I'm reading "Biden advisers pushed early Trump debate to reach ‘widest audience possible,’ leaked memo reveals" (NY Post).
The bold and capitalized YOU and YOUR looks like something from a scammy advertisement aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.
I don't for one minute believe the advisers believed the assertions in the memo. I will be presuming that they could see he was going to be incapable of appearing competent and that they needed to push him to release his hold on the nomination, and they only wanted to do that once the primaries were over and it was too late to do anything but advance Kamala Harris. So they conned him into humiliating himself in the debate and giving the media the basis for declaring him unfit — as if they just noticed — and demanding that he withdraw.
The advisers were not mistaken. They knew what they were doing. They were lying. And they were devious. Let me restate that. THEY knew what THEY were doing. THEY were lying. And THEY were devious.
That's my presumption. Prove me wrong.
Posts
141 comments:
don't forget!
Biden challenged Trump to the debate..
ASSUMING that Trump would decline.
When Trump accepted.. Biden's Presidency was OVER
Well, that didn't work now. Did it?
These advisors - inadvertently - did the Republic a great favor. With the debate and Kamala's miserable campaign, they showed the entire country what lying, dumb and incompetent leadership the Dems have. Even without Butler, Trump would have won.
I want the Dems to continue to push their commie/woke agenda and nominate candidates with those views. The contrast with these lunatics and the success of the Trump Administration will become more and more stark and cement the GOP in control for the next 20 years.
I want to see the Dems so badly defeated that they are forced to admit their defeat and finally change.
Lying and acting with malice? The Devil you say!
..." I will be presuming that they could see he was going to be incapable of appearing competent and that they needed to push him out, and they only wanted to do that once the primaries were over and it was too late to do anything but advance Kamala Harris.'..."
Used him up and left him by the curb. Was this after Obama had visited the White House and had his briefing with his appointed staff there, 'giving sage advice'? I agree with the first part, but not the second. I still think Kamala is 'Joe's revenge', and I think it infuriated Obama.
That TV show "YOU are there" freaked me out as a kid.
How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?
There are at least a thousand people in DC and around the country including Barrack Obama who knew Biden was a puppet and they were running the country with an auto pen.
They are all traitors and seditionists.
They should be treated like traitors and seditionists.
Seems like a solid hypothesis. Maybe presumptuous that They wanted Harris, rather than simply the ability to pick anybody They wanted. However, assuming They did any of these things, then Harris would be as easy for Them to control as anybody else. Walz seems another pick for someone They could control.
"That's my presumption. Prove me wrong."
A literal "change my mind" post by Prof. Althouse. Love it.
Two theories fit this- the advisers were trying to set Biden up so that they could dump him at the convention or they never once thought Trump would accept a debate. I give both theories about equal weight.
Biden was the worst President in American History.
"Prove me wrong."
Begley: "These advisors - inadvertently - did the Republic a great favor. "
Kind of like how Teddy Kennedy defeated communism, by weakening Carter in the primaries so Reagan could move right in and save the free world.
Never know where your heroes are going to come from.
RR
JSM
An alternate view:
Biden was greatly diminished. The Democrats and their echo chamber MSM did all they could to cover. But by the spring the ground swell of, "Oh crap, there's no there, there." Was bursting through the narrative.
Biden's handlers may have thought with proper staging, proper timing and the miracle of modern pharma they could squeeze one more performance out of that empty skin sack.
It worked (for some) with the State of the Union Address. One more Hail Mary launched towards the end zone.
The pick six was likely but not guarantied.
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?"
They only needed to think it was their best option. Maybe they asked her to withdraw herself and she wouldn't.
I think they waited so long because they knew she was not a good alternative and they only stuck with Biden so long because they did know she'd be bad. But then Biden was headed downward so quickly she became better than he was.
Were THEY all of one mind and on the same page? Maybe some of them - the family, for example - believed that with enough preparation and the right cocktail of drugs that Biden could pull it off -- or that some unexpected event would take Trump out of the race.
Wut…
Exclusive: DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no "client list," died by suicide ~ Axios
So… Ghislaine Maxwell is currently in prison for sex trafficking underage girls to no one?
She trafficked girls to Epstein. That's what she was charged with and what she was convicted of.
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?"
If they wanted to replace Biden, I will assume that Harris was never part of the equation- the plan was someone else. One of the unexplained things about Biden's withdrawal was that tweet that appeared soon after the letter was sent where Biden endorsed Harris as the replacement on the ticket. I have always thought that tweet might have been sent by a Harris loyalist or Biden's wife just pissed off at the DNC.
They had done so much to destroy Trump, so they were supposed to win with whatever candidate they happened to have. But Biden couldn't even stand up and seem like a normal guy. So they swapped in the fully functioning human, Kamala Harris. They branded her with the concept "joy" and they stuck to that.
