Category: 2024 Election

By on

I know some people who think that Biden bowing out of the election is a bad thing. I think it is genius.

First, and most importantly, what party is now stuck with an aging candidate who often borders on the incoherent. Biden was bad in the debate, but if incoherence is a problem, and I do, then Trump managed to look against Biden because he was marginally more coherent.

Now that Biden is out of the race, all eyes will turn to Trump, and he is a handful. He says whatever the hell he wants to which is what his supporters like about it. It also carries a risk. Often Trump is notoriously undisciplined. He says whatever is on his mind, unfortunately for Trump, this is often ill thought out and incoherent.

So what do you do if you have a troublesome candidate. Well, the Democrats just showed you. Party leaders have to come in, deliver the bad news to the candidate and change course. Contrary to some of the commentary out there, particularly the Republicans — this is a good thing. It is to Biden’s credit that he understood what these leaders were saying and acted on it. No doubt it was an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. But it was done and, for the most part, done well. Biden understood the message and acted on it. There was something more important than Biden running and that was Democrats winning.

Trump, on the other hand, won’t listen to anyone. He routinely ignores advice from his lawyers and his fellow Republicans. Trump has travelled unbelievably far on his brash personality but this very brashness has also created a lot of the problems for him. Sometime it is best just best to keep your mouth shut. Trump can’t do this even if it is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This reveals Trump’s greatest weakness. He thinks he is smarter than everyone else in the room and if someone’s advice doesn’t match up to what he wants to do, he does what he wants to do. So therefore there is no influence on him other than yes men. Quite a bit of Trump’s time is spent cleaning up his own messes.

This was fine when Trump was matched with Biden. Now Trump has a new opposition candidate who will be a younger and more energetic candidate. Presumably, Kamala Harris, but most anyone will do. She will not be having senior moments. She will also be better at listening to advice from senior Democratic advisors which already gives her a leg up on Trump who doesn’t. A 78 year old man isn’t likely to change anytime soon

I don’t think this means Harris is going to handily defeat Trump. It is still a close election. The good news is that the Republicans are more locked into their candidate than the Democrats. The dynamic of the election has changed significantly with Harris and Trump is still pretty tied up in his present behavior.

By on

Elon Musk announced his intentions to give $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super Pac. If he is true to his word, he will, at least, contribute $180 million to the Trump campaign before the election.

Think about it. He has an extra $180 million free dollars to contribute to an election campaign. This is a fairly large sum of money in anyone’s books. Unlike most people, his donation will not be missed in the least bit. He has billions so it doesn’t matter to him if he loses $180 million dollars.

If Trump wins, there is no way that Trump could pay off Musk other than through favors. Even the best person would have difficultly saying no to a man who gave you $180 million and Trump is far from being the best person. To be fair to Trump, in his crooked understanding of wealth, he probably thinks there is nothing wrong with billionaires draining the public trough any way but this makes it ridiculously easy for him to say yes.

More importantly, if Musk has this amount of money, why not divide it among his own employees instead of investing in a political campaign. $180 million divided among the employees of Tesla and Instagram would bring real benefits to his own employees, encourage other rich people to do the same and it spreads the wealth around a bit to people who can then make campaign contributions of their own.

Musk is free to use this money in any way he wanted yet he choose to use this money to support a political action committee. With all his billions, he would rather gamble with a political candidate that may lose than giving more money to his own employees. Spreading the wealth this way would also give some political power to his employees. Now, because he is such a generous leader, these employees might follow his lead and contribute to the pro-Trump Pac or they may choose to give to the Democrats but it wouldn’t be one man using this money to gain more political leverage.

But Musk would much rather spin the wheel with Trump. To get what exactly? More billions? This disproves this oft repeated notion that billionaires will do the right thing with their money if only left alone. Musk would much rather keep the money which also keeps the political power this money can provide strictly within his hands.

