This whole escapade seems like rich guy panic. There is a LOT of bed-wetting going on right now and I'd imagine it is most acute in the types of circles where he's traveling.
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) October 16, 2023
Parties divided by real primary challenges don't win. See Carter (Kennedy) and H.W. Bush (Buchanan).
Whoever is stoking .@RepDeanPhillips / .@deanbphillips is taking advantage of legitimately held worries to give very, very bad advise.— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) October 16, 2023
I get the suspicion Rep. Phillips, as the scion of a liquor-distribution fortune, has waaay too many ‘advisors’ who agree with his every harebrained idea just so they don’t lose their discount on the top-shelf bottles…
Politico, Friday — “Dean Phillips starts calling New Hampshire Dems in step toward challenging Biden”:
Rep. Dean Phillips has begun making calls to Democratic operatives and officials in New Hampshire, the latest step he’s taken toward launching a primary challenge against President Joe Biden…
The Minnesota Democrat has regularly called for Biden to face a 2024 primary challenger, criticizing the president for not “pass[ing] the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Phillips withdrew from House Democratic leadership earlier this month, amid concern that his flirtation with a primary bid was causing a distraction. He has met with Democratic donors over the summer about a potential run.
… Phillips will need to decide quickly, as the deadline to file for New Hampshire’s presidential primary is in two weeks.
Phillips’ moves in New Hampshire come on the heels of the state losing its status as the first-in-the-nation primary after the Democratic National Committee revamped the presidential nominating calendar. Earlier this month, the DNC declared New Hampshire as “non-compliant” because of the state’s plans to host its own primary ahead of South Carolina, which is now the first presidential nominating state during the 2024 presidential cycle.
‘Mild-mannered’ white dudes, feeling snubbed. Break out the tiny violins!
I have no idea who Dean Phillips is, so I take issue with you deciding that he is an acceptable alternative to Joe Biden.
Also, see Ron DeSantis, the GOP boy-wonder, the cure for all that ails Republicans.
Give it a rest.
— Kathi Domalski (@katdomalski) October 16, 2023
Speaking of which… I’ll bet fellow crusader Cenk Uygur would be more than happy to step back from his current grift campaign, if he’s guaranteed a sufficiently cushy spot on the Phillips payroll:
Dean Phillips won't get more than 2% in the primary. pic.twitter.com/JdabTowM96
— Post-Left Watch (@PostLeftWatch) October 14, 2023
Previously:
In the pantheon of truly terrible political ideas, Dean Phillips running for president is pretty far up there. https://t.co/4nCJIBajla
— Matt Bennett (@ThirdWayMattB) October 1, 2023
Filing deadline for the Nevada primary is the 16th, New Hampshire is the 27th https://t.co/44RMhorr4d
— Bill Scher (@billscher) October 1, 2023
Dean Phillips was born rich. That’s the main reason he’s in Congress. It’s not bc he’s smart about politics. In fact, he’s dumb about politics the same way lots of rich people are dumb about politics, namely that they think bc they have money they’re smarter than everyone else https://t.co/kocReIjb0f
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 28, 2023
it's fun when a centrist politician is such a bloviating narcissist that even his fellow centrist Democrats want him to go away. they should make more of those imo
— knife-wielding hemophiliac (@NickTagliaferro) October 1, 2023
Be careful what you wish for…
Biden critic Dean Phillips gets a primary challenger for Twin Cities congressional seat https://t.co/bcWInNPIaL
— Axios (@axios) October 13, 2023
mrmoshpotato
Bill, shut your face, and get to fixing your god-damned crazy-ass party.
Frankensteinbeck
Bill Kristol has an actual good point hidden in there:
Democrats worried about Biden’s age like him. They’ve been told other people don’t. It’s an illusory problem.
AlaskaReader
I like the idea of a better democrat knocking Phillips out of office regardless.
opiejeanne
@Frankensteinbeck: True, and they’re trying to make it true by repeating it.
Always Wrong Bill Kristol really needs to think about what he just said.
AlaskaReader
I don’t see the utility of giving Phillips, Ugyur or Kristol (etc.) any air.
Why amplify any one of them?
