"The Democrats also ignored something that is genuinely dystopian in 2020 America and that is the BLM and Antifa mob violence in Democrat-run cities. Wherever Democrats hold sway, there’s looting, active warfare against government institutions, the threatening invasion of suburbs, and frightening guerilla attacks against ordinary citizens – such as the man who was almost beaten to death after he stopped to help a white transgender person who had run afoul of the leftist rioters."
A postmortem of Joe Biden’s convention performance
If one judges Joe Biden’s convention speech by the standards of past convention speeches, whether Democrat or Republican, it was decidedly mediocre. He had a lot of platitudes, he spouted lies, and he plagiarized. In other words, it was what we’ve come to expect from Joe Biden during his 47 years in politics.
For Biden’s supporters, though, which means those who hate Trump, it was a satisfying performance. Unfortunately, Joe may not have enough of those supporters to make a difference come November. This Democrat convention may have been the first time in American political history that a candidate’s speech, rather than giving him the convention bounce, gave his opponent the convention bounce.
Regarding the content of Biden’s speech, I wrote about my impressions here. I also recommend Monica Showalter’s piece about the con Biden was running. Lastly, I recommend Charles Lipson’s analysis of the conspicuous gaps on topics that Biden ought to have addressed.
The best spontaneous reaction from a leftist to Biden’s speech came from Van Jones. I have a soft spot for Jones. While I despise his ideology, I like his honesty. He praises Trump when he thinks the latter deserves praise and, in the case of Biden’s speech, he’s the one who will blurt out what everyone else was thinking:
Oops... CNN's Van Jones let the cat out the bag!
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 21, 2020
"And we were prepared for it to be a terrible speech. As long as he didn't embarrass himself, we were going to come out here and praise it!"
This is what the liberal media will be doing tonight, tomorrow, and the foreseeable future pic.twitter.com/UIfZbPhYVe
I saw similar sentiments on my Facebook page. Democrats expressed pleased surprise that Biden didn’t appear demented during the speech. At least three people went further, saying that, even if Biden had been wheeled out drooling and completely incoherent, they would still vote for him because he’s not Trump.
In sum, Biden didn’t have to go far to satisfy the base. Just by reading from the teleprompter without embarrassing lapses, he proved that he could probably survive the homestretch in this race. That’s all they needed.
It turns out, though, that satisfying a desperately anti-Trump base is not enough for the larger American population. One of the truisms in American politics is that candidates get a “convention bounce.” There’s even a Wikipedia entry:
A convention bounce or convention bump refers to an increase in support that U.S. presidential candidates in the Republican or Democratic party typically enjoy after the televised national convention of their party.
In the case of the Democrats in 2020, there was indeed a convention bounce. The problem for them, though, is that the bounce didn’t go in Biden’s direction:
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
During this week’s Democratic National Convention, which was supposed to launch Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's ticket into the fall election with good feelings and high poll numbers, President Trump’s approval rating surged.
The Rasmussen Reports daily average for Trump, which is spread over three days, hit 51% this week — and has stayed there.
Many things could account for this deviation from the norm. The Democrats offered a dystopian vision of America even as, in the real world, Wuhan virus numbers are declining, the stock market is surging, and unemployment is shrinking. The Democrats were offering Hunger Games, but Trump was rocking “Happy Days Are Here Again.” It’s easy to imagine which vision would appeal to voters.
The Democrats also ignored something that is genuinely dystopian in 2020 America and that is the BLM and Antifa mob violence in Democrat-run cities. Wherever Democrats hold sway, there’s looting, active warfare against government institutions, the threatening invasion of suburbs, and frightening guerilla attacks against ordinary citizens – such as the man who was almost beaten to death after he stopped to help a white transgender person who had run afoul of the leftist rioters.
And of course, there are those Americans who don’t think that a candidate has proven himself viable if the best he can do is remain upright and not go into Grandpa Simpson mode. Additionally, and maybe this is just my opinion, I think it was a mistake for Biden to make constant references to the “light.”
Those references were clearly meant to sound uplifting. However, because Biden is mentally failing and has the skeletal look of imminent mortality, all I could think of was, “Biden is going telling us he’s going into the light.” That is not a good image for a presidential candidate.
Maybe they just hope to defeat Trump by
any means necessary and plan to invoke the 25th Amendment elevating Kamala
Harris to the presidency -- someone who couldn’t convince more than 2% of the
primary voters to consider her for the nomination.
The Real Problem with Joe's Dementia
Many Americans seem to have understandably
concluded that Joe Biden has dementia based on his very public displays of
confusion, aphasia, and incoherence. But the question we should actually
be asking is What is going on with Joe out of public view?
