Everyone is Angry at Everyone Else

What's going on with Biden and the race for the White House?

Hell no! We won’t go!

Like many of you, I have been watching the fallout from Joe Biden’s debate with some interest. Because the press does nothing but lie, and the White House does nothing but lie, it’s a little difficult to figure out exactly what is going to happen.

The press is going back and forth between “I’m shocked! Shocked I tell ya that gambling is happening in this establishment”, and placing anonymously sourced stories in the New York Times and elsewhere about how Joe Biden is considering dropping out of the race. Neither of those two narratives are true, but they are fun to read.

We know why the press is pretending that they didn’t know Joe was a potato. They don’t want to get blamed for not bringing the problem up earlier, therefore being partly responsible for Orange Hitler becoming President again. We also know why they would place stories hinting that Joe is considering dropping out of the race. They need him to drop out, and they think the buzz will add pressure on him to do so.

But there’s something nobody is talking about, and it’s all right under the surface. Everyone is angry as hell at everyone else.

The press is furious with the Bidens for not being able to keep it together and exposing their corruption. The Democrat Party is furious with the Bidens for the same reason, and they are furious with the press for covering this up for so long, leaving few options to fix the problem. Kamala Harris is furious because she sees herself as one step away from the Presidency and everyone is calling her a horrible candidate, and saying that she’s worse than an addled Joe Biden. Kamala and Jill have always hated each other. The Bidens and the Obamas have always hated each other.

The Bidens are furious because they feel like the press and the Democrat Party have abandoned them. They think everyone is supposed to be covering for Joe… like they always have. Democratic voters are furious because all of this makes their party look like a bunch of morons who can’t even field a candidate for to run against Trump. They are also furious because this problem was solvable with an open primary a year ago, which many voters asked for, but were denied (you know… in order to save democracy).

So, in public, everyone is pretending that this is a new problem and they are all just trying to figure out what the best path forward could be… but behind the scenes, everyone is angry as hell and just trying to figure out a way for this thing not to end in total disaster for their own interests.

(By the way, “total disaster”, is not the election of Donald Trump. Trump has been leading the race for months, and most smart Dems knew that he was going to be hard to beat even before the debate… Total disaster is a landslide victory for the GOP, plus 20 seats in the House, and 53 Senators… completely demoralizing the Democrat Party for a decade. That’s what they want to avoid.)

So let’s get into it and try to figure out what is going to happen.

Is Joe Leaving?

There are only three realistic ways for Joe not to be the nominee. The first and most likely way is for him to step aside for Kamala Harris. The second way is to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office and Kamala would become President and the nominee. The third way is if Joe dies.

Dreams of some open and contested convention in Chicago are pure fantasy. It’s not going to happen. First of all, the last time the Democrats held a contested convention was in 1968, also in Chicago. There were riots. The Democrats lost to Richard Nixon. So history is not on their side. Second, there’s no way to transfer the $250 million in the bank to anyone but Kamala Harris. Finally, the Democrat Party leaders pretty much all say that Kamala would be the nominee if Joe is not. They are race obsessed… and as much as they’d love to, they aren’t getting that diversity hire out of there.

So what about the 25th Amendment? How would that work? The Amendment reads as follows regarding the removal of the President:

In summary, it says that if the President is unable to perform his duties, that a vote of a majority of the cabinet officials plus the Vice President must take place to remove all the powers from the President. That gets things started. They do this by writing a letter and delivering it to the House and Senate. Upon receipt of this letter, The Vice President would become “acting President”. But that’s just step one.

The President then has four days to write his own letter, saying he’s not incapacitated. Upon delivery of that letter to the House and Senate, the President automatically and immediately gets his powers back. In this case, Biden’s letter is probably already written and would be at the Senate within seconds of Harris’. So Harris would never really take over as acting President.

The next step is for the House and Senate to assemble within 48 hours. They then have 21 days to hold hearings. It would take a 2/3 majority in both houses (Republicans get a say too) to permanently remove the President’s powers and make the Vice President the permanent acting President until the next election.

So for all the talk of the 25th Amendment, and in spite of that fun scene in the movie Air Force One… It’s a little more than a few party leaders getting together and deciding to kick the old man out of his chair. It’s an incredibly high bar and meant to be done only in an extreme case. It’s not even obvious that the Republicans would go along with it… or which Democrats would. The chances of getting super majorities in both houses is negligible.

