Democracy and world peace have had a very bad week. The special counsel’s unprofessional, partisan decision has put Biden’s age and mental status front and center in the presidential contest. Most commentators agree that it is up to President Biden to dispel doubts about his fitness, primarily by making himself more available to interviewers and voters. Whether this will work remains to be seen. Even if Biden is mentally fit, which I believe is likely, he is clearly an undisciplined speaker, and given the circumstances his inevitable gaffes may well be interpreted as evidence of mental decline. There is no guarantee of success. As if this wasn’t bad enough, yesterday the stakes of the election became even higher as Trump made his antipathy
Topics:
Eric Kramer considers the following as important: Journalism, politics
This could be interesting, too:
Angry Bear writes Planned Tariffs, An Economy Argument with Political Implications
Joel Eissenberg writes Will DOGE be an exercise in futility?
Bill Haskell writes The spider’s web called Healthcare Insurance
Bill Haskell writes Funding Public Goods Problematic??? Blame the Tax-Dodging Billionaire
Democracy and world peace have had a very bad week.
The special counsel’s unprofessional, partisan decision has put Biden’s age and mental status front and center in the presidential contest. Most commentators agree that it is up to President Biden to dispel doubts about his fitness, primarily by making himself more available to interviewers and voters. Whether this will work remains to be seen. Even if Biden is mentally fit, which I believe is likely, he is clearly an undisciplined speaker, and given the circumstances his inevitable gaffes may well be interpreted as evidence of mental decline. There is no guarantee of success.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, yesterday the stakes of the election became even higher as Trump made his antipathy to NATO even clearer. The risk of Russian – and Chinese – aggression in a second Trump term has risen substantially.
Finally, at oral arguments on Thursday it seemed highly likely that the Supreme Court will ignore both the events of January 6th and the ongoing insurrection, and the history, plain words, and sensible purpose of the 14th Amendment – and keep Trump on the ballot nationally. Talk about whistling past the graveyard . . .
In response to Trump’s remarks on NATO, Phillips O’Brien suggests naming “two internationalist Republicans to the Cabinet” and a unity ticket in 2024 (he mentions Michelle Obama and Adam Kinzinger).
I had a similar thought: a national unity ticket of Biden and (say) Romney. Putting a respected Republican on the ticket would make it much easier to get Harris off, and it would avoid the need to persuade Biden to drop out. The Obama/Kinzinger combo strikes me as a real crap shoot.