November 10, 2023

"I’m just saying he has a path to victory. As the former Obama adviser David Axelrod has been saying, Biden has to make this a comparison election..."

"... him versus Trump. And I’d add that he has to make this a prosaic election. It’s not which of these two men do you dislike least, it’s which set of goods do you want to buy: low prescription drug prices or higher ones, some student debt forgiveness or none, abundant infrastructure jobs or few? If Biden can make this about concrete benefits to everyday Americans, I suspect he’ll be fine."

Writes David Brooks, in "Democrats: You Can Chill Out Now!" (NYT).

44 comments:

Jim at said...

And this is what passes for 'conservative' commentary from the NYT.

Thanks. Hard pass.

Sebastian said...

"Biden has to make this a comparison election..."

True. Trump is the Dems' best weapon.

"It’s not which of these two men do you dislike least"

OK, but that's not how women vote. TDS runs wide and deep.

"low prescription drug prices or higher ones"

And no new drugs in the future.

"some student debt forgiveness or none"

Forget Congress, forget the Supreme Court, let Joe just buy some votes.

"abundant infrastructure jobs or few?"

But don't tell miners and auto workers and folks in the oil fields and refineries that they'll become superflous, or the wind turbine builders that their companies are going broke. And whatever you do, don't spill the secret that going green means going into red--debt and loss and a lower standard of living. Enjoy the "abundance"!

tommyesq said...

Biden has no way of offering any of those things, and will screw tou economically, socially and geopolitically in the process. I would vote to have no president over him.

rcocean said...

Isn't it hilarious that for years Brooks pretended to be a Republican and some sort of Conservative? He and his fans actually trashed W.F. Buckley for not making him editor of national review instead of Rich Lowrey.

In the 90s when I watched PBS Newshour, it was only Right: so-and-so and on left: Mark Shields. Now, in 2023: its Brooks, mr. big business liberal and biden supporter vs. someone who is even further to the Left. Mostly they just argue over who hates Trump more.

As for Biden's "Path to victory", he's probably going to win, not because he's done a good job, but because BIden's stalinist DOJ will put Trump in Jail, or the DNC will rig the ballots or because enough dumb "Yellow Dog Democrats" will vote for him. No doubt if Biden really gets in trouble, Mittens or some other GOPe type will run 3rd party.

Gusty Winds said...

Whoever the Democrats nominate, they will have absentee voter fraud on their side. Trump has to overcome that margin.

David Brooks knows this; just like everyone else. That's why this dickhead thinks "Biden" will be fine. What an asshole.

How much of his Ivory Tower millions has David Brooks put toward student dept relief? NONE!

Skeptical Voter said...

Well Brooksie can you point out some of those "benefits" that Biden is supposedly passing on to Americans. I'm looking at $6 a gallon plus in some parts of California; $8 bags of potato chips; rotten public schools indoctrinating kids with all sorts of queer ideas; a $20 billion and rising choo choo high speed train to nowhere in the Central Valley. Mortgage interest rates rising so high that even if a couple could afford a house a year ago, they can't do so today.

Yeah, those Biden benefits just keep piling up on my doorstep. I'm overwhelmed by how good they all are.

Political Junkie said...

I am not a Brooks fan overall, but I think his point is valid. GWB in 2004 had to make it about Kerry vs. Bush, not just the Iraq war as D's and Kerry wanted to frame.

rehajm said...

Panic.

Josephbleau said...

Axelrod offers short term solutions for a Presidential Candidate with a short term horizon. "What, Me Worry?" says 80 year old beiden.

Yancey Ward said...

If no one has to buy any groceries over the next year, Biden should do ok in the election.

Mason G said...

"If Biden can make this about concrete benefits to everyday Americans..."

Apparently, "everyday Americans" don't include people who either didn't go to college or paid off their loans if they did. Because Mr. Brooks seems to be advocating for those people to be held responsible for helping to pay off loans taken out by others, who would rather not be bothered doing it themselves.

lonejustice said...

I'm so old I remember in the Old Days when Brooks was the astute conservative counter point to Mark Shields on PBS. I really liked him back then. But times have changed.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"If Biden can make this about concrete benefits to everyday Americans, I suspect he’ll be fine."

It is with great sadness that I regret to inform everyone of the permanent and unrecoverable psychosis of David Brooks. He has passed from hallucination into complete delusion. Pray for him. Pray for his family in their hour of need.

Rusty said...

Oh, Yes. Let's make this a comparison election. Please.

Sir Loin said...

If the RNC hasn’t organized an army of volunteer poll inspectors, this trouser crease lover may be right.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"some student debt forgiveness or none"

I was just speaking with a colleague who mentioned that if student loan forgiveness goes through, neither he nor millions of Americans will plan for their children's college futures or save for them. After introducing such a moral hazard why would any thinking person not assume that it's done once, it will be done multiple times, just like immigration amnesties?

Oh, save for Jimmy's college? Don't worry snookums Jimmy will get his loans forgiven just like Jerry's son a few years ago! Then Jimmy's kids will get theirs in a decade or so, and so on, and so on... Hell, even I would think about it for my boys. Why plan? Why pay? Planning and paying is clearly for suckers.

Words fail to express my hatred for the current administration.

madAsHell said...

......because Biden is incomparable.

Iman said...

Brooksie is showing up and collecting that paycheck.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Debt forgiveness?

You pay back your damn loans...
Only a party of a-holes and cheats would demand such lunacy.

