Nor should he be coaxed into not running for re-election
Almost all of the liberal corporate media is nervously focused on whether President Joe Biden is still fit for office. The New York Times has published hundreds of articles on this and seems to be leading the pack of journalists sensing blood in the water after the June debate. As I called it before, that debate was not going to be a debate, but rather a reality TV show starring Donald Trump and his usual bombastic antics of lying and deflection. Biden came prepared to debate the issues and his track record, while the moderators could hardly rein in the Trumpster or challenge any of the 34 lies that came out of his mouth, or make Trump answer the questions. CNN failed in their role as journalists. They were more like deers in the headlights and Biden was dumb-struck by the rapid-fire BS that the Orange Guy was dishing out. He should have been prepared for this.
Should this one TV appearance determine whether the President is fit to run again? No! The reaction to it reveals the kind of temerity of the liberal Democrats who are rightly terrified of the rise of a second Trump term in office, the rise of the White Christian Nationalists and the fascism to what the Republican party has now embraced. We should all be scared of this drift into extremist autocracy, enough so that it should motivate every single voter to turnout at the ballot box and make sure the MAGA virus doesn’t infect America’s body politic any further.
This hand-wringing by the American Left (though not in Congress!) regarding Biden’s fitness for office comes at the very same time as the Left in the United Kingdom and France have all come together to defeat their respective extreme right parties. Something I can see happening here if Biden can just be bold enough to call out the crimes, impeachments, and convictions of Trump while asking the essential question, “Who do you trust”?
Biden has come back swinging this week saying, “I’m the Democratic Party’s nominee. No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving, I’m in this race to the end, and WE are going to win this election.”
Joe Biden, as we will see in the coming months, is not one to back down and give up, which is what the rightwing propagandists would like.
After President Joe Biden’s disastrous recent public appearance, he and his supporters are attacking media outlets for a double standard in coverage of him and his opponent ― an assessment more accurate than any reporting about the president’s mental capacity.
On one of the morning cable shows President Biden lectured a journalist with a reminder, “Trump Republicans lost in 2017. Trump Republicans lost in 2018. Trump Republicans lost in 2019. Trump Republicans lost in 2020. Trump Republicans lost in 2021. Trump Republicans lost in 2022. Trump Republicans lost in 2023 and it’s Trump Republicans talking about revolution because [they] can’t win at the ballot box.”
The Republican conservative echo chamber is playing on Biden’s perceived weakness―his age while deflecting anything dealing with Trump’s age, mental condition (his rants about sharks no one can quite follow), his penchant for lying and grifting off the country with his many illegal acts of corruption.
In a letter sent to Democrats in Congress Biden said, “To make it clear: I am staying in this race, and we’re going to win. I have heard the concerns that people have, the good-faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them. Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries. But let me say clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running if I did not absolutely believe that I can and I will beat Donald Trump in November.”
The real issue at this point is that this is a rematch, a grudge match because Trump is still in denial of having lost the last election, he keeps on denying it and is laying the groundwork for a second insurrection when he loses again. He’s a desperate man with a desperate plan to get back into power and stay out of prison. His only shot at this is to get elected and to pardon himself and his co-conspirators. And he will stop at nothing short of this.
Biden and his supporters just need to learn how to punch back the same way one does with a play-ground bully. You can’t be polite with either the bully or a rabid dog. The current president needs to come out swinging because this isn’t a Harvard debate, it’s bare-knuckle American politics, like it or not it’s going to be a hot summer.
The job of the Biden/Harris campaign is to unite as a party. Focusing on efforts on defeating Trump the MAGA movement, on defending American democracy, and on protecting people’s freedoms.
Finally, he says, “I feel a deep obligation to trust the voters of the Democratic Party, Millions have cast ballots for me and Kamala in primaries across the country. That’s the process. It was a decision for voters to make ― not the press, the pundits, the big donors, or any powerful interest group.”
As long as the media focuses on one candidate’s “fitness for office” and not drawing a critical comparison of their actual accomplishments ― we, the voters, are being distracted from what’s really at stake. Does anybody really think that the Orange man feels any deep obligation to anything other than himself including the vote of the people?