Thomas Zimmer/”Democracy Americana” on Substack:
What the “Biden Too Old” Discourse Is Really About
Let’s evaluate the arguments of those who describe Biden as manifestly unfit – and how they preemptively assign blame for Trump’s possible return to “the Liberals” they despise
There are, generally speaking, two different dimensions to consider. There are, first, the broader dynamics governing mainstream media coverage of Biden’s age. On this level, the question is how to explain the editorial decisions that lead to a completely disproportionate fixation on this one issue, turning it, as many people have rightfully observed, into another “But her emails” phenomenon. I’ll leave these questions aside for now, as much of the pushback has focused on this.
I want to concentrate on a different dimension: on the substantive critique that is being advanced in the “Biden too old” category. What is the evidence presented? What are the arguments and suggestions? Do they actually hold up to scrutiny? This critique is certainly coming from the Left too. But in recent days, spurred by the Hur report, it has come in a particularly forceful, aggressive fashion from a political spectrum that I would describe as the center to as far right as you can go within the – ostensibly – anti-MAGA camp: From establishment conservatives, the center-right and people who self-identify as liberals, but with a distinctly anti-left/anti-“woke” bend, which plausibly puts them, labels aside, at the center of the political discourse.
Gov. Shapiro, top Biden surrogate, acknowledges close race with Trump: 'Stop worrying and start working'
"The campaign hasn't really even joined yet," he said.
"Well, the race is close, but understand, the campaign hasn't really even joined yet," Shapiro told ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl when asked why the numbers are so tight between Biden and former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, which is likely to be a key swing state in the election.
"This is the reason why we run races," Shapiro said. "And I would say to folks who are worried about the numbers: Stop worrying and start working."
New York Times interviews author Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping, Gilead):
Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God
I have no remotely smooth segue to the next question: I have a theory about the lapsing of your relationship with Obama. You said that you felt as though you didn’t know how to speak to him anymore. It suggested to me that you saw him as a kind of avatar of American democracy. Then when he left office and was in the world of multimillion-dollar book deals and Hollywood deals, that wasn’t something that you could connect with symbolically, and that’s why you felt like you couldn’t talk to him. Does that seem plausible as a theory of a relationship between two people I know nothing about?
I think it’s pretty descriptive actually. My admiration for him is very great, and I’m sure that he’s doing things of real value. And my not finding an imaginative way into that — it’s certainly no less-than-positive judgment. I think he has stepped back because he does not want to be seen as a competitor with President Biden. Because Obama’s signature quality was youth, and Biden’s is age. Frankly, I’m less than a year younger than Joe Biden, so I believe utterly in his competence, his brilliance, his worldview. I really do. You have to live to be 80 to find this out: Anybody under 50 feels they’re in a position to condescend to you. You get boxed into this position where people who deal with you are making assumptions about your intellect. It’s very disturbing. Most people my age are just fine. What can I say? It’s a kind of good fortune that America is categorically incapable of accepting: that someone with a strong institutional memory, who knows how things are supposed to work, who was habituated to their appropriate functioning is president. I consider him a gift of God. All 81 years of him.
The “better 81 years than 91 indictments” demographic.
Dan Pfeiffer/”The Message Box” on Substack:
How to Make Trump's Fraud Verdict Matter to Voters
The verdict in the civil fraud case should cost Trump more than money.
Common sense and history suggest that Trump's legal problems would be too many bricks on the load, and his candidacy would collapse before our eyes. Alas, that is not the case. According to FiveThirtyEight, Trump is leading Nikki Haley by 59 points and is locked in a dead heat with Joe Biden.
It would be easy to look at Trump’s continued strength in the polls, conclude that he is immune to political accountability, and focus the campaign on issues other than the former President’s criminal conduct.
That’s a defeatist attitude. One of Barack Obama’s cardinal communications rules is to always talk about the elephant in the room — even when polls suggest it would be better to avoid. It would be a massive strategic blunder to avoid making Trump’s criminality and rampant corruption anything other than a centerpiece of the campaign. But — as always — how we talk about it matters.
