things in The Atlantic (Gift Article): “Art restorers use the term photodegradation to describe the process by which a painting fades. The colors remain present; they just become less vivid. That’s the Joe Biden story.” That’s the everyone story. Like I’ve said: Joe Biden reminds us of our mortality. Donald Trump reminds us of America’s.
+ Maybe it’s a testament to the power of the attention economy, but the polls (at least the public ones) aren’t that bad for Biden. The 538 simulation gives him a slight edge while the individual polls seem to show a toss up. Maybe the numbers being crunched behind the scenes are more dire because the Biden defections continue. There’s no one in politics I respect more than Jim Himes, so when he says Biden should step aside, it’s worth listening.
+ If Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama held a joint press conference saying Biden is the right path forward, this stressful struggle would likely come to an end. But they haven’t done that. CNN with an interesting look at the behind the scenes discussions. Obama, Pelosi privately expressed concerns over Biden. And, as always when it comes to politics, follow the money. In this case, the big funding for Biden is being witheld and a big amount of that withholding is due to Hollywood losing faith. NYT: How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood.
+ And finally, a headline that sums up how we’ve turned politics into a televised sporting event almost totally separate from the actual stakes. The NYT does the honors: Unscripted and Unbowed, Biden Seeks to Overcome Missteps With Policy Talk. Nothing upsets modern media more than “policy talk.”
