Writes Andrew Sullivan in "Biden Knows How to Make the Moral Case Against Trump" (NY Magazine).
What if the secret to maintaining youthful vigor while getting old is mental illness?!
Finally, another chance to use my "charming bad logic" tag!
By the way, Sullivan indulges in fat-shaming:
If I were Biden, I’d [emphasize substantive policy issues].... But avoiding the lardaceous orange elephant in the room seems like a defensive dodge to me. It gives the impression of weakness. It cedes too much to Trump and normalizes him. It is not the relentless, epiphanous stare-down of Trump that a successful 2020 opponent needs to muster, and that so much of the country is yearning for. And it misses what is in fact the central issue in 2020: the unique danger this bitter bigot poses to this country’s liberal democracy and civil peace....Vocabulary Lesson of the Day: Wow readers by adding endings to easily comprehensible nouns to achieve adjectival speed bumps. "Lard" can bulge expansively and metaphorically into "lardaceous," and "epiphany" will perversely resist sudden, intuitive perception as "epiphanous."
Biden... reminded us that in politics, words are acts, and they have consequences when uttered by a national leader: “The words of a president … can move markets. They can send our brave men and women to war. They can bring peace. They can calm a nation in turmoil. They can console and confront and comfort in times of tragedy … They can appeal to the better angels of our nature. But they can also unleash the deepest, darkest forces in this nation.” And this, Biden argues, is what Trump has done: tap that dark psychic force, in an act of malignant and nihilist narcissism.So President Biden would deploy the super-power of presidential speech to get just precisely the right degree of racial critique into the mind of the people? That's very hard to believe. He's already fuzzed everything up badly. What is the right sense of "white supremacy" that's already understood by the people? I can see wanting to fend off "the absurdly broad, new left definition" of "white supremacy," but I don't see precision or clarity in Biden's speech or in the mind of "most people." Sullivan insists that he sees it, but I find that incredible.
Yes, Biden powerfully argued that Trump was an enabler of “white supremacy” in the sense understood by most people, and not the absurdly broad, new left definition that counts as a white supremacist nearly everyone not actively virtue-signaling on left Twitter....
And although some of this might once have seemed like pabulum, in the Trump era, it comes off as fresh. There was even a nice line designed to get under Trump’s skin, ridiculing the listless condemnation of white supremacy Trump recited in the wake of the El Paso massacre: that “low-energy, vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week.”Biden really said that? I guess he, ironically, was mouthing words written for him. Let's see how that looked and sounded:
He's trading in deep deceit and purporting to stand on the high ground. What a nauseating fraud!
And more importantly, Biden was able to express all this with authority....Lying and race-baiting — with authority. That is the Biden campaign. He's doubled-down and committed. And we're supposed to see that as the antidote to the poison of Trump?
I’ve never been a huge fan of the logorrheic, egotistical grandstanding Biden sometimes engages in; I don’t agree with him on some issues; his treatment of Anita Hill was disgracefully off-key. But I have never doubted Biden’s core decency. Maybe I have a soft spot for a well-meaning Irish-uncle type.What if all you wanted for President was a "well-meaning Irish-uncle type"? Frankly, I don't know what an "Irish-uncle type" is and this use of ethnicity to describe an individual's personality traits makes me want to go "all absurdly broad, new-left" style and say that this too is white supremacy.
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166 comments:
'Wow readers by adding endings to easily comprehensible nouns to achieve adjectival speed bumps.'
The process known as enverberating.
Trump is too energetic.
Energizer bunny.
Did he ever read anything about guys/people who head large corporations? They aren’t 9-to-5ers. They can get by on 4-5 hours of sleep. I can’t remember whose profile I read years ago.
It's all, all motivated reasoning with this guy. When was the last time Andrew Sullivan came to a conclusion he didn't like?
Biden will prevent the Republicans from putting the Blacks back into chains.
The Republicans want to do so because they are controlled by White Supremacists.
Biden will restore civility to our country's politics.
Biden will say and do whatever is necessary to win the Blacks' votes.
It's all about Blacks' votes.
That is 99% of Biden's political strategy in his election campaign.
Plus, Joe just battered that young female reporter. I mean it was just simple battery, if we are going by the Lewandowski standard.
No comment by Ann on Biden's treatment of Clarence Thomas.
Very revealing.
I knew a guy who had to carry an epiphany pen in case he needed an emergency anecdote.
"Code language" and "dog whistles" only appear when lefties encounter ideas that might interfere with the march to total government.
Joe Biden:
C'mon, man! What do I have to say or do for you to vote for me?
I'll say it !
I'll do it !!
Anything at all !!!
Is an "Irish Uncle" like a "funny uncle", only drunker?
The image that the phrase "Irish uncle" conjures up in my mind is a drunken older man at the huge family gathering who insists that the young female family members come and sit on his lap so that he can give them a hug and a squeeze and sniff their hair.
When you have NOTHING else...resort to personal insults.
Can you imagine what we'd've heard if Trump had done the "poor kids/white kids" gaffe?
The thing about Trump is that he shows no signs of mental deterioration from old age. He actually seems more energetic and alive than he did when he was a younger man. It's like he's more awake. I think that a lot of people slide into mental deterioration when they get older because they stop moving forward and lose their passion for life. It's like they're telling their mind that it's time to start shutting down because they're nearing the end and they just want to take it easy. Biden hits me as that kind of person. After he left office, he withdrew from actively working. Biden actually seems to be less passionate and less awake than when he was younger. (Even though he trying to look like he's woke, now.)
You know what addles your brains? Toxoplasma. Not usually a problem for men without cats, unless they have HIV.
[Biden is] trading in deep deceit and purporting to stand on the high ground. What a nauseating fraud!
