Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

People are weird.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The lights are all blinking red.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Again With This Fucking Guy

Again With This Fucking Guy

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Oh ffs:

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced Friday that he will not run for president after months of flirting with a campaign that could have complicated the 2024 race for the White House.

Manchin said during a speech in West Virginia he “will not be involved in a presidential run” as he continues to focus on other ways to bring a divided country together. He also said he did not want to play the role of a spoiler as President Biden nears a likely rematch with former president Donald Trump.
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“I just don’t think it’s the right time,” Manchin said. “Democracy is at stake right now.”

Manchin, a centrist Democrat who has relished his influence in a closely divided Senate, has stoked speculation for months that he could enter the presidential race as an independent or third-party candidate. He has aligned himself with No Labels, a bipartisan group that has been looking into fielding a possible centrist ticket.

I will never understand the gigantic fucking egos and what motivates people like Joe Manchin.

Can you imagine how much better off Democrats in WV would be if he spent 1/10th of the fucking time talking about himself talking about all of the good things that Biden and the last Congress did for the state of West Virginia. The Republicans in WV and in DC don’t want to talk about it either, but it has been a lot of amazing shit. Right now the state Democratic party is basically this awesome fucking lady named Kayla Young who is basically alone at the gates of Mordor doing her fucking best.

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  3. 3.

    Nettoyeur

    I remember how the Obama admin offered training programs in WV to help people develop new careers. Most of the respondents opted for coal mining. My parents grew up in WV, but moved north after the war, saving me from that fate.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    From what I’ve read, the Mittster dealt him the fatal blow. Manchin had been ‘mentioning’ Romney as his possible running mate on a No Labels ticket, but that suggestion died so fast and so completely that one suspects an irresistible external force was applied.

  7. 7.

    Attempted Chemistry

    Joe Manchin has been nominated for American Most In Love With The Smell Of His Own Farts 2024. Three-time winter Joe Lieberman said that Manchin was the complete package: “He’s got the narcissism, the self-regard, and the ability to make it all about himself, much like when I ran for office in a party named after myself.” Lieberman was still talking at press time.

  8. 8.

    Rjv

    He’ll be back in a month declaring that’s he’s thinking of running because his ego and need for attention

  11. 11.

    Jeffro

    @MattF:Manchin had been ‘mentioning’ Romney as his possible running mate on a No Labels ticket, but that suggestion died so fast and so completely that one suspects an irresistible external force was applied.

    also, Mitt was like, “who’d you say would be on the top of a No Labels ticket again, Manchin?  you?  oh I don’t THINK so…”

  12. 12.

    piratedan

    and I presume on his whirlwind tour of the United States that nary a penny came out of his own pocket.  THAT’s how you grift the rich rubes of America, all of the touring, none of the costs.

  13. 13.

    RevRick

    I loved Joe Manchin. Without the West Virginia unicorn none of Biden’s agenda would have happened. I thank Joe for the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, and the Infrastructure Bill, not to mention the slew of appointments and judicial nominations that have transformed the Cabinet and Courts.
    So what if he toots his own horn and has been frustrating as hell at times?
    On this, I’m a bottom line guy. When push came to shove, he sided with the Democrats. And I’m sure the Joe in the White House agrees, and Chuck Schumer is sending mitzvahs to heaven on Manchin’s behalf.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    Never mind his own career, that he raised a daughter who used her MBA to pirate epi-pen prices for a lifesaving drug.

    You would think that would give some actual Democratic voters pause, nationwide.  Medical profiteering is not a good look in a nation with inadequate healthcare.  We are a pariah there among actual “first world” nations.

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: The little bit I heard from that joint news appearance made it seem like they were a comedy act. At one point a reporter asked Romney what his wife thought about something and he deadpanned, “Which one?” They are both done with elective politics and were feeling loose; the Joe and Mitt show.

  18. 18.

    smith

    @Geminid: Mitt said today that he won’t vote for TFG because he draws the line at voting for a rapist. Of course, he didn’t go so far as to say he’d vote for Biden.

  19. 19.

    Alison Rose

    As someone with subterranean self-esteem for most of my life, I find it very difficult to ever comprehend this level of pompous self-importance.

