The 2024 campaign year for President Joe Biden’s inner circle will largely be about carefully ratcheting up the intensity against Donald Trump, wary of voters becoming dulled to what they expect to be the former president’s ever wilder rhetoric and promises about what he would do if back in power. Or, as some of the younger aides on Biden’s reelection campaign have been grimly joking, it’s about when to go “full Hitler” – when the leading Republican candidate’s speeches and actions go so far that the Biden team goes all the way to a direct comparison to the Nazi leader rather than couching their attacks by saying Trump “parroted” him.
The campaign so far, these aides believe, has essentially been Biden running against himself....
What?! His people think they have been doing what I think they need to start doing, and they're planning to ramp up what has not worked — demonizing Trump?!
Exactly.
Ask many Democratic members of Congress to identify what Biden’s second term agenda is and they admit they’re stumped. They tend to fall back on insisting that Democrats just have to do better talking about what they’ve done....
[T]op donors [have] griped to [Biden campaign] aides gathered at a pricey DC hotel in mid-December that the campaign does not seem to have a strategy beyond waiting to respond to Trump....
IN THE COMMENTS: Night Owl asks, "What are the merits that Biden is supposed to be able to run on?" But that just makes my point. Not running on the merits gives rise to the inference that there are no merits to run on. My position is that Biden must take what he has — his accomplishments and his plans — and make the best of it. You choose what to emphasize, you frame things as well as you can, and you try to convince people that you deserve their trust. Then you win or lose.
Posts
88 comments:
"Ask many Democratic members of Congress to identify what Biden’s second term agenda is and they admit they’re stumped."
Or they just can't say. They don't call him "Genocide Joe" - even in the office - for nothing.
"it's the opposite of what I think Biden should do"
Sure, and that's nice. But Dem demonization works with women nicer than Althouse--can't vote for the pussy-grabbing would-be-dictator uncouth orange man.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/02/yikes-ex-cia-analyst-warning-about-intel-agencies-being-involved-in-2024-election-n2168185
Aren’t Biden surrogates in Maine and Colorado going full Hitler already?
it’s about when to go “full Hitler”
I cannot stand that Democrats make Hitler equivalent to Republican politicians. Way to weaken the evil of Hitler, Democrats.
I find myself diving back into the Strauss-Howe "Generations" framework of analysis since Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning is Here" just came out.
Wonky policy disagreements are the paradigm of elections driven by the concerns of the GI and Silent generations who are, though slowly, losing control of the parties. Both parties are showing the impact of Boomer generation leadership framing elections in terms of morals and values.
(Fits better here than on the Charlemagne post)
"Let's say that Trump is Hitler" is going to work so well for a party whose base is increasingly violently anti-semitic.
Dovere is one of the worse hagiographers before foer
Biden should probably highlight ...
Successful withdrawal from Afghanistan
Reduction in global wars
Global stability with Russia, Iran, and China
Success in the middle east
How inflation was just transitory and now prices are back down
How he singlehandedly stopped COVID and we don't talk about it/cases/deaths anymore
Restored faith in government
Assigned his VP to the southern border and fixed that issue
Reached across the aisle and created a productive status with the opposing party
Demonstrated the Justice department is not political
Restored trust in our voting system
....
I mean, the accomplishments just roll off the tongue.
C'mon man, cut the malarkey and vote for me. Here's why:
1) I'm Genocide Joe, killing innocent Arabs is my speciality
2) I love inflation
3) I brought you an open border and millions of illegal aliens
4) I spent hundreds of billions on Ukraine. War with Iran is next.
5) I don't care about working people, especially white ones
6) I love giving zillions in pork to all my buddies.
7) I love corruption, Have you met my son?
8) I love abortion and social liberalism
9) I hate Republican and try to jail my opponents
and most important of all...
10) I'm not really POTUS, Jill is!
As if Biden has any merits on which to run.
Personally, I plan to vote Biden in 2024.
Massive Inflation, crime, no immigration laws, a declining standard of living, and my tax money going to kill innocent foreingers is a small price to pay for no more "mean Tweets".
