MAGA cultists who are foaming at the mouth over President Biden’s decision to cease his re-election campaign need to take a breather and cast an eye toward realism … if that is possible.
They are proclaiming that since Biden said he is “unfit to run for re-election, he is unfit to hold the office,” and therefore he must resign immediately. Give me a fu**ing break! We all know what happened Sunday. I applaud Joe Biden for reaching a conclusion he believes is best for the country. He won’t seek a second term and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic Party presidential nominee. He said he will continue to serve as president and will work when he can to elect Harris if she’s nominated in Chicago later this summer. The MAGA cult members, led by their supreme leader Donald Trump, have lapped the field already in declaring that Biden must go. Trump issued a typically tasteless, crass, boorish response to Biden’s announcement; his followers have climbed aboard the Trump clown car. If a medical doctor examines the president and concludes he must resign, then I’ll listen. Short of that … the MAGA goons should just shut the hell up!Tag Archives: 2024 election
Now what for Election 2024?
I am pretty sure I will remember where I was when I heard the stunning news of the day, that President Biden had ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
It’s a mind-blower to be sure. We now are trudging down a never-before-traveled trail. A sitting president who had his party nomination locked up has tossed it into the crapper because (a) he apparently no longer believes he can win and (b) too many questions remain over whether he has the snap to serve another four years in power.
This was Joe Biden’s call to make. I have said I would support whatever decision he made. Part of me wanted him to stay in the race, but it became untenable as scores of Democratic politicians and big hitters bailed on him.
What about Vice President Harris? She is a known quantity. Now she gets to pick a VP running mate, presuming she wins the Democratic Party nomination later this summer. It would seem to be a no-brainer, given that the delegates chosen to support President Biden were on board with VP Harris as well.
My head is still spinning at this moment. There will be plenty to say about the campaign that is going take shape …. all over again!
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Oh, just so you know, I was watching a theater production of “Mama Mia!” in Fort Worth when I heard the news … in case you’re interested.
Things I don’t get
The world is chock full of matters that pass my occasionally meager understanding. Donald Trump’s standing in the current public opinion polls is one of them.
With that I must make an admission: I do not understand the thinking of Americans who can justify their backing of a man with the kind of morality, the record of lying, the examples of fraudulent behavior that Trump continues to exhibit.
Family members who say they value my opinion on such matters keep asking me why Trump continues to hold this standing. I have no answer. I do not understand it. I cannot fathom anyone backing a candidate for president with so many personal and moral failures as this individual.
He speaks of his “populism.” He is no more of a populist than, say, King Louis XVI. He talks about caring for the little guy. When has anyone seen him showing up unannounced to work in a soup kitchen? He talked about losing all those friends in the 9/11 attacks. Yet … he never attended a single funeral or memorial service for anyone who died on that horrific day.
His many moral failures are too many to mention here. You know what they are.
And yet, here he is set to capture the Republican Party presidential nomination for the third consecutive election cycle. He won the first time, lost the second go-round and well might win the 2024 election.
Is this nation really so gullible, so prone to this man’s phony promises to elect him a second time to an office about which he knows absolutely nothing?
I cannot even begin to grasp what might lie ahead for this great land if our worst nightmare comes true.
Time for ‘unity’ … do ya think?
Word out of Donald J. Trump’s campaign headquarters is that the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee is re-writing his acceptance speech.
Reports say he is going to seek to strike a theme of national “unity” in the wake of what we all saw unfold in Butler, Pa., over the weekend.
A gunman opened fire on Trump, grazing his right ear with a bullet. Another man died while protecting his family from the gunfire, two more bystanders were seriously injured … and the Secret Service killed the shooter where he stood with his rifle.
Trump issued a statement immediately after being transported for treatment of his injury. He spoke of the need to stand as one nation and to work to quell the violence that too often is a result of heated political rhetoric.
On Thursday night he will stand before the nation, accept his party’s nomination and reportedly will deliver his unification remarks.
For the ever-lovin’ life of me, I hope the man is sincere, that he means what he says that he will do his part to cool the atmospherics that surround this political season.
President Biden, his opponent in the election, has said the same thing, calling on the nation to step back and to reflect on a fundamental tenet of American politics. It is that we can differ strongly on issues but that we’re all still Americans, we all love the country and that we are not each other’s “enemy.”
Yes, I oppose Donald Trump’s election. I remain grateful and glad that he didn’t suffer a more serious injury from the moron who opened fire.
Now we will get to measure just how much — if at all — this incident might have changed him.
Watergate rears its head
The specter of Watergate is beginning to make its presence felt in President Biden’s fight to retain his status as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.
His staff is meeting with prominent Democrats in the House and Senate, all of whom are expressing concern about Biden’s chances of winning re-election against Donald J. Trump, They want him to relinquish the nomination and hand it to a stronger candidate who can defeat Trump in the fall election.
The president, bedeviled by his shocking debate performance the other night, is standing firm. “I am not going anywhere!” he has bellowed.
OK, got it, Mr. President.
