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T R E 4 5 O N

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

In my day, never was longer.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Saturday Morning Open Thread: President Joe, Keepin’ On Keepin’ On

Saturday Morning Open Thread: President Joe, Keepin’ On Keepin’ On

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Everybody fake surprise!

President Biden said Friday that while he has not made a formal decision about running for reelection in 2024, he intends to do so — citing previous encouragement from his late son, Beau, and revealing that he has the backing of his wife, first lady Jill Biden.

In an interview that aired Friday, MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart quoted Biden’s 2017 autobiography, “Promise Me, Dad,” in which the president wrote that Beau had insisted he run for the office in 2016, saying that his father had a duty to do so. Capehart asked what words Beau — who died of brain cancer in 2015 — would have for those who say Biden should not run again because of his age.

“The only reason to be involved in public life is: Can you make life better for other people?” Biden answered. “Depending on who the opponent is, if they have a view that is so the antithesis of what I believe democracy [is], and I believe is good for average Americans, then, his argument was, ‘Dad, you have an obligation to do something.’ ”

When asked if the first lady supports a 2024 run, Biden nodded and paused before providing a full answer. “My wife thinks that we’re doing something very important and that I shouldn’t walk away from it,” he said.

But Biden said he was not yet formally declaring his candidacy, because once he does, a “whole series of regulations kick in, and I have to treat myself as a candidate from that moment on.

“I have not made that formal decision, but it’s my intention. My intention to run again. And we have time to make that decision,” he said…

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  8. 8.

    Geminid

    Yesterday an Alaska journalist asked Senator Lisa Murkowski if she was planning to rank Democrat Mary Peltola first in next month’s election.

    “Yes I am,” Murkowski replied, and went on to explain that this was not a question of party but rather who would best serve Alaska’s interests. Murkowski said she’s known Peltola for 25 years and trusted her to do right for Alaskans.

  10. 10.

    Mousebumples

    Good morning! 2 more weekends (including this one) until the election.

    What are you doing to GOTV?

    My plan is to keep writing #PostcardsToVoters. Keep reminding our voters to show up and support Democrats!

  13. 13.

    Doug R

    I like Biden’s careful wording. Don’t shake the apple cart until we see how 2022 works out. Then he has a year to decide health vs nation’s need.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Love that clip Parkhomenko tweeted — Biden expresses exactly the correct level of contempt for those Republican hypocrites who complain about student debt relief while hoovering up pandemic business loan forgiveness dollars. Glad my former rep, fat cat Trump toady Vern Buchanan, got a shout-out as a major hypocrite; $2M-plus for his rip-off car dealerships and he’s got the gall to bitch about students!

  15. 15.

    Cluttered Mind

    Concern for well being is accurate and is not limited to “decent Republicans” either.

    Remember how I said my wife was running to try to flip Maine State Senate District 2 to the Dems? Her signs have been vandalized and/or stolen all over the place, and two days ago someone slashed our car tire with a razor blade. The physical threats and intimidation are very real. We aren’t stopping and still plan to win, but it’s understandable that many would not want to subject themselves to this.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cluttered Mind:

    Horrible that you and your wife are having to endure such threats and vandalism. Have you notified the police and your board of elections? I hope it stops, I hope they find the people responsible, and above all, I hope your wife wins.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of hypocrites, the Miami Herald highlights one:

    A Venezuelan migrant unable to legally work in the United States was paid to help coordinate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ migrant flight program, putting the Republican governor’s high-profile political gambit in conflict with his long-standing push to crack down on undocumented labor.

    The migrant, a 27-year-old named Emmanuel, told the Miami Herald he helped find passengers to fill planes that DeSantis wanted to send from Texas to Democratic strongholds in northern states. He was recruited by Perla Huerta, a 43-year-old former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent working for Vertol Systems Company — which has been paid more than $1.5 million by the DeSantis administration to execute the operation.

    Emmanuel ended up receiving three cash payments totaling $700 from Huerta for his work on behalf of DeSantis’ relocation program, he told the Miami Herald. Text messages reviewed by the Herald corroborate his account.

    I hope Charlie Crist brings this up at the debate. The truth is that approximately half of agricultural workers in Florida are undocumented. My husband has been in the golf course business for 20 years, and depending on the job, he’s often the only person eligible to work in the U.S. who’s on the crew.