"Fully functioning human" seems the wrong descriptin for Harris or is just a too low bar.
Whatever plot there was to get Biden out of the White House, it was a virtuous one.
As usual, perhaps you don't credit malice when incompetence is also a possibility.
How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?
This from the man who was all-in for Vivek Ramaswamy.
Dave Begley said...
How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?
People massively underestimate how much different things became after musk bought twitter.
If they had full control of social media like they did in 2020 they could have mailed in millions of ballots again and controlled the information space around the election.
But they didn’t and they couldn’t.
I wonder why the Biden folks did not avoid all debates, period.
"or they never once thought Trump would accept a debate."
Our lefty commenters were big on "Trump will never agree to debate". Rich especially.
Now that ICE will have thousands more agents and material support they will be able to get the millions of illegals democrats are exploiting for cheap labor out.
But on the political front democrats are going to lose a massive number of mail in ballots and they are going to lose a lot of electoral and congressional seats.
Most urban democrat districts are stuffed full of illegals that were inflating census numbers for these districts.
The tears are about to flow even more than they are now.
"That TV show "YOU are there" freaked me out as a kid."
The TV show "YOU Asked For It" got me as a kid.
Yancey Ward said, "'Fully functioning human' seems the wrong descriptin for Harris or is just a too low bar."
You see, she was born in a middle-class household...
"Maybe some of them - the family, for example - believed that with enough preparation and the right cocktail of drugs that Biden could pull it off --"
They may have believed Joe's State of the Union performance demonstrated this.
"Fully functioning human", I'm thinking dog owner.
Harris' big advantage with a portion of the electorate is that she wasn't Trump. She got millions of votes not because she was Kamala Harris but because she wasn't Trump.
"YOU are old, father William," the young man said,
"And YOUR hair has become very white;
And yet YOU incessantly stand on YOUR head
Do YOU think, at YOUR age, it is right?"
"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it would injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"YOU are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet YOU turned a back-somersault in at the door
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box
Allow me to sell you a couple."
"YOU are old," said the youth, "and YOUR jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet YOU finished the goose, with the bones and the beak
Pray, how did YOU manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"YOU are old," said the youth; one would hardly suppose
That YOUR eye was as steady as ever;
Yet YOU balanced an eel on the end of YOUR nose
What made YOU so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"
The electorate was expected to just switch their human.
I’d say that’s decent analysis Ann but how late did YOU conclude the comments about Joe were not conspiracy? I recall ‘what he needed to do’ attitude as late as SOTU coming from YOU. Given that you were prolly not the only one cabal Biden could have believed they could still drag him across the finish line with one ‘good enough’ appearance against Trump.
Also keep in mind since his cabal has never been definitively identified they could all be stupid…
The bold and capitalized YOU and YOUR looks like something from a scammy advertisement aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.
It worked, didn't it?
That's my presumption. Prove me wrong.
Why would I do that? I'm pretty sure you're right.
They, whoever they are, let Harris be anointed because they could not tell their base that the ranking minority woman was incompetent. They knew it, but they feared dumping Harris for Newsom would have caused many black women to stay home.
tcrosse said, "She got millions of votes not because she was Kamala Harris but because she wasn't Trump."
TDS, the silent killer. And from the looks of things, the progressive patients are terminal.
"YOU are getting old. YOUR brain might be mush by the fall. We are all worried about YOU but since YOU pay us we will continue to force YOU to run. Also YOUR wife scares us."-Jarvis on X
Wait ... you mean to tell me the people running the Democrat Party - Barack Obama and Valerie Jarret - you're telling me they're assholes and they set Biden up?
Noooooo.
This is all just to detract from the massive criminal heist the Democrat Party pulled off in the last 3 months of this dementia patient's residency:
The theft of $2 trillion tax dollars.
And it appears Donald Trump has cut a deal: lay off me, and I won't arrest any of ya'll, but I'm taking the proof with me when I leave the White House.
Wasn't there an incident when one of Biden's prompt cards with "YOU" instructions turned up in a photo or on video because Joe held it wrong?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhtK5TqWYAEQkR7.jpg:large
https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/03/Biden-Notecard.jpg
Our lefty commenters were big on "Trump will never agree to debate". Rich especially.
Who's Rich?
The polling when Biden was candidate was supremely awful. Democrats were not going to turn out.
Kamala didn't win, but she pulled more voters out and probably saved the bacon of the Dems in the senate.
“ How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?”
Maybe with a little help from Dominion …
It's unreal how democrats can still support their party after what they pulled last year. Their own party literally gave their electorate the finger, and millions of them are only too happy to bend over well-of-the-senate-staff-style and lubelessly ask for more.
A bucket of incorrigibles.
“aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.”