Others may have noticed that.
He's trading in deep deceit and purporting to stand on the high ground. What a nauseating fraud!
Good line.
Elizabeth Warren is rising in the polls.
If elected, Joe Biden would be older upon taking office than Ronald Reagan was when he left after two terms.
Remember all the jokes about Reagan being old?
I definitely get the feeling that Sullivan admires Trump, but obviously can't admit it.
“When you have NOTHING else...resort to personal insults.”
As does Trump.
“Well-meaning Irish uncle?” From Andrew Sullivan? Makes me picture Uncle Ernie from Tommy.
"Sure, he drove a car over a bridge and left a young woman who might have been preggers to die! He's Irish! Sure he's repeating vicious smears against the President that anyone with half a brain could disprove, while kissing the ass of Al Sharpton, but come on! He's a good Irish boy from Scranton! Sure he sniffs little girls, and it's so creepy I wouldn't even bring my kids to his rally, but Donnie Trump is a fat combed over fatty fat fat!"
Given how badly this line of thinking failed in 2016, I can't IMAGINE the Democrat defeat when they try in 2020 against a sitting President. Pure clown car.
In my lifetime the oldest Democrat to be elected President was Jimmy Carter at 53. Dems don’t do old.
"He's trading in deep deceit and purporting to stand on the high ground. What a nauseating fraud!"
And always has been. You're just now noticing. Irish Uncle stems from him saying Malarkey to Paul Ryan and one of the debates way back when. Everyone acted like they thought it was adorable
Meh. Sullivan is nuts, has been for many years.
“Well-meaning Irish uncle?”
In other words, a drunk? (calm down I'm 1/4 Irish.) I know Sullivan was a Brit, but does he not know the bias, abuse and discrimination suffered by Irish immigrants?
I didn't think The Dems could find a candidate worse than Hillary, but they are scraping the bottom of the barrel with Biden. Really? This is the best they have? The Dems can thank Obama for the situation in which they find themselves, aka, no Presidential bench.
The Dropkick Murphys will show you what an Irish uncle is like.
Althouse, you are one of a kind.
Thank you for de-lousing Andrew Sullivan. His insane garglings have polluted the commentariat ever since he lost his mind around 2004. He doesn’t understand or appreciate the lives lived by the vast majority of Americans, black, white, hispanic, asian, etc. Most people want to get along in life, see their families prosper, and be good neighbors. They don’t want to be badgered by the government.
You have exposed Sullivan’s delusional perceptions of Joe Biden and given us a look at Joe himself, a living, breathing sendup of what it takes to be a career politician in America for almost 50 years.
I have confidence in the USA and its people. I have no confidence in our self-designated “elites”. Thanks for looking hard at Sullivan and Biden.
Trump wants to run against Biden so badly!
But I don't think Ole Joe will make it to the nomination.
I had picked Harris as the Dem candidate. She is vaguely moderate, but she is disintegrating.
I'll go with a last minute 'savior' that gets parachuted in.... Bloomberg?
Beating Biden would give Trump a third victory against Obama.
The first was getting the Republican nomination. Obama had scoffed at the idea of a Trump presidential run.
Second was defeating Clinton. Obama's heir apparent.
Strike three would be dispatching Biden. Obama's just pretending he doesn't remember Joe.
I find Andy Sullivan...unreliable and untrustworthy.
does he not know the bias, abuse and discrimination suffered by Irish immigrants?
I would say an Irish Catholic named Sullivan who fled England would be keenly aware of this, and also immune to your fake indignation.
Uncle Ernie, exactly, fiddling about.
When Sullivan took over at TNR eons ago I was impressed by his intelligence, but that has changed over time. I do credit him for being one of the first Ds to recognize and acknowledge that Trump was going to win--my memory is vague but it was days or more before the election and he was on CNN or MSNBC (which is TASS and which is Pravda?) casting gloom.
That he now thinks Biden is the guy is just funny to me.
Narr
Thanks, Andy
According to the polls, nobody running on the Dem side is even close to Biden. It will be Biden, warts and all. The Dem presidential candidates are a mile wide and a millimeter thick.
Sullivan is ethnic Irish. He may have a soft spot for Biden. I don't.
In all the millions of words spoken about this President by Democrats, NeverTrumpers, and the non-FOX media, I bet there has never been a single positive statement made that did not include some intentionally negating conditional phrase attached, often without any basis in fact, and simply an emotional qualifier that is supposed to signal ",but hey, I'm not a Nazi.
Sheese!
Biden is disgusting. take a few right-wing nuts, a few ugly incidents that happen all the time, and then say "How far apart are they from Trump"? Ugly smears. "fanning the flames of hate"? Joe, there are NO FLAMES. "Fanning the flames of hate" is just rheotoric design to create HATE and guilt-by-association. Its just Biden smearing Trump and trump's supporters as Nazi supporters.
And Biden can't even get his smears right. The Virginia Neo-Nazis were chanting "You will NOT replace us" Not "You WILL replace us".
I don’t like Biden, but there is a very slight chance that I would vote for him. If I was going to vote for him, my reason(s) for doing so do not appear in this essay.
"According to the polls, nobody running on the Dem side is even close to Biden. It will be Biden, warts and all. The Dem presidential candidates are a mile wide and a millimeter thick."
It'll soon come down to Biden and a "Not Biden" left-winger. Harris, Warren, or Bernie. Then the D's will have to choose. An old hack gaffe machine - or a Crazy Leftist.
@Limited blogger
Nope, Bloomberg is a Jew and the Dems have sanctioned and promoted BDS and The Squad's antisemitism, there's no way to walk that back.
Harris a cop...BLM voters are not going to turn out for her.
