AS THE NOV. 5 ELECTION APPROACHES, A COMMON SENSE CAT SPEAKS OUT  “HE DIDN’T REALLY WRITE THAT, YOU KNOW.” “Who didn’t?” I asked. “Bill Clinton. He doesn’t know you from Adam. And he had nothing to do with what you’re reading.” I had been going through my email, which I do several times a day, and had stopped to look at a message that was slugged: “Now is the time to....” with the sender identified as “Bill Clinton.” “It’s just fund-raising,” the voice said. I was about to respond to the comment – which was so incredibly obvious that it hardly deserved a reply - then realized there was nobody to respond to. I was alone at my desk, alone that is, except for Ben. Ben is our cat. Ben turned 3 on July 12 and my wife and I forgot his birthday, as usual, and I wondered: Did his snide tone mean that he was still carrying a grudge? Then I realized that was the wrong question. “Are you actually talking?” I asked. “Are you actually listening?” Ben said. Ben, who joined our household when he was 4 months old, is a handsome Tabby – we like to think of him as Bengal, or Bengal-like. He weighed 3 pounds at the time. Now, like many Americans, he’s struggling with his weight, hitting the scales the last time we were at the vet’s at 15+. My wife and I have considered Ben unusually communicative, and we’ve had a fair share of cats with which to compare. He’s got a hearty “Yee-Oow,” and if you say something to him, he’ll give you a “Yee-Oow” right back.   BUT IF BEN HAS SEEMED “TALKATIVE,” we've known that we’re stepping into the Forbidden Swamp of Anthropomorphism if we push too far, and we fully understand that Ben isn’t actually conversive, at least in the human sense. “I didn’t think cats could talk,” I said, trying to sound calm. Ben said crossly, “There’s a lot you don’t know.” “Let’s say that I’m not a crazy old man, and that I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing,” I said. “How come you’ve decided to actually speak?” “Because all I hear all day and into the night in this house is ‘The Election this; The Election that.’ It’s all you two talk about – especially YOU – and it just pours out of the radios and TVs hour after hour. “And then there’s all the doomscrolling that you, in particular, do on your computer, checking the same websites over and over and over, and frankly, I’m fed up to here!” he said. As he said that, Ben made a cutting motion against his throat with one of his paws – I’m not sure which one, because I’ve never noticed whether Ben is right-pawed or left, much less whether, politically, he leans left or right. “So that means that you can read, too?” I said. “I try my best not to swear,” Ben said. “But you make it really hard to be civil. Of course, I can read. Which is why I know that the email you’re looking at is not from Bill Clinton. It wasn’t written by Bill Clinton; Bill Clinton doesn’t know your email address; and for sure, Bill Clinton does NOT know your first name, much less your last.” “But the email starts out ‘Brian, it’s Bill Clinton,’ “ I said. “#*@!+?$,” the cat said. “Did you even go to college – at least one that’s anyone’s heard of? It’s a computer-generated-money-raising pitch. Clinton has told someone it’s okay to use his name, and the algorithm does the rest.” “They start small,” Ben said impatiently. “Scroll down a little and it starts off with a $25 contribution, which won’t buy you much cat food, but it gets their claws into you. You do REALIZE that!” “Well,’ I said, “I did wonder where Bill gets the time to write to someone like me. I know that he’s not president anymore, but still, I’m sure he’s got a lot else going on, wondering what Monica is up to these days and all." “Is there anything in there,” Ben asked pointing at my head, “other than a rock?” Now, I was getting a little put off: “I get a lot of emails these days from important people.” “You’ll notice, Mr. Smarty Cat, that the next email down from Bill’s is from Kamala Harris. And as you may have noticed, she is one busy person these days. She’s the likely Democratic nominee, juggling her vice presidential duties, picking her own veep, raising missions of dollars. She’s got Democrats smiling again. And, still, Kamala’s sending ME emails.” “This answers the question about God,” Ben said. “If She did exist, She certainly wouldn’t have sent me to a house with you in it.” I was searching for a pithy reply, when Ben continued: “What makes living here bearable is that sometimes you leave the house, and I get to spend time exclusively with someone who actually likes and understands cats. You know whom I’m talking about: the Nice One.” “She’s that and more,” I said. “At least we agree on something.”  “WHICH BRINGS ME TO WHY I’VE DECIDED TO SPEAK OUT,” Ben said. “I’m realizing that this Election is could be a make-or-break event. I mean, forget the stuff about whether “democracy is on the line” and this climate change business and whether the earth will burst into flames if Trump wins.”