Tony Jay
Ah, but, you see now, I know it’s hard to follow the byzantine convolutions necessary to calculate the tidal flux of risk factors and influences at play here, but you just have to remember that the people being paid to be Experts in the nail-bitingly close, right down to the wire, impossible to call, who could have possibly seen that happening, you do not want to go to bed yet America, topsy-turvy, not over ’til it’s over televised WAR! FOR! WASHINGTON! that is every U.S. Presidential Election genuinely and truly believe that Joe Biden is simply too old to beat the same arsehole he beat last time when said arsehole wasn’t yet a visibly deteriorating dementoid with multiple major court judgements hanging over his head and had the full power of an incumbent Presidency to call upon.
They’re just trying to help. Honest. Liberal Media and all that, dontchaknow?
Dangerman
This could be a 130am question, but who the fuck is Dean Philips? Was he the Dude is those Disney movies? No, that’s Dean Jones. And I think his problem is he’s dead. Dean Wormer? Also dead.
What is Niedermeyer doing?
Tony Jay
Also, Dean Phillips looks like a Simpsons character. Has anyone counted his fingers?
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Tony Jay:
Why is he AI generated? /s
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@opiejeanne: Yeah, there’s the aphorism about dealing with the log in your own eye before worrying about the speck in the other guy’s. Yes, Biden is old and not the perfect candidate, but he’s already defeated Donald Trump in electoral combat, he’s healthier and more mentally acute than Trump, he’s built up a pretty solid track record as President, and he’s a better candidate than any of the alternatives that have been put forward by people who, quite frankly, want power returned to Republicans, just in a form that’s acceptable to them.
They need to get their own house in order, even if that involves demolition of their own house, because if the GOP keeps going the way it’s going, it’ll destroy America as we know it within a generation.
Geminid
Phillips was one of the 40 Dems who flipped seats in the 2018 Blue Wave. Six of them lost in 2020. Others had close elections that year and 2022. My Virginia 7th CD Representative won by 4,000 votes in 2020, and by 4% last year.
Phillips’s district has since become one of most safely Democratic of all of those 40 districts. I don’t think this is because of Phillip’s own political prowess, though. He seems expendable to me, and his challenger looks solid.
This should be an interesting primary; Minnesota’s Democratic Party sounds more organized at the grass roots level than the one here in Virginia, and district Dems could endorse the challenger
Edited.
Tony Jay
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Possibly. Or he’s got a past with the Yakuza. They should also check his netherpouch for incriminating calligraphy.
Rusty
As a citizen of the Granite State, I’ll make sure to drag myself to the non-compliant primary and vote for Biden just so this and every other jerk gets as low a percentage as possible. I may need to start answering those polling calls so I can do the same for the endless numbers the media obsesses about. Screw him.
Nukular Biskits
Would I prefer someone younger in our national leadership?
Yes.
Do I see anyone right now with the level of experience, wisdom to meet the challenges being presented?
No.
I’m ridin’ with Biden.
Cameron
Who is Dean Phillips? Some guy Bill Kristol endorses. Oh.
Shalimar
@Dangerman:
Dead
TriassicSands
A history lesson for Dean Phillips.
Yep, Representative Phillips, being a representative is the ideal office to hold from which to jump to the presidency. Why the list of representatives who became their party’s presidential candidate in the last century is impressively long.
Let’s see there was… No one.
A number of eventual nominees had once been representatives, but all held higher office before getting the nomination. The one person closest to being successful was Gerald Ford, who was a career representative and would never have been a viable presidential candidate had not Agnew been tossed and Nixon faced impeachment. It was widely believed that Nixon chose Ford to replace Agnew as a defense against being removed from office. He miscalculated. Ford became Nixon’s VP without being nominated traditionally, which then led to him being something of an accidental/fluke candidate for president. So, if Phillips can somehow get Harris out of office and convince Biden to select him to replace her, then if Biden could not, for some reason, run next year, Phillips might…nope he still would not get the nomination. After JFK and until Obama and Biden even being a senator was not looked on as a good position from which to win the presidency. Both former vice presidents and governors were seen as superior to being a senator. Johnson and GHW Bush had been VPs, while Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush had been governors. Senators who lost? McGovern, Mondale, Dole, and Kerry.
