Tag Archives: Joe Biden

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Here is the face of a kingmaker

Let me stipulate that I am going to offer an observation in this blog post with some trepidation, given the accusations that the current president seeks to govern like a monarch.

So, here goes …

The face you see in the accompanying picture is that of a man who should be pictured in the dictionary next to the term “kingmaker.”

He is U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat. How does he emerge as a kingmaker? Well, on the eve of the South Carolina Democratic Party presidential primary this month, he endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency.

What was the result? Clyburn energized the African-American voters in his state; Biden rode that energy to a smashing victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders. What’s more the momentum that Biden gained from that victory — given that he had underperformed so miserably in the nation’s first four primary/caucus states — has propelled him from near political death to likely nomination to be the next president of the United States.

The former VP has parlayed Rep. Clyburn’s endorsement into arguably the most stunning political comeback any of us have ever witnessed.

I don’t know what Joe Biden has in mind with regard filling key posts should he be elected president this fall over Donald John Trump. My advice to a President-elect Biden would be this: Appoint James “The Kingmaker” Clyburn to any position he wants.

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Trump sets the table for a new low of campaign viciousness

We all had better get ready for an onslaught of innuendo that is likely to come from Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Now that Joe Biden appears to be the Democratic Party presidential nominee in waiting, the Trump team appears to be getting set to launch a frontal assault on Biden’s mental health.

Never mind, of course, that Donald Trump himself is the king of gaffes, of lies, misstatements, prevarication. He seems set on focusing on some of the verbal blunders that the former vice president commits on occasion.

As Politico reports, Trump stood before some donors this past week in Florida and talked aloud about some of the mistakes Biden made. So, the battle may be joined.

Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said Biden suffers from “dementia.” Fox News blowhards Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have raised similar issues on their TV shows. As for the Biden team, it needs to prepare carefully for how it intends to respond to the idiocy that flies out of Trump’s mouth as well as what comes from his surrogates.

Given that they have so little that is defensible with which they can work to persuade Americans to re-elect Trump, they’ll rely on ways to tear down their opponents. If that reminds you of what they did to Hillary Clinton in 2016, well, it should.

After offering up some examples of Biden’s alleged intellectual slippage, Biden told donors, “I would hope you not repeat that.”

Sure thing, Mr. President. They already have in defense of the most dangerous and ignorant president in our nation’s history.

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Debate to go on without crowd noise … good!

Here we go … former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders are going to debate each other on Sunday.

It will be a precursor to what is looking more and more as if Biden will finish Bernie off when the ballots are counted the following Tuesday. Biden will win big in many of the states that are having Democratic presidential primary elections.

Here, though, is a bit of good news for those of us who are interested in this upcoming debate. It will be staged without an audience of faithful supporters. Yes, it’ll be just Joe and Bernie answering questions in a quiet and empty room standing or sitting before a panel of journalists/moderators. The coronavirus pandemic has mandated this move, which I happen to applaud.

This is good news for yours truly. Why? Because I have stated before on this blog my distaste for cheering, whooping and hollering at these joint appearances. They serve to distract us all from the issues being discussed. The candidates too often prepare laugh/applause/cheering lines aimed only at eliciting the kind of responses that move public opinion polling needs in their direction.

Sanders today seem to turn the debate into a sort of open-book test by previewing the questions he intends to ask Biden. He made his first public statements this morning after the drubbing he suffered at Biden’s hands Tuesday night. Fine. Let the debate go forward.

I look forward to seeing and hearing the two major finalists for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Moreover, I look even more forward to hearing them without the crowd noise that has become associated with these events.

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Time to put the Democratic primary fight away

The chatter in the wake of Tuesday night’s stunning rebuke of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “revolution” is making it clear to me.

It’s likely time for Sen. Sanders to end this effort.

Why? You may count me as one American who wants to defeat Donald John Trump. So does Bernie. So does Joe Biden, to whom Sanders got hammered in four primary states, including the so-called “make or break” state of Michigan.

Biden cruised to a double-digit victory. What’s even more stunning is that Biden defeated Sanders in every one of Michigan’s counties. From inner city Wayne County to the Upper Peninsula of Gogebic County, they all went to Biden.

That result, if nothing else matters, ought to tell Sen. Sanders that his time has elapsed. It’s time for him to wrap it up, call it a campaign and then dedicate himself — alongside his “good friend Joe” — to defeating Donald Trump.

Yes, we have a debate coming up with Joe and Bernie. Just the two of ’em will share a stage. It might be that Sanders is hoping for a Biden blunder, that the former vice president will say something outrageous … as he is at times prone to do. My hope is that Joe Biden produces a studied, steady and sturdy debate performance to show he can withstand the pressure and turn back the adrenalin rush that at times clouds this veteran pol’s better instincts.

If he does that, and then blows Bernie out one more time, well … it’s over.