    If DeSantis really cared about addressing undocumented labor in Florida, he’d crack down on the people who do the hiring, but those are his donors, so he tortures out-of-state asylum-seekers for public entertainment instead.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I doggie news, I give you Dexter. He is supposed to be world famous but he was news to me. So for those few who also never heard of him, meet the good dog you can’t keep down.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Cluttered Mind: SNAFU. I wish it wasn’t but this is the world we live in. I know how it feels having been there for other more personal reasons. I hope you and your wife come thru this OK and I hope she succeeds in this endeavor.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cluttered Mind:

    Is there some law enforcement agency — local, state, or even federal — that can you can reach out to, to help protect your wife and you? If it’s at a stage where someone is slashing your tyres, you definitely need that.

  28. 28.

    citizen dave

    @Cluttered Mind: This stuff of course is beyond the pale.  I’m heartened by your wife’s candidacy and your joint efforts, though.  Wish I had a vote in Maine…

  29. 29.

    Bupalos

    We really need to hand power to the next generation. This would make sense for the R’s, the party of yesherday. It’s a real disconnect for us. Hope he folds it up.

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    @Bupalos: And what candidate do you think can win the next presidential election? One of the many people who lost the primary to Biden?

  35. 35.

    Kropacetic

    @Bupalos: We really need to hand power to the next generation. This would make sense for the R’s, the party of yesherday. It’s a real disconnect for us. Hope he folds it up.

    I was profoundly skeptical of Biden before I voted for him. He has been doing fantastic work. If he’s feeling up to the task, I’d feel privileged to keep him in office til 28.

    The next generation likely isn’t going anywhere.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    U.S. agriculture would crash without undocumented labor.  IMHO, one of the main reasons the GOP hates on the undocumented is to prevent them from organizing for better wages and working conditions.

  38. 38.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: U.S. agriculture would crash without undocumented labor.

    It’s the labor we need, not the undocumented status. Let’s get these fine folk on the path to work visas and/or citizenship.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Your WTF? moment of the day:

    Police are investigating why someone buried a car in the yard of a multimillion-dollar northern California home in the 1990s – and left unused bags of concrete inside. The car was discovered on Thursday morning by landscapers in the affluent town of Atherton in Silicon Valley, police said in a news release.

    Cadaver dogs alerted to possible human remains but more than 12 hours after the car was recovered none had been found, Atherton police commander Daniel Larsen said. “The cadaver dogs made a slight notification of possible human remains. The San Mateo crime lab was contacted and sent technicians to assist with excavating the vehicle. Excavation is ongoing and at this time, no human remains have been located,” police said.

    Police believe the car was buried 4ft to 5ft deep in the 1990s. Larsen would not say what led detectives to that conclusion. The bags of concrete were placed throughout the vehicle, which was blanketed by dirt over the roof, Larsen said. According to an NBC Bay Area anchor, Gia Bang, police said the car was a Mercedes.

    Hmmmm… Maybe it’s name was Christine.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    Joe Biden is plainly the best presidential candidate for 2024 that the Democratic party has right now. Unless an even better candidate magically turns up from somewhere, or (God forbid) Biden is incapacitated, Biden ought to be the nominee.

  41. 41.

    Cluttered Mind

    The media and the police will be no help, and it will backfire if we go to them without any evidence. Due to the way local politics works around here, you typically suffer in the polls if you’re the first one to go after your opponent directly. Filing police reports and going to the media about this would be perceived as whining and baseless accusations, and we’d take hits for it. We’re going to set up a camera outside our house to protect the car at least, but unless we have video evidence of a specific person committing crimes against us, it will do more harm than good if we involve police or media. We’re pretty sure that there’s a coordinated effort going on to mess with our signs, but without proof….

    So yeah. We can’t do anything about it except win in November. We are choosing to believe that when an incumbent and/or his supporters behave in this manner, it means they’re scared to death of what’s coming for them. That will have to be enough.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The poultry farms and processing factories over in the Shenendoah Valley would grind to a halt if they lost their undocumented workers.

    They must already be hurting for employees. I got a card in my mailbox recruiting me to work for a processor in Timberville, and that’s over 40 miles away.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @Kropacetic:

    Right, but if we reform the system, the workers will feel more confident about demanding better terms, which will cost their employers money.

