June 14, 2024

"The official website of the Biden for President campaign is a complete mystery. It’s basically a half-hearted request for money with a promise to 'Finish the Job.'"


"Finish the job?? Does this make much sense when voters think the job you’ve been doing is so bad?... Of course, 'Bidenomics,' which famously crashed and burned as a campaign theme, was no better and probably worse. But what is 'finish the job' but Bidenomics without the name or mentioning Biden at all?"

Writes Ruy Teixeira, in "Democrats Should Swap Out 'Bidenomics' for an Abundance Agenda
'Finish the Job' ain’t gonna cut it."

Okay, so "Bidenomics"... "Finish the job"... how about "I'm not done yet" or "Can I get a time extension"?

Teixeira suggests: an “abundance agenda.” 
Abundance means just what you think it means: more stuff, more growth, more opportunity, being able to easily afford life’s necessities with a lot left over. In short, nicer, genuinely comfortable lives for all....

That sounds more like what people think they could get from Trump. The Democrats always seem to be saying: You'll get a lot less and you'll like it. Or maybe: Somebody else who isn't you is going to get a whole lot less and you can feel good about that.

[W]hat is needed is an actual attempt to change the way our system works that could plausibly put us on the path to abundance.... This agenda also cuts across traditional ideological lines because it combines a desire to expand the scope of public action with a skeptical view of existing interest groups and producer interests in government…. It would be a broader version of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer’s spectacularly successful “fix the damn roads” slogan from her first election campaign in 2018....

[W]orking-class voters do not share Democratic elites’ zeal for restructuring the economy around “green” industries and a clean energy transition based around wind, solar and electric vehicles which has underpinned much of Bidenomics and presumably much of what is now meant by “finish the job.” Working-class voters, precisely the voters who have been slipping away from the party, are much more pragmatic and will judge any strategy not by its greenness but by its concrete effects on their lives.... 60 percent of these voters preferred the Republicans and just 33 percent the Democrats.

43 comments:

BG said...

“Finish the job” sounds more like a mob boss giving orders to his hit man.

Quaestor said...

Maybe they should shout, "The laptop is disinformation!!"

...Well, it worked the last time.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

Biden is continuing Obama's plan to "Fundamentally Change America."
America, pre-Obama, was a better place for more people than any other place that has ever existed on planet Earth. Not perfect, but way better than anywhere else, and it needed at most the ongoing adjustments that we were making in the way of equality of opportunity that had been lacking for some minorities.
Few Americans are aware that poor people in America have a higher standard of living than middle class people in western Europe, but they do know that middle class people in 2018 American had a higher standard of living than they do today.
Americans in 2024 are also aware that there seems to be some sort of unpleasantness in Ukraine, also in Gaza, and that USA is somehow involved in both of them, and not in a good way. Nothing like this happened during the previous administration.
With some luck, we will see the error of our ways, and start to pay down the huge debt that we have saddled our kids and grands with. Otherwise, we are doomed, and an ever enlarging segment of voters are becoming aware of this.

Just an old country lawyer said...

An "abundance agenda" would require the democrats to abandon their zero sum game theory of economics, neo-tribalism, open borders, the green agenda, excessive government regulations, high taxes, most entitlement programs and to put Milton Friedman, of blessed memory, in charge. The "abundance agenda" would require democrats to stop being democrats.

RideSpaceMountain said...

How can he finish a job he never started?

Bob Boyd said...

change...that could plausibly put us on the path to abundance

"Hope and Change" was more concise.

gilbar said...

the Job is, and remains: DESTROYING AMERICA
They've made BIG PROGRESS.. but there is Still More to be DESTROYED

Curious George said...

"Biden is continuing Obama's plan to "Fundamentally Change America."

Biden isn't doing anything. He doesn't even know what year it is.

William said...

Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform of "He kept us out of war" and won. The Biden administration which is in so many ways reminiscent of the Wilson years, should revert back to that theme. They should advertise Biden's peaceable ways. There might be some trouble at the border and inflation is stubborn, but, by God, we're not yet at war with Russia. Such advertisements would serve a dual purpose: they would remind people of how Biden's mastery of world affairs has kept the world at peace, but, moreover, if in the future we should have to trade nukes with Putin, it would prepare us for the necessity of such actions. Battle field prep so to speak. The way Wilson had shown the American people how he had gone out of his way to avoid war with Germany, Biden should let the American people know that he has done what he could to avoid nuclear war with Russia and, if it happens, it's Trump's fault. Just like our border problems.

Sebastian said...

"Finish the job??"