Historical footnote: Before there were Fascists or even Bonapartists, how did the left characterize their opponents: They were called "monarchists". Jefferson accused the right, personified by such sinister figures as Washington and Hamilton of being monarchists who wished to limit the rights of free born slave owners such as himself by establishing a monarchy in America. During the 1830's, the Duke of Wellington was resistant to electoral reform and to resigning from his position as army commander while serving in the House of Lords. The left accused him of wishing to establish a military dictatorship in Britain such as that instituted by Napoleon in France. .. I'm just now reading the Ambrose book about Eisenhower in WWII. Eisenhower while in command of the invasion of North Africa made peace with Darlan and other Vichy officials in Algeria. He did this not because he sympathized with their positions but because it would be easier for the Allied cause to fight Germans and Italians rather than also having to fight the French. He got a lot of bad press. The papers accused him of being a Fascist sympathizers, and this was even before he openly declared himself a Republican.....Trump has a fairly large assortment of character flaws. He's overweight and fools around with porn stars, but I don't think such flaws are typical of Nazi behavior. Nazi behavior is more typically observed in Hamas members and some of their supporters.
I suspect going "full Hitler" may have a more literal meaning, since merely calling Trump Hitler has gone on for months already. As in burning down the Capitol building and blaming it on MAGA types, justifying a national emergency and mass arrests. It's almost like they have framed the Jan.6 protest in a way that would prepare the ground for that.
Is Biden doing it wrong? Depends on what he's doing.
Maybe Biden doesn't have to win the election. Maybe he just has to scaremonger enough so the people in the middle can rationalize and justify accepting whatever the Regime does to prevent a free and fair election. Anything would be justified to keep Hitler out of office, right?
Dear Althouse: "Biden Biden Biden!!!!"
Sincerely, Jan Brady.
so, isn't That.. EXACTLY what they tried in 2020?
Are they going to be able to continue to vote harvest?
Push anti-abortion as the Republican brand - lots of examples in states - and democrats win.
Isn't it kind of inconvenient for the Trump = Hitler narrative that Trump was president for four years and WASN'T Hitler?
The problem with "Trump is Hitler" is that young voters kind of approve of Hitler lately.
It is quite tough to run on the current and especially future record of an Alzheimer patient.
I love the smell of bullshit in the morning! It smells like… desperation.
“Shecky! Get the jet!”
h/t Frazer Smith
rcocean (9:54): "I'm Genocide Joe, killing innocent Arabs is my speciality."
There is no genocide. QuidProJoe isn't killing anybody. Palestinians are not innocent.
The trouble with hating Jews is that it colors your perspective and makes your other points suspect regardless of their accuracy.
"ratcheting up the intensity against Donald Trump"
It's depressing to think that's even possible.
One is compos mentis and the other isn't, and the contrast is stark.
Biden should ... run on his own merit and not on the demonization of Trump
Biden is running not only against Trump as an individual, but also against the "MAGA Republicans" as a contemptable segment of the US population.
Biden should have risen above that divisive rhetoric. He has squandered his own opportunity to portray himself as being civil, thoughtful and unifying.
Yes, Trump is crude and divisive, but Biden is not much better in that regard.
Trump mocks Nicky Haley as being "a bird-brain", but then Biden uses the same intonation to sneer at "all the MAGA Republicans".
"Build back even betterer"!
They think they need to "ratchet[] up" the intensity against Trump?
Do these people have absolutely no self-awareness? (Rhetorical question; of course they have none.)
MadisonMan said...
it’s about when to go “full Hitler”
I cannot stand that Democrats make Hitler equivalent to Republican politicians. Way to weaken the evil of Hitler, Democrats.
As Steve Hayward at Powerline documented, it's been the Democrat go-to slander literally since Americans were fighting and dying in the battles against the real Hitler.
Althouse said...
the opposite of what I think Biden should do, which is to run on his own merit and not on the demonization of Trump.
Maybe their 2024 forecasts tell them something we don't know?
The bumper sticker:
Biden 2024
Trump is Hitler
Trump is the GOP and the Democrats candidate. Or, when the indictments aren’t enough eggs for one basket.
"I know you're angry. Of course, you're angry. You think I'm not? If anything, I'm probably angrier. And we have a right to be angry. We do. But Trump is literally Hitler." - Joe Biden, President of the United States or something
He can’t and you know it. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The demonizing of Trump has not begun.
Once he locks up the nomination the real demonization will begin. They will spend $1.0 billion killing him. Trump will be in the news because he will be sitting in a courtroom every day. His campaign will be severely underfunded because he is spending all the campaign money in lawyers.
Trump’s support is capped out. This is demonstrated by the fact that, while Biden’s support has plummeted, Trumps support among all voters has been stable. None of those voters who are showing dissatisfaction with Biden will vote for Trump and in the end they will come back, not to vote for Biden, but to vote for Trump.
When you have two deeply unpopular candidates the goal is to make the election about the other guy. Trump will have neither the resources nor the discipline to do that.
I'm certain his handlers know Democrats policies and policy failures are extraordinarily unpopular with voters. So unpopular their math wizards cannot see a legitimate Biden win or perhaps even another illegitimate Biden win.