In short, it’s not going to happen. Not only would the effort likely fail, it would irreparably fracture the Democratic Party. It’s no solution.

Let’s look at the other option. President Biden decides not to run. In my opinion, with the exception of the President dying, this is the only real play for the Democrats to get him off the ticket. He would have to agree to leave.

Every smarty pants talking head on CNN and elsewhere in the media seems to think that is what is going to happen. They think that party leaders are going to go to the White House next week and demand that the President step aside and endorse Harris as his successor.

There’s just one problem. I think that behind the scenes, Joe and Dr. Jill are in total agreement and are as dug in as ever. There has been exactly zero indication that he is considering leaving the race… quite the opposite, actually. See the below tweet from yesterday, 7/5/24.

Does that sound like someone who is considering leaving? Some people have said “Yeah, but he has to say that”.

No he doesn’t.

He could say nothing at all while he makes up his mind. This tells me that he has made up his mind. He’s not going anywhere.

Why would he stay? How would that work?

Why would he stay?

He would stay for two main reasons. First, he is furious with the Party and the press for abandoning him. He and Dr. Jill believe that it is the job of the press and the party to support him and his candidacy. They are welching on the deal they all cut when they gave him the nomination back in 2019.

Yes he has dementia. No he’s not good in front of cameras anymore. But he has allowed the various factions of the party to do whatever they want as long as he gets to be President. In his mind, he hasn’t broken his part of the deal.

He has let insane transexuals flash nude at the White House. He made Juneteenth a national holiday. He made Woman of the Year Rachel Levine a goddamn Admiral, and allowed some dress wearing bald luggage pervert to work in the administration.

He stood there and clapped for THIS

Just for some context for this picture… President Biden is standing in a Juneteenth pandering line with George Floyd’s newly wealthy brother and his family (thanks to the tax payers of Minnesota), Kamala Harris, the second man (lol), and some bearded black guy in an evening gown he stole off the set of The Golden Girls…

Do you think Joe Biden wanted to do that? Do you think the guy who wrote the 1994 crime bill wanted to be there with those freaks and get his picture taken? Of course not! But that’s the deal he cut. As far as the Bidens are concerned, he has fulfilled his end of the bargain. Now the party has to do their part. Full stop.

The Bidens are nothing if not pragmatists. They understand the situation quite well… Joe Biden is probably going to lose the election. Trump will win. But until that happens, they aren’t going anywhere.

Second, it’s not like there’s an option out there to win, anyway. The only other realistic option is Kamala Harris… who likely loses by more than Joe would. So the Bidens are asking, why are the press and the Party trying to throw him under the bus? They knew what they had years ago… Just because they decided they couldn’t lie about this anymore isn’t any reason he should leave. He can still lie! And he has every intention of doing so.

Next week, Mark Warner and a bunch of other Democrats are planning on going to the White House to talk Joe into quitting. I don’t even know if the Bidens will allow the meeting, but if they do… those Democrat leaders are going to walk into the Oval Office and meet Joe Biden, behind the Resolute Desk, with Dr. Jill on one side and Hunter on the other… They aren’t leaving.

If the Party threatens not to raise funds for the campaign, that won’t change a thing. Funds raised are probably better spent down ballot anyway. But unless they want to be completely wiped out in November, the Party needs to stop this temper tantrum, get ahold of themselves, and get on board. Call those traitors in the press and start spilling those talking points, because Biden is not leaving.

How would that work?

It just works. Joe Biden is the President. The 25th Amendment option is a farce in this scenario. Unless they are willing to kill him, all he has to do is 100% of nothing and que sera sera.

They will appeal to his ego and his need for legacy and Biden will tell them to shove it. The Bidens know that ship has sailed.

As far as Dr. Jill is concerned, no rats are getting off this sinking ship. We are burning the lifeboats. Everyone is either going to help us float or sink right beside us. Banzai!

What happens if he stays?

The press and the Democrats are going to realize that if he refuses to go, all they are doing is hurting themselves by continuing to talk about this. Everyone in Dem circles has taken a black eye here.