If the government took only half of the $180 million, Musk would still have $90 million to contribute to Trump. Wouldn’t it be good for Musk to help pay off the national debt the Republicans are so worried about and it wouldn’t be a bit of a problem for Musk because he wasn’t planning to put the money back into his business and creating in the first place. Win Win, I say.

By on

The thing that frightens me most since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance is the number of Democrats who think Joe Biden is the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.

I like Joe Biden, I do. But he isn’t a particularly strong candidate. He has ran for President numerous times and never got past the early primaries. Barrack Obama rescued him from obscurity when he made Biden his Vice-Presidential candidate which left him the highest ranking Democrat eligible for the presidency after Hillary Clinton, another sure thing, by the way, lost. He is old and a visibly frailer man than he was in 2020 which shouldn’t be a particularly surprising circumstance for 81 year old man.

So Biden, this not particularly strong candidate, is the best that the Democrats got to run against the demented Donald Trump. Trump who has serious problems putting together a coherent sentence, who has no real agenda other than his own personal grievances and lining his pocket, who has a history of questionable business practices, a man who can say something one moment and deny that he ever said in the next breath, a man who is publicly on the grift to oil company executives, a man who has little grasp on the complex problems facing this country, a man that many members of his own party can’t bring themselves to vote for, this is the man so powerful that only Joe Biden can beat?

If Joe Biden is the only solution to the Donald Trump problem then the Democrats have a much bigger problem than a fragile Joe Biden. They had four years to line up suitable opponents for Trump and yet they decided to prop up an old man and hope for the best. This reveals a party with a lack of confidence in itself and unprepared for the future. Seriously, if the Democrats can’t beat an idiot like Donald Trump with any number of alternate candidates than politics might not be the best profession for them to be in.

By on

The only question I care about right now is can Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. If he can, I don’t care what physical and mental shape Joe Biden is in. You can also see the problem with this position. If Joe Biden is unable to put all his energies into campaigning for the presidency, how is he going to beat Donald Trump?

A candidate for office is required to give speeches, debate, travel the country, shake hands and kiss babies. This involves a lot of mental and physical energy. Can Biden muster the energy for the long days on the campaign trail necessary to win what will be a close race for the presidency? If he can’t, he must go.

People argue that his debate performance was just one bad night. It isn’t fair to dump a man based on one night. I am afraid it is. A candidate can have a mediocre night and carry on but a terrible night is unforgivable. This is what distinguishes a championship performance from just regular guy performance. A champion will have an off night and still fight through it to look OK and maybe even win the night. Biden had a terrible night.

What about all the lies Trump told. His performance wasn’t much better than Biden’s So what? It isn’t the first time Trump lied and it won’t be the last. Biden should have vigorously attacked those lies. Blaming the moderators for not fact checking Trump is a little lame when Biden, who is actually running for office and has a chance to challenge the lies, fails to do so. Indeed, that is the whole reason Biden was on the stage — to challenge Trump. Why didn’t he?

Then, there are those who say Biden is the only one who can beat Trump. Huh? Are people looking at the same poll numbers I am looking at. And look, if Biden were ahead in the polls, and was going to win reelection, I would vote for Biden if he was in a coma. But that isn’t the case. He is in a close election and, right now he is running behind. The fact is he is getting further behind with each passing day. How exactly is Biden going to change that dynamic?

There needs to be a reality check here on the President. He has served well and I like the man. But he is going into a job interview and he needs to show his best self on a fairly regular basis. A mediocre day can be forgiven, a bad day can not.

Unfortunately for Biden, staying in the race is only going to make his situation worse. The Republicans and the Media will scrutinize his every word, his every stumble, and will keep asking can Biden run the country. His every performance will be studied for gaffs and his message, and more importantly the Democratic Party’s message, will be lost.

If this is truly an important election then the Democrats need to step up and show they are interested in winning. Sticking with a man who is behind in the polls, performing terribly on the stump and has to be in bed by 8PM does not bode well for beating Trump. Then, what choice do the Democrats have than to dump Joe Biden?