In this case, aiming to separate an exceedingly weak-minded codger from his ravings…
you realize 'they aren't that smart'
All the instructions from the staff to Biden capitalized and bolded YOU, e.g. "YOU greet the Prime Minister." It was S.O.P.
Given that the staff closest to Biden were people who'd been with him for many years and who had no hope of a serious job in an incoming administration of anyone other than Biden, it strains credulity to think they wanted his senescence to be exposed in a debate.
It seems plausible to me that THEY thought that the mental clarity drugs would work, and that even if they didn't, the media would succeed in once again gaslighting the public to disbelieve their lying eyes and ears. They just had to drag the corpse across a November finish line, and the Dem voting public's credulousness seemed infinite.
Who's Rich?
The sockpuppet that now goes by the name Kak#$@% used to go by the nom de guerre "Rich", as in "I'm a Dick". He was more honest then. Ironically, if you invest opposite of what the sockpuppet writes, then you can become rich.
“aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.”
Netflix "I care a lot" (2020)
@Achilles: "There are at least a thousand people in DC and around the country including Barrack Obama who knew Biden was a puppet and they were running the country with an auto pen."
Make the majority of all Biden voters, and every woke Democrats who followed James Clyburn in annointing sleepy Joe in 2020. The deal was: "Safe" Joe gets to be the figurehead, while the CBC, anonymous Party committees, and megadonors set the agenda. This was clear after the circular firing squad debate that destroyed Kamala and Bloomberg in 2020.
The Democrats accused Reagan of being an empty nothing from 1984 to 1988 (as Alzheimer's really did start to grab him). The learned from that period and then did it consciously with Joe. They also had a rude awakening about why "Great Man" theories of political science and history exist -- Trump was a prime example.
Remeber this? LOL. Biden threatens Trump to debate him! Make his day!
... or take Trump behind the bleachers.
This will all be documented with pornographic flair in the medium future, so as to extract the last ounce of blood money from the deed. We shall simply shake our greying heads while we mutter "everybody knew that, you fools."
Be as cynical as you can, times that by three, and you'll approach the reality of it.
Biden's aides were not stupid. They knew that it would be an electoral disaster if an obviously senile Biden was on the ticket in November.
Kamala Harris was a warm body, so they had to run her. Maybe they hoped that one of their faithful would have made Trump a room temperature body by the time of the election.
"'In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos,' it continues."
Well, that worked.
Author/s of the memo now working at the EU predicting the positive outcomes sure to flow from unlimited Muslim immigration policies.
Occam's razor, given JB's four-year pattern of exiting stages and speeches in the wrong direction. YOUR communications team wouldn't let such a basic, fixable mistake persist unless YOU consistently dismiss their advice.
It was a no-win situation for Biden's handlers... they knew neither Biden nor Kamala were fit for the office but senile Joe was the worst of the two... so they picked him to go down.
Smells bogus to me.
Jill Biden certainly signed off on this.
FF: Yes, I was for Vivek but after he dropped out I was all in on Trump. Trump's second term is 10x better than his first. 1. Better people. 2. He's the hunter; not the hunted.
Aggie said..
" I still think Kamala is 'Joe's revenge', and I think it infuriated Obama."
yes, i agree; NO ONE mentioned Kammy K*cksucker, until Biden did, and then they were stuck.. And it truly SUCKED.
Dave Begley said...
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?"
Aggie's premise (with which i TOTALLY AGREE), is that NO ONE thought she could..
Again.. NO ONE mentioned Kammy K*cksucker, until Biden did, and then they were stuck.. And it truly SUCKED.
YOU. Do dementia patients have a problem maintaining a sense of self? Perhaps the intent was to (metaphorically) whack him upside the head; YOU means YOU, buddy.
Dave Begley said...
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?"
I would have loved to have been in the room when that decision was made.
“The bold and capitalized YOU and YOUR looks like something from a scammy advertisement aiming to separate weak-minded seniors from their life savings.”
Did they offer him a reverse mortgage, too?
wait a tick, your senior advisors, which chimps wrote this memo,
Freder Frederson said...
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?
This from the man who was all-in for Vivek Ramaswamy."
You just can't help it, can you.
I remember Inga, in the days leading up to the debate, insisting that Trump would be the one to back out. She bought the media gaslighting that Joe was sharp as a tack. Joe's staffers surely knew, however. They either crossed their fingers or Althouse is right and it was a setup.
Peachy said...
"Remeber this? LOL. Biden threatens Trump to debate him! Make his day!"
thanx for the link Peachy! i was pretty sure i hadn't imagined it :)
In the first half of 2020, over 19,000 counterfeit IDs were seized. Illinois fake IDs.At Ohare. From China.
I’m going to take it on faith that Biden was tasked with actually reading the document. In which case the memo displays the lack of confidence the writers had of Bidens ability to both read and understand what was being said. That Biden wasn’t offended by its patronizing tone confirms just that.