Trump will win. The Democrats will riot again. The press will report on a bunch of fake scandals, and Democracy won’t die.

The Bidens will go down as the most selfish, horrific, corrupt, jerks in the history of politics… which will be well earned. The press will probably give themselves awards for their fearless coverage of Biden, but everyone will roll their eyes. Joe Scarborough and his delightful wife will be laughing stocks forever.

Ironically Hillary Clinton will get promoted to the second worst political candidate in history.

If cooler heads prevail and the Dems rally a little bit, they might even get some advantages down ballot. They are unlikely to take the House or keep the Senate, but it won’t be as bad as they fear.

In the end, life will move on and the name Joe Biden will never be spoken in polite Democrat circles ever again.

What happens if he goes?

The exact same thing… only Hillary Clinton gets elevated to the third worst candidate in history. Congrats Kamala! Don’t be burdened by what has been! We’re #1! We’re #1!

Virgil’s Thoughts

Here’s the thing. Biden does have dementia. We have all seen it for years, despite the gaslighting from the Democrats and their partners in the press. There might have been some Democrat voters in 2020 that didn’t know why they were keeping him off the campaign trail and in his basement in Delaware, but by 2024, even before the debate, everyone understood. The guy isn’t doing well.

That said, Biden and his family also have a point. No new information was gained at the debate. He was losing in all the polling going into the debate, and a week later, he’s still losing in all the polling.

He conceivably could win the election if the press toes the line and continues to hit Donald Trump… and if Trump plays into their attacks by acting like an idiot. They can all still lie and say that “Trump promises to be a dictator on day one in a bloodbath with very fine people who want to put women in cages” or whatever.

The problem is that for the first time since 2008 when Barack Obama got the DNC nomination, the press has different priorities than the Democrat Party. Since 2008, they have been in total lockstep with each other. Now, for the first time in 16 years, their goals aren’t the same.

The press has taken some real blows over the last few years. Republicans and conservatives laugh at memes like “fiery but peaceful” over the George Floyd riots, and the Covid ridiculousness that they have engaged in over the last few years, but in truth that outrage and loss of credibility has been confined to independents and Republicans. Now that they got busted lying to Democrats about a Democrat President, their credibility is shot with Democrats too… which leaves them with very few friends.

With the cover-up of Biden’s condition on full display for anyone to see, they are scrambling to save some kind of legitimacy. And as I mentioned, Biden was losing anyway. They aren’t destroying a good candidate, they are simply trying to protect themselves while preparing for what they already knew was coming, a new President Trump. They also want to avoid the complete rejection from the American people, in both parties.

There are left wing podcasts and online news shows all over the place, many of them getting more eyeballs than CNN or MSNBC on any given night. The old stalwarts of the press like the New York Times and NBC News do still set the agenda for what will be reported, but for how much longer? After all, these are the same people who, with a straight face, claim they didn’t know how bad Joe Biden was. Why would anyone take them seriously?

On top of that, their business models don’t make money anymore. So… being seen as legitimate by the elites of our country is pretty much the only thing that keeps them around. They aren’t giving that up to be nice to Joe Fricken’ Biden.

From the perspective of the Biden family, nothing has changed. They did what they were supposed to do and now everyone is turning on them. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that they are lashing out.

All that being said, it is possible that the Party will be able to talk him into stepping aside. Maybe Mark Warner and his cadre of Democrat lawmakers will get through to the old man. But the longer it takes and the nastier it gets, the more damage they do to themselves.

Warner has no carrot to offer. Biden’s legacy is already tarnished and Dr. Jill has got a better chance of catching a leprechaun and capturing his pot of gold than ever being invited to Martha’s Vineyard to hang with Barack and Michelle. They are done and they know it.

As for the Democrat Party, there’s no pot of gold for them either. The best they could possibly hope for is for Biden to step aside in disgrace to be replaced by that cackling disaster of a Vice President. Rehabilitating her into anything other than a joke would be a herculean challenge… and I don’t know that the press has that much credibility with independents left.

This week will tell the tale. If Biden sticks this week out with no sign of quitting, I think you’ll see the press turn and start to back him again. They’ll start covering Trump again and forget Biden’s name and just hope for the best.

Will that work? Probably not… but who knows.

Anyway, that’s what I think.

—Virgil