They are following the correct strategy but I hope they listen to Ann...
Edward-Isaac Dovere
What a throughly 19th Century sounding name!
"I'm sick and tired of being blamed for the things I did." - Joe Biden, POTUSOS
Biden has a sign on his desk, "10% of the bucks stop here."
Sounds like the Democrat apparatchik are quadrupling down on moron. The result will be four more years of trump and two or three more lifetimes of a closeted Catholic conservative supreme Court.
That's okay I have complete confidence in our system of checks and balances and also complete confidence in 66.6% of the people who live in this country. The 33 and a third percent of the population that consists of mouth breathing troglodytes and spastic wokesters cancel each other out.
Holocaust denial is already becoming respectable among Brandon's fascist legions.
Some are starting to whisper that Even Hitler himself may not have been all that bad. His methods (12mm murdered) were deplorable but some of his ideas made a lot of sense.
That's a real problem for the fascists. If they paint our president emeritus as Hitler but Hitler becomes the good Guy, the decisive leader, it's kind of a pickle, isn't it?
Otoh, they've got nothing else.
John Henry
Remember, remember, the fifth of November
If someone is talking about "going full Hitler", I would assume they are going to ramp up their own imitation of his practices. Especially with this bunch.
Biden is still gonna get your votes, so why the faux angst??
Yeah, Biden voters. Go with that.
Only people like Howard and Rich actually think Biden has accomplished anything.
What, exactly, has been built back better?
Not rhetorical. We genuinely want to know what you morons believe.
"what I think Biden should do, which is to run on his own merit and not on the demonization of Trump."
Maybe you could give us an example of what you think Biden running on his own merit might look like? I don't really see how that's possible, even if he were sentient.
Can't wait for the Biden campaign ads that have Trump speaking in german.
Trump tried to make the 2020 campaign about Biden.
Sleepy Joe. In his bunker. Can't get anyone to come out to see him.
How did that work out?
Look to the border. That's the only thing that should be talked about in the upcoming campaigns. The Biden team owns it. Our country has been invaded over the last 3 years. It continues- greater than ever today. And the answer from the Biden team: "Our borders are secure."
Screw them. Toss them out.
I think Trump has an opportunity to turn the "Hitler" talk against Biden and the Dems.
If he just holds back until it reaches full volume, and then call them out for downplaying the Holocaust, it might catch fire in the popular discourse.
It might also serve to take Hitler-calling out of the common vernacular.
Wouldn't that make America a bit more Great?
The "Steve Deace"/Wanna-be DeSantis Online "Influencer" AMDG: "Trump’s support is capped out. This is demonstrated by the fact that, while Biden’s support has plummeted, Trumps support among all voters has been stable."
Fascinating.
"Trump’s support from Hispanic and youth voters grows over Biden: Live Jan 1, 2024.
President Joe Biden now trails Donald Trump among Hispanic and young voters, a USA Today/Suffolk University survey found"
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/2024-polls-trump-biden-election-b2471866.html
Btw, this matches the polling results from multiple other pollsters from across the political spectrum and is causing panic amongst the dems, left and GOP-ers that support Haley and DeSantis.
Not to worry though GOPe-ers! I remain convinced the combined forces of the dems/GOPe/deep staters will successfully "lawfare" Trump out of the picture, clearing the way for the Bush/Rove preferred candidates, DeSantis and Haley, to maneuver for the win.
So be of good cheer Romney/McConnell types! Your team is "on the case"!
Precisely which “contrast with Trump” comparisons do Democrats expect to win
They may know more about Biden's merit than we know.
What could possibly go wrong, after all? The country's in the very best of hands.
Pedo Pete 2024
"But Truuuuummmpppp!"
Blogger Kevin said...I think Trump has an opportunity to turn the "Hitler" talk against Biden and the Dems.
--
See the Dark Brandon speech
"How the Biden campaign hopes to make 2024 less about Biden and more about a contrast with Trump."
Idiots. Every time the make a contrast they are making it about Biden.
Bravo TreeJoe 9:51
What are the merits that Biden is supposed to be able to run on?
Joe Biden's begun to crash gas appliances, fossil fuel power plants and gasoline/diesel-powered cars/SUVs. His second term is finish the job by banning all of the above and crashing the economy. That's if he can remember that ice cream is his favorite food.
I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired.
I'm certainly not! And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am.
“Sounds like the Democrat apparatchik are quadrupling down on moron.”
So… they’ve convinced you to run for office, Howie?
I ponder with relish the race in 2028. Maybe the people born before 1955 will stop ruining, er, running things.
