It's not whether Joe Biden will run for another term. It's whether he'll outlast the first one. According to Peter Baker of the New York Times, Biden has actually taken to shuffling, as if mumbling, fumbling, and bumbling were not already bad enough.
The Democratic Industrial Complex (DIC) is on a campaign of nudging the old guy out now, and eventually replacing him with younger flesh. Billionaire Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and his California counterpart, Gavin Newsom, are the two most prominent names that the establishment media are currently and delicately promoting to the liberal masses for the smooth manufacture of their consent.
Despite Biden often calling his vice president "President Harris" in what appear to be multiple episodes of senile perseveration, the DIC-heads are studiously not promoting Kamala to run in 2024. It turns out that Biden's penchant for tossing word salads is contagious, because Harris herself has developed quite the habit of uttering nonsensical answers to reporters' questions. The DIC bet in 2020 that she'd attract women and minority voters solely by dint of her exotic identity, but that hasn't panned out in terms of her actual performance.
It's July, the height of the silly season for idle speculation. If the establishment DIC pundits can engage in the parlor game of which potential political savior can keep them in their careers and in the Loop for just a few years longer (and also delay the Second Coming of Trump), then so can I. Or as my dad used to tease me: "Don't start crying or you'll get a soaken eye!"
I agree that since it is always better to resort to bitter laughter, if only to keep from weeping over the corrupt state of our political system, I will engage in my own idle speculation with two totally dry eyes.
Scenario #!: As I'd predicted when Biden first got the nomination, he will be such an utter failure at presiding that he could very well announce his retirement even before the November midterms in order to avoid blame when taking the whole Democratic slate down with him. The more the establishment gnashes its teeth over him, the lower his approval ratings keep going. The red line for the DIC-heads seemed to be when he became even more disapproved of than Donald Trump! And so the ratings continue to plummet exponentially, with the bad press and the Biden gaffes vying with each other in a sort of pre-horserace horserace. If this goes on much longer, Biden will end up with an approval rating of One Percent - which, given his assurance to his rich donors that "nothing would fundamentally change," seems kind of apt.
To elicit the requisite sympathy for him and to assuage the guilt of the DIC-heads nudging him out, Biden will be diagnosed with some disease; whether it's real or it's fake makes no difference. Or, his handlers might forget for one fateful moment to get the trip wires that Peter Baker was hand-wringing over out of the way of his shuffling, ancient feet.
Scenario #2: He will resign right after the Great Congressional Shellacking of 2022. Not because he doesn't truly relish the prospect of wheeling and dealing with Mitch McConnell, and accomplishing his lifetime goal of cutting Social Security and Medicare while keeping the endless war money spigot flowing, but because the Republicans are bound to hold hearings on Hunter Biden and his various nepotistic schemes. Biden will do anything to protect his own legacy as well as the family name.
Scenario #3: Okay, so now that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy hold off on investigating the Biden clan because he quit, and once Biden finally leaves (unless he pulls a Boris Johnson and stays), and Kamala Harris is sworn in as president, we now have the dilemma of whom she'll pick as her veep. My money is on Liz Cheney, the new anti-Trump heroine of liberal DICsters like Robert Reich, who is already pushing her for the Democratic ticket. Plus, Mitch McConnell would ensure that Liz is handily confirmed.
Since the prospect of another Vice President Cheney is too nauseating to contemplate any further, here's where the speculation gets really wild. Scenarios could include, but are not limited to:
Due to her sheer, relentless incompetence, Default President Harris is denied the 2024 nomination by her former promoters in the DIC.
At the last possible moment, the extremely popular Michelle Obama is nominated by acclaim convinced to run in order to prevent another Trump and to save the country from theocratic fascism. She picks Hillary Clinton as her running mate. Because why not. But as soon as she wins the election and is sworn in, Michelle resigns from office, because didn't she keep telling us over and over again how much she truly despises politics?
By this appropriately serpentine route, Hillary is finally crowned as Leader of the New Old World Order. Hasn't she told us over and over again that it is her turn?
Ridicule me if you must, but are my speculations any less far-fetched than, say, the vacuous Pete Buttigieg getting nominated and then getting handily defeated by the corpse of Trump, whose sudden death came too late to remove his name from the ballot?