Alternatively, I think it could be believed that the writers knew that the memo would be read to Biden, and the words in bold were meant as guide to help his reader get the point across,
Begley tried to claim: "(Trump) is the hunter; not the hunted."
Number of Epstein pedophiles arrested so far: 0
Number of Democrat USAID thieves arrested so far: 0
Stacey Abrams' $2 billion swindle: No charges
Who exactly is Trump hunting besides my lawn guy?
I'm not convinced they (THEY) wanted Harris. I'm of the general opinion that the PTB wanted someone other than Harris and were going to have an open convention to get that, but then the Bidens were so angry they put out the tweet saying they supported Harris as the new nominee and scotched the open convention plan.
Leland said:
[Rich is] the sockpuppet that now goes by the name Kak#$@% used to go by the nom de guerre "Rich"
Why was the name "Rich" changed? Is Rich a person? Are the Rich and Kak... names just handles used by a political or lobbying entity?
If Trump hadn't moved his head 1/2 inch, we'd be looking at POTUS Kamala.
And Trump only won by 1.5 percent. Kamala - that disaster - got 48.3 percent of the vote. Bush in 2000, got 47.9. Clinton got 49.2 against Bob "where's the outrage" Dole.
What's amazing isnt that Kamala Lost, its how close she came to winning. I don't believe Biden got 51 percent in 2020. But if "Kam" had gotten a few more votes in Michagan, GA, Winsconsin, and Pennslyvannia, she could've stolen the election just like Slow Joe did.
So, Biden's advisors had good reason to think "Kam" could pull if off.
I know that no one believes like I do that the plan was to dump Biden and install Michelle at the convention so she could run with minimal campaigning and exposure. Biden low-bridged them by naming Kamala to run. They couldn’t find away around it. It was Biden’s ‘last tag’ of his political career.
Ann Althouse said...
They had done so much to destroy Trump, so they were supposed to win with whatever candidate they happened to have.
Don't discount that optics played a part in the decision. It would not have been good for them to replace a minority woman with someone like Gavin Newsom.
"Why was the name "Rich" changed? Is Rich a person? Are the Rich and Kak... names just handles used by a political or lobbying entity?"
All good questions.
According to my sources, Biden's staff wanted to do the debate sooner rather than later because, with all the aged Dems in their leadership, they were going through their stocks of Ukrainian Orphan Blood pretty fast. There was no guarantee they'd have enough to get Joe through a debate if they waited to long.
As things turned out, it was a legitimate concern.
Everyone would have stepped aside for Michelle Obama.
Michelle herself - DOES NOT WANT the job.
I had a neutral opinion of the BBB, but I did not know the extent of great things in it, including reversing some of Biden's worst accomplishments. It really is an amazing conservative accomplishment, but with the excessive cost the Congress will always require. See partial list here:
https://dailycaller.com/2025/07/07/opinion-the-biggest-conservative-victory-in-30-years-stephen-moore/
"That's my presumption. Prove me wrong."
Kak/Richsockpuppet:
"But....tarrifs! Or something...hold on....Squirrel!"
@NorthOfTheOneOhOne: "It would not have been good for them to replace a minority woman with someone like Gavin Newsom."
The older Democrats seem to desperately want Newsom and his type to take the reins from the wobbly woke women of color. For quite a few years California, was governed by centrist "business Democrats" who kept a leash on the crazies. Now, the wobblies become Press Secretaries and SC Justices.
Optics replaced substance with Trump Derangement Syndrome and then George Floyd Derangement Syndrome and then We-Don't-Need-No-Stinkin'-Borders Derangement Syndrome and then Let-Men-In-Drag-Crush-Bio-Women Transgender Derangement Syndrome.
The trouble is that social media optics are the only thing their targeted voters pay attention to these days. Instagram clips of Kamala hosting pop concerts sure is a lot more interesting to them than a dry speech by Joe or Gavin. Bud Light thought clips of a guy with a custom beer can would grab attention and a new market too...
Why would anyone assume a hambone like Trump wouldn't want to debate? What, he passed on one early debate, one time?
FLC: "Number of Epstein pedophiles arrested so far: 0;
Number of Democrat USAID thieves arrested so far: 0;
Stacey Abrams' $2 billion swindle: No charges"
I will be charitable and presume you are unaware of (rather than willfully ignoring) the turmoil within the US Attorney's Offices.
Even after the firings and resignations of blatantly anti-Trump Assistant US Attorneys, the remnant consists largely of burrowed-in woke lawyers who have no appetite for going after any of the targets you mention.
And even if they were all rabid hat-wearing MAGAites, there aren't that many of them. Someone has to do the garden-variety cases.
Plus, even the hat-wearers would have justifiable fear of what would happen to them in 2029 if the Dems come back.