Like many Americans who have cared for
parents with dementia, I witnessed my father’s decline firsthand and, sadly,
Joe Biden is presenting exactly as my father did in the early stages --
right down to the vacant look in his eyes. While I am neither doctor nor
expert, physicians and other medical professionals rely heavily on caregiver observations
because they monitor the disease’s progression 24/7 over the long haul, and can
add valuable input that is not always obvious at an appointment or measurable
with a cognitive test. I am relying on my experience as my father’s
caregiver, corroborated by medical professionals, health consultants,
literature, research, and the shared experiences of others. Of course,
not every dementia victim will experience every symptom, but the commonalities
are significant.
As the disease grabs hold of one’s
faculties, men like Biden and my father continue to view themselves as
experienced executives -- in control, commanding, and coherent; holding court
as the family patriarch; the old dude who’s seen it all. They don’t doubt
their ability to express complex ideas with the right words. And so, they
conduct business as usual and, for the most part, things go fine until they
stammer over a word, get frustrated, then confused, and either babble their way
out or shut down. It isn’t long before lost words, forgotten names, and
elusive ideas are replaced by whatchamacallit, whosimajig,
whatshername, and the thing.
These lapses can be easily hidden during
the early stages. It’s not uncommon for loved ones, spouses in
particular, to make excuses for the afflicted, cover up the messes, and run
interference with others. In those embarrassing moments when a dementia
patient fails to recognize someone he should know, the dutiful spouse (often in
denial) will swoop down, rush to his side, and handle the mishap. Of
course X remembers you. He’s just very tired from our trip. Can you
excuse us for a second? She will answer the phone and put the caller
on speaker to assist with answering questions her spouse might find
confounding. She will accompany him everywhere and serve as backup if he
starts to frazzle. But for those occasional “senior moments,” he seems
put together to the outside world.
That’s because sub rosa the
dutiful spouse makes sure medicine is taken, hygiene and grooming are attended
to, and meals are provided and eaten. She controls his schedule and
prepares him for the day’s events. She learns mornings are best, he tires
and gets confused as the day ensues, and that crowds and noise are
triggers. If she doesn’t manage his life, he won’t be able to manage it.
But the charade can only last so long -- she cannot anticipate everything
and the effects of the disease can be unpredictable.
As stress incidents accumulate over time,
anxiety increases. As anxiety builds, confusion mounts. Eventually,
it seems none of the brain’s electrical impulses can get where they need to go
and the individual devolves into delusions and hallucinations. It can
happen at the end of a “normal” day where the patient decompensates and becomes
disoriented, confused, anxious, belligerent, or agitated (“sundowning”) or
amass over months and give way to hallucinations. I call it the
anxiety-confusion-delusion loop but I honestly don’t recall if I coined that
caring for my father or if I read it somewhere.
What should give every voter pause is
the likelihood that Biden is already experiencing or, due to high stress
levels, has a very high risk of experiencing disorientation, crippling anxiety,
paranoia, serious behavioral changes, delusions, and intense cognitive
decline. Dementia
cannot be reversed and will only worsen. He might deliver a short speech
and take a few questions without incident, but he invariably falters as he
tires -- indicia of other symptoms that will intensify with the hourly rigors
of a campaign.
It isn’t far-fetched to anticipate a president
in the White House who forgets to dress, thinks night is day, wanders aimlessly
in the middle of the night looking out windows, opening drawers, trying to get
somewhere else. The laundry list of behavioral changes is vast and not
conducive to a functioning presidency. However, he will be propped up by
Jill and his handlers, groomed, medicated, and fed, and might appear just fine
at the next day’s events, even reading from notes and teleprompters… until he
forgets how to read, what the notes are for, or how the teleprompter
works. Forget about multitasking, handling complex economic or
geopolitical issues, and running the country 24/7.
With today’s technology, deep fake videos,
and a COVID-inspired virtual presidency, perhaps the DNC is confident they can
pull a fast one on the American people, run a shadow government with Joe as the
face of the presidency, and cover up his infirmity and ineptitude with the aid
of the press -- think Woodrow Wilson and FDR. Maybe they just hope to defeat
Trump by any means necessary and plan to invoke the 25th Amendment
elevating Kamala Harris to the presidency -- someone who couldn’t convince more
than 2% of the primary voters to consider her for the nomination. Or, they could be running
Biden-Harris knowing they’re unwinnable, but fully intending to contest
the election, accuse Trump of stealing it, calling (again) for his
impeachment/removal, and causing just enough bedlam to destroy his second term.
The Democrat-Media Complex has been
explicit about taking Trump down by any means necessary so
none of this is overblown or hyperbole. In fact, these tactics have
either been deployed during Trump’s first term (i.e., impeachment) or suggested
as potential tools against him in another context (i.e., 25th Amendment).