By on

People are scratching their heads wondering why more Blacks, one of the most, if not the most dependable Democratic voters, are saying they are going to vote for Trump. It is so frustrating to see the bewilderment, shrugged shoulders and the inability to explain what is going on here.

What is more disturbing is that people in the Democratic Party don’t seem to believe that there is anything wrong. The experts just remark how none of this makes sense for Blacks to voting against their own self interest and that Biden will retain the Black vote in November. Well, maybe, but it would be nice to see a more energetic effort to determine if this is true and, if it is true, what they are going to do about it.

Polls may be wrong. They also may be right and this is the canary in the coal mine. The question is Is anyone listening?

By on

More polls are coming out on the 2024 presidential election and pundits everywhere are trying to explain what they mean. This might be a useful exercise if the polls weren’t so damn depressing. But they are depressing. No matter what polls come out, it points to a close election with Biden behind in all the states that need to be won for a Biden victory. It doesn’t really matter why at this point. What matters is can Biden change this in time to win the election. I see no evidence of this.

Nate Silver was looking at the polls and had some interesting thoughts about what to do. The Democrats seem committed to a strategy that insures a close election particularly in regards to the Electoral College. Silver sees the most likely scenario for a Biden win is Biden with 270 Electoral Votes(the minimum number needed to win) and Trump with 268. This result has numerous potential for election stealing complaints with all of the contingent problems those complaints would bring. The better question is there an option?

Obviously, a different candidate might help. But isn’t this a roll of the dice when Biden, at least, has a chance of winning? It is. This, however, misses the point. As Silver noted the Democrats are already rolling the dice with Biden. He isn’t a sure thing and numerous things could get worse with a Biden candidacy and very little can get better. If the Democrats are going to roll the dice, why not roll it on a different candidate that could shake things up for Trump because Biden, at least as of this date, isn’t.

By on

New polls are showing Trump still leading Biden in a close race. Democrats are saying not worry though because Biden leads with likely voters as opposed to registered voters. I guess I shouldn’t worry then, right? Because these experts are never wrong, right? Well, if you ignore President Al Gore and President Hillary Clinton. Somehow I don’t find this comforting because, and I am just speculating here, what if some of those registered voters turn into actual voters. It could happen. Registered voters could actually turn out and vote.

The lack of energy on the Democratic side is disheartening. It is like the election is all wrapped up. They are confident that Trump will do something that will ruin his chances and everything will be just fine. They mean, of course, something like a videotape of Trump talking about grabbing unwilling women by the pussy. Yes that should work, absolutely. Nobody could vote for him after saying something like that. Waiting for Trump to make a mistake or to get convicted of a felony is a terrible strategy. It puts Trump in the driver seat. He has been successfully milking his grievances to get his way for years. I don’t understand it and I don’t like it but it is nonetheless true.

Even more disheartening is Biden doesn’t seem up to the vigorous campaign required for someone is such a tight election. He has disappeared. I challenge you to go to any news web site and check the number of times the name Trump is mentioned with the name Biden. It isn’t even close. Trump is always in the public eye. Yes, a lot of it is bad press but it is press and a lot of people either don’t understand the arguments against Trump or don’t care. We are, after all, talking about low information voters. Either way, the name Trump is on everyone’s lips — friend or foe, Biden not so much.

Surprisingly for a man who needs to change people’s minds about his age, Biden is doing remarkably little to do it. Protecting Biden from public view is a terrible idea. Better that he is bumbling around in front of a camera than hidden away in the White House. Could he do any worse than falling asleep at a trial which hasn’t seemed to hurt Trump in the least. Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. They are both old men. Right now Trump appears to be the more energetic of the two. If there are people who care about this, and, by that, I mean low information voters, then Biden needs to meet the challenge. Isn’t it better to get him out there in order to test the old fellow to see how he does? If he is up to then I am fine with sticking with him. If he isn’t, I would rather discover this now than in August after the Democratic Convention when the die is cast.