The only Dem who could be parachuted in with national cred that meets the Dems criteria is Michelle Obama and she's refusing, thus far.
Vote for Biden, LOL.
Even as Every Democrat claimed he was seeking healing and unity this week, he continued to try to hurt and disrupt Trump
fify!
Notice that he's repeating all the lies about Trump's visit to El Paso. Sullivan's always talking about morality and truth while he repeats lies and pushes immoral candidates and policies.
Unreliable is a good word for him. He's always flip-flopping and oscillating between positions, and pretending to be some super-special independent thinker who's completely unique.
In the 30 plus years I’ve known of Joe I have never had a positive reaction to anything he’s said or done. That puts him in Pat Leahy territory. A pompous ass.
"Yes, Biden powerfully argued that Trump was an enabler of “white supremacy” in the sense understood by most people, and not the absurdly broad, new left definition...
As you said, Prof, "Sullivan insists that he sees it, but I find that incredible".
Whole lot of seeing things that are incredible going on out there. It's going to make an interesting study in the years to come, the way this extraordinary delusion of the existence of "white supremacy" spread and developed. It appears to have rapidly become a full-blown mania, a genuine madness of crowds, infesting leading pols and opinion-columnists, all gravely announcing, analyzing, and denouncing a self-generated malign fantasy.
My best guess is that a passionately-held world view isn't holding up too well against the reality of current events (national and global). It's always more appealing for religious dogmatists to call for the uncovering and punishment of wreckers and heretics than it is to accept that cherished ideas about how the world works can't explain what's going on. Angry and confused, they take up fighting not just the last war, but the war of several generations back.
(BTW, "Biden powerfully argued" is a hilarious statement.)
What saves Joe Biden is there's an air of personal likability and a little charm.
Leahy OTOH comes off as angry and pompous. He's the hostile loudmouth at the bar who always gets into fights. Only New England would keep him in office. BTW, Warren just called the Policeman in Ferguson a "Murderer" for killing the Black guy. Despite the FACTS. She's another "only in New England" type.
Pathetic Sullivan is so jealous of Trump's abundance of Dragon Energy. So he makes up 10 names to call him for being the real deal in aggressive and loving intelligence, male style.
Earnest Prole wrote:
"In my lifetime the oldest Democrat to be elected President was Jimmy Carter at 53. Dems don’t do old."
I just want to highlight this comment- it is an insight most probably aren't aware of- I know I was surprised when I went back and looked up the age of Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election. You have to go back to the election of Harry Truman in 1948 to find an "old" Democrat winning a presidential election, and Truman was only 64. Even FDR was only 62 during his last election.
I know this is one of the reasons I don't expect Biden to win the nomination- his age will cut against him with young primary voters, but he is lucky so far that the field is so large- the much younger candidates are splitting the potential vote, but I still expect that, eventually, the electorate in the primary will settle on an anti-Biden candidate. At the moment, to me, the most likely is Warren, but part of me still thinks it has to be Harris, again because she is young for a candidate, and Warren is not.
White supremacy = Anything the left dislikes. There's no other meaning.
Biden? I don't think so, it'll be Elizabeth Warren.
I'm in the middle of selling some industrial property in Los Angeles, and my broker and I were discussing the difference between the behavior of potential buyers who are employees working for large corporations and those smaller buyers who run their own operations. We had a deadline of the close of business yesterday for offers to be submitted. We got plenty, but some of the bigger ones we were expecting didn't get their offers in on time. He called them and found out that they have offers written up, but it being Friday, they forgot, or left work early or some other lame excuse for missing out on a large, very much sought-after property. They simply dropped the ball because it was just their job, and apparently doing your job is not that important. They of course still want to make the offers and begged to be given an extension till Monday. All the self-run buyers we were expecting got their offers in on time. The point is that the effort, work habits and schedule of a business owner is nothing like most other people. You are always working or available to work. You work long hours and sleeping is mostly an inconvenience to be minimized. Trump is made this way, and that plus a lot of other work habits and related proclivities make him much more effective than most people, especially experienced Congress people who can take off right in the middle of the most important business without a second thought. I bet few ever miss a vote on their own pay increases though.
What we think of as "old" has changed over the last 50 years (thanks boomers!).
Dewey was talking about the "old men in the white house" in 1944. FDR was 62. Ike was considered "old" in 1952, he was 62. People were ranting about Nixon and Ford being "old men" in the mid-70s. There were both in the early 60s (born 1913). Sometimes Republicans have done "old" but they candidates didn't really look that old. Reagan didn't look 70 in 1980 and Bush was a youthful 64 in 1988.
Romney and Trump are very youthful given their age. But Dole and McCain were old and looked it. big time. But they were graceful losers!
Vim and vigor.
another difference. trump doesn't drink or smoke. Biden says he doesn't drink but, I'm skeptical.
I hope it's Biden, because that's a sure win for Trump, but it won't be Biden. The embarrassment from ever more obvious reduced capacity and gaffs will bury him sooner or later. I hope later, but I don't think he can hold it off through the primary. Trump can speak off prompter coherently for hours. Biden can't do minutes.
The sheer sociopathic narcissism in the face of such grief and trauma beggars belief
What grief and trauma. There was a media spectacle for women. Ratings play for ratings lemmings.
> He doesn’t understand or appreciate the lives lived by the vast majority of Americans, black, white, hispanic, asian, etc.
He never assimilated. Christopher Hitchens did to a much greater degree.
“Trump can speak off prompter coherently for hours.”
You hear what you want to hear, I guess.
woke Biden won't end well...
Ernest Prole said:
and also immune to your fake indignation.
My indignation is neither fake or real, I don't invest emotions/feelz into political discussions.
