Commenting on President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week, I expressed skepticism that Democrats would be able to get the old man to step down and make way for another candidate.
I can always count on you to see clearly to the fundamentals involved. None of this even remotely occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense. As repugnant as it would be to vote for Harris, that is absolutely what is needed to derail the next step to dictatorship this country appears to be taking. Thank you!
Also, what I'm going to write about next is the argument that no matter who get elected, there will be constitutional and political guardrails in place. But what we've discovered in the Trump era is that those guardrails are a lot weaker than we thought and are largely on the honor system--so I find them to be less of a protection against Trump than they are against a more normal politician like Harris.
I mean, I'm not super re-assured either way, because the thing people on the right will eventually discovered is that all the norms and rules and institutions that Trump broke will now be weaker against the left, too.
Please use that next article to appeal to democrats to enact those guardrails. Obama was proof enough of why we needed more guardrails, but of course the democrats would have none of that back then. When Trump is re-elected, there may be a chance they can be convinced, so hold them to it once he is gone, when republicans might have the guts to join them.
BTW, if Biden had an iota of integrity or brains, he would not have made the statement he did regarding the SCOTUS immunity decision. Instead of saying how horrible it was to hand that power to Trump, he could have acted with Hamiltonian aplomb and said, “I should not have that capacity, even though I would never use it.” He did not, demonstrating his commitment to partisanship over good governance.
For all the MANY times I've agreed with Robert Tracinski, that ship has sailed....it set sail a while back, but it announced in last night's interview one more time that it had sailed.
In late summer of 2022, I thought the Ds would get smoked in the midterms. But the Rs made yet another unforced error by running some horrible candidates (such as Mastriano, in the state where I live) and pushing their luck with the Roe/Wade overturn. Short of the Rs making another series of errors, I don't see a way out for the Ds.
Just a follow-up, I agree 100% with RT about the dangers of Trump. First and foremost, I don't want to see Trump win. The problem is that Biden overplayed his hand. I hate to sound like fatalist, but Biden continues to deal serious blows to the efforts to defeat Trump.
You overlook the influence peddling, the millions the Biden's have received from our enemies, the Hillary comments that "Trump is an illegitimate President" the bought and paid for phony Russian dossier by Hillary, the lap top cover up, the corrupt FBI and this just part of how the left is destroying our country. Trump is not the greatest, but you've gone mad with your obsession with him. I'd take him over any Democrat in the party at this time. And Jefferson, a "bastard?" Take my name off your subscriber list. I've had it!
Congratulations, you have successfully communicated to me that you watch Fox News and believe everything it tells you.
As for Jefferson as a bastard--that's Hamilton's perspective. If you've been reading me, you ought to know that I take Jefferson's side in the Hamilton-Jefferson beef.
Also, as William F. Buckley once said, cancel your own damn subscription.
Much as I loathe FOXY News talking points (old grey ladies need not apply for headline news anchor) old gray man in the room is onto something…and respectfully Robert, I think you have successfully communicated you are in communion with the Anti-Federalist, Biden sympathizers at The Bulwark, if there ever was a misnomer, meet The UnPopulist. Perhaps I missed it, as I would never accuse you of being a liar by omission, like the…Tim Miller….But, speaking of guardrails like SCOTUS, when am I going to read a letter lamenting about Joe Biden not only breaking his sworn oath to The Constitution, but the old man bragging about robbing Peter the welder to pay Paul the cannabis, I mean campus protester/student activist with to much time and other people’s money on his lotion hands…Leave aside the old dolts deeply, deeply reprehensible race hustling to a bunch a very privileged Americans with more melanin than you or I…which, again, something that calls themselves a bulwark should speak out against….instead of being strict constructionist partisans for Biden, like calling him the greatest President of my lifetime…because of righteous antipathy to The Don. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant, for now, an atheist that still reads The Holy Bible. Peace through superior mental firepower
Yup. Generally agreed. Especially those four reasons. Like it or not, the head nitwit—what a horrible VP choice she was, and if ever there was a case for using merit rather than DEI checkboxes to fill a ticket, she’s it—is the only real play the Dems have.
