Kathianne
07-10-2024, 10:46 AM
Hmmm
https://www.wsj.com/articles/team-bidens-cynical-gamble-8a5d2402?st=y4g8vovqq4tpkz2&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Team Biden’s Cynical GambleHis mental aging and poor polls were the problem. Trump was the solution.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
July 9, 2024 5:09 pm ET
Another fine mess, said Ollie to Stan. In a game of chicken between the president and his party, the leverage favors Joe Biden. He can’t be forced to cough up his nearly 3,900 convention delegates. Mr. Biden alone will decide whether he remains his party’s nominee. It won’t be pundits. It won’t be mostly white Democrats in the House and Senate worried about losing their unsafe seats in a Trump landslide.
OPINION: POTOMAC WATCH
Can a Defiant Joe Biden Stay in the 2024 Race?
Remember the multiple constitutional crises that were supposed to follow if Republicans nominated convicted felon Donald Trump? Instead we’ve got a Democratic crisis without any prospect of an orderly outcome except by bowing to King Joe. The Democrats this week are putting on a show of chaos, Mr. Trump a show of mastery right down to junking his party’s pro-life plank as no longer convenient to his political aims.
Tellingly, this was the moment when New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn found it necessary to justify himself to Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple, disowning any blame for the Democrats’ debacle. His reporters covered Mr. Biden’s deterioration aggressively for years, he said. It isn’t the paper’s fault if primary voters weren’t listening.
This isn’t half the story, which the paper might have mutely admitted when it went out of its way this week gratuitously to quote and then refute an unremarkable claim by Sen. J.D. Vance that Mr. Biden had influenced the Democratic prosecutions of Mr. Trump.
“Misleading,” insisted a Times news story. “There is no evidence that Mr. Biden has been involved in the prosecutorial decisions of his Justice Department.”
The Times must not read the Times, because two Aprils ago it reported what appeared to be an orchestrated White House leak, saying “Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump . . . should be prosecuted.”
The import of this leak wasn’t lost on CNN guest Rep. Ro Khanna, who immediately fretted: “We were going to be the party that upholds the rule of law.”
It wasn’t lost on CNN political commentator Amanda Carpenter: “I do think it’s extremely dangerous for Joe Biden to put his hand on the scale.” Or commentator David Urban: “If it’s true and the president is pressuring Merrick Garland, even obliquely, it’s shameful.”
At MSNBC, unsuprisingly, any impropriety was overlooked in favor of cheerleading for Trump prosecutions. Even so the Times’s own Michael Schmidt intruded on the celebration to note that it wasn’t “a great look for the independence of the Justice Department.”
What’s the point at this late date of continuing to refuse to draw a link between a clear thought (one of the few) expressed by Mr. Biden in the Times’s own pages and acts by fellow Democrats up and down the line in accordance with that thought?
Especially when motive is so unambiguously clear: Mr. Biden needed a Trump resurrection. He needed Republican primary voters to rally back to Mr. Trump despite the Jan. 6 disgrace. Mr. Trump was the only opponent Mr. Biden might beat. He’s the only opponent against whom a Biden re-election bid is even tenable. And do you doubt now that Mr. Biden places his desire for a second term above other considerations?
READ MORE BUSINESS WORLD
Donald Trump and the Clouseau DemocratsJuly 5, 2024
Was There a ‘Biden’ Presidency?July 2, 2024
Mr. Biden’s physical decay makes him a weak candidate, but his physical decay isn’t why Mr. Trump, rather than some other Republican, is inheriting the benefit, seeing a smooth path back to the White House, at least until our national-security myrmidons have their say.
This was the week when 24 months of Biden bushwa finally dissipated. In Mr. Biden’s ABC interview, he didn’t say a Trump victory would be the end of the world, as long as Mr. Biden can get his shot at a second term and give it the old college try.
This sounds like the truth leaking out of Mr. Biden for a change. The problem now is that Mr. Biden and his Democrats have convinced quite a few excited voters and political hobbyists and weekend militants that Mr. Trump is indeed the end of the world. Mr. Biden will own their behavior after Nov. 5 as much as he’ll own a Trump victory.
That said, Team Biden’s bet hasn’t been a bad one and may still pan out. If they can wangle their low-functioning or non-functioning incumbent past voters a second time, they will retain power. His staff and family members can fill in around Mr. Biden’s incapacities. Any opportunities the country might miss from not having an energetic chief executive—say, a Ukraine resolution—are, at worst, counterfactuals to entertain pundits.
