(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Josh Marshall has some thoughts on the high cost of removing Biden from the ticket [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-07-02  

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been spending the last few days pondering the impact of the debate. He lays out a number of reasons why it would not be nearly as easy to dump Biden as so-called pundits and political experts are making it sound. There’s several cogent arguments there and I strongly urge everyone to read the whole thing. Here’s just one:

Here’s one reason I think switching equals 10 to 20 debate night-level disasters. We’ve spoken a lot over the years about dominance politics. There’s Trump’s predatory version of it. And then there’s the looser version of it that governs all American politics. Probably politics in a lot of other places too. But American politics is what I know. Some people think, “Look, our policies are popular. People worry about this one guy’s age. Pull off the bandage. Swap out candidates. Sure it will be bumpy. But that question mark disappears. Democrats will get excited. It will be a new day.” Maybe. But I’m skeptical. The election is not just about two people. It’s about two teams, both strutting on the national stage saying we’re smart, we’re strong, we know how to do this, give us the keys. Switching candidates amounts to saying, “In fact we were idiots. We said it was this guy. But actually we were wrong, or maybe we lied to you. And to be clear we are formally affirming that we were wrong and we’re agreeing to talk about being wrong for the rest of the campaign. And now we’re kind of desperately scrambling to come up with something totally different. And this new person — actually they’re the one, even though we said that other guy was the one. And really they’re the one even though we don’t know them that well.” Trump’s pitch has been: “The world is on fire. This doddering old fool is MIA and can’t fix anything. I can fix it. Give me the keys.” Now he’ll say: “Look at them. They said Joe could do it. Now they admit he can’t. Now they’re fighting amongst themselves. They’re a mess. They’re liars and idiots. They can’t do anything. Gimme the keys.” That may not make sense to highly engaged, politically literate observers. But few of them are really in play in this election. To those loosely following politics and reacting to general impressions I think that is a very persuasive argument. In fact, the point is that it’s not an argument at all. It’s simply an impression of strength and purpose versus failure and disarray. Much more than politically focused, politically articulate people care to admit, much of politics is about a series of performances of power, success, mastery and purpose. What’s being envisaged is so totally at odds with that I think it creates a narrative that’s hard to come back from. It becomes what the campaign is about. You can certainly argue that a campaign where Biden’s age and faculties are a big part of the story ain’t great either. And you’re absolutely right. But we’re already there. And even with a replacement, it still will hang over things, only now with Democrats saying, “Well, okay. Trump was right. Sorry.” Yes, a new candidate makes a difference, but that’s totally a leap into a hole it will be a struggle to climb out of. If that’s what’s necessary then I’m totally ready. But don’t fool yourself about the costs.

emphasis added

Marshall tackles some other arguments being made; his recent posts on the debate are worth reading. (They are linked at the bottom of his post.)

Looking at Marshall’s points, I think some things follow from it.

Democrats need to make this about more than Biden versus Trump. Go big. Biden can acknowledge that he had a bad night (he has), but make a point that he’s not presidenting by himself. He should emphasize that he has a good team backing him up, starting with VP Harris and going on to the rest of the team he’s assembled. He has good people who’ve been doing a good job for all Americans.

Compare and contrast with Trump’s four years of chaos in the White House. Hammer home how many people came and went, how many were fired, how many resigned in protest or in disgrace, how many were indicted for crimes, how many were openly grifters — and how few of them are endorsing Trump for a second term. Hammer home that Trump doesn't choose people for their competence — he chooses people for their loyalty to him, not America. He chooses people who will only tell him what he wants to hear.

Personnel is policy. You can tell a lot about someone by the people they surround themselves with. Trump’s choices are a target-rich environment. Pound them.

Make this about the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party. Republicans have spent decades demonizing and delegitimizing the “Democrat Party.” Democrats have spent decades trying to reach across the aisle and proclaiming how they are prepared to work together for the good of the country. The end result is to enable bad behavior on the right, and blur the differences between the two parties. There’s a word for Republicans willing to work with Democrats for the good of the country: ex-Republicans. They become unpersons as far as the party is concerned.