Fortunately for Jill Biden and Joe’s
political handlers, COVID has played right into their hands, requiring limited
exposure to crowds, a controlled schedule, and scaled-back social interactions.
But lurking behind those senior moment-y, Joe Biden-y gaffes is his inability
to function independently for a full day at peak performance. Of course
they don’t want a normal campaign season. They just need to get Joe to the
finish line and, if they’re lucky, over it.
Image: Goodfreephotos
Barack Obama is meddling in the upcoming election
Barack Obama was never a traditional
American president. After all, he was the only president ever to come to the
White House manifestly disliking and being embarrassed by the country he was
elected to lead. With
that as a background, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s publicly
meddling in the upcoming election in a way that even Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton didn’t try. (Former Republican presidents have more graciously stayed
out of the fray.)
Both of Obama’s lines of attack are
serious. First, he’s explicitly saying that Trump is trying to throw the
election by putting his managerial skills to work to address a postal system
that is in complete disarray. Second, he’s attacking his own former Vice
President, who is now waiting in the wings to be officially crowned as the
Democrat party’s presidential candidate.
The United States Post Office is a mess.
In 2018, the Post Office had a net loss of $3.91 billion. In 2019, the net loss had more than doubled, reaching a staggering $8.81
billion. Even considering the claim that some of that money was a result of
bookkeeping changes, the net loss was still almost $2 billion greater than in
2018.
Thanks to the Wuhan virus, 2020 is
promising to be the worst year ever. At the end of April, the Post Office said that its first-quarter losses were already
$4.5 billion. In the second quarter, the Post Office lost another $2.2 billion.
It is a barely functional institution.
Nevertheless, Democrats are insisting
that, come November, all voting in America must be done via the U.S. Mail, with
states mailing ballots to every registered voter and the voters mailing them
back. Others have pointed out that this will be a disaster, so I won’t belabor
the point. It’s enough to say that the possibilities of fraud on a hitherto
unknown scale are enormous. Moreover, with the Postal union just having endorsed Joe Biden, if Trump voters are forced to vote by mail, they'll have
a reasonable fear that their ballots will never get counted.
Donald Trump, looking at this mess,
decided to do what he’s done for decades: Install new management to make a
business better. This isn’t just his avocation; it’s also his constitutional
job.
In June, Trump appointed Louis DeJoy,
an experienced businessman, as his Postmaster General. DeJoy
immediately set about trying to slow the financial bleeding. Democrats, of
course, complained. Things really went “postal,” though, on August 7, when
DeJoy reassigned or removed 23 senior postal officials.
Management shuffles are a logical step to take when an organization is
dysfunctional.
In our politicized age, this was going to
be a hot potato under any circumstances. Still, Obama, who should be staying
out of things, turned it into a nuclear potato by accusing Trump of deliberately sabotaging the election:
Barack Obama
slammed President Donald Trump for trying to ‘actively kneecap’ the postal
service to disenfranchise voters.
Obama did not
say Trump’s name but did refer to the ‘president’ in his interview on the
podcast of David Plouffe, his former campaign manager, in some of his
harshest, direct criticism of Trump to date.
‘What we’ve
seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is
explicit in trying to discourage people from voting,’ Obama said. ‘What we’ve
never seen before is a President say, ‘I’m going to try to actively kneecap the
postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I’m
doing it.’’
‘That’s sort
of unheard of,’ he added.
Ironically, Obama meddled on the same day
that Dr. Fauci finally admitted that, if people could shop, they could also do
in-person voting.
But that wasn’t the end of Obama’s
meddling. There was a leak on Friday (that Obama might have planted) that Obama is unhappy with Biden’s candidacy:
[A] number of
anonymously sourced quotes from Obama leaked out throughout the 2020 Biden
campaign where the former president allegedly expressed doubts about his former
running mates’ fitness for office.
“Don’t
underestimate Joe’s ability to f--k things up,” one Democrat who spoke to the
former president recalled him saying.
When
lamenting his own diminishing relationship with the current Democratic
electorate, particularly in Iowa, Obama reportedly told one 2020 candidate:
“And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden.”
It sounds to me as if, with Kamala
Harris now in place in the campaign, Obama is attempting to remove Biden from
the picture entirely. Obama was never really going to let a senile man head the
Democrat party ticket, and he may now be getting his ducks in a row to ease
Biden out.
Put simply, Russia couldn’t have done a
better job at interfering with a presidential election than Obama has done.
Four years ago, his interference was covert and illegal. This year, it’s overt
and disgusting.
Image: Obama and
Biden, by Obama White
House; U.S. Government work, public domain.
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