Big Mike: "Precisely which “contrast with Trump” comparisons do Democrats expect to win"
The democraticals and their GOPe allies fully expect to win the contrast between the number of democratical/GOPe vote counters vs neutral vote counters.
Particularly in GA where the Zuckerburg purchased Raffensberger and Sperling and crew have only solidified their ability to taint the next presidential election vote with the full backing of the GA Gov office which is also busy protecting Fani Willis...for obvious reasons.
Trump tried to make the 2020 campaign about Biden.
Sleepy Joe. In his bunker. Can't get anyone to come out to see him.
How did that work out?
He lost by 45,000 votes despite possibly the worst environment for an incumbent thanks to COVID.
Biden can't hide out this time around; he has to defend his record. Meanwhile, even Obama lost independents when he ran for reelection. The notion that independents will stick with Biden is dubious at best, insanity at worst. Even if Biden still wins a majority of them in 2024, if Trump closes the gap to within 2-3 points, he'll win the election.
Fdr tried to paint Wilkie as Hitler back in 1940.
John Henry
"What?! His people think they have been doing what I think they need to start doing, and they're planning to ramp up what has not worked — demonizing Trump?!"
That's what I thought, too. You don't win by doubling down on a strategy that not only doesn't work, but has actually worked against you.
TreeJoe said...
"Biden should probably highlight ...
Successful withdrawal from Afghanistan
Reduction in global wars
Global stability with Russia, Iran, and China
Success in the middle east
How inflation was just transitory and now prices are back down
How he singlehandedly stopped COVID and we don't talk about it/cases/deaths anymore
Restored faith in government
Assigned his VP to the southern border and fixed that issue
Reached across the aisle and created a productive status with the opposing party
Demonstrated the Justice department is not political
Restored trust in our voting system"
Nice sarcasm, but it might be too subtle for some of the people here.
Vote for the Vulgarian
It's Important
Biden received top billing... in the press.
I hate to have to say this but if, just if, Trump and the Gop would put first and foremost the interest of the nation and Americans they should bury the hatchet at least temporarily and join in one ticket. Maga loves Trump and GOPe loves whomever sells out to them. I think DeSantis is the most sane of the GOPe candidates. Form an alliance beneficial to both and bury their egos.
But who am I kidding?
“That's the headline at CNN for a column by Edward-Isaac Dovere, and it's the opposite of what I think Biden should do, which is to run on his own merit and not on the demonization of Trump.”
His own merit? Crack head grifting deadbeat son? Whole family in on the grift, selling US policy for cash? Wife with a summer school doctorate demanding that she be addressed as “Doctor”, while wearing dresses that look like floral apolstry? Ten SLO Joe himself who should be in a dimentia ward, but is instead is herded out onto stage, where he quickly gets lost and muddled? That Joe Biden?
A president going for re-election and saying that reason is because he isn't like the other guy, who is also sort of going for a re-election saying "See what you replaced me with?"
Grover Cleveland (and perhaps Richard Nixon) could comment with a laugh.
Biden's handlers seem as clueless about campaign strategy as they are about governing.
Now, maybe they can come up with another 400 million Zuckerbucks but vote buying may not be so easy this time.
Well, he posted his accomplishments for "another great year" here:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GCns3dYXQAAJIEs?format=jpg&name=large
Nobody here would find it persuasive.
If Trump is convicted of a criminal offense — particularly at the trial in March on his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election — independent voters will take notice. The irony is that opinion polling suggests the future of democracy is not yet at the forefront of voters’ minds. Biden has partly himself to blame for that. Democrats have so far been weak at spelling out exactly what is at stake.
Biden has imported 10 million illegals, most of them military age, unvetted in any way, who's entire support is being paid for by us at a higher level than the average American veteran or welfare recipient. This is increasing every day. What percentage of them do you think might be terrorists or hard criminals who will do us great damage in addition to the support costs? Even a very small percentage equals a huge invasion of what are effectively enemy combatants. This is far more of a threat than Covid-19 ever was. It's simply brain dead and irresponsible to think any alleged crimes Trump has or would do are worse than 8 years of that process, or even one year of it.
Bob Boyd said...
“Biden 2024
Trump is Hitler”
May I make a small correction? (Periods are where spacing should be)
2024…….….Biden
Trump…….Is Hitler.
Trump leans into the "dictator" claims until only the most highly "educated", read longest time on college campus, can't see the ridiculousness.
To be fair, Trump did authoritatively make fun of powerful people on social media, then he had two scoops of ice cream while social media still screams in hurtful agony.