There’s so much material waiting for Democrats to exploit; there is a plethora of horror stories from Red States to work with. If people want to know what voting for Republicans will get them, the results are plain to see — so show them! The list of horrible results and broken promises is too long to recite here, but we can all cite examples. The overall message is simple: if they’ll do this in the states they run — badly — think what they’ll do if the get control of the whole country.

The Trump Supreme Court has just given Trump and the GOP a blank check to do anything they want. Do we want them to be able to cash it, seeing what they do wherever they have the power to do so?

Don’t be afraid to work the refs; the media is not our friend . Respecting freedom of the press doesn’t mean tolerating bias and hypocrisy. Republicans have spent decades attacking the ‘liberal media’ — which now gives them a pass on so many things. They’ve constructed a “mighty Wurlitzer” of disinformation and slander that pounds out their messaging 24/7.

Media false equivalence has enabled bad behavior by the GOP. They’ve normalized truly awful things to the point where they don’t even see them as news any more. They are always ready to pounce on any Democratic missteps, but Republicans being Republican is not news. The shock about the Supreme Court immunity ruling should not have been a surprise if the media had truly covered how partisan the conservatives have been all along.

To get back to the debate for a moment, only the Philadelphia Inquirer called on Trump to withdraw. For eight years (and longer) the media has normalized Republican bad behavior. It’s time to call them on it. The question that should be asked is why, if they can call on Biden to withdraw for being old, they can’t call on an old convicted felon*, serial liar, con man, and sexual predator to withdraw? For that matter, how can they regard a party that would nominate such a person as a legitimate?

• Thanks to the Trump Supreme Court, his convicted felon verdict may be overturned.

That’s my thoughts, and I think Democrats should be doing this in any case whether or not President Biden remains at the top of the ticket.

Charlie Pierce has some thoughts on the debate and the response to it.

As reluctant as I am to join the general scrum that resulted from the president’s desultory performance in last Thursday’s debate, the shebeen does have certain public responsibilities. However, let me say that rarely has my profession behaved so badly, and rarely has my low opinion of the Democratic party’s essential backbone been so thoroughly justified. Exhibit A on Point One: On his way to a fundraiser in the Hamptons, the president was greeted by six people carrying signs urging him to resign. Within minutes, at least five respected members of the political media—and you know who you are—leaped onto the Xwitter machine to share a picture of these pasty jamokes like their presence meant something. Exhibit B on Point One: Too many pundits of the elite political class hand-waved the barrage of easily debunked lies laid down by a vulgar talking yam. Some of them excused this malpractice on the grounds that, what the hell, everybody knew the guy was a fountain of falsehoods anyway, so let’s talk more about the president’s raspy throat and halting delivery. When journalists downplay the truth in favor of performance skills, we’re in the very tall grass.

Josh Marshall is keeping his options open while he waits to see how things shake out. Pierce has this to say about Biden stepping aside:

Okay, so here’s my take. The president is the candidate as long as he wants to be the candidate. If he takes himself out, then Vice President Harris is the candidate. Period. Full stop. Over and out. She’s the only one who can deploy the money that the Biden campaign has raised, and the only one with a legitimate claim on the political infrastructure already in place. Passing her over for Johnny Perfect Candidate guarantees a bloody nomination battle and the loss of a big chunk of one of the most important parts of the Democratic base. The Brokered Convention is a glorious fantasy for people who cover politics and know absolutely nothing about political history. The 1924 Democratic convention in New York, to name just one example that’s been bandied about recently, was a four-star political calamity. It took the party 103 ballots to nominate a faceless lawyer named John W. Davis, largely because William McAdoo, a prohibitionist backed by the revived Ku Klux Klan, and New York governor Al Smith, the Catholic and a “wet,” couldn’t get out of each other’s way. Thus did Calvin Coolidge win his own full term as president. Imagine all that with social media and television. On second thought, don’t.

No one demanding Biden step aside should be given any credibility if they aren’t even more adamant about Trump withdrawing. That should be the response going forward.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/2/2250640/-Josh-Marshall-has-some-thoughts-on-the-high-cost-of-removing-Biden-from-the-ticket?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/