posted
Just my instinct from having followed world and national affairs for over seventy years.
Simply to be in the Scholar's Fourth Quartile is disgrace enough.
However, on the other side, here is a Times columnist holding that Joe has been a "Great" president Presumably worthy of the Scholar's First Quartile, but who should rest on his laurels and not seek a second term:
Fair Use:
When President Biden gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he will have a lot to boast about.
He’s presided over record job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. ... His Inflation Reduction Act made a historic investment in clean energy; the head of the International Energy Agency called it the most important climate action since the 2015 Paris climate accord.....Biden rallied Western nations to support Ukraine against Russia’s imperialist invasion and ended America’s long, fruitless war in Afghanistan, albeit with an ugly and ignominious exit. ...and shot down that spy balloon everyone was freaking out about. He’s on track to appoint more federal judges than Trump.
In other words, Biden has been a great president.... But he should not run again.
Messrs. Harris and Helfner, it is my duty to respect that you both appear less Liberal than am I. I also must respect I am considerably less so than my Sister (Bachelor's Smith; Master's Columbia), who considers Trump to have been - and will be again when his eight year term is resumed - as one of our five greatest presidents.
Now I think all should recognize that the Scholars are from academic backgrounds, and as such are likely Liberal leaning. I certainly disagree with their First Quartile rating handed to Obama, who to me was just in the Second. True, he got healthcare, which withstood an attempt to repeal during the Trump administration, but what else? I don't consider him overly successful in pursuing other parts of his legislative agenda, such as gun control.
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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And, he didn't "answer the big question" (will he run in '24?)
addendum: an NBC News correspondent noted Joe's "let's finish the job" was a signal that "he's running".
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Grief; ostensibly conservative Peggy Noonan, writing in The Journal, as good as holds that Joe has already been re-elected to his second term. The biggest issue to attaining that goal is "the Kamala problem":
Fair Use:
“Their problem is Kamala Harris. She’s an absolute, total lightweight. She doesn’t have the touch.” The touch is that indefinable thing that makes people like you, root for you, sense some magic in you. “Some people have it and some people don’t.” California politicos in both parties, he says, were shocked when Biden chose her as vice president in 2020.
What to do about Ms. Harris? “It’s a real problem. Biden has to show leadership on it and let the party know what he wants—and enforce it. It’s a messy situation but Biden has to be involved in it. He’s gonna have to decide.”
The source of the immediate quote is Stuart Spencer - a now 96yo Reagan operative.
Within the column, there are inferences that Trump is "done for" and that, if the "fire" that Joe had on display to the world at the SOTU, "he's in for '24".
Furthermore, Times columnist Maureen Dowd is even more direct than is Peggy:
Fair Use:
WASHINGTON — Everyone is frantically hunting for clues about whether Joe Biden will run again.
His State of the Union speech was dissected for intimations. When he kept using the phrase “finish the job,” was that a hint?
Where is Daniel Craig’s “Knives Out” detective when we need him?
Asked about his decision in a Telemundo interview on Thursday, the 80-year-old president replied, “I’m just not ready to make it.”
When my colleagues Frank Bruni and Michelle Goldberg, and I write “Hey, Joe, Don’t Give It a Go” columns suggesting that he bow out on top, is the president listening and pondering what we say?
Nah. Guess what, political sleuths? It’s not really a Scooby-Doo mystery. No need to consult a soothsayer and tremble on the edge of your seats.
Joe Biden is running. And that’s no malarkey.
Well, so much for my thoughts that the SOTU was going to be the "Sunset" of Joe's two year presidency. What remains for me is will I vote for him? Could Joe captain the domestic "Ship of State"? Probably; he has shown that he can assemble a group of competent advisors that represent strength and stability (compare turnover to date with Trump's after two years). But what happens when Joe is sitting down "one on one" with Putin, Xi, or whoever the "Mullah of the Day" is in Iran. Will he "give away the store" without realizing it?
Food for thought when trekking to the school, library, or fire house on "that Tuesday in November".