You've obviously not lived in the UK. The Brits are in the main a secular society, more so than are we, religion is looked upon as a bit daft and Catholicism no longer carries a stigma (See The Succession to the Crown Act 2013).
Sullivan was born in Surrey and grew up in West Sussex...hotbeds of Irish discrimination, rebellion and Popery.
BJM: I know Sullivan was a Brit, but does he not know the bias, abuse and discrimination suffered by Irish immigrants?
readering: Sullivan is ethnic Irish. He may have a soft spot for Biden. I don't.
I'm ethnic Irish, and I wish my co-ethnics with either a soft-spot for the likes of Biden or the urge to play the victim would fuck off back to Ireland.
(Nah, I got nothing against Ireland. Deport 'em to Canada.)
lardaceous orange elephant in the room
Lard is pig fat
Sullivan voted for John Kerry.
It’s really all you need to know.
Enough about Joe Biden. You'd think he was the only white man who ever gave Barack Obama a blow job.
Can you imagine Sullivan writing about Stacey Abrahms’ weight?
No, you really can’t.
"bitter bigot" - that's you Andrew. and the rest of the leftwing collective.
"In other words, a drunk? (calm down I'm 1/4 Irish.) I know Sullivan was a Brit, but does he not know the bias, abuse and discrimination suffered by Irish immigrants?"
Yeah, we all know that cliche about Irish drinking is a lie made up by the Generous Free-spending Scots and the fun-loving, humble English.
The point is that the effort, work habits and schedule of a business owner is nothing like most other people. You are always working or available to work.
We are seeing that in Medicine. Doctors were usually small business men or women (mostly men). Since Obamacare, most doctors are salaried employees. Hospitals, like the one I practiced in for 30 years, are buying up the medical practices that use them. The result is a change in behavior. Adding to this is the change to mostly female physicians. 60% of medical students are now female. The result is that the "doctor shortage," which was a concern when I entered medical school in 1962, is growing as the number of schools and graduates grow too.
I am now a patient. It is concerning. My cardiologist and I were joking about the quality of our primary care docs.
"He's [Biden] trading in deep deceit and purporting to stand on the high ground. What a nauseating fraud!"
Thank you.
"Sullivan voted for John Kerry."
And Gore, Clinton, Obama, and Hillary.
his age will cut against him with young primary voters, but he is lucky so far that the field is so clownish-
FIFY
Trump is still high energy at age 73. Biden is not so high energy at age 76.
Andrew Sullivan needs to get out more--say go to a couple of retirement homes or assisted living facilities for a start. Observe closely the scatter of cognitive and energy levels
among the residents. At age 95 it was finally time for my father to go into a retirement home. He was still sharp mentally in most aspects--but his business judgment had departed around age 85, and his wife had died when he was 92.
He found another retired engineer in the retirement home community and enjoyed daily lunches with the fellow. But, as his friend pointed out, surveying the group around him, "Roy, some of these folks aren't "all here".
Biden, never that bright, is running out of steam, and I expect he will wind down at a much earlier age than Trump.
I had an Irish uncle (aunts husband, but my aunt died very young). And he was genial, full of stories, and, indeed, he was a drunk. But he was a Northern Irish Prod.
Very nice guy. Got rich working for Jardines, out of HK and Tokyo.
Eventually died of cirrhosis in Manila, living in a hotel suite for a decade with his mistress.
His insane garglings have polluted the commentariat ever since he lost his mind around 2004.
I think it was the Bush gay marriage thing. I used to read his blog and comment. When he went crazy, I wondered if it was AIDS dementia, I even emailed him to ask if he was OK.
Most of the D-candidates are Lying race-baters.
They launch their race-bating off the deceptive press.
America Is Drowning in the Left's Lies About Trump
The press lied about Michael Brown's death and they lied about what Trump said about Charlottesville - and more. They lie and twist the truth for The Party, every damn day.
The same toxic pollution and cancer is like Oberlin college.
In re Sullivan, as in most of these characters, follow the money.
A surer guide than following the libido.
rcocean said...
"White supremacy = Anything the left dislikes. There's no other meaning."
There is a slightly different meaning
White supremacy = White people = who the left hates.
It says a lot about Sullivan if he thinks Biden has an "enviable sharpness." But you did leave out the sentences before that:
This is not to say that Biden isn’t showing some signs of aging. He was composed, but he does appear a little frail; there were times his speech seemed a little slurred, and he had several minor slipups.
It's not that Sullivan doesn't see that Biden isn't all there mentally, it's that he doesn't want to admit it.
Sullivan goes on to say that the election won't be decided on the issues, but on Trump's moral character. Could anything be further from the truth? Bob Dole couldn't defeat Clinton by talking about morality. Jimmy Carter's scare tactics against Reagan also misfired.
Scare attacks on Goldwater became a big part of Johnson's campaign but it wasn't Goldwater's supposed mental stability, but rather his supposed threat to social security -- and the nuclear issue -- that carried the day for Johnson. Trump has had control of the nuclear arsenal for three years now, and if he hasn't used it yet, people aren't scared he'll suddenly change.
Voters care about the issues and are tired of politicians preaching at them. Trump got elected because they were sick of the "holier than thou" attitude of politicians. Preaching and scarifying didn't help Hillary Clinton. And surely Biden isn't one to preach, particularly given the scandals attached to his sons and himself.
Biden is hardly the voice of decency. He does cultivate a little guy, "middle class Joe," regular, dependable, ordinary, familiar Uncle Joe persona - like he's channeling Harry Truman. But how convincing is he? Some people think or know it's an act. Others who don't have suspicions still won't be touched by it.
