A lot of people are asking me whether Joe Biden should drop out of the presidential race. Those people are all family and friends, and they’re only asking me so they can give their own opinion. So it will be most efficient to answer them here, where they can’t talk. One way to frame this question is to imagine Joe Biden interviewing to run your company. The first question you might consider when evaluating him is, “Does the job involve driving a car?” Good news here. The president of the United States isn’t even allowed to get behind a wheel, so Biden won’t have to worry about even daylight driving. You might also ask, “Does the job involve climbing stairs?” Again, this works out for Biden. The White House has three elevators. And because the job comes with an in-house chef, you can put aside your concerns about having to chew non-soft food. After that, none of the questions are in Biden’s favor. For instance the answer is a resounding “no” to the question: “Is there a chance that Biden has the same condition as Benjamin Button and will get younger for the next four years?” But one important question you might ask is, “Who is our company’s other option?” This is where it gets confusing. Because every liberal pundit asking Biden to step aside – which is all of them – believes the real world is The West Wing. One told me that Biden should give a July 3 speech in which says, “I am not seeking re-election for the good of the nation I love.” Then, after a family of bald eagles sprouted from his withered corpse, the democratic party would gather the four candidates with the highest poll numbers. They would each give a speech, engage in a debate, and go up for a vote by the convention delegates. This new reality show, they say, will capture America’s attention and remind them of the vibrancy of the democratic process. The delegates will pick a likable, young, moderate democrat such as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, or Indiana Governor J.B. Pritzker. This is not how the democratic party works in real life. In real life, the far left hates the neo-liberal wing. They’d run an unelectable candidate who is part of a Squad or a Campus Tent City – and that candidate might win the nomination, just like Bernie Sanders was about to in 2020. Even if the delegates picked one of the above moderate candidates, they’d be untested. With J.B. Pritzker, for instance,we have no idea if America is okay with a leader of the free world who not only uses initials for his first name, but has a wife, M.K., who does the same thing? I mean, what does QAnon do with that information? If you’re hiding your first two names, what else are you hiding? Also, two of the three governors listed above are Jewish and, while I don’t study the winds of politics, it doesn’t seem like people are into Jews right now. Sure, polls show that a generic democratic candidate would easily beat Trump, but try this gedankenexperiment: Would you rather have sex with your spouse or a generic sex partner? Did you perhaps picture someone in the top 2 percent of attractiveness? Was it, perchance, me? An NBC poll found that a generic Democrat would beat Trump by six percent. But it also found that a generic Republican would beat Biden by 11 points. The polls show very different results with actual candidates. An Emerson College poll, which showed Biden down 1 percent to Trump, found Whitmer losing by 12 percent and California Governor Gavin Newsom losing by 13. And those are people in the top two 2 percent of attractiveness. I hate to find out how much J.B. Pritzker loses by. Even worse, this decision is going to be made by convention delegates? I’ve been to ten party conventions, and found that, on average, the delegates are a lot like the founding fathers of a state college fraternity. I got one to announce, during the roll call on live television, her state as “Utah: The only state that starts with U!” Even worse, I had told her to say, “Utah: The only state where U come first.” These are people self-selected by their willingness to contribute money in order to go to parties and stay at hotels together. These aren’t 1880-style delegates. I trusted smoke-filled rooms more when the smoke wasn’t from marijuana. Even if the Democratic delegates picked a candidate with a better chance of winning than Biden does, what would independents think of a party that not only tried to trick them into electing a guy they now confess has dementia, but also chose a backup president, Kamala Harris, they now admit is also not fit? The democrats would basically be announcing that they are the first party to have a Vice Vice President. The worst thing about a brokered, bonkers convention is that is wildly off message. The brand democrats are selling now is stability. Institutions with trusted systems that protect us from chaos. Guys who say “malarkey” unironically. The democrats are the conservatives. People who want excitement and the unknown are on the other team. I don’t know if Biden should drop out. But I do know it’s naive not to admit that it’s a high-risk move. And when the stakes are as high as democracy itself, you better be pretty sure you’re going to lose before putting in an untested quarterback. And then if the democrats decide it’s better to stick with him, we all better hope that nothing important happens for the next four years after 9 p.m. Thank you for paying to read my column. Wait: This is for the people who didn’t pay? Then I owe you nothing. You are the ones contributing to the end of my career. If you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get one extra post a month – which often won’t even be that good – upgrade to a paid subscription here:
|
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Maybe Joe Biden Shouldn't Drop Out?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Stocks dragged down by financials and hyperscalers
Despite soft inflation and an earnings beat from JPMorgan, policy proposals continued to sway stocks. Your Evening Briefing January 13, 2026...
-
17 Personal Finance Concepts – #5 Home Ownershippwsadmin, 31 Oct 02:36 AM If you find value in these articles, please share them with your ...
No comments:
Post a Comment