If Trump is convicted of a criminal offense — particularly at the trial in March on his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election — independent voters will take notice. The irony is that opinion polling suggests the future of democracy is not yet at the forefront of voters’ minds. Biden has partly himself to blame for that. Democrats have so far been weak at spelling out exactly what is at stake.
You think the Death of Democracy! isn't at the forefront of voters' minds because Democrats haven't pushed it hard enough? Are you kidding?
The problem with the Death of Democracy! not being at the forefront of voters' minds is that voters have been battered with this Dem rhetoric for so long - with, surprise! no actual death of democracy when the dreaded Republicans are in office - that all they can do is yawn when they hear it again.
And Trump's attempt to "overthrow the election" is a prit-tee hard sell when, by now, everyone knows that the salient evidence of it consisted of an almost entirely peaceful and entirely unarmed crowd of protesters, and a bunch of speeches that resulted in absolutely no attempt - not even a fake attempt - to verify the security of the 2020 election or to ensure the security of any future election - just loud insistence that 2020 was, what was the phrase - "the most free and secure election in history," and that anyone who questioned that claim was an insurrectionist sympathizer, at the very least. And, of course, everyone also knows that on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump walked out of the White House, all by himself, without a bit of coercion.
Worst. Insurrectionist. Ever.
Or they just can't say. They don't call him "Genocide Joe" - even in the office - for nothing.
========
wonddering if FJB manages genocide of D's would US/world be better off?
The logic from the Trump's followers just seems to escape me. Claiming it wasn't an insurrection, just a "few tourists", would baffle anyone when they were to see the videos. Plus knowing that Trump was watching it unfold on TV and did not do anything for hours to try and resolve it. The inaction alone makes him complicit. There is no other reason in the world why a defeated president would hold a “stop the steal” rally on the day the election results were to be finalized. An insurrection is an insurrection.
Then there's Trump's presidential immunity claim. Biden should come out and say he wants Trump on the ballot. The 14th doesn't apply. Then thanks him for the playbook describing how to never leave office and the appreciation of knowing he can't be charged, no matter what he does. And ends it with " My Fellow Americans , I'm not ever going to leave the White House and there is nothing you can do to me." Which would confirm exactly why SCOTUS will keep Trump off the ballots and why Trump will never get immunity.
haha,
Jamie said "Worst. Insurrectionist. Ever."
thanks, Jamie, your whole post was a tonic that cheered me.
where did I see it or hear it?
Don't remember now, but it was Trump making clear that decisions on abortion should be made by and as close to the Mother as much as possible.
that is a fine metric, hard for our ruling Hydra to disagree.
Rich said...
"The logic from the Trump's followers just seems to escape me."
Yeah. I bet you out run a lot of logic.
It was obvious from the beginning that you tried to create a "Reichstag fire" moment and that you failed to convince anyone with a brain that it was an insurrection.
You are easily led, Rich.
Biden will remain a candidate through the primaries and caucuses (such as they will be) but will not be the nominee post convention.
Rusty is projecting again—sad really….
Malignant narcissists are good at projecting what's wrong with them on others.
Rich said...
"Rusty is projecting again....."
Don't blame. Counter. Tell me why I'm wrong.
Tell me why it was an "insurrection".
Quit being stupid.
Use to be there would be a crazy relative like Rusty at family reunions spouting nonsense to the amusement of others. With the internet they have all found each other and mobilized. It is not funny anymore.
“The logic from the Trump's followers just seems to escape me. Claiming it wasn't an insurrection, just a "few tourists", would baffle anyone when they were to see the videos. Plus knowing that Trump was watching it unfold on TV and did not do anything for hours to try and resolve it. The inaction alone makes him complicit. There is no other reason in the world why a defeated president would hold a “stop the steal” rally on the day the election results were to be finalized. An insurrection is an insurrection.”
BS. All of the video shown prior to 2023 and the Republicans taking control of the House, was heavily curated and cherry picked by Pelosi and her House Democrats. Few really had any idea of how egregious this was until the Republicans started rolling out the rest of the video from that day. Turns out that many of the visitors were welcomed to the Capital that day and escorted around (then arrested for having broken in). Much of the “violence” was incited by people pretending to be Trump supporters, both Antifa (at least two bus loads) and dozens of federal agents, none of whom were ever indicted. And was initiated by the Capital Police, without provocation, shooting them with rubber bullets and throwing flash bangs. Interestingly, the “violent” protesters didn’t kill anyone that day, but two women were murdered by the Capital Police. It was a set up from the beginning, when Pelosi, through her Capital Police, refused Trump’s offer of sending in the National Guard.
Post a Comment