The former president has always considered himself to be the ultimate disrupter. But this time, the disruption is on the other side.
Through the weekend, there were an awful lot of questions that were going back and forth from people in the president’s tightest circle, and one of the questions that kept being asked was whether Joe Biden was going to endorse Kamala Harris or not. And the question didn’t revolve around whether he wanted to or not, but whether people in her camp thought it would be better for her to fight for it, win it on her own, and not be seen as somebody who was tapped by President Biden and so, in her own way, have a fresh start going into the campaign.
So the timing seems to be about as good as it could have been to end what has just been one of the craziest two or three weeks in American politics in quite some time.
I still think it was a bad idea that Joe dropped out this late into the cycle, but at least Kamilla will be a competant incumbant. I didn’t think they were going to put kamilla in his place and I thought we were fucked. Glad I was wrong but I hope that she will be enough. She’s polling slightly better than Joe was against Trump.
Hopefully it leaves the Republicans without enough time to develop and implement a new strategy. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have some contingency plan already, but it might be too late for them to actually use it.
They’re going to say you are crazy, they will say you are a bully, they’ll tell you to stop, even your partner will say that you need to stop. Because nobody wants you to break the system itself. But that is true disruption.
Well, that one landed flat. It was a Miles Bron reference.
The former president has always considered himself to be the ultimate disrupter. [emph. added]
I laughed a lot when the international news on TV around here claimed that “in a move that took politicians and campaign mangers by surprise, Biden left the race”… But the more I look around, the more it looks like people were surprised by it.
How come?
Because it hasn’t happened a lot. If you are the incumbent, you are running for a second term unless you are beat or dead. Leaving for whatever reasons is very rare.
Cal comes to mind… and that’s the only one that I can immediately think of.
Edit: looked it up: LBJ, Harry S Truman, Cal, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan, and James K. Polk. So yeah, really short list.
Everytime someone mentions Harry Truman, I have Linda from Bob’s Burgers song that she apparently sings while braiding her daughter’s hair come to mind:
Here goes the hair and / There goes the hair and / Where is Harry Truman? / He’s dead in the ground. / He’s dead in the ground. / He’s dead, dead, dead!
I don’t think too many realists were surprised. I think a lot of people that buy into a lot of bothsiderist bullshit might have been surprised, I dunno. Or the types that some call “blue maga”, but honestly, unless someone’s paycheck relies on believing in this, I don’t know who qualifies as “blue maga”.
Indeed. Bidens age was the only real argument he had. And now he is the ancient on in the race.
There were going to be a lot of low-info brain stems that sat out, voted third party, or just out and out voted for donnie for age and/or the media narrative about mental acuity. You can count on that.
If they voted for Don over two made-up issues, they’ll vote for Don over some new story. The GQP are attacking VP Harris’ laugh, now. Do I need to go find a clip?
If they’re excusing all Don’s myriad misdeeds - THE MAN IS A FELON - over a stutter and a stumble, they’ll believe anything.
Oh he will find something. She’s a woman. He’s a misogynistic pig, so it won’t be hard.
And I hope she chooses to not lead on a charisma card and instead leans on what she knows best: How to present facts in a concise way. Let her writers make the words, and her coaches help her stand out. I want someone to challenge Trump directly and feel it is the best strategy. Every single stupid little thing he says that includes a kernal of any information should be immediately disputed, disrupted, and dissolved.
It won’t make any MAGA come to our side - well a few might though I’m not holding my breath, it will increase not so much the trust in Harris, but our willingness to stand behind her word. Trust will then increase with time and the accuracy of her statements. There is a certain level of leadership in that.
I enjoy these moments when the bots get disrupted and have no agenda to spread on social media.