FWIW, I don’t see the SCOTUS immunity decision as raising the stakes. I’m a libertarian, and every day regret what our presidency has become; it was already overpowering and all-but-unreviewable. SCOTUS’s decision has just laid bare what was already there—from W to Obama to Trump to Biden: an executive who could essentially tell the vast federal bureaucracy to do anything or order our military to kill people anywhere in the world. Sure, it doesn’t feel good to anyone who believes in the words of the Constitution to see it in black & white, but in so many ways, it’s not new. And fortunately, they didn’t give anyone an actual blank check. They articulated a process for reviewing each claim of immunity. The court’s outline of immunity, and the framework for analyzing immunity claims, are based on some realistic assessments, regardless of who holds the office. We can’t have every administration subject to the unbridled, politicized prosecutorial discretion of its successor. Where some see guardrails lifted, I see guardrails at least finally articulated. Even if paper thin.
Well now it’s happened, and the next monumental task is to find Kamala Harris a running mate who can move the needle with centrist voters. (I agree she is the only logical choice for the top of the ticket.)
I think the Dems will blow this one if they don’t seriously consider Andy Beshear, a Dem governor of a red state. By all accounts he’s both competent and popular, and he isn’t saddled with the label of being too far left. His acceptance speech after he won the 2023 election was a good example of the centrist message we need to hear from the Dems if we want them to either win the presidency or at least bring people to the polls and boost their down-ballot candidates.
But since we can always count on the Dems to shoot themselves in the foot, I’m sure they will pass up Beshear for demographic reasons.
I don’t think Biden can beat Trump. I also think Harris, Newsom, or Whitmer probably wouldn’t either. The Democrats do not need to worry much about getting the votes of the leftists or even of most ordinary Democrats. They mainly have those against Trump. They are not likely to win over many people who like Trump. They need to win over people who are not fond of Trump but also oppose the left and are not interested in seeing a fourth Obama administration. A fairly obvious way to try to do that is by nominating an actual moderate such as Manchin as their candidate for president after Biden bows out. The fact that almost no Democrat politicians or media people are talking about doing something like that suggests that for many of them, the stuff about saving democracy is mainly just talk, and the real goal is that fourth Obama administration.
Changing the narrative on why he should resign is a stroke of genius on your part that might just save his legacy and the country. There are likely more reasons why Vice President Kamala Harris is best to succeed him at this late stage including her knowledge of the key issues and her energy to debate them with him, but the four you have chosen are the major ones. I hope that President Biden reads this piece too!
I can always count on you to see clearly to the fundamentals involved. None of this even remotely occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense. As repugnant as it would be to vote for Harris, that is absolutely what is needed to derail the next step to dictatorship this country appears to be taking. Thank you!
Also, what I'm going to write about next is the argument that no matter who get elected, there will be constitutional and political guardrails in place. But what we've discovered in the Trump era is that those guardrails are a lot weaker than we thought and are largely on the honor system--so I find them to be less of a protection against Trump than they are against a more normal politician like Harris.
I mean, I'm not super re-assured either way, because the thing people on the right will eventually discovered is that all the norms and rules and institutions that Trump broke will now be weaker against the left, too.
Please use that next article to appeal to democrats to enact those guardrails. Obama was proof enough of why we needed more guardrails, but of course the democrats would have none of that back then. When Trump is re-elected, there may be a chance they can be convinced, so hold them to it once he is gone, when republicans might have the guts to join them.
BTW, if Biden had an iota of integrity or brains, he would not have made the statement he did regarding the SCOTUS immunity decision. Instead of saying how horrible it was to hand that power to Trump, he could have acted with Hamiltonian aplomb and said, “I should not have that capacity, even though I would never use it.” He did not, demonstrating his commitment to partisanship over good governance.
For all the MANY times I've agreed with Robert Tracinski, that ship has sailed....it set sail a while back, but it announced in last night's interview one more time that it had sailed.
In late summer of 2022, I thought the Ds would get smoked in the midterms. But the Rs made yet another unforced error by running some horrible candidates (such as Mastriano, in the state where I live) and pushing their luck with the Roe/Wade overturn. Short of the Rs making another series of errors, I don't see a way out for the Ds.
Just a follow-up, I agree 100% with RT about the dangers of Trump. First and foremost, I don't want to see Trump win. The problem is that Biden overplayed his hand. I hate to sound like fatalist, but Biden continues to deal serious blows to the efforts to defeat Trump.
