So, I guess Joe Biden is our candidate.
If President Biden were going to drop out of the race and free up his delegates, the perfect time would have been on Sunday, after the family gathering at the Presidential retreat in Maryland. Instead, he is back on the campaign trail. I mention the weekend family meeting because there are probably only two people in the world — Hunter and Jill Biden, perhaps Barack Obama — that could alter the President’s calculations regarding the 2024 election. But, according to reports, the family meeting at Camp David was not an intervention in any way, shape or form. “Biden’s family, including first lady Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden and their grandchildren, convened at Camp David for a previously scheduled get-together and implored the president to keep fighting in his bid for reelection, Biden advisers told CNN,” write MJ Lee and Jeff Zeleny. “One adviser described the family members as having offered their ‘unequivocal support.’” Swell and lovely.
But wait, it gets worse, dear reader. The Biden family is now blaming the debate prep team, according to the same story. “The family – clearly frustrated with the team that prepared President Biden ahead of his alarming debate with former President Donald Trump – discussed whether any of Biden’s top advisers should be fired and whether campaign staffing changes should be made, one adviser said.” But it wasn’t the debate prep team or cold medication or any some such excuse that was responsible for the President’s extraordinarily weak debate performance last week. The First Lady can protest to Vogue (of all places) about how much she will not let the debate be the defining moment of the campaign, but at present, with democracy at stake, it quite frankly is …
So, here we are. In this hour of exigency, with the American Experiment itself at stake, as the First Family clings to Power, despite the obvious limitations of its principal that were laid bare to all America and the world last week. Shakespeare, anyone? One wonders what anti-democratic geopolitical adversaries, like Putin and Xi, think about Biden after the debate. For how long has this been going on? The President has shied away from pressers, but no one expected to see the Biden we saw on Thursday. Veteran Journalist Carl Bernstein told Anderson Cooper on Monday night that his sources “are adamant that what we saw the other night, the Joe Biden we saw, was not a one-off.” Further, “that there have been 15, 20 occasions in the last year, year and a half, when the president has appeared somewhat as he did in that horror show that we witnessed.” Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is not even July 4th and we appear to be at the zenith of what will likely be a cruel, cruel summer.
Blame the inner circle of overly ambitious, underly small-d democratic courtiers, who failed to advise POTUS to step down or even obliquely leak to the press. I will try to contain my fury at these undemocratic Machiavels, who, by their silence, preserved their career prospects, no other way around it. Those who interacted on a daily basis with the President had to have some sort of a clue as to the extent of his — what does one even call it? — decline. How long did they think they could hide this, even as they were hiding the President from giving pressers and detailed interviews to journalists? "But inside the White House, Biden’s growing limitations were becoming apparent long before his meltdown in last week’s debate, with the senior team’s management of the president growing more strictly controlled as his term has gone on." Charmed, I’m sure.
We are, for better or worse, supposed to be the paragon of the openness of democracy to the Global South — a stark contrast against authoritarian regimes — and yet our own people do not have transparency regarding the mental quickness of our chief executive. If you listen closely, you can hear Putin’s speechwriters composing soaring overtures against democratic hypocrisy … “Look, they are just like us!”
But enough complaining as to what we cannot change. That serves no useful purpose, my dear reader. We must be bigger than the undertow of negative emotions that threaten to pull us from our purpose — bolstering our democracy against electing an autocrat-adjacent con man in November. It looks like President Biden is going to be the nominee, barring some unlikely sea change. The notion that Biden won't be the nominee at this point in time is wishful thinking. For one, there is, at this late date, no serious declared competitor. And — Second — were one to arise, he or she would be going up against an incumbent with thousands of pledged delegates and a Convention a month away (tick, tick, tick..). Those headwinds are not just formidable, they are practically unsurmountable when you factor in the diminishing sands in the hourglass (tick, tick, tick ..). Is this proposition even possible? From Leah Askarinam and Robert Yoon of AP:
“It has been tried, and it usually fails,” said Brookings’s Elaine) Kamarck, who is a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee.
“You would need a strong and persuasive alternative to Biden, and right now there isn’t one," she added.