Lesson: Being a representative is not an adequate background for getting a major party’s presidential nomination. I hate vanity candidacies.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
I’d vote for Jimmy Dean sausage
p.a.
Can’t you feel the Deanmentum!?
Re-re-repeating Atrios: why don’t these rich fuckers just buy an island or a swath of Tuscany, sit back, and enjoy life?
Aziz, light!
@Shalimar: Fragged by his own troops.
NotMax
@Rusty
You’ll have to do that as a write-in. Biden’s name won’t be on the ballot.
TriassicSands
That kind of puts Phillips in the exalted company of Sarah Palin.
NotMax
More like Loki diversions.
//
geg6
I have no clue who this guy is and now have no desire to. Fuck this dweeb. I’m riding with Biden.
mrmoshpotato
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
What flavor?
Nukular Biskits
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Ever try those omelette thingies they have?
Hate to admit it, but they’re actually pretty good.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Doesn’t matter. The 5 and dime is always left wanting. Sincerely.
Oh, you meant that other Jimmy Dean. :)
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@mrmoshpotato: All of them, Katie
satby
I’m so old I remember when the news media used to just ignore cranks running for office, or gave them the thinly disguised mocking treatment they deserved.
In other news last night at 10:30, after I had gone to bed, someone started shooting a semi-automatic pistol (I assume) somewhere close in the alley behind my house. Cops were all over the place soon and spent quite a bit of time at the house behind my neighbors, where two families next to each other fight about dogs barking a lot. I can say I didn’t hear any dogs barking at all the rest of the night.
We shouldn’t have to live this way. Thanks Republicans.
satby
I’m reading about keeping a positive attitude and this tickled me:
schrodingers_cat
Isn’t it funny that the media that is oh so worried about Biden’s age is not at all worried about the not-spring chicken Pumpkin Pinochet who is the R frontrunner.
Mousebumples
Ugh, reminds me of a circular convo I had with family who listen to too much NPR.
Yes, Biden is old. Yes, I wish he was younger.
BUT.
I like what he and his administration have done, overall, and I will be voting for him.
No, I won’t pick some other generic Democrat that I’d prefer for arguments’ sake. #TeamBiden
(We also had a discussion about persons who are trans and gender affirming hormones that I managed to settle by pointedly asking, “If someone decides to take hormones to transition, how does that affect you?” I got a weasel-y, “Well, they better not blame me,” which I met with the eye roll it merited. Yikes.)
Related – thanks to all for discussions on these topics so I felt I could speak confidently about this stuff, at least a little.
Soprano2
I wish they would admit that 95% of this anxiety is about VP Harris. If she were a white man we wouldn’t be hearing about Biden’s age, and no one in the Democratic Party would be talking about a primary challenge.
Matt McIrvin
Is this bed-wetting, or is it just ordinary ratfucking? I think there’s a pretty good chance that he or his backers is just trying to elect Trump.
Jackie
Heh, from the Seth Meyers show last night:
Ironically, a group of seagulls is called “a squabble.”
schrodingers_cat
No matter who the Ds choose the media will have a problem with them. Has there been a D nominee for President that has been beloved by the media after JFK?
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook led off with an item on the House Speaker race. Jim Jordan still intends to have a vote starting around noon today.
The article listed 7 Republicans who as of last night said the would not vote for Jordan, and said “many more have not made their intentions known.”
Of the 7, Gimenez (FL) and Lawler (NY) said they’ll vote for McCarthy; Diaz-Balert (FL) and Kelly (PA) said they’ll cast Scalise votes; Buck (CO) and Rutherford (FL) are “still in the no column” and Bacon (NE) said he’s “not budging.”
Jordan advocates say that non-Jordan voters on the 1st ballot will fall into line on later ones. The Playbook writers did not predict an outcome, just said they detected a “lot of tension” among caucus members.