“Those ARE big issues,” I pointed out. “You want to know what’s a BIG issue?” Ben said with his little feline sneer. “It's all this stuff we’re hearing about ‘wilderness cat ladies.’ “ “I think you mean ‘childless cat ladies,’ “ I said. “Whatever,” Ben said. “It’s downright super-wild-scary.” Realizing that I now had the upper paw because we were discussing “facts,” I proceeded to lecture Ben on what Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick, had said three years ago to the notorious Tucker Carlson, then on Fox TV. Vance had warned about "... a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too." "It's just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.... And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?" “Worse than worrisome,” the cat said. “Very dangerous.” “We’re in agreement, again,” I said. “Lots of people don’t have children – although Harris is a stepmom, and Buttigieg and his partner now have twins. But you can’t disenfranchise people who don’t have children.” “Not my concern,” Ben said. "Who cares about 'the children?' " “What does bother you?” “If Trump and Vance win, they’ll go after the cat ladies. They’ll deport the undocumented cat ladies first, and scare the rest into letting their cats loose; ladies simply won’t want the stigma of having us in their homes.” “I hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “Nobody has,” Ben said. Now he was on a roll: “Cats of America, rise up. Protect the cat ladies. Vote the cat ladies’ ticket. Who will look after, cherish, talk to and most importantly FEED America’s cats if we become a country without cat ladies? Nine lives will no longer be enough to protect us. “SAVE THE CAT LADIES! "SAVE THE CATS!” “In the end," I said, "politics is always personal.” “It’s just common sense,” Ben said.
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FINALLY! |
| IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER. WINNERS NEVER QUIT. YOU CAN'T WIN IF YOU DON’T PLAY. IMPOSSIBLE IS NOT A FACT; IT’S AN OPINION. |
Lately at our house, we’ve taken to streaming the British Premier League – soccer. After a couple of seasons, we still understand little about the sport and remain confused by arcana, like the offside rules.
But we have seen matches that end in stunning upsets during the closing minutes and seconds.
Even as TV cameras show fans of the losing side exiting the stadium in disgust at their team’s betrayal, things are happening down on the pitch.
Suddenly, the presumptive losers score a goal during a mob scene at the net that’s so confusing several replays are needed for commentators and fans to figure out who did what and how.
Or the losing side gets a penalty kick, in which a lone player gets a shot at the goal that’s almost impossible for the opposing goal keeper to block.
“You, you, you defeatists,” we yell at the departing fans who have missed the most thrilling moments of the game. “You should have stayed in your overpriced seats.” (We have no idea what tickets cost.)
To be honest, these things usually don’t happen.
But they can.
There’s a reason why underdogs often don’t win.
But they can.
Teams that are behind rarely overturn lopsided scores.
But they can.
But we have seen matches that end in stunning upsets during the closing minutes and seconds.
Even as TV cameras show fans of the losing side exiting the stadium in disgust at their team’s betrayal, things are happening down on the pitch.
Suddenly, the presumptive losers score a goal during a mob scene at the net that’s so confusing several replays are needed for commentators and fans to figure out who did what and how.
Or the losing side gets a penalty kick, in which a lone player gets a shot at the goal that’s almost impossible for the opposing goal keeper to block.
“You, you, you defeatists,” we yell at the departing fans who have missed the most thrilling moments of the game. “You should have stayed in your overpriced seats.” (We have no idea what tickets cost.)
To be honest, these things usually don’t happen.
But they can.
There’s a reason why underdogs often don’t win.
But they can.
Teams that are behind rarely overturn lopsided scores.
But they can.
FIRST THOUGHTS ABOUT AN UGLY, AMERICAN DAY
AS SOMEONE who loathes and fears Donald Trump, I’m relieved that he survived a would-be assassin’s attempt to end his life.
Now, he can be confronted the right way, kept from the White House by voters, not a gunman. Now, he can be tried for his many sins by juries, not vigilantes.
Those of us who are of Trump’s and Joe Biden’s generation have witnessed successful assassinations, and we know their awful result.
John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King were snatched from our lives and our history before the promise of their life’s work was fully realized.
And the nation, and the world at large, remain the worse for their violent early exits.
I AM WRITING THIS EARLY in the morning the day after what was an ugly day, the ugliest so far in the 2024 election campaign.
So, I haven’t read the latest news, especially about what’s known about the purported assassin.