Sure. Raise the debt, bring in another 10M illegals, devastate fossil energy, hand out billions to your allies, pack the courts, another 100B for Ukraine, stiff Israel, support Iran. Why not?

"Does this make much sense when voters think the job you’ve been doing is so bad?"

Remains to be seen if "voters" think that. And then there's always abortion, the magic potion.

"Swap Out 'Bidenomics' for an Abundance Agenda"

That would be funny if it weren't so absurd. The whole point of modern progressivism is to squash abundance, except for abundant handouts. Bad for the planet.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

"Finish the Job" means Joe "Bribe me!" Biden hasn't destroyed the economy yet, closed all the fossil fuel plants and destroyed the environment to construct all of his "green" energy fantasies.

dbp said...

The problem with an abundance agenda is that the only saps who'll believe, Democrats will deliver abundance, are people who already, robotically, vote Democrat.

narciso said...

how does teixeira still entertain these delusions,

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The corrupt left are not done F-ing us over.

Fred Drinkwater said...

"a desire to expand the scope of public action..."

Shudder.

imTay said...

Wasn't it Lloyd Bentsen who said to Dan Quayle that it was no big trick to keep the economy to appear to be humming by kiting hundreds of millions of dollars in hot checks? Well now, that just sounds quaint today, doesn't it. Joe Biden is kiting $4 trillion in hot checks every year to keep the numbers looking acceptable. And still full-time jobs are actually dropping, and part-time jobs are making up all of the job growth, and foreign born Americans are getting all of the new jobs anyway!

But if you don't look at the numbers too closely, we are doing great! Just ask Rich.

imTay said...

Trump delivered abundance.

MadTownGuy said...

Sebastian said...

"..."Swap Out 'Bidenomics' for an Abundance Agenda"

That would be funny if it weren't so absurd. The whole point of modern progressivism is to squash abundance, except for abundant handouts. Bad for the planet.
"

Without abundance, no abundant handouts. See: Sri Lanka, and Cuba.

Bob Boyd said...

There's no mystery. Biden's only job was and is keeping Trump out of the White House.

If Biden can't get elected, he can't finish the job. He's not doing well enough in the polls to make Trump haters confident he's the man to do that.
"Finish the Job" might be a better slogan for a movement to replace Biden than it is for Biden himself.

Aggie said...

Ha ha ! The first time I skimmed 'Abundance Agenda', my brain interpreted 'Ambulance Agenda'. That's about right, as an assessment of what our national economy needs....

Ann Althouse said...

@Gongtao

Thanks for the heads-up on the typo

fixed

wendybar said...

Exactly what we are all afraid of. He can't fuck it up anymore than he already has, can he??

Damn right he can. It is happening right before our very eyes, and nothing is being done to stop it....except for the people who will vote for Trump in a landslide to make these snakes scurry back under their rocks...to wait for their next chance to destroy America.

Ann Althouse said...

Who even knew his campaign slogan is "Finish the job"?

It fits with "Make America Great Again," refuting the "again" and implying that he's in the middle of making it great.

Original Mike said...

"Finish the job".

I picture Biden with a shotgun, standing over a wounded America.

Big Mike said...

"Finish the job," because the USA is not yet bankrupt.

Is there some international bankruptcy court? Would they make us sell our nuclear warheads to the highest bidder? How about our fighter jets and aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines? We can't sell off our Strategic Petroleum Reserve because Biden already drained it.

John henry said...

Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform of "He kept us out of war" and won.

That was 1916,WW part 1. Shortly after getting reelected he had a draft and troops on the way to Europe. (he had lied)

In 1940, FDR ran on the same thing, even though he already had us in part 2. Shortly after, we we fighting in Europe AND the Pacific.

In 1964 lbj ran on keeping us out of war. He lied about that too.

Lots of similarities between 16, 40 & 64 with today.

Democrat press not overly honest. Needs a campaign boost. Has a lovely little war simmering away (Ukraine, now)

It won't surprise me if Brandon runs on this.

Otoh, Donald Trump actually has a track record of keeping us out of war as prez. And 40 years prior.

John Henry

John henry said...

There are 3 rules for success in sales.

1 ask for the order (or vote in this case)

2 ask for the order

3 ASK FOR THE FREAKING ORDER!

Do it early and do it often until you get to yes. Then shut up.

everything else in sales must be in service of getting to the point of asking.

Asking for the order is Much harder than it would seem (moto of the time The answer is no)

Donald trump understand this. Biden doesn't

John Henry

David53 said...

Help us
To help you
Help us all

Lance said...