Precisely. Of the two high-profile names most often mentioned — Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom — both are firmly in the Biden camp. So how are they supposed to oppose the President they wholly endorse? Further, these names, we cannot fail to note, are being bandied about by a commentariat that gets rewarded by online engagement for throwing provocative coals into the fire. I cannot help but think that the “game” — and it is, quite frankly, more than a little bit gamified — of journalists throwing out their favorite “What If..” scenarios is powered almost entirely by those cruel summer winds. Where is the actual strategy to wrest earned delegates from President Biden in the 125 days remaining until Election Day? On that matter, of course, the journos are cacophonous in their silence. Wistful summer chatter about Beshar or Shaprio or Warnock running against POTUS in a brokered Convention is naught else but St. Elmo's fire. Ignore those summer winds.
What is to be done?
Why doesn’t the President take this cruel, cruel summer to appear on as much free media as is possible? Such a strategy would begin to undo some of the damage the campaign suffered last week. If, as it appears to be the case as of this writing, President Biden is indeed running, his campaign is at a momentum deficit it needs to make up. The race was close before the debate, and now one side will take the lead in this week’s polls. Political expert and media commentator Norm Orenstein makes a perfectly sound and within-bounds suggestion on X, “Believe me, if Biden had called CBS and said ‘I will do a full hour 60 Minutes with Lesley Stahl,’ they would jump on it.” Jump?! The leadership at CBS would oscillate wildly at the prospect! And — better yet — it would dampen the fires erupting all over the Party. (NOTE: As I write the campaign just agreed to an extended interview with George Stephanopoulos on Friday)
BidenWorld needs to talk to Democrat electeds like Pelosi, Jeffries and the Governors. Democrat Governors, some of the campaign’s best on the ground surrogates, are in the dark. “The concern from some of the nation’s Democratic governors were aired on a call Monday organized by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, one of the sources said,” CNN’s Jake Tapper writes of the Governor’s-only phone call. “On the call, some of the governors expressed surprise that a few of them had not heard from Biden himself about his debate performance.” Again, the bloodless Establishmentarian inner circle garlanding the President are “protecting” him — and, once cannot fail to note, their own political futures —at the expense of democratic transparency. How is the electorate supposed to make an informed choice if one side suppresses information? On this point I would re-iterate: the more free media the better!
The debate is in the rear-view mirror now. No looking back. Only forwards, dear reader, no matter how tantalizing the temptation to rage-tweet. The choice — and this is not an exaggeration — is democracy versus some American dystopian version of autocracy of thumotic excess. The punditocracy — those nattering nabobs of negativism — have made their point well and clear that they value social media engagement over the grown-up politics of men and women. Since President Biden is not going to heed their calls to give up his earned delegates, then the choice is clear, though by no means ideal. Whether or not I would prefer a Harris-Beshear ticket is naught else but chatter. American democracy, which has given a future to immigrants like me, is more important than my “dream ticket.” This is not the time for fantasy leagues. The Latino and African-American men that will be killed by police officers immune from prosecution under Trump 2.0 do not have the luxury of a Fantasy Politics League.
Let us now focus. The weekend window of opportunity is lost, probably forever. We can allow ourselves a moment to mourn that loss. But unless something momentous happens in the next few days (hugely unlikely), we have one of two choices to make this coming November. Go with the current President, not as rhetorically precise as he was in 2020, but who is on the job at present with an accomplished progressive record. He will have good days and bad days, dear reader, but he is surrounded (largely) by capable public servants. Or go with the chaos Presidency of Trump, 2.0, which will overhaul the FBI into its own menacing image, telling police officers that “do what thou wilt” shall be the whole of the law. He will end the Department of Education, oppose same-sex marriage and gay couples adopting children all while slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy. That’s just a taste of what the convicted felon and sexual abuser has in mind.
And so, here we are. It’s a cruel, cruel summer indeed that we are now moving through. And our candidate, to be sure, is in his Winter. That having been said, do I need to remind you that he has thus far been doing a fine job as President. In fact, I would argue that he has been a better, far more progressive President than even his predecessor, the first African-American President of the United States. History will almost certainly remember Biden as such. Unless, of course, he loses to his competitor, who is also diminished by the ravages of Time, but, more to the point, also happens to be a sociopath. If President Biden loses to Trump, then he will probably not be remembered by historians of the future for much of anything at all. For Biden’s signature legislative accomplishments will be all but erased by Trump, as he already did so to his own predecessor, Obama. All of this, in closing, would be en route to Trump’s erasing any democratic guard rails remaining in his path to Absolute Power.