So the Trump US Attorneys have to balance their whole caseload and choose the AUSAs carefully to work on these cases.
Finally, for all we know, there may be groups of hat-wearing rabid MAGA AUSAs working on all these cases right now, in the appropriate secrecy of a high-profile investigation that needs to be kept low-profile. And these things just take time, especially when you are not jumping straight to interviewing the suspect and trapping him in a process crime.
RR
JSM
The way I understand it, Foreign Leaders were also Talking To The Vegetable Urging Him to debate. Indeed according to Slow Joe, Foreign Leaders are still Urging Him to Get Involved.
It could well be that the poor old guy's staff was setting him up. Call it a rare act of patriotism on their part. They'd already gotten all they wanted using the autopen.
They had the chaos meme going even back then.
Our host, who I do respect, went to far at 11:47 when she suggested that Kamala Harris was a "fully functioning human being". Yes Ms. Harris eats, sleeps, walks, breathes, goes to the bathroom and most days can dress herself unaided. But when Kamala speaks, one realizes that her mental elevator rarely reaches the mezzanine--and never gets to the second floor.
AA says: "That's my presumption. Prove me wrong"
As the old people say -- Bingo!
It seems all Democrats need in a candidate is name recognition. No accomplishments at all are required, even numerous failures are no problem.
Several things seem to be true: 1. That if the aids thought Biden would be forced out, that they must have thought that would have not lost their jobs. 2. That Biden, once forced out, chose Harris to spite those who just denied him the opportunity for a second term.
It seems to me a case of two vipers inflicting mortal wounds upon each other.
"they never once thought Trump would accept a debate."
I was talking to a very liberal neighbor the other day and out of nowhere she described Trump to me.
"not really smart"
"great marketer"
"lousy business man"
"somehow has fooled the American people"
And so on. They simply cannot accept that he is competent, articulate, and able to think on his feet. Their self-image demands that he is a fool.
I refrained from asking her that if he is such a fool, then what does that say about his opposition?
@John: "It seems to me a case of two vipers inflicting mortal wounds upon each other."
That was the Democrat's mindset as soon as TDS set in -- the moment that Hillary lost in 2016. They wanted to destroy Trump even if they also destroyed themselves or the country. When they saw the outcome of four years of Joe as a puppet...some Democrats seemingly concluded that Trump was the lesser evil...
"It's better to rule in hell than serve in heaven."
"How did those people ever think such an idiot like Harris could win?" How did the senile idiot Biden win? Maybe they thought they could do the same thing. Maybe Musk really did save the Republic by destroying twitter in time.
"Their self-image demands that he is a fool."
Or an evil genius, depending on the situation. Lefties believe both are true.
Notwithstanding her shortcomings, Kamala managed to come up with a quick billion for her campaign (it wasn't enough). This is unlikely to have come from the nickels and dimes of widows and orphans, so it's more probably from some fat cats who figured they would get an ROI from the Harris administration. In this country there's no shortage of people with more money than sense.
I wonder if the the bold type YOU and YOUR weren't placeholders in a draft with the expectation that a decision would be made later about whether to structure the memo in the third or first person? It would be a simple Word replace and fix a verb form here or there. If it was truly intended to be given to Old Joe as we see in the leak, it was obsequious and ass-licking beyond belief that should have been obvious to anyone and spiked.
- Krumhorn
Althouse said...
"...But then Biden was headed downward so quickly she became better than he was."
Better than Biden was a low bar.
I think you can see the strategy being gamed out:
Biden was sliding in polls. Trump had his number.
But if Biden could challenge Trump to a debate and have Trump demure, that would inoculate Biden.
If they do a debate and Biden does okay or well, that's fine. Don't do any more after that.
If Biden craps the bed do this early enough to allow a replacement but late enough to avoid a bruising primary. Yes, you're stuck with the black female, but those are also voters that would be really angry if a white guy took over, and making Trump talk about a black woman...you know there's a small possibility he says something REALLY bad.
They probably convinced themselves she was decent enough.
So this plan offers a lot of good forks in the road for them.
Trump refuses? Biden inoculated.
Trump debates? Risk of Good, Neutral, or Bad outcome.
If bad outcome, you can replace Biden with Kamala.
And she at least saved them some Senate seats.
If Biden had kept running, AZ and NV senators would be GOP.
tcrosse said, "In this country there's no shortage of people with more money than sense."
A fool and their money are soon donors to the "Joy" campaign.
I had assumed some big donors demanded the early debate for Biden to prove his viability, but maybe they worked through his advisors instead of directly. Wise move if they did, but their money was still wasted, thankfully.
It's delicious to remember all the people who invested so much time and money (and credibility) in Hillary for decades, all for naught. The Bidens must have been so jealous to be stuck in the minor leagues for so long.