Last I heard, the gunman was killed by the Secret Service, that a person attending Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania was also killed and that two other persons were critically wounded.
So, I don’t know even the basic facts that already may in public view and surely will be by today’s end.
WHAT WON’T CHANGE, no matter what the onslaught of breaking news tells us in the coming hours and days, are several probabilities.
One is that Trump, to his followers, will assume even greater god-like stature. The Trump cult will now have a martyr, and a living one at that.
As awful as the news will be about the plot to kill Donald Trump, whether by one crazy man, a leftist study group, a Wall Street PAC, the Republicans will not be content with the truth.
Indeed, Trumpsters yesterday already were spinning up their lies, fantasies and conspiracies to glorify their leader and demonize Biden, Democrats and everyone else trying to block Trump’s march to become a dictator.
Also, the nation, once again, will miss an opportunity to confront and tame its violent character, and in particular, curb the use of guns whose only purpose is to kill presidents and the rest of us.
Democrats, sadly, will take the attempt on Trump’s life as one more dispiriting setback in a string of relentless misfortunes – Biden’s terrible debate, unsettling polls, the party’s fracturing constituencies – and lose still more ground and waste more time in the campaign to save democracy.
ON THIS LAST POINT, I’m hoping to be wrong.
My own plan, right after breakfast, is to hand-print another batch of postcards to send to folks in states where there are crucial Senate and House races, imagining that at least a few recipients will vote the way my scrawled messages suggest.
I hope not to let up, not for a second, in my contempt for and fear about Donald Trump and the terror he already has visited upon my country and the people I love.
I will not stop in worrying about and working against his vile plans going forward to do permanent and historic harm to the country and to the people I love.
As I said, the last I knew, Trump’s wounds were not serious, and he has survived in good health.
I am glad of this, because in the coming months, I’ll get to keep on learning, talking and writing about how hideous he is and what, collectively, we can do to stop him.
Best of all, come November, I'll get to vote against him.
Now, he can be confronted the right way, kept from the White House by voters, not a gunman. Now, he can be tried for his many sins by juries, not vigilantes.
Those of us who are of Trump’s and Joe Biden’s generation have witnessed successful assassinations, and we know their awful result.
John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King were snatched from our lives and our history before the promise of their life’s work was fully realized.
And the nation, and the world at large, remain the worse for their violent early exits.
I AM WRITING THIS EARLY in the morning the day after what was an ugly day, the ugliest so far in the 2024 election campaign.
So, I haven’t read the latest news, especially about what’s known about the purported assassin.
Last I heard, the gunman was killed by the Secret Service, that a person attending Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania was also killed and that two other persons were critically wounded.
So, I don’t know even the basic facts that already may in public view and surely will be by today’s end.
WHAT WON’T CHANGE, no matter what the onslaught of breaking news tells us in the coming hours and days, are several probabilities.
One is that Trump, to his followers, will assume even greater god-like stature. The Trump cult will now have a martyr, and a living one at that.
As awful as the news will be about the plot to kill Donald Trump, whether by one crazy man, a leftist study group, a Wall Street PAC, the Republicans will not be content with the truth.
Indeed, Trumpsters yesterday already were spinning up their lies, fantasies and conspiracies to glorify their leader and demonize Biden, Democrats and everyone else trying to block Trump’s march to become a dictator.
Also, the nation, once again, will miss an opportunity to confront and tame its violent character, and in particular, curb the use of guns whose only purpose is to kill presidents and the rest of us.
Democrats, sadly, will take the attempt on Trump’s life as one more dispiriting setback in a string of relentless misfortunes – Biden’s terrible debate, unsettling polls, the party’s fracturing constituencies – and lose still more ground and waste more time in the campaign to save democracy.
ON THIS LAST POINT, I’m hoping to be wrong.
My own plan, right after breakfast, is to hand-print another batch of postcards to send to folks in states where there are crucial Senate and House races, imagining that at least a few recipients will vote the way my scrawled messages suggest.
I hope not to let up, not for a second, in my contempt for and fear about Donald Trump and the terror he already has visited upon my country and the people I love.
I will not stop in worrying about and working against his vile plans going forward to do permanent and historic harm to the country and to the people I love.
As I said, the last I knew, Trump’s wounds were not serious, and he has survived in good health.
I am glad of this, because in the coming months, I’ll get to keep on learning, talking and writing about how hideous he is and what, collectively, we can do to stop him.