  45. 45.

    MazeDancer

    Elaine Luria in VA and Susan Wikd in PA are  statistically tied with their terrible opponents.

    Please write PostCards for them. Even 5 or 10 would help.

    Get addresses: at PostCardPatriots.com. Or click on my nym.

  46. 46.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: Right, but if we reform the system, the workers will feel more confident about demanding better terms, which will cost their employers money.

    Minimum wage should apply to undocumented workers. Put the onus on employers. Minimum is too low for most to live on to begin with

    Note that this immediately dispels the argument of immigrants undermining wages.

  49. 49.

    NorthLeft

    @Cluttered Mind: I hope your wife and the decent people in your area are able to send a big FU to the criminals and assholes that are doing this.

    Best of luck to you, all of you.

  51. 51.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Police believe the car was buried 4ft to 5ft deep in the 1990s. Larsen would not say what led detectives to that conclusion.

    I’ll guess

    1. The car was found buried four to five feet deep.
    2. The CD in the player was NIrvana’s Nevermind.
    3. The vehicle tags expired in 1993.

    Or as Terry Pratchett put it, “When you found the dead man’s wife standing over the body holding a bloodstained axe and saying ‘He shouldn’t ought to have said that,’ even Sergeant Detritus could work out what had happened.”

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @Baud: Hint hint.

    I think Betty is happy just commenting on politics, and I see Adam as more of a defense secretary or national security advisor.

    (Exercise for the day: Put together a cabinet using the Balloon Juice front pagers.  Clarification: I mean name them to cabinet offices, not have them help you assemble Ikea’s Snömvälleröd storage cabinet.)

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The sprawling home and property is valued at $15m, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. According to the outlet, the property includes a 12,000 sq-ft home purchased by the current owners in 2020. Zillow records indicated that the home, built in 1990, was listed for rent in 2013 and 2014. 

    Sprawling enough to bury a car undetected!

  55. 55.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kropacetic: I recently saw a tweet trying to recruit free lance writers for some job at $5/hour. I commented that that was below even the disgraceful $7.25 Federal minimum wage. A friend was shocked that the Federal minimum was that low.

    I know some states set their own minimum, but I think lots of people don’t realize how low the Federal one is.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    not have them help you assemble Ikea’s Snömvälleröd storage cabinet

     
    If I don’t have help, I always end up having to disassemble everything because of that one screw I forgot to put in at Step 2.

  58. 58.

    Mousebumples

    @MazeDancer: Head’s up to you and others that I’m working with WaterGirl to try to coordinate a Juicer postcard writing “party.” I think we’re going with tonight (8pm blog time) and Tuesday (same time). I thought it could be fun to write postcards for GOTV, knowing that others like me are doing the same thing, at the same time.

    Whether they use your website or Postcardstovoters.org or something else – let’s get that Dem turnout ramped up UP UP! 

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: The bags of concrete are a nice touch.  Those things are HEAVY and wrestling them into a car must have been lots of fun.

    Curious.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    Kropacetic

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I recently saw a tweet trying to recruit free lance writers for some job at $5/hour. I commented that that was below even the disgraceful $7.25 Federal minimum wage. A friend was shocked that the Federal minimum was that low.

    Sounds like your friend, with no disrespect intended toward your friend, would perform better as an MSM talking head than at freelance writing. Pay is better too

    They need people who don’t know or are willing to ignore that stuff.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Both. This is the Balloon Juice monarch we’re talking about.

    The only problem is, where are we going to get the crown jewels?  There’s a shortage of countries we can conquer, which has been the traditional means of acquisition.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: Those things are HEAVY

    No shit: I once collapsed a lung catching them. Put me in the hospital for 6 days of hell.

    eta: and morphine, didn’t make the pain go away but it was a beautiful pain after I got shot up.

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    Biden says he intends to run again in 2024, and has the first lady’s support

    GOOD.

