Squad members line up behind Joe Biden
Running a presidential election is a specialized job. Among the details to manage is ensuring the candidate gets on the ballot in each state, no minor logistical task. There are filing dates and fees to get onto the state’s primary. There are other deadlines varying by state for when a major party must deliver the names of its presidential candidate (electors) to the state elections board/commission, often from late August to early September.
That is why I call it magical thinking to believe that Democrats can simply swap out their presidential ticket in July. It’s not that it cannot happen, but it is a logistical nightmare. It doesn’t matter that France and England can hold national elections in a couple of months, whatever Jon Stewart says. It doesn’t work that way here. Election laws in the 50 states and territories are not set up for it, and GOP-controlled legislatures will hardly be willing to accomodate rival Dermocrats.
Many voters are unhappy with a rerun of the 2020 contest. Yes, many want younger candidates. So do some reporters. Post debate, reporters for major news outlets want Joe Biden gone. They want the excitement of a major campaign shakeup, and damn the logistics. They want what they want.
Major outlets have yet to call for the insurrectionist, wannabe dictator with 34 felony convictions, more felony cases pending, and a history of sexual assault to step out of the race. They’re leaning hard into “Biden’s unfit,” as Marcy Wheeler picks out.
A White House press briefing yesterday devolved into a shouting match. The New York Times declared that “press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, repeatedly dodged and refused to answer questions about the president’s health, and whether [8 visits last year] to the White House by a Parkinson’s doctor were about the president.”
That turns out to be a gross mischaracterization (ABC News):
In a letter released late Monday night by the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, he confirmed that Dr. Kevin Cannard, the Parkinson’s expert who visited the White House eight times in an eight-month span, “was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals.”
Canard’s visits to the White House don’t represent examinations of the president, according to O’Connor’s letter. Cannard is involved in a range of care for others beyond the president at the White House, O’Connor said in his note.
“Prior to the pandemic, and following its end, [Cannard] has held regular Neurology clinics at the White House Medical Clinic in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations,” his letter reads. “Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Canard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology Practice.”
On the subject of Biden’s physical, O’Connor noted that “President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical.”
O’Connor also stressed that Biden’s last physical found no signs of Parkinson’s, which he detailed in a Feb. 28 letter.
Reporters badgering Jean-Pierre had access to that publicly released letter.
As ABC News reported earlier on Monday, an expert in Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times over an eight-month span between last July and March of this year, including one visit with the president’s personal physician, according to White House visitor logs.
Asked repeatedly at Monday’s press briefing about Cannard, Jean-Pierre refused to say if the neurologist ever treated the president or consulted on his care, citing privacy concerns, but did say Biden was not being treated for Parkinson’s disease.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell took the reporters to task Monday night. The informtion they demanded was available to them in February.
Democrats in leadership are split. But now it seems members of The Squad, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Maxine Waters, and others are standing with Biden.
“We’re losing the plot,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) told a swarm of reporters at the Capitol on Monday. “We are not talking about what we need to be talking about.”
The Biden fans span the gamut from lefties such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to Democrats who’ve won in swing districts and states such as Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). Members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus make up a sizable chunk of the defenders. Some have been loud and feisty in their counterarguments, mixing it up with other politicians and people onX and seem, in some cases, to be relishing the fight.
To be clear, I’m a pledged Biden delegate. He’s the candidate until he’s not.
Friends and family have asked if I’m worried about violence in Chicago because they remember the convention there in 1968. What they don’t remember is that the incumbent president (LBJ) stepped aside at the end of March, leading to a contested convention. In November that year, Democrats LOST.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.