One thing Biden isn't is the "anti-Trump." Sometimes Joe seems like Donald's weaker, paler shadow. Only two politicians in my lifetime have felt it necessary to tell people that they were intelligent - Trump and Biden. Sometimes Biden seems like a Trump imitator, someone who doesn't quite explain why they should vote for him, rather than for the real thing.
I'd stay away from the "malignant narcissist" theme. Bill Clinton was supposed to be a "malignant narcissist." Then he was only an ordinary (benign?) narcissist, and Obama was a malignant one. Now, of course, Trump is a "malignant narcissist."
Narcissism is common in politicians. You don't run for office without being something of an egotist , and if you aren't one when you enter politics, you become one after you get elected. You can't think everyday that the fate of the world depends on your popularity ratings without it going to your head.
But truly malignant narcissists may be less common among successful politicians than people think. The truly malignant narcissists are the ones who flame out and crash along the way, because they can't focus on the task at hand and can't subordinate their drives to the process of building a career (or those who've been in a safe seat for so long that they think they can get away with anything). If you have to face reelection in competitive every few years you have to discipline yourself and you can't give in to every passing whim or impulse.
Excessive, neurotic energies - narcissism and bipolarity, for example - can be positive traits in politicians, if they don't go to extremes. Or so a book a few years back said. Lincoln, Roosevelt, Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan weren't entirely ordinary people. They had an excess of something that gave them an energy, a determination, a confidence and a buoyancy that most of us don't have, as well as a deficiency of some qualities that ordinary people do have. Though of course, not every egotist in politics is a Roosevelt or Churchill, and some could actually do harm.
Michael K said...
His insane garglings have polluted the commentariat ever since he lost his mind around 2004.
I think it was the Bush gay marriage thing. I used to read his blog and comment. When he went crazy, I wondered if it was AIDS dementia, I even emailed him to ask if he was OK.
When he was on the right he was a blogger with hundreds of thousands of visits and no money.
When he went left/anti-Bush he got a job paying six figures with an audience of maybe hundreds of thousands.
The oligarchs that own the media know what they want and who they will pay.
buwaya said...
In re Sullivan, as in most of these characters, follow the money.
A surer guide than following the libido.
Bingo.
Everyone in the political class moves left eventually.
Because that is what the wealthy people pay for.
Trig Truther Andrew Sullivan has the audacity to comment on someone else's mental health as expressed in their Internet postings?
I read a long comment thread on Slate last night about Biden and his gaffes. Can't find it now, but there was a lot of back and forth whether the gaffes are age-related or just him. Lot of talk over whether it mattered that he is 76.
Do these people realize Biden will be 78 on Inauguration Day, 2021? 78!! Just imagine starting your term as President less than two years away from 80. H W Bush was only 67 when he barfed all over the Japanese Prime Minister. Biden may need extra Depends when he goes galavantin' around the world.
If the Dems nominate Biden, we'd better pay full attention to his running mate, because that person may well end up President, whether or not his boss survives his term.
The sentimental old Irishman has been a familiar meme in American popular culture, certainly in movies of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Think Scarlet O'Hara's father, or The Last Hurrah or a lot of what Spencer Tracy did. A few days back, we learned here that the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn turned her German-American family Irish, and that probably helped the sale of the book. Biden's appealing to that meme. It's also a good way for him to make himself seem to be less privileged and more of an ordinary guy.
Biden's also got something of the younger Irish stereotype associated with Jimmy Cagney - the cocky guy with a chip on his shoulder, who talks big because he feels he has to prove something. You can see something of that New York stereotype in Trump as well. Another variant on the Irish stereotype is the "rascal king," the corrupt boss who pleases crowds, brings jobs to the neighborhood, puts one over on the stuffed shirt WASPs and manages to seem like a hearty, decent guy, in spite of his ethical flexibility. People can be very forgiving of politicians they like. You can see a lot of that in Bill Clinton, since it's as much a Southern as an Irish meme.
Looking at the race for 2020 and seeing a morality play takes a particular delusional mindset, a stubborn faith in faith, that Sullivan has often displayed even in his relatively more lucid seeming early days.
I never read Sullivan, I assume he is demented from oxygen deprivation after spending a year and a half with his head in Sara Palin's vagina.
I think most of the media suffers addiction withdrawals from the sweet musky taste of Obama's taint. That withdrawal causes TDS a metal disorder, it's why they went all in on the Russia Hoax.
It's not that Sullivan doesn't see that Biden isn't all there mentally, it's that he doesn't want to admit it.
Yep. He reminds me of the guy who notices all the defects in a used car, the day AFTER he bought it and parked it in his driveway.
"Well it needs new struts, but I usually avoid speed bumps anyway... the AC is weak which is a blessing in disguise because I'll spend more time with Mother Nature with the windows rolled down. And that cigarette burn in the seat will scratch the itch on my butt as I drive..."
If the Dems nominate Biden, we'd better pay full attention to his running mate, because that person may well end up President, whether or not his boss survives his term.
8/10/19, 12:57 PM
That’s the goal.
Lurker21 said " It's also a good way for him to make himself seem to be less privileged and more of an ordinary guy."
Sure that's why he was known as Senator Mastercard....just one of the little guys helping rob the littler guys.
Jimmy Cagney - the cocky guy with a chip on his shoulder
Or, as Cagney put it, a touch of the gutter.
IRC, Cagney was born in 1900, and grew up on the Lower east Side. His family wasn't poor but they weren't well-to-do either. I don't see much resemblance to Biden. I never saw anything "Irish" about "Slow Joe". I didn't know Biden was an Irish name and always assumed he was WASP or German or an American Mutt.