This gamble may yet pay off, but get ready for the big question if it doesn’t. Will the now-opposition meet the new president its cynicism enabled halfway? Or will Democrats, the media, the FBI and CIA double down on cynicism and try to thwart Mr. Trump and his voters with every legitimate and illegitimate means as they did after 2016?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/team-bidens-cynical-gamble-8a5d2402?st=y4g8vovqq4tpkz2&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Team Biden’s Cynical GambleHis mental aging and poor polls were the problem. Trump was the solution.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
July 9, 2024 5:09 pm ET
Another fine mess, said Ollie to Stan. In a game of chicken between the president and his party, the leverage favors Joe Biden. He can’t be forced to cough up his nearly 3,900 convention delegates. Mr. Biden alone will decide whether he remains his party’s nominee. It won’t be pundits. It won’t be mostly white Democrats in the House and Senate worried about losing their unsafe seats in a Trump landslide.
OPINION: POTOMAC WATCH
Can a Defiant Joe Biden Stay in the 2024 Race?
Remember the multiple constitutional crises that were supposed to follow if Republicans nominated convicted felon Donald Trump? Instead we’ve got a Democratic crisis without any prospect of an orderly outcome except by bowing to King Joe. The Democrats this week are putting on a show of chaos, Mr. Trump a show of mastery right down to junking his party’s pro-life plank as no longer convenient to his political aims.
Tellingly, this was the moment when New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn found it necessary to justify himself to Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple, disowning any blame for the Democrats’ debacle. His reporters covered Mr. Biden’s deterioration aggressively for years, he said. It isn’t the paper’s fault if primary voters weren’t listening.
This isn’t half the story, which the paper might have mutely admitted when it went out of its way this week gratuitously to quote and then refute an unremarkable claim by Sen. J.D. Vance that Mr. Biden had influenced the Democratic prosecutions of Mr. Trump.
“Misleading,” insisted a Times news story. “There is no evidence that Mr. Biden has been involved in the prosecutorial decisions of his Justice Department.”
The Times must not read the Times, because two Aprils ago it reported what appeared to be an orchestrated White House leak, saying “Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump . . . should be prosecuted.”
The import of this leak wasn’t lost on CNN guest Rep. Ro Khanna, who immediately fretted: “We were going to be the party that upholds the rule of law.”
It wasn’t lost on CNN political commentator Amanda Carpenter: “I do think it’s extremely dangerous for Joe Biden to put his hand on the scale.” Or commentator David Urban: “If it’s true and the president is pressuring Merrick Garland, even obliquely, it’s shameful.”
At MSNBC, unsuprisingly, any impropriety was overlooked in favor of cheerleading for Trump prosecutions. Even so the Times’s own Michael Schmidt intruded on the celebration to note that it wasn’t “a great look for the independence of the Justice Department.”
What’s the point at this late date of continuing to refuse to draw a link between a clear thought (one of the few) expressed by Mr. Biden in the Times’s own pages and acts by fellow Democrats up and down the line in accordance with that thought?
Especially when motive is so unambiguously clear: Mr. Biden needed a Trump resurrection. He needed Republican primary voters to rally back to Mr. Trump despite the Jan. 6 disgrace. Mr. Trump was the only opponent Mr. Biden might beat. He’s the only opponent against whom a Biden re-election bid is even tenable. And do you doubt now that Mr. Biden places his desire for a second term above other considerations?
READ MORE BUSINESS WORLD
Donald Trump and the Clouseau DemocratsJuly 5, 2024
Was There a ‘Biden’ Presidency?July 2, 2024
Mr. Biden’s physical decay makes him a weak candidate, but his physical decay isn’t why Mr. Trump, rather than some other Republican, is inheriting the benefit, seeing a smooth path back to the White House, at least until our national-security myrmidons have their say.
This was the week when 24 months of Biden bushwa finally dissipated. In Mr. Biden’s ABC interview, he didn’t say a Trump victory would be the end of the world, as long as Mr. Biden can get his shot at a second term and give it the old college try.
This sounds like the truth leaking out of Mr. Biden for a change. The problem now is that Mr. Biden and his Democrats have convinced quite a few excited voters and political hobbyists and weekend militants that Mr. Trump is indeed the end of the world. Mr. Biden will own their behavior after Nov. 5 as much as he’ll own a Trump victory.
That said, Team Biden’s bet hasn’t been a bad one and may still pan out. If they can wangle their low-functioning or non-functioning incumbent past voters a second time, they will retain power. His staff and family members can fill in around Mr. Biden’s incapacities. Any opportunities the country might miss from not having an energetic chief executive—say, a Ukraine resolution—are, at worst, counterfactuals to entertain pundits.
This gamble may yet pay off, but get ready for the big question if it doesn’t. Will the now-opposition meet the new president its cynicism enabled halfway? Or will Democrats, the media, the FBI and CIA double down on cynicism and try to thwart Mr. Trump and his voters with every legitimate and illegitimate means as they did after 2016?