Best of all, come November, I'll get to vote against him.
A BIT OF LUCK AND A LITTLE LOVE
COULD GET DEMOCRATS THROUGH
THEIR CRUSADE TO STOP TRUMP
WHAT’S THE SINGLE, most important crisis of the election?
Is it deciding whether to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee?
Or shaming the media into paying as much attention to Donald Trump’s monstrous character defects as they are in monitoring Biden’s struggles with old age?
Nope.
It’s staying personable: treating each other with respect, kindness and dignity, keeping connected to each other despite our differences.
We can’t argue that Donald Trump is too abhorrent to be allowed back in the White House, if our tactics mimic his savage insults, slurs and sneers.
More importantly, we cannot win, much less survive, if we turn on one another.
None of this is easy, especially now, when the stakes in the election are so desperate; when our choices seem so limited; when time is so short; and when the outcomes are so uncertain.
It will take humility, discipline and equal bits of luck and love to make sure our debates stay civil and that our conversations nurture, rather than maim, the participants.
AN EXAMPLE of how to do this right way is a comment appended to my last posting on this blog by Jody McPhillips.
Jody is a friend, but what’s important for this discussion is that she’s a superstar when it comes to making the world a better place.
She was a reporter at the Providence Journal, where she served a stint in the paper’s Washington bureau. Later, she and her husband, Dave Bloss, the paper’s sports editor, undertook second careers to train new reporters in places that are hostile and dangerous for journalists, like Cambodia, East Timor and Georgia (the country).
Back home in Rhode Island, they are deeply interested, to put it mildly, in the election.
Take Jody’s contribution to the comments section of my last blog posting, in which I criticized Biden’s behavior and tactics in fighting to hold onto the Democratic nomination.
Hers is the classic way to do a tough, but humane rebuttal.
She goes after the ideas and not the speaker, at the outset, gently pushing aside anything that suggested it was personal:
You know I disagree with all of this.
She avoids saying things like what an idiot her friend, the author, turned out to be. Or questioning his limited qualifications, like mentioning the not-so-well-known college he attended. Or making snide asides: You do remember you’re actually older than Biden?
Nor does she savage the essay. Instead, she quotes one particularly objectionable passage:
A "selfish, untruthful bully, who is dividing his party and country" -- really?
Then moves on to state her case, with some eloquence, about the media and others who are paying undue attention to Biden, while virtually ignoring Trump; she argues that replacing Biden is unworkable; and states that she’s sticking with him.
How about a politician of his generation who is putting the best spin on things as he sees it, and who knows that *any* admission of weakness will be relentlessly, cruelly used against him?
This blatant media pile-on breaks my heart. It is so outrageously unfair that we hear barely a whisper about Donald Trump's incessant, malicious lying and demagoguing during this travesty of a debate, while pundits can't shut up about ashen-faced Joe and his struggles to get words out.
The guy was exhausted and sick. Bad judgment? Sure. Deserving of all this contempt and anger? NO. I read a lot of public commentary, and I believe actual voters are with Joe, as opposed to the Beltway crowd.
And I will keep working to get him elected a. because it's too late for any of the fanciful schemes being floated to work and b. because he has earned our support.
HERE’S THE THING (to use one of Biden’s pet phrases): Maybe she’s right.
Nobody can guarantee that she is, of course. Certainly not me. My claim in what is a long-running discussion is that I have been on both sides of it.
In March of last year, I argued that Joe Biden was too old to seek a second term, and there were plenty of able substitutes. I wrote this headline:
JOE BIDEN'S GREAT. IT
DOESN'T MAKE HIM AN
'INDISPENSABLE MAN'
Six months later, I decided that Joe Biden wasn’t too old after all. No other candidate was as well-known; magically, Biden had turned into the indispensable man, which required this headline:
'OH, NO!'
LET'S NOT WAKE UP NOV. 6, 2024 SAYING:
'WE DITCHED JOE BIDEN AS BEING TOO OLD'
Now, because of Biden’ dismal performance in the July 27 debate with Trump, I’ve again swerved my vintage Model T around.
I’m terrified Biden cannot win, especially among a relatively few, but critical, voters in “battleground” states, who seem only dimly aware, if at all, of Trump’s threat to the country.
Is it deciding whether to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee?
Or shaming the media into paying as much attention to Donald Trump’s monstrous character defects as they are in monitoring Biden’s struggles with old age?
Nope.