In the summer of 1974, the House was getting ready to impeach President Nixon over his role in covering up the Watergate scandal. A group of Republican senators — led by Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania — went to the White House to tell Nixon the following: The House is going to impeach you and the Senate is going to convict you. You should resign now.
Nixon took his friends’ advice and quit the presidency.
Do you see the symmetry between then and now?
It falls on the president to make his decision on what to do. It’s just feeling a bit to me as if a Watergate-era outcome might be in store.
Changing my mind daily
A member of my family called today to ask me: What do you think President Biden should do, stay in or pull out of the race?
I had to level with her. My mind changes daily. Yesterday I thought maybe he should pull out. Today I am thinking he should stay.
That’s my answer. It depends on what day it is and whether I have changed my mind overnight. I am prone to do so at my age. Old men like me have that right, if you know what I mean.
I keep hearing that more congressional Democrats are abandoning the president. They want to defeat Donald Trump. They say the ex-POTUS is an existential threat to our national security.
So … who has defeated him already? Who has the experience to take the case directly to Trump’s soft underbelly?
It’s Biden.
So, today I am sticking with President Biden all the way. However, I am feeling malleable.
Gotta hold on tightly
I have discovered that emotional roller coasters can be as upsetting as the real thing, such as one I used to ride at Jantzen Beach in my hometown of Portland, Ore.
That frightening monster is gone and I don’t ride roller coasters much these days. I do embark on emotional thrill rides based on the politics I continue to follow.
President Biden is now taking me on an emotional roller coaster. I am forced to hold on tightly with both hands. He had that hideous debate outing a little more than a week ago. It launched a series of calls for him to get out of the 2024 presidential race. He has stood firm, saying he isn’t “going anywhere.”
My initial reaction? I’m with you, Mr. President. Stay in! Fight like hell! Then doubt began to creep in. Eleven days after that hideous performance, my hope is being revved up a bit by the message that Biden is delivering.
We need to concentrate on Donald Trump, he bellows. Trump is the true danger to our way of life, to our democratic principles, to our very liberties.
I know that a few days cannot possibly define the future, but it appears to be that President Biden is finding his voice. He is speaking with crystal clarity, with passion and with a commitment to staying in the fight until they count the ballots.
I keep getting caught up in these moments. I realize they aren’t as much fun as the old days when we screamed at the thrill of racing around the track at high speed. The stakes today, though, are pretty damn high … which means I am going to stay committed to these moments when they present themselves.
My mission: defeat Trump!
OK, kids. Here comes the latest proclamation from High Plains Blogger, which is that my public policy mission in life is to defeat Donald John Trump and end forever this reprobate’s lust for political power.
How does that happen? Beats me. I have this forum. I intend to light it up with every known lie, defamatory epithet, bizarre pronouncement that has flown out of this megalomaniacal moron’s piehole. I am going to remind readers of this blog that this POTUS wannabe has been convicted of multiple felonies!
Trump is a tangible, existential threat to our way of life, to our democratic system of governance, to our existence as the world’s pre-eminent nation.
I am going to get grief for this declaration from critics who accuse me of suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
You know what? I admit that I do! Bring it, MAGA cultists!
I am concerned about whether President Biden is able to carry that message forward on our behalf. And, no, I do not believe he is incapacitated. I fear that the rumor mongering is going to overtake his candidacy. He might be unable to shake loose the political hyenas who have gripped him in their jaws.
Who should replace him as the Democrats’ standard bearer? I don’t have a clue. I do know this: Whoever emerges at the top of the Democratic ticket will have my support over the former Dipsh** in Chief who continues to masquerade as a Republican.
And, yes, that support extends to President Joe Biden should he stay in this race for its duration.
POTUS falls short
My hope leading up to President Biden’s 22-minute interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos was that Biden would hit it so damn far out of the park that we never would discuss whether he was “up to the job” of being president.
He whiffed.
Three or four times, Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he would consent to an independent test of his mental acuity. He declined to say “yes” or “no.” He said something about being “tested every day” while he continues to function as president.
Biden’s frightening debate performance prompted the interview. It was intended to dispel concerns about the president’s ability to do the job. Do I share those concerns? Not necessarily.
I do share the concern that the international chatter about the debate performance is damaging his re-election effort against a guy who has no business running for office …. let alone standing in position potentially to wrest it from the individual who defeated him four years ago.
We are entering uncharted waters, gang.
Biden on the hot seat
All of us are entitled to change our mind on important matters … correct? Therefore, I am going to announce to you a shift in my thought process on the difficulty that President Biden is facing.
I have declared my desire that Biden stay in office, that he not back down, that he not forgo a re-election campaign. My commitment to that stance is beginning to waver.
The president is facing the kind of pressure to pull out that none of us has witnessed. He stumbled badly this past week in the debate with Donald Trump. He sounded confused. He looked even worse, appearing at times as if he couldn’t remember what he had just said or the latest lie that flew out of Trump’s overfed pie hole.
I am not going to wander down the alley that suggests that Biden has lost his snap that he should suspend his campaign and hand the effort over to a young gun.
That is his decision to make. Only the president can know if he is up to the task. I believe he is, but I am peering at him through a far-away prism. My thought at this moment is that if he makes that decision to pull out that I will support him.