“I brought teh tariff
But I did not bring insanity”
—— Rasta Donald Trump
How do you get a job as a political consultant? You convince some inexperienced or even stupid candidate that you can make him or her a perfectly articulate winner. That cockiness or arrogance stays with you. If you do lose, you blame the candidate, but beforehand you're likely to believe that you can turn any sow's ear into a silk purse and drag even the stupidest candidate across the finish line.
Biden was not sharp in the 2016 debate either, but the moderator, as always, fought Trump and supported the Democrat, even doing some of the arguing when needed, and we know the lies now were bald-faced and known to Biden.
They were hoping that would save him again.
Can you even imagine a debate where the treatment of the Republican vs the Democrat was reversed. Yea, me neither, and I don't want that, but c'mon man.
IMany suspected from the beginning that they messed with his meds. He looked like a zombie, and all the media was prepared to criticize him after spending 4 years praising him.
This story lends credence to the supposition.
Biden was set-up and deserves a do-over.
“Why was the name "Rich" changed? Is Rich a person? Are the Rich and Kak... names just handles used by a political or lobbying entity?”
I don’t understand your obsession with commenters here being associated with or employed by some “political or lobbying entity”. It hasn’t occurred to you that there are individuals who comment who are not being paid or employed and comment because they damn well want to? Why are you convinced that anyone who doesn’t support Trump or Trumpism isn’t a legitimate commenter commenting of their own volition?
Never underestimate the power of fantasy and wish fulfillment among the Democratic rank and file. The power cliques know this, dress up their strategic power plays in the garb of moral superiority unveil the plan to the mindless mannequins. Then the strutting begins. (Decarbonization illustrates this.)
They got away with it in 2020. That right there feeds the fantasy.
Who are the voices in the clique behind Biden and who is predominant? The truth is in that answer.
Iman: "I brought da tariff" is genius!
RR
JSM
I don't buy the deliberate sabotage idea. As the Tapper book illustrated, Biden's aides had the best gig on the planet and they weren't going to voluntarily give it up. As Harun pointed out above they thought the odds would break in their favor given that there were multiple positive outcomes for them. Trump could decline, or he could do poorly. If Biden flopped, more than likely Harris would have to lean on them since she didn't have her own POTUS-level campaign staff. I can see this being the 'buck up' memo to get Biden in the mood to issue the challenge.
As I've said before, the basic problem was they outsmarted themselves. Trump wasn't forced to drop out by setting the ground rules to (supposedly) not favor him, nor did the lawfare against him give Biden an excuse to not platform Trump. An early debate was likely necessary to make sure the PDC was cut out of the process, too. I suspect that after 4 years they thought they had all the angles of managing Biden figured out but the one thing they didn't expect was that the debate format would end up helping Trump keep his mouth in check instead of debating with the moderators as they expected. Instead it highlighted how unable Biden was to function.
"It hasn’t occurred to you that there are individuals who comment who are not being paid or employed and comment because they damn well want to? "
Rich is the only one who I entertain the idea that he's paid. And I am far from convinced. But have you read his stuff?
This is the suspected lying by politicians that Althouse is focused on?
Has she noticed that the 47th POTUS has a problem with correctness? The first term had tens of thousands of examples. Who knows how far we are from DJT getting beyond one hundred thousand examples, now? Seems like he may get to that point before the term ends.
But Althouse is fixated on speculating re some lying in an email from Biden staffers. She's worried about trickery and deception, so email from Biden staffers is her focus. Got it.
1: The Biden Presidency was these advisors' gravy train and access to power. They did NOT want it to end
2: Harris was chosen as "replacement insurance": she is so stupid and incompetent that they figured no one would be willing to dump Joe if they were going to get her.
3: None of those advisors were part of the "Harris Team", so replacing Joe with Kamala would hit them hard.
I go with the "they knew Joe was becoming a bit more demented every day, so they got the earliest debate they could, as a 'Hail Mary' attempt to get a debate performance that wasn't completely awful
They failed, but they did their best
RideSpaceMountain said...
Biden was the worst President in American History.
"Prove me wrong."
——————————————1
Two words: Woodrow Wilson
I still say they challenged Trump hoping he would say no. They picked June so if Trump said yes they would still have time to replace him if the drugs weren't enough to make him seem sentient. When he melted down in front of everybody they had no choice but Kamala. There was talk of Michele Obama which would have been the only person that would not have lost them every black woman in the US. I don't think Michele has any desire to be president. She didn't even like being First Lady.
The contrast is absolutely clear.
Biden and his team concealed his mental decline.
Trump doesn’t make any attempt to hide his.
Luckily no one in the current administration will be accused of hiding Trump’s mental decline.
This goes back further to the shenanigans that got Biden the nomination in 2020, and the rest of the field except Bernie dropping out all at once. I doubt the cabal ever intended Biden to be President in full, and so it turned out.
