Tag Archives: Joe Biden

national news

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.

Joe Biden, national news

‘Vote shaming’ has commenced

There appears to be a tide of “vote shaming” that is swelling across the land as Democrats are now rallying behind their presumptive presidential nominee.

We now are hearing it more loudly and clearly than at any time during the past three presidential cycles. A vote for Donald J. Trump for president is going to relegate the presidency and the nation into a spiral from which neither can recover.

And it is to the ever-lasting shame of those who today remain dedicated to casting their presidential vote for a convicted felon, an admitted philanderer, a man found liable for rape and an individual who admits to groping women.

Democrats are ramping up their message machine to cast shame and embarrassment on the MAGA cultists and the Republican Party leadership who continue to back a man who has been shown to be a fraud, someone who isn’t even close to being the smartest businessman in the room. Indeed, as President Biden has been saying, Trump has filed for bankruptcy “six times, even for a casino” in which had invested. “I didn’t know that was possible,” Biden has said.

President Biden and the Democrats are making Donald Trump the issue in their battle to keep him away from the Oval Office.

They damn sure should make Trump the No. 1 issue in this campaign.

But here we are, wringing our hands over whether Joe Biden is too old and too mentally infirm to run for president. I am teetering on this issue myself and I am not comfortable admitting that. However, you may count me as one American patriot who will gladly cast my ballot for Joe Biden if the choice happens to be Donald Trump.

Those who are standing behind a moral reprobate who is now a convicted felon, someone who embraces tyrants over small-d democrats, well … you deserve the shame you are getting.

national news

What should his legacy become?

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Suppose for a moment that President Biden’s parsing of the tea leaves tells him he should no longer seek re-election … what shall be the opening paragraph say about his term as leader of the world’s pre-eminent nation?

I hope it doesn’t mention that he ended his re-election effort over questions about whether he was competent to run the nation for a second term. I want it to focus on what he did accomplish.

He took the reins of power as the nation fought like hell to recover from the COVID pandemic. That battle included rescuing an economy that had tanked. Biden wanted to restore our national “soul,” which had been wounded grievously by the chaos that enveloped the presidency of his immediate predecessor.

By almost any measure one can apply, Joe Biden’s presidency has been a success. He signed legislation that aims to improve our infrastructure, seeks to reduce inflation, and seeks to arm Ukraine in its fight for survival against invading forces from Russia.

Biden has taken executive action to eliminate crushing student debt obligations and has acted with dignity and decorum on the world stage.

All of that might get short shrift in the event President Biden decides to pull the plug on his re-election campaign. Instead, the media will focus on whether he has lost too many steps in his losing fight against Father Time.

Joe Biden’s presidency has been a success and no matter when we start writing the history of this man’s time at the pinnacle of power, I want us to remember that fact first.

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Watergate rears its head

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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.

Joe Biden, national news, political news

Most important … ever!

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My active involvement in presidential elections goes back a while, to 1972, when I cast my first vote for president.

And just as surely as the sun rises in the morning, every election cycle has contained the phrase “the most important election in our lifetime.”

I believe the 2024 election fits the bill. It’s the real thing. It appears to be the most important election in our nation’s storied history.

The candidates for president aren’t the best we can offer. The consequence of electing one of these men is what gives the result the heft it deserves.

Where do we stand? The Democratic Party nominee appears to be the incumbent, Joe Biden. Then again …

The president had that debate a few days ago and everything seems to have changed. The party of which he has been a faithful member might be turning on him. Or it might stand firm. He looked and sounded like a doddering old man in that debate and the party faithful is full of doubting members who are concerned about whether he’s up to the job.

The Republican Party nominee? Oh, brother. He is a former POTUS who got impeached twice while in office. He’s now a convicted felon. There might be more convictions on the way. Donald Trump has vowed to sic the Justice Department on his political foes. He well could end our support for Ukraine, which is fighting the Russian invaders. He vows to reverse virtually every law that Biden has signed. Trump has threatened to toss the U.S. Constitution into the shi**er on the first day of his administration.

Consequential election? The most important in US history?

It damn sure looks that way to me.

Are we really and truly ready to throw the very foundation of our government — the one other nations use as their model for freedom and liberty — away because a newly elected president wants to make friends with killers, despots and tyrants?

If we are then … God help us!

national news

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.

national news

VP stands tall

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Kamala Harris made history four years ago when voters elected her as the nation’s first female vice president, the first Black and the first Asian American ever to hold the office.

Yep, she’s a complex individual … with an ethnic diversity that makes heads spin.

President Biden vowed to make her a consequential VPOTUS. While the jury is still out on whether he was faithful to that pledge, there can be no doubt these days about the value she brings to an embattled president. Biden is facing calls to step down from the top of Democratic Party ticket on the basis of his debate performance the other night in Atlanta.

I am one American who is so very torn. I don’t want him to step down, but I would accept his decision to do so if that’s what he decides.

Oh, as for Harris? She stands tall in the wings. Vice President Harris has emerged as the Biden administration’s most effective spokesperson on the issue of women’s reproductive rights. She is taking the fight straight to Donald Trump, who wants his old job back amid threats that he would undo the basic framework of our representative democracy.

The VP is speaking with courage and conviction and is emerging as someone who is (a) defending the president’s stellar record and (b) looks and sounds willing and able to lead a nation that chose her as vice president in 2020.

Kamala Harris might never have imagined being thrust into this role when she said “yes” to Biden’s request to join the ticket. Indeed, as an observer of American politics, I am finding it hard to grasp what might be unfolding in real time.

The drama that is playing itself out is almost too much to imagine … but it is. I am proud of the politician who made history when she joined the winning ticket four years ago.

Keep standing tall, Mme. Vice President.

national news

Gotta hold on tightly

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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.

Joe Biden

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.

national news

POTUS falls short

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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.