    1) He really is doing an exceptional job of Presidenting. Why would we want anyone else right now?
    2) If he gets to a point where he’s not up to the job, whether due to the reduced stamina of advancing age, or the first signs of dementia, we can deal with it then. I don’t see him having a blind spot about this; if he needs to step down, I fully expect that he’ll realize it, accept it, and do it.
    2a) If the wingnuts were OK with Reagan, who was already going down that road during his first term, they can STFU about Biden.
    3) Biden will have the advantage of incumbency, which is considerable.
    4) Biden’s a white male, and unfortunately we still live in a world where that matters. It will matter less with each passing year, but dammit, we aren’t far enough down that road yet to risk the Presidency on the hope that people are ready for our excellent and quite capable Vice President to run in his place.
    5) And oh yeah, did I mention that he’s doing an absolutely terrific job as President? Because that’s still the most important thing, or at least it damn well should be.

  83. 83.

    sdhays

    @Betty Cracker: This November, we really have to see if Florida, collectively, has even an ounce of self-respect. He’s daring voters to tell him that anything he does matters.

    I don’t really see how even if you don’t like immigrants that you decide that lighting $12m of Florida taxpayer’s money on a campaign stunt with more and more levels of illegality is appealing. You’d think that there would be a decent number of Republicans who think “I hate voting for Democrats, but this DeSantis guy is just out of control, and Republicans have a super lock on the legislature, so Charlie Crist won’t be that bad and we can vote him out after one term.”

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    Heard a Tory knucklehead on BBC fan-boy the possibility of returning BoJo to Downing and claiming, for instance, that BoJo’s cajoling Biden is the sole reason the US has been so vigorously arming Ukraine.

    Payback for Bush making Blair his poodle?

    I know Biden’s too smart to share his opinion of BoJo publicly but the very idea he could be manipulated by that lunatic is, well, c’mon, man!

  92. 92.

    sdhays

    @Ken: Didn’t The Federalist recently publish something about needing liberals to throw them to the ground and stamp on their heads*? Maybe they would appreciate a good old fashioned conquering.

    * Or did I get that backwards?

  93. 93.

    Barbara

    @trollhattan: ​I will say that Bojo’s moral clarity on Russia and Ukraine was admirable especially in comparison to French and German responses. I suspect that Biden was gratified but not necessarily influenced by it. It probably did help galvanize support overall. I mean, credit where it is due.

  94. 94.

    Barbara

    @sdhays: ​That’s pretty much the gist of it. Without spilling too much, my experience with the kind of people who would agree with that article is that they are in prolonged mourning over perceived rejection by their own children of traditional religious values and practice.

  95. 95.

    Cluttered Mind

    My wife is running a clean elections campaign, meaning publicly funded. So she can’t actually use money that is donated directly to her. That ActBlue shouldn’t even be working, we’ll try to get any money sent via it returned. However, the local Democrats are extremely strapped for cash (this is a very rural, somewhat red county), and if people actually want to give, the Aroostook County Democrats should be where the money goes. Senate District 2 includes parts of Millinocket County as well as Aroostook County, but we live in Aroostook and that’s where the majority of the vandalism has taken place. I will get the info for the Aroostook Dems, but please don’t send any money directly to Dani. We can’t use it and might get in trouble for it

    The local party would be able to use the donated money to replace signs and such. It just has to be partitioned away from our direct campaign funds.

  96. 96.

    Kropacetic

    @sdhays: Didn’t The Federalist recently publish something about needing liberals to throw them to the ground and stamp on their heads*? Maybe they would appreciate a good old fashioned conquering.

    Best left to private scenarios between consenting adults. Not a governing model.

  100. 100.

    Jackie

    From Political Wire:

    “Former President Donald Trump’s world, which has been hit with impeachments, a sweeping civil lawsuit, and several federal investigations, is about to grapple with a new legal challenge — a criminal trial of his namesake business,” USA Today reports.

    “Barring any late settlement with New York City prosecutors, jury selection in the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against the Trump Organization is scheduled to start on Monday.”

    Look to TFG to go even more bonkers this weekend.  Heeheehee!

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @Cluttered Mind: Thanks for the update.

    What a strange system.  I thought that the $100 limit was bad enough!  :-(

    Sorry about making more work for you.  Please keep us updated on how we can help.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    kalakal

     

    @Barbara: I’m pretty sure Bojo did the right thing for the wrong reasons. He fancies himself as Churchill reincarnated, striding a world stage, a figure of international consequence, the magnus vir in temporum varietate ( that’s how he writes including the schoolboy latin). It also was a distraction from trouble back home.