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Messrs. Harris and Helfner, it is my duty to respect that you both appear less Liberal than am I. …
I try to avoid that loaded term as much as I can, particularly when it has been co-opted by the Marxists for many decades, and again when the term “libertine” would be better with respect to social libertinism such as it is. From the perspective of the USA, one is either pro-Constitution or anti-Constitution.
quote:Now I think all should recognize that the Scholars are from academic backgrounds, and as such are likely Liberal leaning. I certainly disagree with their First Quartile rating handed to Obama, who to me was just in the Second. True, he got healthcare, which withstood an attempt to repeal during the Trump administration, but what else? I don’t consider him overly successful in pursuing other parts of his legislative agenda, such as gun control. …
Again, this redounds to the question as to whether a POTUS is pro-Constitution or anti-Constitution. Obama is infamous for openly stating his desire to “fundamentally transform the United States of America”, which implies either ripping up the Constitution or twisting it into something unrecognizable by the Founding Fathers. That is a goal of the communists:
quote:In (the United States of) America, where a democratic constitution has already been established, the communists must make the common cause with the party that will turn this constitution against the bourgeoisie and use it in the interests of the proletariat …
That quote from Friedrich Engels’ The Principles of Communism shows how far back the targeting of the Constitution goes, whose “negative liberties” (as Obama put it) guaranteed that government could not invasively control people’s lives and protected the rights listed in the Bill of Rights. One of those rights is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”; the societal irony continues to be that those areas where that right is unconstitutionally removed are the ones most plagued with violence, whether with gun or other weapon. And as for health care, that was extant before the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, and frankly, there is far less of it now.
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There is a photo on the front page of today's Journal showing "Ukrzaliznytsia Joe" and "Volo" standing in front of an oft-photoed church in Kiev.
Sorry to note that Joe simply looks like "a stiff"; honestly to see this photo simply makes one wonder if he can last through the the 23 months remaining in his term (guess I was mistaken with my prediction of his resignation).
That, as a "not exactly" popular politician standing next to likely the most popular one in the world, does not help in showing off any vitality he may have left.
Addendum:
The Times covered the event.
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I'm pleased to learn of the Politico report that Mr. Helfner has shared.
As a "career politician", Joe attained the highest prize - the Presidency.
Now why would he wish to go out with a loss - the only one in his career - to the likes of Trump or DeSantis. I think he is starting to recognize that he will lose to either Republican front runner, so it is time now to rest on his laurels from a fifty year political career.
Joe; Champ and Commander want to have a little 'rasslin, and you also would like to take an X-country rail trip or two (the Secret Service will not deny that to a Former President), and maybe leave this planet as revered as Jimmy Carter (Scholars;26th of 44) has become.
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Here's one Times Guest Columnist and longtime political operative, who to ruling out Kamala as either an effective force to fill out an unexpired term, or as the Dems '24 nominee, is a "not so fast".
Fair Use:
I have watched politicians up close for decades. And I have known Vice President Harris for years and urged Joe Biden to make her his running mate in 2020. I believe that the criticism of her is unrelated to her performance as vice president and fails to account for the role she plays in the White House.
As a consequential and successful vice president himself for eight years under Barack Obama, President Biden has a keen understanding of the job he once held and he has tasked Vice President Harris with major responsibilities. She has done an outstanding job and her record in two years stands up to that of her predecessors. Has she solved every problem? No, but name me one vice president who has.
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Real Clear composite of polls show that, at this time, Trump will walk away with the '24 GOP nomination. For Joe, should he seek the Democratic nomination, the Convention will simply be a Coronation.
But those same polling sources reviewed as a composite by RCP show that Trump will narrowly beat Joe and become POTUS47.
Surely, there are "powers that be" within the Democratic party that think Joe - because there is a chance he could win - should "take one for the team". That, as I noted earlier, is simply too much to ask of a "career politician" who attained the top prize. Let some of the names Mr. Helfner immediately noted "take the fall". They have still much of their political career ahead and could recover from the "hit".
Now there is much evidentiary out there suggesting that polls, in this day when there has been a communications revolution not seen since the days of Alexander Graham (and maybe even Guttenberg), have lost their way, and it's time to echo the refrain of many a sure loser in the past's favorite quote that "the only poll that counts is that taken on Tuesday November 5th".
Just some additional thoughts arising from Mr. Helfner's astute observation that "there must be indecision in 'Joedom'" as the experts thought he would have announced, one way of the other, by now.
Lest we forget; less than a year to go before the first primary or caucus.
Posts: 10373 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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