And he's the only one who doesn't know it.
If you're addicted to this story, I recommend not only that you subscribe to Apple News+. but that you click on the "Following" button in the lower right hand corner and when the menu/list comes up, select "Election 2024," right there at the top, under the heading "Special Coverage."
Of course you'll see the headlines, but that's not the nougat.
You'll scroll past said headlines, and then the podcasts, and then you'll get the "Latest Stories." Scroll past the big blue box and you'll find the "For You" section, which is the heart of the matter, to quote Don Henley.
Actually, I've been thinking about Henley for weeks now. He's got that great line in "The End of the Innocence":
"this tired old man that we elected king"
That was about Reagan, even though by time the song was released Ronald was gone, from the office and mentally. In case you're too young to remember, Reagan had Alzheimer's and they covered it up. And they wonder why no one trusts the government...
So when you get to the "Latest Stories" and "For You" sections, you will get up to the minute headlines/stories. It's better than Google, because the detritus is filtered out. Just about every news source is there, other than the "New York Times," because the Gray Lady don't need no stinkin' Apple. While the rest of print media is on its deathbed, the "Times" has burgeoned, triumphed, it's America's newspaper, no matter how much those on the right and the extreme left hate it.
And there was a trifecta of negativity posted on the "Times" site today.
You had the editorial board itself saying "The Democratic Party Must Speak the Plain Truth to the President."
Even better was "James Carville: Biden Won't Win. Democrats Need a Plan. Here's One."
And then the number one Biden defender, Paul Krugman, turned tail on the man whose economic achievements he can't stop trumpeting: "Please, Mr. President, Do the Right Thing."
Maureen Dowd even weighed in earlier in the day, breaking her once a week schedule with "Joe Biden, in the Goodest Bunker Ever." Dowd skewered the Biden team for trying to correct the Stephanopoulos transcript. Did you watch? The man was clearer, but once again you could barely hear him, his voice was so soft. And there were faux pas, the media is pointing them out ad infinitum.
But it's not only the media. On X/Twitter, Hillary Rosen, late of the RIAA, excoriated Biden for blaming it all on "elites."
"This desire to wedge the 'Dem elite' against 'regular folk' is bad. The elite are actually late to concerns about Biden. A majority of voters have been concerned about this for the last two years. And he has a 36% approval rating. If he doesn't step down to increase our chances of winning, then yeah, we'll have to circle the wagons, and I am a soldier against Trump, but please stop pretending or casting blame. President Biden and his behavior alone is responsible for this problem - not the voters, not the media, not his opponents, not the party and not the elite. #MorningJoe"
The irony is that the party elite is the cause of this problem. It's the rank and file who've been saying Biden is too old for eons.
"A New York Times/Sienna College poll last week showed that 74 percent of voters said Mr. Biden was too old to be effective, including 59 percent of Democrats."
And the piece-de-resistance came from Jon Stewart tonight, "'Get on board or shut the f*ck up' is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker."
It's positively laughable I tell you.
But it seems the press is the only one with balls. Except for Meathead, maybe:
"It's time to stop f*cking around... It's time for Joe Biden to step down."
That's what Rob Reiner said on X/Twitter on Sunday.
And you might think the media doesn't matter.
And you may ask yourself where is your large automobile, where is your beautiful house, where is your beautiful wife.
And then you'll realize David Byrne was prescient, for it's the same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
Joe Biden is living in the White House, defended by Jill, and it's starting to resemble high school politics. We duly elected officials will dictate!
And the students and the public will laugh.
Biden is out of touch. In some ways just like Hillary Clinton back in 2016. She couldn't sense the change in the air, that people were fed up with the politics of the day. And no one saw her as honest and trustworthy. The woman who once proffered facetiously that she could stay home and bake cookies then said her favorite book was the Bible. Talk about pandering.
But it's bigger than that. We live in a changed society. A pastrami sandwich is not only under a buck, it's over twenty dollars today, up from just under that threshold before the recent inflation. And said inflation was not caused by Biden and he did a good job of handling it, but that does not mean people are not struggling.