Why are you convinced that anyone who doesn’t support Trump or Trumpism isn’t a legitimate commenter commenting of their own volition?
I don't know if anyone has ever considered you to be commenting on any other basis than your own volition, inga. Robert Cook the same. Kak/maybe Rich - he does a lot of "talking points." gadfly does some of that - you do too, some, but not as much as Kak - and it's not as if my side is immune from parroting talking points.
I personally have never thought any commenter here was paid, but then I am a naif about such things.
It does astonish me that Trump, the most Democrat Republican in... I don't know, maybe ever, arouses such vitriol from your side. Even the areas where he's in what is now solidly the Republican camp, such as illegal immigration, were pretty mainstream Democrat positions not long ago. Does that ever give you pause?
I mean, I think it's inarguable that the Overton window has narrowed and shifted sharply leftward (Trump has managed to pull it open, at least, even if he hasn't moved it rightward). Does it bug you at all that you've shifted with it in order to maintain your ideological purity? (Or maybe you haven't - maybe you've always been where the American Left is now, and it's only in the last few years that IT has caught up to YOU.) I ask because I was pretty nonpartisan back in the day, went Republican in the heady neocon days of the early 2000s, woke up to the ways in which nation-building is a fool's errand, and then had to look harder into my supposedly Republican positions since this one category of them had been shaken so deeply.
It turned out, for me, that I found that the underpinnings of conservative economics were firm and convincing; on the cultural battles, the conservative side is more prosocial than the progressive side and actually works in the longer term rather than just in the moment; and I can comfortably fit into the Republican party in terms of patriotism, Western culture, and optimism. How do you, who are a patriot by your own identification, square your feelings and convictions with what your side now stands for?
I thought that part of the reason for the timing of getting rid of Joe was the thought that Democrats would be able to have an open convention and someone different could be selected. In the event the Biden cabal and the Clybourn/CBC out-maneuvered the open convention faction and solidified Harris as the Manchurian candidate.
Trump doesn’t make any attempt to hide his.
Well, that would certainly explain why he's been kicking your asses for the last six months, wouldn't it?
Martin said...
When he melted down in front of everybody they had no choice but Kamala.
1: Joe screwed them with the Kamala endorsement once they forced him out.
2: They were delusional if they thought they could get anyone else and not completely lose the black female vote
3: I wrote, repeatedly, at the time that the Dems had 3 options:
I: stick with the dementia patient
II: switch to babbling moron Harris
III: Dump the black female for a white male and completely lose the DEI crowd
All three were solid losers. They went with option II, and lost every single swing State and the popular vote, even with all the games CA could play
Their ONLY chance was to have had a real primary in 2023. There was no other way to get rid of Harris without having the non-white female leftists sit out the election. Once they passed on that, they were screwed, and everything post that was just increasingly desperate Hail Mary's on the road to defeat
I'll tell you who I am sure is not paid: DINKY. Who would pay for that drivel.
IV: get another famous black woman (Moochelle)
people Keep saying; "oh, she'd SAID that she didn't want it"
I've SAID a lot of things TOO.. Doesn't mean i Meant them
kak: feces, excrement, stool, muck. rubbish, nonsense, malarkey, garbage (informal); see le dou dou.
Levi Starks at 1:15 - I agree. No one in his inner circle could be confident that he could read and comprehended a six page memo. In all probability it was read to him. And explained to him. Maybe by his wife, who thought he did very well in the debate. “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question, you knew all the facts.”
So first they had to convince her.
gilbar said...
IV: get another famous black woman (Moochelle)
Yes, lots of people talked about that one.
Have you seen any of the videos of her speaking? She's a bitter, hateful, whiny, bitch.
They could have replaced Harris with her, but I'm pretty sure she would have done even worse.
This is the creature who said on national TV that she never loved America until America elected her husband President.
This is the scum bag who got a high paying do nothing job because her husband was a US Senator, and used it to block black girls from getting the HPV vaccine "because Tuskegee".
Whatever charisma Barack has, Michelle has none.
And there's NO way they were going to allow the kind of look at their finances that would hit them if she ran for President.
Bloomberg has a lot more on the ball & political skill than Michelle does, and he utterly crashed & burned when he tried to jump in late to the Dem Primary in 2020. She's never run for anything. There's no way should could have learned how to run between July & November
"She's never run for anything."
Aside from being black and marrying Barack Obama, has she ever done anything of any significance?
“Aside from being black and marrying Barack Obama, has she ever done anything of any significance?”
She raised a family. Conservatives talk a good game about respecting stay at home moms but do they?
Fair point Eva Marie. I would say that yes, they do respect stay at home mothers. That may get a bit lost among the political point scoring that is endemic to both sides, but I would say that they respect and care about stay at home mothers.
“She raised a family. Conservatives talk a good game about respecting stay at home moms but do they?”