    I don’t care why he did it, the important thing was it needed doing and he did do it. I don’t think he persuaded Biden. I think he made it easier for Biden to persuade  others, that’s what allies do. As you said credit where credit is due.

  103. 103.

    kalakal

    I’d just like to say how much I enjoy hearing Biden excoriate Republican politicians. He’s pitch perfect, his genuine moral outrage and the hypocrisy, the grifting is such a powerful message

  104. 104.

    Cluttered Mind

    Link

    If you wanted to donate this is where it will actually be most helpful. Also if you wanted to help Dani with a time donation, use her website to send a message saying you want to phone bank and you will be contacted and tremendously appreciated! Our district has approximately one person for every 2 square miles, and there’s a lot of square miles, so it’s an awful lot of ground to cover for canvassing!

  105. 105.

    Skepticat

    @Cluttered Mind: Much as I prefer being in District 1 because of the large number of idiotic people (your family obviously excepted) in District 2, I wish I could vote for her. I so respect her efforts and send moral support. I see way too many LeRage signs around here, but I plow them down only mentally. I’m house-hunting, and when checking out property, I first look for yard signs and bumper stickers. Too many for Chump and LeRage, and I take a pass no matter how nice the house.

  106. 106.

    Cluttered Mind

    @Skepticat: Someone actually plunked a LePage sign down directly in front of the Mills sign in my next door neighbor’s yard. Like 1 inch directly in front, totally obscuring. Her backyard faces a major street so the person probably didn’t realize that it was private property. I took great pleasure in relocating that sign to my dumpster, with full blessing from my neighbors.

  110. 110.

    Tony Jay

    @Barbara:

    ‘Moral’ what, now?

    Flobalob presided over a Tory Party that was awash, as in to a great extent funded by, Russian oligarchs.

    He ignored security concerns to give a knighthood to the son of a KGB Colonel and raced off to an orgy at his Italian castle – deliberately ditching his security detail in the process – the day after attending a NATO security council on the topic of Putin’s Russia.

    His Party ordered the Security Services not to gather evidence regarding Russian interference in British elections.

    When sanctions were first coming in for Russian money men he made sure that Britain gave them time to shift their billions out of Londongrad before the axe came down.

    What I’m saying here is that Flobby likes to talk a good game, but his bombastic support for Ukraine was always solely about covering his own back after years of being Russian asset.

  114. 114.

    Barbara

    @Tony Jay: ​Even if he did the right thing for the wrong reasons, he did the right thing. Those who seem to have had less to atone for or cover up proved to have cold feet and reluctant hearts.

  116. 116.

    Matt McIrvin

    The people hoping Biden won’t run again are imagining no transactional costs to the switch–we just swap in Pete Buttigieg or Kamala Harris or whoever they want, all other things being equal. The problem is, all other things are not equal. Even if I might, in the abstract, have liked some of these people as the standard-bearer more than Biden, there’s a huge political cost inherent in your incumbent not choosing to run again, especially if they aren’t term-limited–it plays as a confession of failure, and will be blasted all over the media as such. Voters will think: if you admit your party couldn’t get it right the first time, why should we vote for this other candidate?

    We like to be the smart party and respond to changing events by changing strategies instead of doubling down, but the fact is, standing firm gives a psychological advantage. The Republicans know that it’s almost always better politically to brazen it out even when your candidate is a complete crook and a fool, and ours isn’t either of those things.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    (There was a proposal along similar lines that I thought was even worse: the LGM front-pagers talking about how, because Biden was old and in danger of either dying or being sidelined by health issues, he should… replace Kamala Harris with someone who would poll better. It’s hard for me to imagine a worse look. It seems to me to be terminal pundit-brain reasoning.)

  119. 119.

    Tony Jay

    @Barbara:

    I’d suggest that that’s different to ascribing a moral aspect to a moral vacuum. Tossing someone else’s money at a problem of his own making is pretty much Pure Flobalob.

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: My brother-in-law thinks similarly to the LGM posters. There’s a lot of this going around among older white guys. And because they don’t know any Harris fans so they think she doesn’t have any, or at least not ones as “smart” as they are.