It’s staying personable: treating each other with respect, kindness and dignity, keeping connected to each other despite our differences.
We can’t argue that Donald Trump is too abhorrent to be allowed back in the White House, if our tactics mimic his savage insults, slurs and sneers.
More importantly, we cannot win, much less survive, if we turn on one another.
None of this is easy, especially now, when the stakes in the election are so desperate; when our choices seem so limited; when time is so short; and when the outcomes are so uncertain.
It will take humility, discipline and equal bits of luck and love to make sure our debates stay civil and that our conversations nurture, rather than maim, the participants.
AN EXAMPLE of how to do this right way is a comment appended to my last posting on this blog by Jody McPhillips.
Jody is a friend, but what’s important for this discussion is that she’s a superstar when it comes to making the world a better place.
She was a reporter at the Providence Journal, where she served a stint in the paper’s Washington bureau. Later, she and her husband, Dave Bloss, the paper’s sports editor, undertook second careers to train new reporters in places that are hostile and dangerous for journalists, like Cambodia, East Timor and Georgia (the country).
Back home in Rhode Island, they are deeply interested, to put it mildly, in the election.
Take Jody’s contribution to the comments section of my last blog posting, in which I criticized Biden’s behavior and tactics in fighting to hold onto the Democratic nomination.
Hers is the classic way to do a tough, but humane rebuttal.
She goes after the ideas and not the speaker, at the outset, gently pushing aside anything that suggested it was personal:
You know I disagree with all of this.
She avoids saying things like what an idiot her friend, the author, turned out to be. Or questioning his limited qualifications, like mentioning the not-so-well-known college he attended. Or making snide asides: You do remember you’re actually older than Biden?
Nor does she savage the essay. Instead, she quotes one particularly objectionable passage:
A "selfish, untruthful bully, who is dividing his party and country" -- really?
Then moves on to state her case, with some eloquence, about the media and others who are paying undue attention to Biden, while virtually ignoring Trump; she argues that replacing Biden is unworkable; and states that she’s sticking with him.
How about a politician of his generation who is putting the best spin on things as he sees it, and who knows that *any* admission of weakness will be relentlessly, cruelly used against him?
This blatant media pile-on breaks my heart. It is so outrageously unfair that we hear barely a whisper about Donald Trump's incessant, malicious lying and demagoguing during this travesty of a debate, while pundits can't shut up about ashen-faced Joe and his struggles to get words out.
The guy was exhausted and sick. Bad judgment? Sure. Deserving of all this contempt and anger? NO. I read a lot of public commentary, and I believe actual voters are with Joe, as opposed to the Beltway crowd.
And I will keep working to get him elected a. because it's too late for any of the fanciful schemes being floated to work and b. because he has earned our support.
HERE’S THE THING (to use one of Biden’s pet phrases): Maybe she’s right.
Nobody can guarantee that she is, of course. Certainly not me. My claim in what is a long-running discussion is that I have been on both sides of it.
In March of last year, I argued that Joe Biden was too old to seek a second term, and there were plenty of able substitutes. I wrote this headline:
JOE BIDEN'S GREAT. IT
DOESN'T MAKE HIM AN
'INDISPENSABLE MAN'
Six months later, I decided that Joe Biden wasn’t too old after all. No other candidate was as well-known; magically, Biden had turned into the indispensable man, which required this headline:
'OH, NO!'
LET'S NOT WAKE UP NOV. 6, 2024 SAYING:
'WE DITCHED JOE BIDEN AS BEING TOO OLD'
Now, because of Biden’ dismal performance in the July 27 debate with Trump, I’ve again swerved my vintage Model T around.
I’m terrified Biden cannot win, especially among a relatively few, but critical, voters in “battleground” states, who seem only dimly aware, if at all, of Trump’s threat to the country.
LAST NIGHT'S PRESS CONFERENCE did little to settle my jitters. Sure, Biden did better than in the debate, but that’s not saying much. His delivery seemed to me halting, sometimes unclear and hardly inspiring. And he made the much anticipated stumbles, for example, saying “Trump” when he meant Kamala Harris, his vice president.
This will happen every time he shows up in public: the president of the United States will make news not because of what he says, but whether he survives or flubs the moment.
I’m imagining the next debate, scheduled for Sept. 10.
Would a compassionate person, and more importantly, the rest of the country, want to subject Biden to such an ordeal?
Or would we rather that Donald Trump face Kamala Harris – if Trump, in that case, dared to show up at all?
People will disagree on the answer.