But how would he know? Biden's in a bubble. He's not scrolling social media, he is not taking the temperature of the country, he's just listening to what his handlers say, and they're oftentimes saying exactly what he wants to hear, or canards they want him to hear.
Used to be lawyers, businessmen, had secretaries, who were ultimately labeled "assistants," even though the job didn't change. But today everybody does their own typing. If you can't type, you're screwed. But all the young 'uns know how to type, they've been doing it on their devices since not long after birth.
And there's the generation gap.
It's a great big country and Biden is completely detached.
And what does he fall back on? THE RULES!
I'm chuckling as I write this. The law is irrelevant if you can't enforce it. And a contract oftentimes doesn't even matter. Forget the cost, both financially and to your career, of a lawsuit, many defendants are judgment proof. And even if they've got money winning and collecting are two different things. Can you say "Alex Jones?"
Anybody in business will tell you the legal system comes last. It's the option of last resort. Because the legal system is imperfect, but even more important, oftentimes it doesn't apply.
You can rely on the law, but if the court of public opinion is against you, if your team is against you, you're toast.
Like Biden.
But after playing team politics for so long, too many elected Democratic officials are afraid of going public with their truth, that they want Biden to drop out of the race. They think they might be excommunicated, like Liz Cheney. But that's the Republican party. Then again, are the Democrats now as bad?
I mean isn't that what we all want, some truth? Mr. Smith in Washington? Someone who leads?
But it's like that Snoop Dogg song, everybody's dropping it while it's hot. Hoping that someone else will do their dirty work. First and foremost, the press.
But ultimately it will probably be like Nixon. Who fought his expulsion tooth and nail, was defiant, until he wasn't. You see his own party came to the White House and said he had to go, that he couldn't beat the legal system.
And Biden can't beat Trump. He's a laughingstock for stating that if Trump wins he'll be fine with it, "as long as I gave it my all and I did the good (the White House's words, everybody else heard "goodest") as job as I know I can do..."
How narcissistic.
And the truth is it's not about Trump. This is where Biden and his team have been delusional from the start. They thought painting Trump negatively was enough to win, but this is not true, you've got to play offense, lay out a plan of action, deliver something people can believe in as opposed to trying to scare them into voting for you.
This has been hysterical, only this has been our life for almost the past two weeks.
This reminds me of Paul Tsongas, who was running for President, testifying he had beaten cancer, and then ultimately died of the disease just a few years later.
That's a politician for you. They'll say and do anything to get the job and keep it. They're about as trustworthy as a used car salesman.
And while we're talking used... Does anybody, and I mean anybody, want to put their faith in an eighty six year old to run the country? I wouldn't be surprised if Biden dies before that age. But he's going to will himself to live and be cogent, if not spry, long beyond that.
I've got cancer. And I'm going to tell you what the research says, that believing you'll beat it has no effect on the disease. It runs its own course. Believe all you want, but if the genetics say you're going to go, you're going to be history.
But this is the same America where the short believe they can play in the NBA. The untalented believe they can be musical stars. Everybody feels entitled to success in their vertical of choice, but that's not the way it works, never has and never will.
The doors are closing on Biden and he thinks they're wide open. That by trying to defend a piss-poor performance that was beyond a bad night he can make people deny what they saw, never mind instituting his action plan more than a week after the incident.
And there were the questions for that radio interview... The host lost their job over that, why not Biden? Who is horrific off the cuff, but not too good even if there's a script. Talk about making a hash of the language, to the point where people aren't even sure of the point he was making.
Biden is going to wake up when he's forced to. Oh, he'll never admit he's not worthy of running, not a feisty on the ball man, but they're going to take the ball from him just like they do from the starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. Yes, when the pitcher shows signs of tiredness, weakness, they pull him and replace him. But we can't do that with Biden, he earned his place in the race!
What a crock of crap.
Once again, the rules are guidelines, they are enforced at the will of the people, who don't always abide by them.
So how does it end for Biden?
As Ernest Hemingway put it... "Gradually, then suddenly."
NEXT!
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