To me the choice is clear: mourn the debate, be angry at the advisors, but vote Biden-Harris. Please spread the word.
“Putin's 2024 objectives for his war against Ukraine are hardly a mystery. Described in his speeches on February 21 and 24, 2022, in the many of his speeches since that time including his March 2024 post-election victory speech, Putin aims to do everything possible to ensure that the world understands that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation. It goes without saying that Putin will want to keep western politicians cowed an in a state of ‘escalation terror’ by regular reference to nuclear weapons. Additionally, Putin, who wants to reassert what he describes as Russian civilisation in his part of the world. He has also has consistently portrayed Russia as the victim of a NATO plot and Ukrainian "Nazis". This is a narrative that he continues to employ. As Illia Ponomarenko describes it in his excellent new book, I Will Show You How It Was, these Putin speeches and accompanying misinformation has become a ‘hateful propagandistic stink wafting from the east.’ Russia continues its ground offensives along multiple axes of advance: Bakhmut; Avdiivka; Kupyansk; Novopavlivka; Robotyne; Belgorod-Kharkiv; and Kherson. It is also waging a nightly air, missile and drone campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure, defence industry and civilian targets, in addition to its tactical ground attack campaign utilising long-range glide bombs. All of this is reinforced with Russia’s strategic misinformation and diplomatic campaigns, as well as its European sabotage operations.” (Mick Ryan/Future Doctrina)
“The East Baltimore megachurch whose inadequate handling of child sexual abuse allegations was the focus of a recent Baltimore Banner series pledged Sunday to hire a nationally recognized, independent firm to investigate its response to those cases — and report the findings publicly. Pastor Robert Colban announced the plan from the pulpit, reading prepared remarks. He said the church, Greater Grace World Outreach, expects to select a firm in the next few weeks and anticipates the work could take up to six months. He added that church leaders will not speak about the investigation once the review is underway. ‘We commit to transparency, about the findings and about any work we need to do to ensure a safe environment for all our families in the future,’ he said. ‘We ask that you pray for us during this process. And especially for those who have been victims of sexual abuse, that this process would be helpful in their healing.’ The development came two days after dozens of people gathered to protest the church’s response to abuse allegations. Survivors, their relatives, friends and supporters stood silently for hours on Friday outside the church’s tall black gates holding signs with messages such as ‘Not in our city,’ ‘Silent no more’ and ‘Do you see us now?’” (Jessica Calefati, Julie Scharper and Justin Fenton/The Baltimore Banner)
“On an unusually hot Monday in April, around a dozen journalists gathered in the slightly lopsided brick building that houses the Bronx Documentary Center for a workshop on reporting safely during the 2024 election. The journalists, a mix of print, photo, and multimedia reporters, were seated at white foldout tables arranged in an incomplete square around the front of the room. On the walls around them was an exhibition of black-and-white photographs by the late Anja Niedringhaus, the AP photojournalist who was killed while reporting in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. In front of them stood Jeff Belzil, a former member of the Canadian military, dressed in a thin black hoodie with the sleeves rolled up, his arms covered in tattoos. ‘Who here has witnessed or experienced violence while covering protests?’ Belzil asked. Most of the attendees raised their hands. Belzil didn’t seem surprised.” (Feven Mevid/CJR)
“Over the last two weeks I have struggled to understand why President William Ruto has turned out to be a much worse politician than Candidate William Ruto. For someone who won the presidency on a populist message, he completely misjudged the months-long simmering public anger over proposed new taxes amidst the rising cost of living, public sector corruption, in-your-face flaunting of opulence by corruption officials on social media, deteriorating public services, and generalized erosion of government legitimacy. So far his reactions suggest that the events of June 25, 2024 — when countrywide anti-tax protests culminated in the storming of Parliament in Nairobi — caught him by surprise. Forget the polls that highlighted public discontent with his tax measures in the 2024 Finance Bill, myriad op-eds in the papers, online chatter, and discussions on TV and radio talk-shows.” (Ken Opalo/Africanist Perspective)