But if we are kind and united, we can put Donald Trump behind us on Nov. 5, leaving the historians and the courts to judge the effect of his evil trespass into our politics.
This will happen every time he shows up in public: the president of the United States will make news not because of what he says, but whether he survives or flubs the moment.
I’m imagining the next debate, scheduled for Sept. 10.
Would a compassionate person, and more importantly, the rest of the country, want to subject Biden to such an ordeal?
Or would we rather that Donald Trump face Kamala Harris – if Trump, in that case, dared to show up at all?
People will disagree on the answer.
But if we are kind and united, we can put Donald Trump behind us on Nov. 5, leaving the historians and the courts to judge the effect of his evil trespass into our politics.
THE ‘OLD’ JOE BIDEN BOTCHED THE DEBATE; A ‘NEW’ BIDEN IS MAKING THINGS WORSE
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN at his July 5 TV interview. CREDIT: ABC News
FOR THE FIRST TIME this year, I think Donald Trump will probably win the election in November, turning America into a diabolical dictatorship.
If so, it will be Joe Biden’s fault.
Let’s put aside age, because that’s not the immediate issue. Instead of looking at Biden, 81, as an old person, let’s consider him simply as a man, whom we used to like.
Biden, the man, put on a devastating performance June 27, at his “debate” with Donald Trump. He was frighteningly incoherent and failed to make a cogent, convincing case against Trump, which should have been an easy 90 minutes for an experienced politician.
Since then, Biden, the man, has only made things worse by declaring a civil war within his own party, dismissing his baffled and alarmed critics with contempt and disrespect.
By dividing, rather than unifying Democrats, Biden, the man, threatens the chances that Democrats will be able to control Congress, the only plausible defense during four years of terror promised by Trump.
Here’s what Biden, the man, could be doing since the debate:
THE THEME underlying Biden's behavior since the debate is his suggestion that he’s the Indispensable Man.
In this, he is imitating his opposite number, the most despicable man in American history.
Donald Trump declared, after he was nominated in 2016 at the Republican National Convention:
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
Here’s what Joe Biden, wrote to members of Congress on July 8, responding to people questioning his ability to win:
“... I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Nobody is the “only” or “best” man or woman who can do anything, including running the United States. It is absurd, as a matter of fact, and it’s a warning sign that the speaker has lost his objectivity.
Does Biden, the man, honestly believe that the woman he chose as his vice president, Kamala Harris, is not capable of serving as his replacement or running successfully against Trump?
LET’S LOOK MORE CLOSELY at what Joe Biden, a man, and a responsible one, could be doing.
He could candidly confront what went wrong during the debate, and, if he doesn’t know, he should get to the bottom of it – then share his insights with the public.
After all, it was Biden who challenged Trump to the debate and outlined the ground rules. The goal was to jump-start his stalled campaign. Biden did just the opposite.
It was all Biden’s doing, not the people who have reacted to his failed performance. He was impaired that night; he should find out how and why, and outline a plan to how he can overcome it, or, if necessary, how he'll get out of the race.
As to how he could respond to his fellow Democrats, who are as alarmed as Biden is about the consequences of a Trump presidency, he should embrace them, listen to them, work with them, rather than challenge their loyalty and character.
Two reasons:
One, is that he might learn something from them. They voted for him, supported him, trusted him, celebrated him. Now, their futures are imperiled.
Two, the worst thing that can happen to the Democrats is to fight among themselves. A splintered party has zero chances of winning on Nov. 5.
Instead, Biden is using his position as president, the leader of his party, the winner in the primary races, to divide people into enemies and allies. Echoes of Donald Trump, and Dick Nixon.
If so, it will be Joe Biden’s fault.
Let’s put aside age, because that’s not the immediate issue. Instead of looking at Biden, 81, as an old person, let’s consider him simply as a man, whom we used to like.
Biden, the man, put on a devastating performance June 27, at his “debate” with Donald Trump. He was frighteningly incoherent and failed to make a cogent, convincing case against Trump, which should have been an easy 90 minutes for an experienced politician.
Since then, Biden, the man, has only made things worse by declaring a civil war within his own party, dismissing his baffled and alarmed critics with contempt and disrespect.
By dividing, rather than unifying Democrats, Biden, the man, threatens the chances that Democrats will be able to control Congress, the only plausible defense during four years of terror promised by Trump.
Here’s what Biden, the man, could be doing since the debate:
- Explain what went wrong.