I've been reading that Pritzker might be the least-bad alternative to Biden and the rest, because he is at least a "pragmatic progressive" who pushed through a poverty-level $15 minimum wage for the Illinois proles. Bernie Sanders's prediction that Joe Biden would be the reincarnation of FDR didn't work out so well, did it? But Pritzker is so rich that he could probably even force Joe Manchin to finally retire and spend more time with his coal. He is so rich he might even reduce Mitch McConnell into a state of helpless pseudo-humanity. Maybe Pritzker could even be a traitor to his whole class, just like FDR was, and thereby save both capitalism and dynastic wealth from themselves.
As always, I am very interested in hearing the thoughts and prayers and scenarios of readers. Be as far-fetched and silly as you like. Or, if that doesn't suit, you can always adopt the mantra of Kamala Harris, and opt for Smart, Sensible and Serious.
7 comments:
Elon Musk throws his hat in the ring in August, pledging %25 billion of his own money to secure just the Democratic nomination and then pulls out of the race before the Iowa primary because the process is "in material breach of multiple provisions".
As we all predicted on this site two years ago, Biden would be a train wreck and Kamala Harris wouldn't amount to much.
I will vote for a Green candidate in the Midterms, if I can, but otherwise will sit out the midterms unless the unlikely chance the DNC puts forth Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown.
Agnew was removed before Nixon, to prevent a President Agnew. That is how we got President Ford.
We could see that again. Harris is not a criminal to my knowledge, but Democrats do fear letting her be head of their party. Republicans may want to inflict her on Democrats, but they also hate her.
So, there are plenty who would be quite willing to remove her, if it was that or making her President.
It may seem strange to predict the unlikely times two, but it happened that way before. The potential resignation of Biden actually makes it more likely that Harris would face an early challenge.
So now, what might be an excuse?
Maybe they could put her on the Supreme Court, kick her upstairs?
I think it more likely that Biden will leave than that Harris will replace him. Too many on both sides would want to avoid that.
I expect we will keep senile ole Biden who will step down on the next run and Kamala will be asked to gracefully bow out. But then again . . . I predicted Gore would be Bush (I mean who would choose dumb over smart and eloquent?), that Trump meant a democrat - even one as repulsive as Hillary - would win (I mean who would vote for that demented jackass?) and that Hillary would never even be in the running. So what do I know - not much it seems.
And just because I sounded unclear to myself - allow me to clarify - I know Elizabeth and Sherrod are not going to be candidates at the midterms - I just am hoping they might (as imperfect as they are) be candidates to replace Biden and Harris in 2024.
Joe Biden suffers a massive, debilitating stroke in October.
Kamala Harris immediately ascends to the presidency and selects for Vice...
wait for it...
drum roll...
Joe Manchin
RIM SHOT!
thereby solidifying a "balanced" ticket for 2024 and securing the "center" so disaffected Republicans will feel comfortable voting for a Democratic executive. Progressives are targeted as the greatest threat to their neoliberal aspirations and have largely given up on anything more than meaningless window dressing to deal with the looming existential multilevel crises.
Meanwhile, President Harris floats the idea of using the prison at Guantanamo as a site for an abortion clinic that is beyond the reach of US legal control.
The Republican Party secures super-majorities in both the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.
http://hoaxes.org/Top/satirical_candidates
#1. Nobody For President
Why vote for Nobody? Because Nobody is the best candidate. Nobody cares. Nobody will keep election promises. Nobody will listen to your concerns. Nobody tells the truth. Nobody will lower your taxes. Nobody will defend your rights. Nobody has all the answers.
Nobody has run for President of the United States in every election since 1964, when journalist Arthur Hoppe first launched a campaign on his behalf. In 1975 comedian Wavy Gravy and Curtis Spangler took up Nobody's cause, hosting rallies for him across the country as the candidate of the Birthday Party. Their campaign had a serious side, urging that Nobody (or "None of the Above") should be included as an option on all ballots so that voters wouldn't be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. Their campaign continues at nobodyforpresident.org.
I apoligise for the last two comments which don't make much sense. I am typing them on my phone because I am at my mother in law's house and I think there must be some auto correcting going on. I've learned my lesson - only comment when I am on my computer!
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