I’m working today, but I’m considering popping some corn to take with me.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: In polls I’ve seen, somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of Democrats express concern about Biden’s age. Do you really think 95% of them are motivated by animus toward Harris? I don’t believe that. There are definitely sexist jerks in the Democratic Party, but you don’t have to be among them to worry that an 80-something nominee might have a health issue during the next year that would put the party at a disadvantage in a critical election. Seems pretty normal to me!
Kay
Biden has done a great job. It’s an easy choice- he gets it because he earned it.
These idiots have managed to make “I’m younger” an argument for promotion unrelated to merit. In order for this to make sense they would have to be better at the job AND younger.
Bill Kristol was never very smart and his opposition to Trump hasn’t made him any smarter.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The concern about the age of leadership/high profile Democrats is bigger than Biden too. It really caught fire with Justice Ginsburg dying on the bench and then moved to Feinstein.
There is a problem with it, especially in Congress. The problem is doesn’t allow the next group to rise into leadership positions, so you sort of skip a “middle” generation, leaving that group disgruntled. I don’t think it’s a big problem with the presidency, though. There were plenty of younger challengers to Biden in ’16. They lost.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat:
The closest case I can think of is Barack Obama (in 2008, not in 2012–but JFK never got the chance to run for reelection so we don’t know how that would have gone). There was a fair bit of fretting about him, but the media at least thought of his candidacy as interesting and glamorous, with an easy making-history hook.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: The Ds in the House have managed to make a good transition to a next generation of leaders. Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn did a good thing there.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
You mean there was a time when adults ran the media instead of a bunch of stupid, slapdick children?
hueyplong
@Jackie: Some dudes with big, bleached blond hair and a Jerry Curl contract killer assured me, with a lot of confidence, that it’s a “flock,” not a “squabble.”
Princess
@Kay: It’s true Bill Kristol is not all that smart and yet he, among few, was smart enough to draw the line at Trump, which tells you a lot about the rest of them.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I do think they skipped an age group though. They went from 80s to 50s. I love Pelosi but there’s a downside to older leadership – it really does act as bottleneck.
Republicans have their own age problems. Mitch McConnell (obviously) but also Alito is 73 and Clarence Thomas is 75. They’re not going to get those two out without a crowbar and when Biden wins his 2nd term they’re stuck with both of them till they’re almost 80.
Barney
So it looks like the tweet is correct that the 16th Oct was the filing deadline for Nevada, and while I can find news reports that President Biden filed to run there a few days ago, there’s no sign that Phillips has. Which presumably means he’s not going to bother anywhere.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Agree about Congress — it’s a completely different dynamic. I don’t think we have a gerontocracy problem in the selection process at the presidential level — it maybe just melds together in the public mind because the current president is old.
I think the time to debate Biden’s age was the 2020 primary, and that debate was settled when he won. I was in favor of nominating other candidates in part because of Biden’s age, but the candidates I favored lost, and Biden won. That’s that, as far as I’m concerned.
Nominating someone else would throw away the advantage of incumbency and invite a primary free-for-all that would almost certainly leave us deeply divided and make it more likely that Democrats would lose. So I’m for Biden. He’s done a good job. Even most folks I talk to who favor nominating someone else admit that!
Anne Laurie
To be honest, the Serious Media’s opinion of JFK didn’t really coalesce around ‘Camelot’ fantasies until after he’d been assassinated.
Not gonna dig up stats right now, but I know there was a considerable skepticism about this n***er-loving, movie-star-good-looking, richie-rich Irish Catholic bootlegger’s spoilt son from a lot of major media not based in DC or NYC.
(And it was reciprocated… look up the things JFK said about the Very Important residents of Dallas on his way to that fatal encounter… )
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, the youngest member of the Democratic House leadership team, is 44.
One might call Aguilar other Mayor Pete. He served several terms as Mayor of Redlands, California before he ran against the local Republican Congressman in 2014 and won.
JML
Frickin’ Dean. He’s listening to absolutely the wrong people (aka Idiot Washington DC Centrists, who fetishize bi-partisanship and think being a centrist and triangulating a middle position between the two parties is more important than having any actual principles) and frankly isn’t actually all that smart. He’s just a generic rich dude who is vaguely well-meaning and rode his basic white dude-ness and rich person life and connections to get elected to the most suburban congressional seat in the history of suburbs at a time when the GOP became increasingly unpalatable and crazy-ass to suburban voters.
