Thinking Citizen Blog —“To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race” (New York Times)
Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process Reform, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day
Today’s Topic: “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race” (New York Times)
Did we just have “the most important presidential debate” in US history? Is the editorial board of the New York Times right in its conclusion? Who would your ideal replacement be as Democratic candidate? What is your prediction? And, by the way, who would your ideal Republican candidate be? Why?
Today, First, excerpts from today’s New York Time editorial. Second, selections from a NYT op-ed piece by Lydia Polgreen making the case for Kamala Harris. Third, snippets from commentary by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. What’s the best commentary you have read on the debate?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS REPEATEDLY AND RIGHTFULLY DESCRIBED THE STAKES IN THIS NOVEMBER’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS NOTHING LESS THAN THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY” (New York Times editorial, 6/30/24)
1. “The president’s performance in the debate made it clear he is. not the man he was four years ago.”
2. “It should be remembered that Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules, and he insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible.”
3. “The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.”
NB: “Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader.”
“HARRIS 2024” SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD RIGHT NOW” (Lydia Polgreen, NYT)
1. “Harris with her killer instincts and poise, could have wiped the floor with Trump on the issues that matter most to voters.”
2. “We forget that she was very successful not just as a prosecutor but also as a candidate for statewide office in California.”
3. “As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the first Trump administration she drew blood with her tough, calm, deliberate questions, managing to score viral moments without seeming like a theatrical show-boater.)
NB: “Creating a mad scramble to find a replacement while passing over the talented politician he already chose would simply be another example of Biden blowing it. Bowing out would allow him to a patriot, and let the natural order of succession as he envisioned it unfold, preserving his legacy and sense of agency. That is not a small thing. Harris 2024: It has a nice ring to it.”
“THE MOST IMPORTANT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE EVER” (Peggy Noonan, WSJ)
1. “It was an unmitigated disaster for Biden and a rout for Trump. Democrats will have to face reality.”
2. “In the weeks before CNN’s presidential debate I was skeptical of its significance. I didn’t see a dramatic, high-stakes, pivotal showdown coming, only a moderately sized, pro forma moment in a long, drawn-out campaign. The format had too many prohibitions — muted mics, no open discussion, no live audience, no opening statements, no talking to aids during the breaks, no notes on the lectern. This promised something airless, manufactured, hermetically sealed.”
3. “It was the kind of rout that says: if the election were held tomorrow Donald Trump would win in a landslide.”
NB: “He was pale and waxy, and there was something almost furtive in his gaze. His voice was hoarse and feathery, with no projection. His answers were scrambled, halting. At some points he made no sense. At some points he seemed out of it.”
“In pushing and agreeing to an early debate, Mr. Biden’s White House and campaign took a big swing. They missed. Mr. Biden couldn’t execute their plan. The Democratic Prty doesn’t know it, but it got a gift. The dam broke. There is still time, and Mr. Trump is still takable.”
“This can’t continue. I am sorry to say this harsh thing, but allowing him to go forweard at this point looks like elder abuse.
“At the very least you can be sure that Donald Trump will never bother to debate Joe Biden again. He doesn’t have to. He’ll be only too happy to leave it exactly where it is.”
Opinion | To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race
Opinion | Kamala Harris Could Win This Election. Let Her.
Opinion | The Most Important Presidential Debate Ever
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/joe-biden-tom-friedman.html
Opinion | Democrats Can’t Avoid the Biden Problem
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day or change their thinking.
Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