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It’s looking like it’s all over for Bernie

I sorta thought that if the networks called Michigan as a Joe Biden win in that state’s Democratic Party presidential primary the moment the polls closed that it would spell curtains for Bernie Sanders’ candidacy.

The networks waited a while, but they called the state for the former vice president.

Hmm. It still seems to be the death knell for Sen. Sanders and his revolution/movement. Why? Well, the hill only get steeper for Bernie if he intends to capture more convention delegates than Joe.

Florida is coming up, along with Georgia. Biden will sweep Bernie in those two states. New York isn’t looking good for Sanders. Arizona well could go for Biden.

It doesn’t get any easier for Sanders to overtake Biden.

So the Vermont independent senator has to ponder the obvious: Is it worth the time, the effort and the money it will take to collect enough delegates to make a serious difference?

Sanders will fight for concessions in the Democratic Party platform, as if such things actually matter when the nominees trudge off to do battle with the other party’s candidate for president.

It’s looking to me and to many others that this nomination belongs to Biden. The two men will face off Sunday in a debate. Just the two of them will argue with each other.

Yes, I’m all in for Biden. I want him to be the Democratic Party presidential nominee. If he holds himself together in that joint appearance with Sanders and then buries him in the next round of primaries, well, then it’s time to turn out the lights.

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Called out on a call for a return to ‘normalcy’

I have been called out by someone I do not know, but who has read a blog I posted recently.

In the blog item, I called for a return of a more “normal” presidency and I posited that Joe Biden is the man to bring it.

This individual challenged my thesis. He said: Is there something other than normalcy you would fight for? Is this the natural ending for most people politically at a certain age?

“Fight for?” I’ll just provide this addendum regarding what I published on High Plains Blogger.

  • I support the former vice president’s view that we need only to improve the Affordable Care Act, that we don’t need to toss it aside and create a totally government-run health care plan. Biden isn’t willing to provide a Medicare for All health plan being pitched by Bernie Sanders and others on the far left wing of the Democratic Party. I have said all along that the ACA isn’t perfect and that Barack Obama — the ACA’s daddy — has declared that he would be open to improving it where needed.

That’s one issue.

  • I also want the president to be a reliable ally around the world. I want him to cease scolding our friends and allies in public, demanding out loud that they pay more for the defense we provide. I am convinced that Joe Biden will exercise discretion when talking to — and about — our allies abroad.

That’s another point.

  • I want a president who will take on the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights fanatics. I have believed for years there are ways to legislate reasonable control on firearms without abridging our Second Amendment rights that guarantee we can “keep and bear arms.” I also believe — if he stays true to his pledge to “take on the NRA” — that Joe Biden can work with Congress to search for legislative remedies to the spasm of gun violence that has become one of our nation’s most hideous scourges.

That’s No. 3.

  • Finally, I want a president who buys into the science that tells us that our climate is changing and that it is threatening our planet, the creatures that inhabit it — including we human beings — and that we have a responsibility to deal with this existential threat to Earth’s survival. No more “hoax” pronouncements. Joe Biden has made a vow to attack climate change head on.

There. That’s just a start. Thanks to the reader who called me out.

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‘No’ on the revolution; ‘yes’ on defeating Donald Trump

I once was a wild-eyed liberal who bought into the urgency of launching a political revolt to topple a president.

The cause du jour was the Vietnam War. I had participated in that conflict, came home, and then got politically involved. In 1972, I wanted Sen. George McGovern to become the next president because he promised to end the war, bring our troops home and rebuild the nation’s tattered and shattered emotional psyche.

He didn’t make it to the White House.

Here we are today, 48 years later and the nation is flirting with another “revolution.” This one is being led by an independent senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who keeps hammering at income inequality. He wants to de-fang the nation’s uber-rich, who he says are corrupting the political process.

Sanders also wants to topple the current president. He is running as a Democrat, even though he isn’t really a Democrat.

Sanders can count me out. I am past the revolutionary period of my life. I am settling instead on the “establishment” that Sanders is vilifying. To that end, I am all in with Joseph Biden Jr., the former vice president and former senator.

Biden and Sanders do share a common desire, to defeat Donald Trump. The question now becomes: Who between them is equipped to do what millions of us want? I believe firmly that Biden holds the answers.

Biden knows how to govern. His record as VP is full of accomplishment: He helped enact the Affordable Care Act; he helped push through legislation that protected women against violence; he has once reached across to Republicans and helped avert a government shutdown during one of those face-offs during Obama years in the White House.

Over his many years in the Senate, Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees. His colleagues respected him in the Senate and worked with him when he ascended to the vice presidency.

Bernie Sanders would, in my view, bring us more conflict of the type we have endured during the Trump years.

I am weary of the chaos. Of the conflict. Of the confusion. In my dotage, therefore, I am seeking a return to an air of normal behavior in the White House. Joe Biden can provide it.