    These are highly intelligent people, but they are handicapped by x- chromosome and melanin deficiencies.

  121. 121.

    Barbara

    @Tony Jay: ​I’m not arguing with you about him, but there is such a thing as giving credit where it is due and moving on. You can still criticize him (and others) for enabling a game of complicit footsie with oligarchs to the detriment of the UK itself, certainly its less well-heeled citizens, Ukraine, all of Europe and basically the world. It’s the LEAST he can do, yes, but there are lots who wouldn’t have bothered or found excuses not to.

  123. 123.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: I guess the thinking is, if you ditch the Black/Asian woman who is the target of so much hate from white guys, you’ll win some fraction of the white-guy vote, and where else are all the people you just pissed off gonna go? It’s not like they have a better alternative.

    But enthusiasm drives turnout, and shanking your base doesn’t make them enthusiastic. It’s not at all obvious that it’s a net gain, and in fact I suspect it isn’t.

  124. 124.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    where else are all the people you just pissed off gonna go? It’s not like they have a better alternative.

     
    Isn’t that the usual complaint that LGM has with how they perceive Democrats treat progressives?

  125. 125.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: It also seems to me that if your headline complaint is that the Democratic Party is a gerontocracy with too many leaders over 70, “ditch Kamala Harris” is not an obvious remedy for that.

  128. 128.

    kalakal

    @Matt McIrvin: I suspect it’s a net loss. Those people you’ve pissed off may not have anywhere to go but are more likely just to give up on politics altogether. As for the White Guy haters, for how many of them is it going to be the case that the complexion of the candidate is the only thing making them vote GQP rather than Dem? The people putting this idea forward need to get out more

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Those LGM posters underestimate Harris, who I think is a formidable politician. And Harris and Biden have a very mutually supportive relationship.

    The LGM people are intellectuals, so I can see how they might be attracted to Pete Buttegieg. But if Joe Biden were to announce he is not running, I think we’d see so many top Democrats endorse Harris so fast it would make Campos’s and the rest of their heads spin. And Pete Buttigieg would be among the first to endorse her.

  131. 131.

    Baud

    @Geminid: I’m less certain the primary wouldn’t be more open if Biden didn’t run again.  Which is fine, from my perspective.  No one is entitled to the nomination.

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @Baud: It would be open. But I think that the other heavy hitters would take a pass, and Harris would win with the coalition Biden won with.

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: I like Buttigieg too. But in politics you can’t necessarily swap people in and out like game pieces. His time will come (unless our democracy collapses too hard for there to be any Democratic politicians, which I still think is a distinct possibility).

  136. 136.

    divF

    @Another Scott: I once lived in a stucco cottage built in the late 1920’s. When I was digging up the yard to put in a garden, I found a large (6ft x 6ft) piece of stucco buried in the yard. Our guess was, that when they construction crew finished, the just dumped the leftover stucco in the back and covered it over.

    Atherton is an upscale kind of town, so my first thought was that the crew was disposing of the leftover concrete by putting in the back of a Mercedes they had lying around and burying the whole thing.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: I think Pete Buttegieg is great. And if this electorate was composed of LGM posters he’d be unstoppable!

    But they are representative of only a small part of just the Democratic electorate.

  139. 139.

    Geminid

    @divF: That Mercedes was too hot in some way to sell or part out. There is a story here, and a serious crime is probably at the root of it.

    I wonder why those cadaver dogs were there in the first place. Maybe the police know some of the story already.

  142. 142.

    bupalos

    @zhena gogolia: I think almost anyone can beat Trump, supposing that’s who the opposing party runs. Biden can do it but Harris could do it, Buttigiege could do it, almost anyone. And if it’s not Trump but someone younger, I think Biden would be uniquely vulnerable.

    But apart from the tactics, there’s the strategy. We need to start speaking to the future and looking like the future. Our current dynamic (and frankly this was true of running Clinton as well) is about evenly weighted between “let’s go back,” “let’s stay here,” and “let’s go forward.” I think it’s an extremely fragile and defensive posture that is going to be slowly bombed to submission hiding in its foxhole from the fascists.

  143. 143.

    Another Scott

    @divF: Yeah, laziness genes cause humans to minimize work!

    I’m reminded of stories of college pranks though.