Bob Boyd said...

Democrats don't want to chill out. They're fighting Hitler and the Nazis to save the world!! Well...except the part about the Jews...somehow that got a little mixed up this time around, but heck, nobody's perfect, right?

Dude1394 said...

As usual, the elite don’t know a damn thing about how many people are struggling to pay the rent, pay energy bills, buy food, buy a house. Biden and the democrats have decimated the middle class.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Calm down... the dems still have vote fraud.

Amadeus 48 said...

Free stuff isn’t free.

walter said...

Pedo Pete vs Mean Tweets.
Secure border vs rape trees and 10 million illegals in Joementia's term.

Breezy said...

73% of Dems think Biden is too old and don’t think he should be re-elected, agreeing with the rest of us that clearly see his decline. With now two wars underway, we need a leader who is both cognizant and not on vacation or sleeping. Nor bribing foreign countries for millions for whatever gift in return. Do these narrative engineers not understand that Biden is corrupt? Brooks should go iron some pants and let us voters figure this out.

Ampersand said...

The notion that jess plain ordinary folks are hovering at the government tit, endlessly grateful for the generosity of a Democratic Party that has borrowed the milk from our grandchildren, is the basis for American politics since the New Deal. Someday things will change. A lot.

Original Mike said...

"If Biden can make this about concrete benefits to everyday Americans, I suspect he’ll be fine."

Yeah. Go with that.

Big Mike said...

I think David Brooks may be right; Joe Biden is the best hope for the Democrats in 2024.

walter said...

Blogger I stand w Isreal. Leftists, Mullahs, Hamas-Palistinian terrorists can suck it said...
Calm down... the dems still have vote fraud.
--
The injection of doubt re Joementia does feel like a psy-op to distract from this.

Joe Smith said...

Conservative David Brooks?

If anyone thinks they are doing better under Biden they are either lying or a brain-dead Democrat...

Oso Negro said...

If Democrat election workers can do their magic in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, I suspect Joe Biden will be fine.

Readering said...

This analysis won't go over here in AA's curated MAGA land, but makes sense elsewhere.

Paul said...

"If Biden can make this about concrete benefits to everyday Americans, I suspect he’ll be fine."

What benefits? The last three years have been a nightmare.

Inflation.. stagflation... wars... monstrous national debt... sky high gas prices... just to name a few... And a recession is pretty much here.

Those are some benefits!

PM said...

Like any path Biden is on, he'll wander off it.

chickelit said...

Biden’s idea of how to counter inflation is to import as many low-wage medo-Americans as possible. Of course this might backfire with legal Hispanic voters and I hope it does—I hope that the “permanent D-majority” fails so hard that the tide actually turns.
But won’t because….selfish!

Bunkypotatohead said...

Shouldn't that headline have been:
"Democrats: We Can Chill Out Now!"

holdfast said...

Today, Grand Central Station in New York City was shut down by a violent mob openly supporting the terrorist group that murdered 1,200 Jews about a month ago.

Yes, Biden is doing an amazing job of keeping this country on the right track. I mean sure he has to sleep about 21 hours a day, but in those other three hours he is absolutely kicking ass.

Meanwhile, Biden’s thug DOJ is investigating the mayor of New York City. Now objectively speaking, the mayor is probably corrupt AF, but that’s not why he’s being investigated. He’s being investigated because he had the temerity to criticize Biden‘s open border policy, specifically the rather expensive consequences of that policy for New York City. Obviously that sort of reservation-leaving is not permitted in the Democrat party.

rhhardin said...

The Ring goes to the brother most loved

Judge: Which one you do the other two dislike least?

Rusty said...

Readering said...
"This analysis won't go over here in AA's curated MAGA land, but makes sense elsewhere."
Hurts when you can't make a reasoned, cogent argument for progressivism. Doesn't it?
I don't know. I'm not irrational. Tell ya what. Vote for Biden again.

Mark said...

David Pants Crease Brooks is an idiot even in his idiocy. Follow his advice and Biden will crash and burn.

OF COURSE Biden's "path to victory" is "which of these two men do you dislike least." Has Brooks been so sure of himself ensconced up his rear end that he hasn't noticed the last several election results where Trump personally was the number one issue? Didn't he notice 2020 when Trump LOST to a buffoon dunce campaigning from his basement? Against Trump's record of great accomplishments, the loss was completely personal, not business.

Laughing Fox said...

Concrete benefits to all Americans.

Buy them off! Too bad all the Americans have to pay for the benefits, even those they individually don't use. Meanwhile, they all have to obey lots more regulations constricting what they can do themselves to improve their lives.

Brooks doesn't seem to realize that more taxes, more inflation (caused by more government debt) and more regulation all put iron limits on what Americans of all descriptions can do for themselves.

Joe Bar said...

Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lyin' eyes?!

Drago said...

Readering: "This analysis won't go over here in AA's curated MAGA land, but makes sense elsewhere."

Ooooooooh, "curated MAGA land"!

LOL

I think you meant to write "free wheeling, free expression site, outside the rigorous controls of the New Soviet Democratical Party and their deep state Censorship Industrial Complex".

Waaaaayyy too much independent thought going on around here for readering's delicate and lefty/woke-curated feelings!

Hey readering, I hear Threads is a "fun" forum...why dont you check it out...it sounds really safe and warm and fuzzy....

Howard (not that Howard) said...

Shorter David Brooks: Once the people figure out they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury, democracy is finished.