Biden the seasoned pol is more electable than Sanders the angry revolutionary. When I was much younger, I might have attached myself to Sanders’ ideological hay wagon. That was then.

The here and now makes me yearn for a comforting presence in the White House.

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Political diversity is far from dead

The next Democratic Party presidential nominee is going to be an old white man. One of the two remaining major candidates is 77 years of age; the other one is 78.

The gigantic 2020 Democratic primary field started out as the most diverse in history: five women; three African Americans (one of whom is a woman); an Asian-American businessman; a gay man; a Hindu woman.

We’re now left with the two old white guys: former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

I am all in for Biden. Never mind that … for now.

What’s left now is for one of these fellows to fight it out with each other and the winner to determine with whom he wants to run for the White House.

So much of the chatter has centered on the rivals who’ve dropped out. I want to expand the field of candidates for vice president way beyond building a “team of rivals.”

This much is as clear as anything one can imagine about the 2020 presidential campaign: The Democratic Party ticket is going to include either a woman, a woman or man of color, or possibly a woman of color.

So let’s quell the talk about the “death of diversity,” shall we?

As for the huge pool of potential running mates either for Biden or Sanders, one of these men can look far and wide well beyond the individuals whom they have defeated. Every state in the Union is full of competent, racially diverse individuals — including many women — involved at all levels of government.

I also agree that the once-huge Democratic field is full of competence, charisma and character. So, whomever emerges from the fight that’s about to commence from this day forward until the presidential nomination convention will have a rich field from which he can find a suitable running mate.

However, you can take this straight to the bank: The next Democratic VP nominee will not be an old white guy.

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Here come the third-party Bernie rumors

Oh, brother.

If Bernie Sanders is adamant in his desire to ensure that Donald John Trump gets shown the door out of the White House after the upcoming presidential election then he’d better scotch reports about a possible third-party election bid in the event he loses the Democratic Party nomination to Joe Biden.

I’m hearing that kinda chatter out there.

The Michigan primary is coming up next Tuesday. Some analysts say it’s do or die for Sen. Sanders in Michigan. If he loses there, he’s done. Toast. A goner. Then what?

The notion being batted around is that he would launch a third-party/independent bid to defeat Trump.

Hmm. I think of, oh, Ralph Nader spoiling it for Al Gore in 2000, siphoning off enough votes to hand Texas Gov. George W. Bush enough votes to squeak his way into the White House. Without Nader on the ballot in Florida, Gore wins the state’s electoral votes and takes the oath of office — with no recount and no Supreme Court decision to settle the matter!

My advice to Bernie is simple: If you’re a man of your word, then you won’t even think about what is being bandied about. Furthermore, Sen. Sanders needs to ensure that the Democratic Party nominee, which would be Joseph R. Biden Jr., would have his unqualified support and that he will campaign vigorously to defeat the current president of the United States.

Are we clear?

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Get ready, Mr. VPOTUS, for the fight of your life

I hope, Joe Biden, you don’t mind a bit of unsolicited advice from someone out here in the heart of Trump Country.

Look, I’m all in on your presidential candidacy. I’ve said so on this blog, Mr. Vice President. Readers of High Plains Blogger know my bias and they either accept/endorse it or they reject/condemn it.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I want to express a deep concern I have for you as you enter what’s essentially a two-man race with Bernie Sanders. I hear you’re going to debate Sen. Sanders soon in advance of another round of primary states.

Therein lies the crux of my concern.

If I were you, Mr. VP, I would hire a debate coach … pronto. You see, I am concerned that you might get too worked up as Bernie lobs grenades at you. I mean, you know already what he’s going to say about you and to you while you’re standing next to each other. Let me refresh you on that:

He’ll accuse you of being in the pocket of zillionaires; he’ll criticize your vote in support of the Iraq War resolution; he’ll say you’ve argued on the Senate floor to cut Social Security and Medicare; he will say you’re the tool of the “Democratic establishment”; for all I know, he might even ask you if you’ve “stopped beating your wife.”

Get ready for that line of attack, Mr. Vice President. You need to be prepared for it. You need a storehouse of zingers. Do you remember the classic “You’re no Jack Kennedy” line that Lloyd Bentsen tossed at Dan Quayle in 1988? I know, it didn’t win the election for the Democrats that year, but Sen. Bentsen was ready to deliver it.

And for criminy sakes, Mr. VP, don’t get so worked up in your responses that you say something silly, or regrettable or … well, stupid!

Political contests usually aren’t won by debating points, but history tells us they can be lost by mistakes and gaffes.

I’m in your corner, Mr. Vice President. If you see this note, take careful heed. If someone on your staff sees, I hope they take it in the spirit I offer this advice.

I am just one American who wants Donald John Trump tossed out of office. I believe you’re the last candidate standing who can make my wish come true.

Don’t mess it up.