Joe Biden is kiting $4 trillion in hot checks every year

Not just Biden. Republicans voted for those budgets as well.

narciso said...

they are going after our energy, our food supplies, seeing infrastructure collapse everywhere,
letting cities descend into chaos, thats not an abundance of anything except perhaps locusts,

Bruce Hayden said...

At least theoretically, it take a lot of planning, organization, and work to win the Presidency. It typically takes a decent sized organization. They all seem to be missing for FJB this time around. His campaign seems to be a rudderless ship, just floating with this current and with that one, with no one on the bridge steering the ship. The most logical answer to this is that it really is a rudderless ship, with no one seriously trying to steer it. Someone has to pull the campaign together, and that is very often the candidate himself. As George W Bush might say - you need a decider, and there isn’t one here. Power is too diffused, with each of the major Dem constituencies happily enjoying their allocated fiefdom.

But lest any Trump supporter get too cocky here, our experiences in 2022 in AZ should be remembered. Kerri Lake was comfortably ahead in the polls, in the run for Governor, and seemed to have momentum going into Election Day. Katy Hobbs, her Dem opponent and at the time Secretary of State, was not really campaigning, and didn’t appear concerned. Turns out, it was because the fix was in, and her plan was to steal the election, which she accomplished. They had a court order (likely a result of her State dept working with billionaire funded leftist advocacy groups that prevented Republicans from monitoring ballot drop off boxes, an election manual that removed significant election integrity measures, and an update to the Maricopa Cty voting machines after they had been certified that printed ballets at one size, and read them at another, guaranteeing that Lake’s momentum would be negated by making same day voting problematic. Likely at least a half million questionable ballots counted, and tens of thousands of Republican votes not counted, for a victory in all three top offices (and Senate seat) in the low thousands. She knew that she didn’t need to campaign, and Lake’s October surge was irrelevant, because of the level of election fraud she was overseeing. Much of the election fraud apparatus in the 5-6 swing states that the Dems stole in 2020 is still in place.

Bob Boyd said...

There's an abundance of illegal aliens.

tcrosse said...

"Finish the job" and make it look like an accident.

who-knew said...

About the abundance agenda Althouse said: "That sounds more like what people think they could get from Trump". Exactly this. Some should inform Texira that it's hard to run on an abundance agenda when every policy your party supports works against it. I'm surprised he didn't say the new Biden slogan should be "a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage" (which turns out to be a Democratic party misinformation campaign against Hoover).

JK Brown said...

How about

"Finish Off America"

The Democrats have a MAD strategy for the country

"Make America Decline". [Use the Democratic party symbol for the D]

Yancey Ward said...

We can't afford to have Biden finish the job.

Amadeus 48 said...

Churchill said before the US entered WWII, "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." "Finish the job" can mean many different things, including finishing off the USA for good.

It is a long way from "A shining city on a hill" or "It is morning in America".

David-2 said...

For some reason, as soon as I read "Finish the job" my mind jumped to "Take the cannoli".

And it works!

(Legend for those of you who need it:

Clemenza = far-left leadership
Gatto = American citizens
Cannoli = everything that works, everything you have, everything worth living for)

minnesota farm guy said...

How about Biden borrows from the Monty Python Plague skit with: "I'm not dead yet!"?

JK Brown said...

From the linked article

Abundance has [a] quite sweeping package of reform that envisions a wholesale program of state-building—building housing, clean energy, and infrastructure by reforming our creaky, captured systems of governance at all levels, and building a simpler, more effective and democratically legitimate welfare and regulatory state.

So socialism where, like the Russian masses, the people just have to wait until the socialist methods of production create great wealth

"What Stalin calls socialism corresponds by and large to Marx’s concept of the “early phase” of communism. Stalin reserves the term communism exclusively for what Marx called the “higher phase” of communism. Socialism, in the sense in which Stalin has lately used the term, is moving towards communism, but is in itself not yet communism. Socialism will turn into communism as soon as the increase in wealth to be expected from the operation of the socialist methods of production has raised the lower standard of living of the Russian masses to the higher standard which the distinguished holders of important offices enjoy in present-day Russia."

von Mises, Ludwig (1947). Planned Chaos

Bunkypotatohead said...

Make America Abundant Again.
Could be a winning slogan, though it doesn't quite roll right off the tongue.

Old and slow said...

MAAA. It sounds like a baby lamb.

Mason G said...

"as soon as the increase in wealth to be expected from the operation of the socialist methods of production has raised the lower standard of living of the Russian masses to the higher standard which the distinguished holders of important offices enjoy in present-day Russia."

Are we there yet?