She even bitched and moaned about raising a family… kids… “what they do to you”. Not a fan.
I respect stay at home moms. It’s one of - if not the most - important “jobs” performed by humans, given the impact felt when it’s absent.
"She raised a family."
An honorable endeavor. Hopefully, she didn't teach them to hate this country as much as she does.
Is there a sign in sheet to use the AUTOPEN? If not, there needs to be one. There needs to be a televised AUTOPEN Commission and liberal use of the Subpoena to elicit testimony.
I know the GOP doesn't want to get their boots dirty, but they have an obligation to do so.
This is easily one of the biggest scandals ever. It makes Watergate seem tame by comparison.
Jamie at 603. Great post. Sad that it will vanish into the digital void
Incomplete narrative, as mentioned by many. Step 2 was the replacement. I find it odd that anyone thought Harris would be an improvement.
Greg The Class Traitor @ 6:19pm is probably a better reflection of my thinking than I did. To buwaya about Harris being an improvement, the keys are "who is available?" and "better than who?" Harris was actually able to physically campaign and communicate which was something Biden showed he simply could not do. Again, according to the Tapper book he couldn't even generate usable video clips to be shown at the convention. Kicking Harris to the curb after shutting down the primaries to ensure Biden was nominated was not going to be a good look for a party that was (and is) dependent on DIE supporters and beneficiaries. Not getting Biden (actually, Klain) to step aside in 2023 narrowed the Democrat's nomination choices in more than one way.
It's always easier to be a "working mom" like Michelle Obama was in Chicago when the union thugs give you a sweet $400K no-show "hospital admin" job to curry favor with your fast-rising husband. Personally I wouldn't have sent my daughter to intern with Harvey Weinstein, but you may see a parent's role differently.
Then there's this gem: This from the man who was all-in for Vivek Ramaswamy.
Comparing the talents and speaking ability? You couldn't pick a more high-contrast example of "opposite" than to compare the Indian-American Harris with fellow Indian-American Ramaswamy. He can articulate good policy as easy as breathing and can explain his tax plan with clarity before she even finishes her first cackle after saying "middle class" three times.
Finally, the salient question from above is why Kak changes his handle but not his writing style, making it easy to follow his distinctive brand of broken trains of "thought" across the various sock puppets he employs.
Fitting, really. It’s as if Biden had to be constantly reminded the memo was about him, and he wouldn’t care unless he knew the memo was about him.
DNC-" We can't let him run again. We're running out of excuses."
WH-" I know! We'll have him debate Trump again! He'll do such a crappy job that our followers will see that he can' handle the job anymore and demand we replace him."
DNC-" But who are we going to replace him with?"
long pause
WH- " How about Harris?"
DNC- "Kamala?"
WH-"Yes."
very long pause
DNC- " Brilliant!"
Not buying it. Those senior advisors were the ones running the show, and they had no interest in giving up that power. They were hoping that by holding the debate on CNN with 2 highly partisan moderators and shutting off the mikes when the other candidate was speaking they could bluff Trump into refusing to the debate, and on the off chance he did accept the moderators would do their usual “fact checks” and Trump would be as undisciplined as he was in 2020. The moderators were uncharacteristically unbiased, probably because they were being accused of being partisan beforehand, and Trump let Biden hang himself instead of making him a sympathetic character like he did the last time.
If the senior advisors gave a crap about anyone other than themselves they would have begun pushing him out a couple of years out from the election. All those same ones who pressured him after the debate could have “explained” it to him properly, step aside and go out a hero for saving the country from Trump and let them have a real primary and hand the nomination to the new guard or they’ll 25th his ass. Nobody wanted Kamala, and by intentionally torpedoing him that late they were almost certain to be stuck with her. Nope, they thought they could drag his desiccated corpse across the line, keep on running the country themselves, and maybe let him step aside for health reasons, since they almost surely knew about the cancer, and let Kamala be the first female President without having to be elected. You’re giving those grifters way too much credit.
Eva Marie said...
“Aside from being black and marrying Barack Obama, has she ever done anything of any significance?”
She raised a family. Conservatives talk a good game about respecting stay at home moms but do they?
1: She wasn't a "stay at home mom". She was an evil hack who got a > $200k / year job at a hospital that wanted her Senator husband to get them $$$. Her main accomplishment at that job was to make sure black girls couldn't be part of the HPV vaccine trials, thus giving a number of black girls cancers they wouldn't have gotten if they'd been part of the study.
2: How many nannies have the Obamas hired to actually take care of their kids? Are you seriously trying to claim that Michelle was an actual home-maker who stayed home, took care of the girls, made their meals & ate with them, and helped them with their homework?
3: "Valuing stay at home moms" != "thinking the very difficult job qualifies them for the entirely different job of being President", and it's world class moronic to pretend otherwise
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.