He has a air about him as an "average guy" but he's was a senator/VP 40 years. That's really been his only job. College-Law School- Lawyer for 2 years - Low Level Politics-Senator @ 32. Only in the small pond of Delaware would he'd have gotten elected to so high an office at such an early age.
Its amazing how many 20th Century D Presidents never did anything except Politics: FDR, JFK, LBJ, Clinton, Obama. Truman, at least was a farmer for a few years and tried to run a hat store. And Carter was a peanut farmer/Navy guy.
What is Trump's "moral sickness"? Not being as much as a State-f*cker as Hillary? That seems to be his most grievous sin to the Hive.
Trump isn’t presidential material. He has no desire to unify the country. Just the opposite. Can’t wait to see his face when he realizes he lost to Biden. I bet he doesn’t even have it in him to give a concession speech.
If it's Biden, he will lose, and the Dems will never nominate some old, next-in-line fart like Clinton or Biden again for a long time. It has not worked once for them. Who was the last Democrat like that to win? They always win by nominating the younger candidate.
Who do you think China wants as President: Biden or Trump?
Does China want what's best for the U.S.?
Trump isn’t presidential material. He has no desire to unify the country. Just the opposite. Can’t wait to see his face when he realizes he lost to Biden. I bet he doesn’t even have it in him to give a concession speech.
Isn't it a little early to be hitting the Chardonnay, Hillary?
I mean Steve.
steve uhr said, "[Trump] has no desire to unify the country..."
I'm curious what you think "unifying the country" would look like, and who in politics today could do it.
GWB was a unifier. If there were a 9-11 today, trump would immediately blame the dems. As would most of the commentators here.
"At 76, [Joe Biden] has enviable sharpness and physical fitness. But at 76, there are limits.
How can the article leave out what's getting sharper as he ages?
Like his sense of smell.
Olfactory prowess could be an excellent attribute to have in a president.
Maybe Biden averts nuclear war by discovering Trump hasn't been talking to the real Kim.
Michael Moore should probably get to work on a movie about that.
Brad Pitt can take his abs to the next level to play Joe.
steve uhr said, "[Trump] has no desire to unify the country..."
This country is not unifiable.
Abraham Lincoln could reappear through time travel and the left would immediately attack him for not having enough women and gays in his previous administration.
Also #PresidentDuringSlavery and #Warmonger
GWB was a unifier. If there were a 9-11 today, trump would immediately blame the dems. As would most of the commentators here.
Trump made it clear he did not blame Warren and Sanders for the Dayton shooting.
That was just in the last week.
Joe could truly elevate smell in the minds of average Americans.
It being the most victimized of the five senses, perhaps he could usher in the Biden Ad-sniff-istration.
My attitude to Trump has always been class-based-- I have some.
"Average Joe" Biden now, what piffle. I never thought of Biden as Irish, though he is Catholic IIRC&NTTAWWT! But get real, whatever else we now about the presidency, it is a grueling job--that old hack just isn't up to the strain.
Trump could well stroke out tomorrow, but he seems to thrive on a lifestyle that would kill me in a month, and I'm only 66.
Narr
So far, research into my American maternal-line muttitude shows no obvious Irish Irish
steve uhr: "GWB was a unifier. If there were a 9-11 today, trump would immediately blame the dems. As would most of the commentators here."
Your team just spent the last 10 years weaponizing the federal govt against your domestic enemies and launched a hoax collusion conspiracy to throw an election to the dems (utilizing the full power of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies AND our foreign allies intelligence agencies) followed by a hoax obstruction-based attempt to execute a coup all the while spending the last 70 years labeling every republican a racist Hitler mass murderer and producing assassination porn like there is no tomorrow and declaring the entirety of the republican base voters and leaders treasonous traitors.
So, yeah, no "unifying" anytime soon.....
By the way Uhr, Team Dem called GWBush a literal racist Hitler...just like every other republican.
No no no.
Steve Uhr's real complaint, along with LLR Chuck's and all the rest of the usual suspect lefties is that the republicans are no longer willing to stand very very very still while the dems launch attack after attack.
Team Marxist has chosen the form of its destructor and that form is Trump.
Which is why the lefty/dem/LLR-lefty rhetoric has been ramped up to "11" round the clock....not to mention the exposure of Steve Uhr's hero's activities in the coup attempt.
All sturm and drang to avoid the obvious: the democrats are just as much a bunch of commie Stasi-types as every other leftists in the world.
Marxist Scum: I bet he doesn’t even have it in him to give a concession speech.
Funny, your Bitch was the one who didn't have a concession speech.
You and your fellow Leftists were the ones throwing a 2 year tantrum after 2016.
Sorry, but please stop projecting your inadequacies on every one else. Your lack of character, integrity and honor is NOT normal. We are much better people than you. You are subhuman at best.
Blogger steve uhr said...
GWB was a unifier. If there were a 9-11 today, trump would immediately blame the dems. As would most of the commentators here.
Steve, your hatred for Trump who has done nothing but improve the economy and who tries to reach out to the lefty haters on your side, is more evidence of the insanity of the Democrats. I think you people are staring at another 1972 and 1984 unless somebody on your side starts sounding sane. I was watching the WSJ report today. Do you really think the public is going to vote for total "renewable energy" in 12 years ? Stopping fracking and ending oil production ? Have you read anything about what Australia or Germany has gone through with this stuff ? Spain tried and gave up. Do you think BREXIT is going to be stopped ?
A lot of your comments are targets for ridicule because you seem so naive. Don't you remember the hatred for Bush?
MK: "A lot of your comments are targets for ridicule because you seem so naive. Don't you remember the hatred for Bush?"
History began this morning for Steve Uhr and LLR Chuck and the rest of the left.