- Take responsibility for his performance that night and in the days following.
- Be a conciliator, rather than an antagonist, in the discussion of what he and the Democrats should do now.
- Welcome, rather than condemn, the alarms his fellow Democrats have raised, both about his - and the party’s – ability to win on Nov. 5.
- Tell the truth.
THE THEME underlying Biden's behavior since the debate is his suggestion that he’s the Indispensable Man.
In this, he is imitating his opposite number, the most despicable man in American history.
Donald Trump declared, after he was nominated in 2016 at the Republican National Convention:
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
Here’s what Joe Biden, wrote to members of Congress on July 8, responding to people questioning his ability to win:
“... I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Nobody is the “only” or “best” man or woman who can do anything, including running the United States. It is absurd, as a matter of fact, and it’s a warning sign that the speaker has lost his objectivity.
Does Biden, the man, honestly believe that the woman he chose as his vice president, Kamala Harris, is not capable of serving as his replacement or running successfully against Trump?
LET’S LOOK MORE CLOSELY at what Joe Biden, a man, and a responsible one, could be doing.
He could candidly confront what went wrong during the debate, and, if he doesn’t know, he should get to the bottom of it – then share his insights with the public.
After all, it was Biden who challenged Trump to the debate and outlined the ground rules. The goal was to jump-start his stalled campaign. Biden did just the opposite.
It was all Biden’s doing, not the people who have reacted to his failed performance. He was impaired that night; he should find out how and why, and outline a plan to how he can overcome it, or, if necessary, how he'll get out of the race.
As to how he could respond to his fellow Democrats, who are as alarmed as Biden is about the consequences of a Trump presidency, he should embrace them, listen to them, work with them, rather than challenge their loyalty and character.
Two reasons:
One, is that he might learn something from them. They voted for him, supported him, trusted him, celebrated him. Now, their futures are imperiled.
Two, the worst thing that can happen to the Democrats is to fight among themselves. A splintered party has zero chances of winning on Nov. 5.
Instead, Biden is using his position as president, the leader of his party, the winner in the primary races, to divide people into enemies and allies. Echoes of Donald Trump, and Dick Nixon.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS interviews President Biden. CREDIT: ABC news
FINALLY, BACK TO THE “TRUTH.”
If Biden, the man, were being honest about a sincere exploration of what went wrong, and what the country can do about, I think he would have broad support.
Instead, he’s given a number of questionable excuses for what went wrong and downplayed the seriousness of his disastrous appearance.
On July 5, Biden sat down for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which was supposed to show that the man we saw on June 27 was an aberration. Here’s some of the transcript:
If Biden, the man, were being honest about a sincere exploration of what went wrong, and what the country can do about, I think he would have broad support.
Instead, he’s given a number of questionable excuses for what went wrong and downplayed the seriousness of his disastrous appearance.
On July 5, Biden sat down for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which was supposed to show that the man we saw on June 27 was an aberration. Here’s some of the transcript:
| BIDEN: It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and — and a bad night. STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you say you were exhausted. And — and I know you’ve said that before as well, but you came — and you did have a tough month. But you came home from Europe about 11 or 12 days before the debate, spent six days in Camp David. Why wasn’t that enough rest time, enough recovery time? BIDEN: Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact, the docs with me, I asked if they did a Covid test because they’re trying to figure out what was wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold. STEPHANOPOULOS: And — did you ever watch the debate afterwards? BIDEN: I don’t think I did, no. |
Really?
Biden, the man, did not watch a replay of the debate, the event he planned would turn the race around, but which did the opposite?
How could any man, woman, anyone, not watch the replay? And if not, why not?
Joe Biden is now a shadow of the man who’s had an exemplary presidency. He’s emerged as a selfish, untruthful bully, who is dividing his party and country.
This should be the old Joe Biden’s finest moment: a good man, leading the country to solve a catastrophic problem in an impossibly short length of time, listening, learning, healing and unifying.
I’m dismayed by the new Joe Biden. Of course, I'll vote for him, if it comes to that.
But I sure miss the old one.
Biden, the man, did not watch a replay of the debate, the event he planned would turn the race around, but which did the opposite?
How could any man, woman, anyone, not watch the replay? And if not, why not?
Joe Biden is now a shadow of the man who’s had an exemplary presidency. He’s emerged as a selfish, untruthful bully, who is dividing his party and country.
This should be the old Joe Biden’s finest moment: a good man, leading the country to solve a catastrophic problem in an impossibly short length of time, listening, learning, healing and unifying.