You overlook the influence peddling, the millions the Biden's have received from our enemies, the Hillary comments that "Trump is an illegitimate President" the bought and paid for phony Russian dossier by Hillary, the lap top cover up, the corrupt FBI and this just part of how the left is destroying our country. Trump is not the greatest, but you've gone mad with your obsession with him. I'd take him over any Democrat in the party at this time. And Jefferson, a "bastard?" Take my name off your subscriber list. I've had it!
Congratulations, you have successfully communicated to me that you watch Fox News and believe everything it tells you.
As for Jefferson as a bastard--that's Hamilton's perspective. If you've been reading me, you ought to know that I take Jefferson's side in the Hamilton-Jefferson beef.
Also, as William F. Buckley once said, cancel your own damn subscription.
Much as I loathe FOXY News talking points (old grey ladies need not apply for headline news anchor) old gray man in the room is onto something…and respectfully Robert, I think you have successfully communicated you are in communion with the Anti-Federalist, Biden sympathizers at The Bulwark, if there ever was a misnomer, meet The UnPopulist. Perhaps I missed it, as I would never accuse you of being a liar by omission, like the…Tim Miller….But, speaking of guardrails like SCOTUS, when am I going to read a letter lamenting about Joe Biden not only breaking his sworn oath to The Constitution, but the old man bragging about robbing Peter the welder to pay Paul the cannabis, I mean campus protester/student activist with to much time and other people’s money on his lotion hands…Leave aside the old dolts deeply, deeply reprehensible race hustling to a bunch a very privileged Americans with more melanin than you or I…which, again, something that calls themselves a bulwark should speak out against….instead of being strict constructionist partisans for Biden, like calling him the greatest President of my lifetime…because of righteous antipathy to The Don. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant, for now, an atheist that still reads The Holy Bible. Peace through superior mental firepower
Yup. Generally agreed. Especially those four reasons. Like it or not, the head nitwit—what a horrible VP choice she was, and if ever there was a case for using merit rather than DEI checkboxes to fill a ticket, she’s it—is the only real play the Dems have.
FWIW, I don’t see the SCOTUS immunity decision as raising the stakes. I’m a libertarian, and every day regret what our presidency has become; it was already overpowering and all-but-unreviewable. SCOTUS’s decision has just laid bare what was already there—from W to Obama to Trump to Biden: an executive who could essentially tell the vast federal bureaucracy to do anything or order our military to kill people anywhere in the world. Sure, it doesn’t feel good to anyone who believes in the words of the Constitution to see it in black & white, but in so many ways, it’s not new. And fortunately, they didn’t give anyone an actual blank check. They articulated a process for reviewing each claim of immunity. The court’s outline of immunity, and the framework for analyzing immunity claims, are based on some realistic assessments, regardless of who holds the office. We can’t have every administration subject to the unbridled, politicized prosecutorial discretion of its successor. Where some see guardrails lifted, I see guardrails at least finally articulated. Even if paper thin.
Well now it’s happened, and the next monumental task is to find Kamala Harris a running mate who can move the needle with centrist voters. (I agree she is the only logical choice for the top of the ticket.)
I think the Dems will blow this one if they don’t seriously consider Andy Beshear, a Dem governor of a red state. By all accounts he’s both competent and popular, and he isn’t saddled with the label of being too far left. His acceptance speech after he won the 2023 election was a good example of the centrist message we need to hear from the Dems if we want them to either win the presidency or at least bring people to the polls and boost their down-ballot candidates.
But since we can always count on the Dems to shoot themselves in the foot, I’m sure they will pass up Beshear for demographic reasons.
I don’t think Biden can beat Trump. I also think Harris, Newsom, or Whitmer probably wouldn’t either. The Democrats do not need to worry much about getting the votes of the leftists or even of most ordinary Democrats. They mainly have those against Trump. They are not likely to win over many people who like Trump. They need to win over people who are not fond of Trump but also oppose the left and are not interested in seeing a fourth Obama administration. A fairly obvious way to try to do that is by nominating an actual moderate such as Manchin as their candidate for president after Biden bows out. The fact that almost no Democrat politicians or media people are talking about doing something like that suggests that for many of them, the stuff about saving democracy is mainly just talk, and the real goal is that fourth Obama administration.
This is an excellent point.
Changing the narrative on why he should resign is a stroke of genius on your part that might just save his legacy and the country. There are likely more reasons why Vice President Kamala Harris is best to succeed him at this late stage including her knowledge of the key issues and her energy to debate them with him, but the four you have chosen are the major ones. I hope that President Biden reads this piece too!