Steve uhr,
In 230 years 1,count 'em, 1 former vp has been elected to the presidency.
It ended badly.
Why do you think Biden can break the curse.
Face it, being vp is disqualifying for the presidency.
John Henry
Cagney was born in 1900, and grew up on the Lower east Side.
Cagney bought most of Emerald Bay in Laguna and had a brigantine sailing ship.
His brother was a dentist in Culver City that my mother knew,.
Drago. Just make shit up to fit ur narrative. I voted for bush in 2004 and nobody in 2016. But when have you cared about the truth. When it comes to identity politics you are the worst. You think you know everything about me because I push back on your bs sometime mes?
GWB did not unify the country after 9/11. We did, or the attack did, but no President has ever unified the country, and that's a good thing, because when a political leader unifies a country without an external threat, it usually doesn't go well.
Steve doesn't remember how the Democrats blocked all of Bush's nominees so that on 9/11 Rumsfeld had one confirmed appointee besides himself. The Democrats ran for the tall grass for a few weeks, knowing they had contributed to 9/11 by ignoring the terror attacks in Africa and the Cole.
one memorable example, it took 9/11 to break the hold on Negroponte, we had no permanent us ambassador until then,
"race-bating"
There are more important things than Slow Joe's slow decline. Althouse! Please check the OED!
"Trump made it clear he did not blame Warren and Sanders for the Dayton shooting."
As far as I know, so far, none of these mass shooters has indicated support for Trump, but both Warren and Sanders have been favorites of one each, and most of the mass shooters have leftist collectivist ideas that match the Democrat field of candidates. (Incidentally also true of the biggest mass murderers in history), yet few people on the Right are blaming Democrats directly, yet every one of them blames Trump, even for the killers who support his opponents. Of course the media does the same. It's really some kind of blind insanity.
Michael. Why is it necessary to make up things about me. Like I’m Hillary’s bitch. Wtf. It’s lazy on your part to invent things about me. Respond to my positions, or not, on the merits.
steve uhr said...
GWB was a unifier. If there were a 9-11 today, trump would immediately blame the dems. As would most of the commentators here.
Are you even serious posting this?
You mean Chimpy McHitler?
The guy you claimed lied about WMD's and started a war because he secretly worked for the oil companies?
The racist misogynist war criminal nazi?
Nobody believes you think this. We all remember what you said then.
Seriously fuck off.
Achilles. You’re also making shit up about me. Why is that the preferred method of discourse on this blog? LAZY
It’s lazy on your part to invent things about me. Respond to my positions, or not, on the merits.
I was. Reading comprehension would be good for you,. You have been naive thus far but not dishonest.
What do you think I "invented?"
Trump isn’t presidential material. He has no desire to unify the country. Just the opposite. Can’t wait to see his face when he realizes he lost to Biden. I bet he doesn’t even have it in him to give a concession speech.
I didn't make that up, Steve. Maybe you need a crying room to get away from all us meanies. Complete with puppies and PlayDoh
steve uhr said...
Achilles. You’re also making shit up about me. Why is that the preferred method of discourse on this blog? LAZY
Says the guy calling everyone he disagrees with a racist.
Or a deplorable.
Or a bigot.
Or a sexist.
You support spying on political opponents, open borders, endless wars, and free health care for illegals paid for with money you take from your enemies.
No more masks. You are out in the open.
" Can’t wait to see his face when he realizes he lost to Biden."
I suspect that would make him feel the same as any other patriotic American. He'd be thinking: WTF? We're really gonna have feeble Joe Biden negotiating with the Chinese? We are screwed. Seriously, can you imagine the glee the Chinese leadership would get from seeing Biden win the Presidency? A guy they already bribed and cheaply at that. All the Democrats and the Chinese Communists would be having one simultaneous celebration, and the Biden family would be looking at big new houses they might be buying soon. I can't imagine a worse outcome for the USA, and I would hope that Trump would not look happy, but a lot of dumb Americans would... for a while.
"Can’t wait to see his face when he realizes he lost to Biden."
"Don’t play games with me, kid."
“Achilles. You’re also making shit up about me. Why is that the preferred method of discourse on this blog? LAZY”
What else have they got? These people are trolls.
"GWB did not unify the country after 9/11."
IRC, the Dems criticized Bush for reading a story to kids while NYC burned. Others voted for the Iraq War - then blamed it on "Bush-hitler" when it dragged on. remember cindy whats her name?
Remember all the D's that were so UPSET because people were wearing American lapel pins or being too patriotic? Oh sorry, I mean "White supremacist?" Remember Rather didn't want to wear an American pin because he was an "objective" journalist (LOL!)
Yep, bush did not unify because the Left does not WANT to unify. But Bush-II was a Gentleman. Why piss in his face and he'd say it was ice cream. IF you were a liberal. If you were a conservative, he'd rip your face off. Like McCain.
Trump isn’t presidential material. He has no desire to unify the country
I love this because every day is a new day.
Neither did Barry. He made things worse.
Why is unifying always Dems get their way?
Giving in to temper tantrums.
Put your head down, go to work, love your family.
Can he say or write anything without being "gob-smacked"?
Wow! Just when Andrew Sullivan was starting to make sense again, he goes totally off the deep end.
What else have they got? These people are trolls.
Says Inga the troll who was banned. :)
rcocean The chant was "Jews will not replace us".
GWB was a unifier.
And yet you leftists still screamed he was Chimpy McHitler.
That's why there is no reason to even try to make nice with people like you.
FrankiM: "What else have they got? These people are trolls."
LOL
Team Hoax Collusion/Hoax Obstruction/Hoax Gang Rape accusations would like to lecture us about "making things up".
Lets all pay close attention........