    Also:

    “I just don’t think it’s the right time,”

    Half-true. There will never be a right time for you, Joe.

  20. 20.

    japa21

    “I just don’t think it’s the right time,” Manchin said. “Democracy is at stake right now.”

    Glad he sees that, but I want to know what he is going to do about it. He does have some influence on conservative Dems (the few that are left) and moderate Republicans. Let’s see him use it.

  22. 22.

    jonas

    “I just don’t think it’s the right time,” Manchin said. “Democracy is at stake right now.”

    He’s not wrong there. I just don’t think he means what we would like him to mean. By “Democracy” he means his own galaxy-sized ego and self regard as the Last True Centrist.

  25. 25.

    Jackie

    @MattF: I posted this earlier, but you set it up perfectly…

    “Well, that’s really presumptuous. I would be the president. He would be my running mate.”

    — Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by the Deseret News, on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-MN) floating Romney as his running mate in a third party presidential bid.

  26. 26.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    I will never understand the gigantic fucking egos …

    Politicians have big egos. In other news, the sun rises in the East and water is wet. Film at 11.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    I’m not sure even the David Brookses of our failed media establishment looked at Manchin as a viable “how to fuck the Democrats” option.  Could be wrong: I don’t subscribe to any of the “better” publications.

  28. 28.

    jonas

    @RevRick: Yes, when it really mattered, Manchin did usually come through for Dems in a closely divided Senate. But it is possible to push for your own priorities or voice concerns about an issue without slagging the President and other Dems the whole time. What he didn’t *have* to do was continually go on Press the Meat or Facepalm the Nation and complain about how “disappointed” he was in all the partisanship or something Biden or Schumer was doing, which of course he always implied was Democrats’ fault. All he did most of the time was let himself be used by Republicans to drive a wedge between Democrats and didn’t seem to mind playing that spoiler role. That’s why so many people are peeved with him.

  29. 29.

    MattF

    OT. Greg Sargent, at his new TNR home, goes Category 6 against the TFG-inspired ‘Impeach Biden’ crowd. If this is what happens when someone leaves the WaPo, I’d like to see more. I know the Republican stalwarts at the WaPo will never leave their cocoon, but Sargent demonstrates you can have a life elsewhere.

  34. 34.

    cain

    @RevRick: I’ve always mentioned that before – in the end, most of the stuff gets done even if there is a lot of showboating going on. The showboating is probably more so that he can stay elected – WV is still a pretty red state.

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    @smith: I’m watching this pro-Haley guy, Randy Mott. He says he’s a Republican, but he is also a strong advocate for arming Ukraine and 90% of his Twitter thread is devoted to that issue. I’m curious to see where he jumps when Haley loses.

    I think that most of the Republicans and conservative Independents who are going to lend their allegience to the Democrats this year have already decided, and there probably aren’t many Randy Motts. But I’m still curious. Mott’s a retired Army officer with some sort of environmental business with operations in Poland. Most of the people he interacts with are Republican Ukraine hawks.

  39. 39.

    Jay C

    I’m just wondering why whoever wrote that WaPo piece was under the impression/delusion that NoLabels (which is likely utterly unknown to the bulk of the citizenry who – unlike us – don’t spend a lot of time on politically-attuned blogs) is going to seriously “complicate” the 2024 election?  AFAICT , NoLabels is just another dark-money front/scam “third way” con-game (fronted by Joe Fucking Lieberman? SRSLY??) spending a lot of money to get probably exactly NoWhere…

     

    *well, I CAN guess why: trite MSM “horserace” nonsense, plus FTFWaPo…

  40. 40.

    wjca

    @RevRick: I loved Joe Manchin. Without the West Virginia unicorn none of Biden’s agenda would have happened. I thank Joe for the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, and the Infrastructure Bill, not to mention the slew of appointments and judicial nominations that have transformed the Cabinet and Courts.

    This.

    Sure, it would have been nice for progressives if he had been more liberal.  (Not that anyone more liberal could conceivably have been elected in West Virginia.)  And it would have been nice to have enough Senate seats to overcome any attempted filibuster.  But back here in the real world….