I’m dismayed by the new Joe Biden. Of course, I'll vote for him, if it comes to that.
But I sure miss the old one.
Election Countdown
4 MONTHS LEFT; STILL TIME
FOR THE RIGHT DEMOCRAT
TO DEFEAT DONALD TRUMP
NOTE: Things are changing fast, so that anything I’m writing now might be out-of-date and irrelevant as you’re reading this.
THERE ARE ONLY FOUR MONTHS to go until the Nov. 5 election, and the astonishing events of the past two weeks mean that there’s almost no time to waste to ensure a positive outcome.
Which is different than saying time has run out. Or, practically speaking, there’s no time left. Or that it’s a scientific fact that there’s insufficient time.
The consequences of Donald Trump returning to the White House are too awful for our country, and really, the rest of the world, meaning that while there is still an opportunity for a Democratic win, we must take full advantage.
EVERYTHING CHANGED for the country on June 27, when President Joe Biden put on the most devastating public demonstration of incompetence and unfitness to campaign or to hold office in the history of politics, and this goes for things that really happened in the past, or have been imagined in great fiction, like a Shakespearean tragedy.
I wish that was an exaggeration.
But if you’re like me, you’ve had enough space to have processed how terrible Biden’s part of the “debate” was and to have reached some conclusions.
Mine are simple:
I want Joe Biden gone from the race, fast; and for him to be replaced by someone terrific.
I HOPED HE WOULD QUIT on July Fourth, which would have been a perfect patriotic occasion.
But the day after will do. Supposedly, he’s to do a TV interview that night. That, too, would be fine moment for an announcement. So would Biden standing on a White House balcony and shouting: “I’m toast.”
Heck, Fifth Avenue would do, watching Trump around shooting people, now that the Supreme Court says anything he does is okay.
What I don’t want to hear is another word out of Biden’s mouth, other than “I will no longer be a candidate; if nominated, I will not accept.”
Same goes for his campaign, his “team,” his “advisors,” his family, including Dr. Jill (not a medical doctor) and especially Hunter Biden, who belongs in jail, not at Camp David strategy sessions urging Dad to keep on keeping on.
I don’t want to hear about what a great president he’s been, or what a debt we owe him for keeping Trump at bay four years ago, or that he’s a nice guy. That’s all just more “malarkey,” as Joe might have put in the days when he had something to say.
IF THERE’S the slightest chance that Joe Biden is, in any way, still functional during some part of any day or night or week, and if he retains the ability to say something spontaneously and without the help of electronic devices, it should be that he understands that he is not fit to seek a second term and will release delegates pledged to him at the national convention.
It would be nice if Biden’s withdrawal includes an apology, but none is needed. Because after what he put us and the rest of the country through two Thursdays ago, who cares whether he’s sorry, only that he’s gone.
MANY UNKNOWNS REMAIN in the next four months, but one thing is absolutely certain: Joe Biden cannot win.
After his babbling, incoherent, slack-jawed debacle at the “debate” with Donald Trump, Biden cannot be considered a serious candidate, and it would be a betrayal for those of us who believe in Democracy to pretend he can or should.
I personally want someone I can absolutely believe in, and her name is not Kamala Harris.
A lot of people don’t like Harris. For me, her name now brings unpleasant associations. The fact that she's vice president does not mean she's entitled for consideration; to the contrary, she's dropped from my list as being part of the Fib Machine that hid the fact that Biden’s brain has been on the blink.
I’m inspired by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
You may have someone else in mind.
I’ll be right beside you, as long as she or he, can win.
So, Democrats, let’s get moving.
And fast.
While there’s still time.
BRIAN C. JONES
I'VE BEEN a reporter and writer for 60 years, long enough to have learned that journalists don't know very much, although I've met some smart ones.
Mainly, what reporters know comes from asking other people questions and fretting about their answers.
This blog is a successor to one inspired by our dog, Phoebe, who was smart, sweet and the antithesis of Donald Trump. She died Feb. 3, 2022, and I don't see getting over that very soon.
Occasionally, I think about trying to reach her via cell phone.
Mainly, what reporters know comes from asking other people questions and fretting about their answers.
This blog is a successor to one inspired by our dog, Phoebe, who was smart, sweet and the antithesis of Donald Trump. She died Feb. 3, 2022, and I don't see getting over that very soon.
Occasionally, I think about trying to reach her via cell phone.
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