FrankiM said...
“Achilles. You’re also making shit up about me. Why is that the preferred method of discourse on this blog? LAZY”
What else have they got? These people are trolls.
Says the person who on this very thread said Biden didn't grab the woman.
You are just liars.
Steve Uhr: "When it comes to identity politics you are the worst"
LOL
One identity politics example should suffice.
But you won't come up with one....because it doesn't exist.
So that means you are.....(wait for it....wait for it....)...making stuff up!!
Nothing better than lefties (oh, sorry, sounds like you are borderline "LLR"...(wink wink)) complaining about folks "making stuff up"!!
Thanks for playing...dumb....again....Steve.
We've come to expect nothing less!
Achilles: "Says the person who on this very thread said Biden didn't grab the woman."
Well here's the "catch" with that Achilles: remember, to the left, conservative women aren't "real women" and ethnic minorities who are conservative are "real ethnic minorities".
They are conservatives, thus, not even human.
So, in that sense, FrankiM is simply applying #LeftyBiologicalScience&Logic thus, Biden didn't grab a "woman", he grabbed a conservative.
See?
Totally different.
What else have they got? These people are trolls.
Not commenting here is NO loss to me. - FrankiM
I think I've figured out what Biden is up to!
All these gaffes are actually "fake gaffes".
Biden is attempting to establish a pattern whereby he is considered incapable of understanding what is happening around him so that when we move to consideration of just what obama and biden and the coup plotters were speaking about in all those meetings just prior to the inauguration Biden can safely assert he had no idea what anyone was talking about.
Frankly, I think that is the argument the lefties and LLR Chuck are holding in reserve, "just in case", if you know what I mean.....
"You’re also making shit up about me"
"If there were a 9-11 today, [most of the commentators here] would immediately blame the dems."
The latest: Biden says he was vice president when the Parkland, Florida school shootings happened in 2018.
To be fair to the old codger, it does seem like Parkland was a long time ago to me too.
At least Joe's still viral enough to strong arm a young girl
Democrats commit at least 90% of gun violence.
And they blame their political enemies for it.
Trump is personally responsible for the two democrat mass shooters according to every presidential candidate.
But Trump is the divider. And the deplorables.
Makes sense.
alanc709: "At least Joe's still viral enough to strong arm a young girl"
Reminds me of a particular LLR commenter at Althouse....
How moral is a man who gropes young women and teenage girls because he can, who swims nude in front of female Secret Service agents who protect him, whose son makes hundreds of millions from the Chinese (doing what).
Yeah, right he can make a moral case against Trump.
Trump can point out the obvious facts against him.
elkh1: "Yeah, right he can make a moral case against Trump.
Trump can point out the obvious facts against him."
The facts may be obvious but Trump will have to fight thru the left/dem/LLR praetorian guard to get them out.
Hey Steve, how do you like one of your guys ?
Doxxed the Dayton ICU nurse for having her photo withy Trump. And he is divisive,
In 230 years 1,count 'em, 1 former vp has been elected to the presidency.
Hmm? Six former VPs were elected to the Presidency. Granted, four of them were former VPs by virtue of being sitting Presidents when they were first elected President, and Jefferson was elected as a sitting VP before he was elected as a former VP, but Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and LBJ were all elected President while they were former VPs.
Blogger J2 said...
rcocean The chant was "Jews will not replace us".
No, the chant was "You will not replace us." The whole point was that these were white men who were being excluded from the society.
Of course left blinders are large,.
the lardaceous orange elephant in the room
Shooting The Elephant:
I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posturing dummy, the very figure of "The Man." For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "native born," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had to go shoot the GOP elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle, even though I abhorred guns and supported PETA. A man has got to act like The Man; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand Manhattanites marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing — no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man's life on the East Coast, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.
~The future mémoires of Andrew Sullivan
Sullivan called John McCain “gob smackingly vile” and now he needs stronger invective. His Palin uterus witch hunt should disqualify him from serious debate.
At some school maybe the naval academy Trump stood in the sun for an hour greeting every graduate. But to Sullivan he is feeble and the older Biden is Charles Atlas reborn. Hilarious.
Well - after watching that speech clip alone- the observation that Biden has an undoubtable "core decency" strikes me as undoubtedly absurd. Anyway and btw, am I the only one that thinks Biden's speech lately has started to become a bit thick and slurred? But, to be fair, maybe it's just teleprompter nerves.....
Ken B: "At some school maybe the naval academy Trump stood in the sun for an hour greeting every graduate. But to Sullivan he is feeble and the older Biden is Charles Atlas reborn."
Sullivan sounds just like a "LLR".
witnessing the FrankiM/Inga - steve uhr beatdown
*wipes tear from eye*
My presidential vote will be based primarily on policy -- which candidate do I think would do the best for our country. I don't care if a candidate is fat. I don't care if a candidate is bald. I don't care if a candidate is male. I don't care if a candidate is female. I care about a candidate's age only to the extent that I want to be confident that the candidate if elected will be capable of serving for the next four years. I don't care about the candidate's personal morality. And neither do you if you voted for Clinton over Bush 41, or for Clinton over Dole, or for Kerry over Bush 43, or for Obama over McCain, or for Obama over Romney, or for Hillary over Trump.
Steven said...
Hmm? Six former VPs were elected to the Presidency.
I think the reference was probably to Richard Nixon, the "only former vice president to become president in a non-immediate fashion."
steve uhr; When it comes to identity politics you are the worst
LOL get fucked you Marixist piece of shit.
Sullivan is still using "gobsmacked"? That was his go-to word in the previous decade; who else uses that term?
Sully, that's just one more reason to not read what you write.
Not that I NEEDED one...
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