  42. 42.

    glc

    @MattF:

    If this is what happens when someone leaves the WaPo,

    Well, given that he used to write for The Nation, among other things, not a big surprise. I imagine he’d now be happy to talk about the constraints at WaPo where I suppose he fulfilled some token role. Seems like the sort of thing worth doing for a while, and then moving on from.

    I hope Ezra Klein can survive being at the NYT. Not financially, but in the ways that matter.  Krugman manages, though he takes note of the contractual constraints from time to time.

    First rule of fight club is: never criticize the fight club. You can work out the second rule.

  43. 43.

    Glidwrith

    @wjca: But he couldn’t stretch that little bit further and preserved the child credit measure that lifted so many kids out of poverty.

  46. 46.

    Memory Pallas

    I think a bunch of these Rs who say they won’t vote for Trump but can’t vote for Biden will end up voting for Biden secretly.

  47. 47.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @RevRick: As we used to say in trig/analyts: Cosine!**

    Come the next Congress. when WV Senator Justice (R) is busily obstucting all sorts of Biden WH initiatives, the Jackaltariat is gonna miss the rug-salesman from Farmington, and it’ll be a real struggle not to type in response the most annoying four words in the English language: I told you so.

    ** Dr Gibbs, a visiting prof from the UK who taught me Fourier series and complex variables at The Hop, had a peculiar way of referencing the hyperbolic sine (sinh) – he called it “shine” when everyone else said “cinch.” We asked him why and he pointed to the hyperbolic cosine (cosh) and said, “That’s short for ‘coshine,’ therefore sinh must be short for ‘shine’.” Limeys! – but a good teacher otherwise…

  49. 49.

    Betty

    @Glidwrith: Or vote for the minimum wage increase or not force Biden to pare down the IRA in a number of ways. He’s not my cup of tea and did precious little for the people he was there to represent.

  50. 50.

    Brit in Chicago

    @jonas: “Yes, when it really mattered, Manchin did usually come through for Dems in a closely divided Senate.”

    Yes, if there’d been a Republican instead Biden would have accomplished much less in his first two years. On the other hand, if there’s been someone closer to a regular Democrat we would have had a Biden tax bill, undoing the Trump tax cuts for the rich and helping the less well off. Both things are true. (Well maybe you’d have needed to replace Sinema too, not sure where she stands on tax policy.)

  52. 52.

    Paul in KY

    @jonas: I think one of the reasons he did that was , until Gov Justice entered the race, was that he thought he would run for re-election and was trying to show the MAGA rubes that them thar fancy-pants Demoncrats hadn’t got to him, etc. etc.

  53. 53.

    Fair Economist

    @Nettoyeur:

    I remember how the Obama admin offered training programs in WV to help people develop new careers. Most of the respondents opted for coal mining

    That’s just so sad. How could they not see that coal mining was a dying career, even then? That was before renewables became so incredibly cheap, but natural gas was crushing coal power use and automation was just wiping out what jobs were left. (Now renewables are crushing natural gas which could still crush coal if it mattered.)

  58. 58.

    Antid Oto

    I’ve never liked Joe Manchin, but I have been wondering for months whether what he was doing was stringing along the No Labels grifters until it was too late for them to recruit another conservative Democrat.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Antid Oto: There still might be time to recruit Kyrsten Sinema. She hasn’t said if she will run for reelection, and polls show she has no real chance of holding her Senate seat.

    But maybe No Labels doesn’t want to actually run a candidate, just tease one and then divide up the money they rake in.

  61. 61.

    RaflW

    “Manchin … continues to focus on other ways to bring a divided country together.”

    Name one concrete thing this charlatan and egotist has done to realize this. And no, getting hand jobs out behind the No Labels office trailer isn’t it.

  63. 63.

    TheTruffle

    @Fair Economist: At this point, I have no sympathy for them. The writing was on the wall decades ago.

    If they want to be left behind, that’s not the fault of any liberal elite city slickers on the coasts. These people have agency. They are adults. If they want to pretend it’s still the 20th century, that’s their fault and no one else’s.

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