    E.g. A story of dubious provenance from decades ago:  Pranksters spread rumors that they were going to steal some statue on campus.  So the university made sure that the statue was welded/bolted down so that it would be impossible to remove without hours of noisy, obvious work.

    And one morning, it was gone!  And all that was left was a huge pile of dirt!!  Rumors swirled – how did they do it?  Where did it go?!

    A few days later a note was left on the pile – “Look under the dirt”…

    Similarly, I wonder if the stolen car was used in some joyriding (and who knows what else) and the thieves didn’t want to risk getting caught and having their fingerprints found, so they decided to bury it.  Or they wanted the victim to suffer and not be able to claim an insurance loss for a long time (“where is it?”).  But why the concrete??  Maybe hiding extra construction materials is the answer!!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  144. 144.

    dww44

    @Cluttered Mind: Not only not want to but most importantly, shouldn’t have to subject themselves to these sorts of assaults.  We have to vote and win, even when we are predicted not to.  Our winning is the only way, long term, that our opposition party can begin the process of cleaning itself of their anti-democratic supporters.

    Thank you to your wife and to you.

  145. 145.

    bupalos

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The people hoping Biden won’t run again are imagining no transactional costs to the switch–we just swap in Pete Buttigieg or Kamala Harris or whoever they want, all other things being equal.

    I wouldn’t be going for a kind of everything-equal “swap them in” at all. I’d be going for a new message. I’d want them to even be somewhat oppositional to Biden and cast it as time for a change and for the next generation to take over- a generation with a more natural urgency about the future. Thanks for doing your best gramps, but we need to do better. I wouldn’t worry about that scrambling things, I’d expect it. I’d hope for it.

    We don’t just need young people to get involved in democracy so that Democrats win the next election. We need them to get involved because our democracy is in serious trouble if they grow to the habit of demobilization and apathy. Clogging up the leadership of this country with a gerontocracy and creating dispiriting traffic jam below, however well intended- however capable these octogenarians are- is a recipe for losing what matters. Just losing it so slowly that we never notice

    In this vein, the best thing about Buttigiege is how young he is and how well he communicates in a language of values.

  146. 146.

    Baud

    @bupalos: I could be very wrong, but I don’t see younger Dem candidates bringing in younger voters or making them more active simply because the candidate is younger.

    It’ll be interesting to see who shows up for Tim Ryan, because his message has been the same as yours.

  147. 147.

    dww44

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m gonna be the contrarian here.  In a general election, not a primary one, I believe Buttegieg would outperform Harris.  As a woman and lifelong Democrat, I believe our national misogyny is stronger than our national homophobia.  Looking back at Obama, his self-deprecating, non-threatening nice-guy persona allowed him to prevail and he still got all sorts of racial pushback.I think we are likely to have a Republican female President before we ever have a Democratic one, whether she’s a person of color or not.  That is, if our democracy can survive long enough. A fact that has me really worried right now.​​

  148. 148.

    PJ

    @bupalos: You’re high if you think the Democrats could run anyone against Trump and they’d still win.  Do you remember 2016, when an extremely qualified woman ran against Trump and lost?

    Sometimes politics is about symbolism – “looking like the future” – or whatever.  It’s not unimportant, but the most important things are 1) to win; and 2) to accomplish your policy goals.  We know Biden can win (certainly against Trump or any other Republican who might get nominated in 2024), and so far, he’s done an incredible job of getting legislative wins with a 50/50 Senate, and of making the right foreign policy choices (ending the drone war, getting out of Afghanistan, supporting Ukraine and supporting democracy in general).

    And now you want to switch him out for someone who might not win, and who might not have the experience and skills required to get legislation passed and to forge foreign coalitions and make difficult foreign policy decisions.

    You don’t like Biden, fine.  But right now there is no better candidate for 2024.

  149. 149.

    bupalos

    @Baud: I’m here in Ohio and I really don’t think this is much Ryan’s message, other than as a semi-defense against the “you love Nancy Pelosi” attacks. As a candidate Ryan is running “for the worker” in a way that is actually pretty old-school. I don’t love his campaign, mostly because if you’re going to do that you should be SHOUTING about Build Back Better, it’s dumping big $ into Ohio.

  151. 151.

