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

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Wow, OK

 I think I just want to cut and paste Josh Marshall's post, because - as usual - he hits everything I feel: 

I will just add a personal note here: This breaks my heart, even as I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the right and really only path now possible for the country, for the Democratic Party and for Biden’s legacy. Joe Biden has been an extraordinary President under the most difficult of circumstances, managing to pass multiple pieces of historic legislation with what amounts to a tie Congress. There are comparable accomplishments abroad which I don’t have time in this brief note to enumerate. I also believe Biden’s a deeply good man. And I don’t think the two verdicts are unrelated. Terrible that his political career ends with this dismal, horrible three and a half weeks. But there’s time to see the larger arc of the story which remains a powerful one and a consistent one, and one that will need to be crafted and captured to find a campaign victory in November.

I don't know what comes next. Ideally they have a plan to circle the wagons around Harris over the next 48 hours, even as Trump goes full racist/sexist asshole on her. I don't want a Thunderdome convention. People on social media are already sharpening their knives over what they see as the betrayal of Biden and the bullying by a media intent on forcing novelty and narratives on us. 

But Joe is indeed really old and is showing it. So it Trump. 

Will the media begin to turn their attention to Trump's age and manifest unfitness? Or will they engage in character attacks on Harris - or someone else in the unlikely event that it doesn't go to her? Anyone counting on the media doing a credible job of holding Trump accountable must have been asleep the last 8 years.

I'm a big man, a burly guy, with tears in my eyes, thanking Joe Biden for the job he has done and the legacy he leaves behind.

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