(His primary challenger isn’t a bad guy, but he’s definitely a party insider type and his lack of whiteness is going to hurt him in that district, something everyone will pretend isn’t true.)
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat:
Hilarious.
They’re loving sucking Dump’s ass – again.
Jackie
@hueyplong: I’m not going to squabble with you, but…
Chris Johnson
OK, so who do they suggest needs to run instead of Trump? That fucker’s way worse.
Survivin’ with Biden. We will move to younger office holders once the table isn’t being flipped, whatever it takes to make THAT happen.
I would write in Joe Biden, and Cenk can go fuck himself. I more than suspect the current foreign-meddling ratfucking is entirely driving this ‘Biden cannot win therefore we MUST do various desperate flailings!’ movement. Anyone I see doing it, I chalk off as Putin-directed, and that absolutely fucking includes Cenk.
Should have figured from the start that a media-trained, heavily funded ‘left’ talking head that generates Jimmy Dores like popcorn, was a goddamn spook. Mask is off now.
randy khan
I won’t say I follow every twist and turn of Democratic House leadership changes, but if a guy I haven’t heard of from the House suggests he’s going to run for President against an incumbent, I’m not really giving him much of a chance. Or much of my attention.
mrmoshpotato
@Mousebumples:
That response makes no damn sense! Happy eye rolling! 🙄
mrmoshpotato
@hueyplong:
I prefer to call them a sonic shitstorm of seagulls.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I’m talking more about the concern trolls online and the press. What I notice is that most of them are white men. Perhaps 95% is an exaggeration, but I firmly believe that the majority of the anxiety, even among Democrats, is actually about Harris. Have you forgotten the misogyny Hillary faced from some Democrats? Their concerns might even be justified! Mostly I don’t hear people saying that they’re worried that he’ll die over the next year, it’s all about how he’s too old and he can’t do the job, which he has proven is untrue. How much of that polling is reflecting things these people have heard in the press rather than their actual concerns? I think a lot of them hear, over and over, the press talking about concerns that Biden is too old, so then when they’re asked about it they say yes, that’s a concern. The press has created an issue where there really isn’t one. To me the “tell” is that mostly they don’t talk about TFG being too old and unhealthy even though he’s only 3 years younger than Biden and obviously in much worse health.
Edited for clarity, I need to drink more coffee.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And if the Dems ran anyone else the MSM would be wringing their hand about how inexperienced they are.
schrodingers_cat
@Anne Laurie: Thanks for the historical perspective about JFK. I didn’t know that.
So in short the press has always favored the Rs.
montanareddog
@mrmoshpotato: or a gaggle of turkeys, as some called them at the time
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: I agree the press harps on Biden’s age a lot and often fails to note that Trump is an old man too — who also happens to be deranged and incompetent! But I can’t agree that the press created an issue where one doesn’t exist. Biden is old, and it’s not unreasonable to worry about how his age might affect the party’s fortunes. Denying this seems like whistling past the graveyard to me.
Miss Bianca
@Jackie: LOL at that image!
kindness
Dean who? Never heard of the guy.
karen marie
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: That reminds me – I have sausage gravy in my freezer.
I love that stuff.
Tim Ellis
It’s very funny to me, as someone who only wound up in this party thanks to Bernie getting me involved, to now watch this idiot try to play the same “Dems are out of touch” card right when I feel like Dems have never been more IN touch in my entire life lol
Honestly I think the “Biden is old” canard is kind of the inverse of “damning with faint praise” – a sort of tacit admission that our guy Dark Brandon has been so effective and successful that you can’t even touch his record, so you have to go after him for being old lol.
Anyway Biden is fucking awesome and far and away the best president I’ve ever experienced, I can’t wait to vote super hard for him!
Also, in the spirit of FAFO, I just donated to Dean Phillips primary opponent.
The Lodger
@mrmoshpotato: Well, Phillips certainly isn’t sage…
Chris T.
@mrmoshpotato: Dead thread, but I suspect @hueyplong was referring to the band.
KSinMA
@Tim Ellis: Good for you!
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: Nope.