Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Expectations Game

 The anti-Biden framing of most news has been covered in a lot of quarters, but the idea that Biden "only" won South Carolina with 96.2% and Trump - as the de facto incumbent - won 59.8% represents Biden's weakness...I dunno man.

Anyway, Michigan is having its primary and there is a movement afoot to have people upset with Biden's handling of the Israeli-Hamas war vote "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary. In 2020, about 1% voted "uncommitted" in Michigan, despite the race not being over at that point. In 2016, it was closer to 2%.

So if I were measuring the impact of the "uncommitted" movement, I think I'm looking at 10%. If it exceeds that, then that's a meaningful measurement. I think you also have to look at where those uncommitted votes come from. If it's concentrated in Dearborn, that tells you one thing. If large swaths of Detroit vote uncommitted, then Biden has to take serious stock of his Israel policy.

Josh Marshall lays out a nice menu of things that Biden really should be doing. I would guess that the White House is having some very contentious discussions with Netanyahu. They should go public with those. Another thing Marshall suggests is removing the UN shield that the US has thrown around Israel since 1948. Let some form of censure happen - you don't even have to vote for it. The big suggestion is to basically create a Rafah Airlift to bring aid to the communities there. 

However, there remains the possibility that pro-Palestinian politics is not as prevalent as being terminally online would suggest it is. The Michigan primary will give us a read on whether that it true.

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