Julianne McShane/Mother Jones:
Trump Killed Abortion Rights. But Voters Still Don’t Blame Him.
He appointed three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe—but most voters don’t hold him responsible, a new poll found.
Despite Trump appointing three of the Supreme Court justices that were part of the majority that overturned the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade, most voters don’t hold him responsible for rising abortion restrictions nationwide, according to the results of a new poll released Monday.
The poll, conducted in December by the progressive think tank and polling firm Data for Progress, found that less than a quarter of voters overall (only 36 percent of Democrats—and, oddly, only 11 percent of Republicans) see Trump as “responsible for new bans or restrictions on abortions in states across the U.S.” So who do voters hold more responsible? Republicans in state office (33 percent), Republicans in Congress (34 percent), and the Supreme Court (50 percent). That’s not necessarily surprising, given that it was the high court that ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe; that Republicans in Congress have already introduced several bills over the last few years aimed at essentially eliminating abortion rights; and that Republicans in statehouses across the country continue to say unhinged things as they seek to curtail abortion access.
But, still, Data for Progress says the poll results—as well as another data point from that poll, showing that 52 percent of voters overall, and 67 percent of Democrats, believe the outcome of the next election will be significant for addressing abortion—show that “Biden’s focus on directing the blame to Trump” for the end of Roe “could help voters make more of a connection to the role Trump has played in curtailing abortion rights.”
Once reticent, Democrats are again rallying around Fani Willis
Key Democrats didn’t forcefully defend the DA after a codefendant argued she was in an improper relationship. That began to change during the two-day hearing that could shape the future of Fulton County’s case against Donald Trump.But many Democrats aren’t so reluctant to back Willis anymore. Senior party leaders and their allies started to rally around Willis during the extraordinary two-day evidentiary hearing on Roman’s claims, which included hours of Willis’ raw, emotional testimony.
State Sen. Elena Parent of Atlanta, one of the chamber’s top Democrats, said the legal back-and-forth “produced nothing that shows the case was brought for any reason other than its merits.”
The politicians who run out in front of the parade sense the tide has turned in Willis’ favor, at least for going ahead with trial.
John Nichols/The Nation:
Michigan Just Became the First State in 6 Decades to Scrap an Infamous Anti-Union Law
Democrats, empowered by voters in 2022, overturned a “right to work” law as part of a sweeping pro-labor agenda that’s a model for other states.
This week, Michigan finalized the process of eliminating a decade-old “right to work” law, which began with the shift in control of the state legislature from anti-union Republicans to pro-union Democrats following the 2022 election. “This moment has been decades in the making,” declared Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”
In addition to formally scrapping the anti-labor law on Tuesday, Michigan also restored prevailing-wage protections for construction workers, expanded collective bargaining rights for public school employees, and restored organizing rights for graduate student research assistants at the state’s public colleges and universities. But even amid all of these wins for labor, it was the overturning of the “right to work” law that caught the attention of unions nationwide.
POLITICO magazine:
‘All Hell Broke Loose’: How Congress Blabbed About Russia’s Space Nukes
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee pulls back the curtain on a wild week.
The cryptic threat was quickly identified by reporters as a Russian anti-satellite nuclear weapon — a fact the White House eventually confirmed publicly.
All of this was taking place as the Intelligence panel dealt with a separate legislative crisis.
The foreign intelligence-gathering program known as Section 702 expires in April. According to Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, renewing the program is “perhaps the single most consequential national security decision that this Congress will make.”
A group of House lawmakers from the right and left has proposed reforms to Section 702 that [Intelligence Committee Chair Mike] Turner, [ranking member Jim] Himes and Biden’s top national security officials all say will cripple the program.
In one day, these two storylines — the new threat from Russia and Section 702 reauthorization — collided in spectacular fashion, when Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the plug on his plan to bring the 702 legislation to the floor just as a national freakout over Russian weapons in space hit a crescendo.
Another Mike Johnson failure, but a head desk moment for the Intel committee regarding their chair.
Tony Michaels and Cliff Schecter on the border and other immigration lies:
Greg Dworkin February 19, 2024 at 01:00PM From Daily Kos
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