But telling me not to worry and trust that the Democratic big wigs know what they are talking about and this is in the bag is madness. True bat shit craziness. Before I can trust you with your speculations, you need to show you can turn things around. Biden’s continuing stagnant poll numbers misses the mark by a mile.

I am worried.

By on

I try to ignore the Trump family as much as humanly possible but they just are too difficult to ignore. They are always out there doing something, saying things and making people crazy. Sometimes you just have to break down and comment on what they are doing, knowing full well that they love every moment of attention they are getting. Good or bad, attention is attention and, for some reason, the Trump family love getting it and I apologize now for giving it to them. Forgive me but I must comment about something Trumpish.

The Trump men love to appraise women’s looks and then give their usually unflattering appraisal particularly if the woman is a political opponent (see Donald Trumps thoughts on Rosie O’Donnell and Carly Fiorina if you need some examples). Trump’s namesake Donald jr. got into the act recently with his unkind comparison of Michelle Obama to a football linebacker.

Oddly, he comments that this is a joke which was a lame way of trying to protect himself from criticism that he knew would be heading his way. He was joking. Ha ha. Right. Got it. Though I have to wonder would if his wife or sister would think it was funny to be compared to a linebacker? If he is just being funny that is. I am sure they would get the joke, right? They know his sense of humor best after all.

It’s the type of joke you would expect from a 12 year old boy trying to impress his friends by making fun of the smartest girl in the class. It is mean-spirited joke. The interesting thing for me, is that it was more important for Donald jr. to amuse his juvenile friends than to be a decent human being. He relishes in the hurtful nature of the joke.

You would think that the son of man who is running for president would understand this and not post this type of joke on social media. Of course, he is free to post whatever he damn well pleases, that he can’t discern what is appropriate and inappropriate is the problem. In Donald jr.’s mind, it is perfectly OK to publicly demean a woman’s looks.

That neither Trump seems worried about that is concerning.

By on

The two parties seem intent on nominating incredibly unpopular people as their candidates for president. For the Trump Republicans, this is at least understandable. They want revenge and there is some passion there to get it. The Democrats, on the other hand, just can’t be bothered to come up with someone better than Biden. It’s too dangerous. Let’s stick with a known winner. Don’t rock the boat, everything is fine. Shut up and get in line seems to be the campaign slogan.

It’s not even that I dislike Biden. I don’t. I just don’t think he is the leader for this particular moment and, to say, we don’t have anything better is depressing. In this whole vast country of 330 million plus people, we can’t come up with an alternate to Joe Biden? If this is true, then the Democrats are in deep trouble. If all you got is Joe Biden, then well, the future is rather bleak.

And, I really hate to have to say this, because it should be obvious but, for some reason, no one seems to care, Biden is polling badly against Trump. Let’s think about this for a moment. Between two very unpopular candidates, Biden is getting out polled by Donald Trump. Millions of people, forced with a terrible choice between two candidates they don’t like, are choosing Trump. Trump the insurrectionist, the serial liar, the hawker of tennis shoes, the butt of comedians jokes for all the stupid things he says, this man is out polling Joe Biden.

If Biden was polling better against Trump, I would say right Joe is the answer. But he isn’t. Then I think, who am I to argue with the experts who gave us President Hillary Clinton. They have a proven record of success, maybe they are seeing something that I just can’t see. I should just relax, leave it to the experts. They know what they are doing. Right?

By on

Ron DeSantis is running for president. There are a lot of reasons he isn’t going to get my vote, but being short isn’t one of them. The press is having a field day about him wearing lifts in his shoes. I really don’t care one bit about this. The media, however, want to know. This is a ridiculous waste of space. It doesn’t matter. If he is lying about it or telling the truth, it is irrelevant to his campaign and a pointless distraction. So we are going to have reporters chasing down information about how tall DeSantis is? Why? More importantly, why is the media stirring up this particular pot when there are numerous other pots which are significantly more important. Any way, great, carry on, let’s find out how tall Ron DeSantis really is.