    Kropacetic

    @PJ: Furthermore, if there were a truly better candidate for 2024, it would have to be unambiguous and that candidate would have to be far, far better for me to even consider it.  I’m all for skepticism of the old guard, but  Biden detractors have to be realistic; any challenge of that nature would be tremendously divisive and likely open a path for a Republican to win.

    A truly better candidate would recognize this and take a pass on 2024 unless Biden opts out.

  152. 152.

    bupalos

    @PJ:

    Do you remember 2016, when an extremely qualified woman ran against Trump and lost?

    I personally doubt she would have lost if the majority of people really felt Trump could win. Like if you reran the election a week later, he’d lose.

    And Trump 2024 is not Trump 2016, he’s going to be an extremely weak candidate, so much so that I think its even odds he’s not the candidate in the end, even though he’d absolutely win any primary. Any general election with Trump at this point is simply going to be a referendum on Trump, full-stop. And the answer is going to be NO. I really don’t think we need Biden to make that happen.

  153. 153.

    bupalos

    @Baud: He’s right about that but that’s really not his campaign message, that’s what he says when reporters ask him, and it’s a way of distancing in a state Biden lost.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    @bupalos:

    That’s my point though. Being younger doesn’t automatically inspire.  Switching out Biden for someone younger doesn’t necessarily activate young voters.

  156. 156.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I’m for Biden running in 2024 because I believe he can win. I don’t believe that anyone else on our side is a guaranteed slam dunk, and I’m not willing to take that risk, because if the Republicans win in 2024, that’s the day that our democracy ends. I wish I was exaggerating.

  157. 157.

    Matt McIrvin

    @bupalos:

    I personally doubt she would have lost if the majority of people really felt Trump could win. Like if you reran the election a week later, he’d lose.

    Nah, if you look at the approval polling from late 2016 you see the usual effect where winning produces its own credibility–Trump got a huge burst of instant respect because he won. People were willing to give him a chance, especially Republicans who’d had to hold their noses.

  158. 158.

    lashonharangue

    @divF:

    Atherton is an upscale kind of town

    Upscale if the scale is logarithmic

    Located on California’s San Francisco Peninsula, Atherton’s 94027 ZIP Code is one of the richest in the United States. An enclave for Silicon Valley power players, Atherton is a 5-square-mile town with a population of 6,915 and median household income above $250,000, according to census data.

  159. 159.

    bupalos

    @Matt McIrvin: People always just say they support the new President.

    I mean, it’s all counterfactual, but I do think there was an extreme lack of urgency among many Dems in ’16 because it was in the bag and because (apologies to the board) Clinton was a centrist.

  160. 160.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: I think the timing of the actual election is the question.  My Atlanta friend thinks that trump peaked at exactly the right time, and would have lost had the election been held a few days before or after. That was such an extremely narrow win this is possible, but of course we could never know.

    In his Making of a President: 1968, Theodore White expressed the belief that Humphrey was closing on Nixon fast enough that he would have won had the election been held three days later than it was.

  161. 161.

    Another Scott

    Every day that passes confirms my long-ago decision to drop getting the WaPo. (I am eligible for a free on now, but still am not tempted.)

    The Post Opinion leadership killed four of my columns in the last eight months (I’d had zero columns killed in the previous eight years).

    But they’re happy to run easily disproven, clickbait bullshit like this. t.co/3CpKwhyIRX

    — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) October 21, 2022

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @bupalos: I think the notion that Clinton had the election “in the bag” may have made some less motivated voters stay home. More significantly, it gave anti-Trump voters licence to vote for the Green and Libertarian candidates. They thought they had a “free” protest vote. The Libertarians drew a couple million more voters in 2016 than in the elections before and after.

  163. 163.

    J R in WV

    @PJ:

    You’re high if you think the Democrats could run anyone against Trump and they’d still win. Do you remember 2016, when an extremely qualified woman ran against Trump and lost?

    You would make an excellent point, if we hadn’t seen Trump as President for 4 years, and watched his abject failure in everything he attempted to do.

    Plague? Failed!

    Wars in the middle east? Failed!

    Southern border control? Failed!

    Etc, etc.

    The only success Trump apparently had was appointing hate-filled fascist liars to the Supreme Court, which was actually a loss to most of the population, as we shall soon see in the upcoming mid-term election!!

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