If you’re a Trump-hating Democrat, you’re having a hard time separating nightmare from reality.
After all, the Republican Party just held a highly successful convention, while your party is forming a circular firing squad.
The worst part is that we don’t know who will be the party’s presidential nominee because Joe Biden threw a tantrum at the worst possible time.
Consider two reports circulating on Friday: one saying Biden is “running to win” and sees a path to victory, the other claiming that he and his family are discussing an imminent withdrawal.
At this point, it’s not clear which is true, or even which is better for the Democratic Party.
One thing is certain: this mess is a perfect illustration of the mess Biden has created, his misguided presidency amounting to a long list of major mistakes and one that he should have had the wisdom to pass on the baton a year ago.
But he and those around him grew fat on arrogance, and were coddled by a media that cheered him on, so that they began to believe their own lies about his “achievements.” The consequences were severe, and even his exit was disastrous.
It gets ugly and sad
Don’t get me wrong, this is an exit from the race. He is running out of time and options, and his attacks on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton show he is crazy enough to blow up the party as he exits.
Feeling betrayed by people he considered friends and allies, he is fighting back with the most incendiary accusation a Democrat can make against another person: blaming Trump for the 2016 presidential election.
A Biden source told NBC: “Let’s just remember for a second that the same people trying to oust Joe Biden are the same people who literally produced Donald Trump. In 2015, Obama, Pelosi and Schumer supported Hillary and shoved Biden aside. They were wrong then and they’re wrong now.”
The source also denounced the poll as “nonsense,” adding: “Maybe Joe Biden is more connected to the actual American people than Obama, Pelosi and Schumer were.”
If that is Biden’s view, it is especially odd coming from a man who spent 50 years in Washington, where “real Americans” — ordinary people — are as scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth.
It would also be odd for Trump to dismiss the polls, given that polls have consistently shown for months that two-thirds of Democrats think Trump should withdraw.
The polls may be wrong somewhere, but it would be foolish to debate when there is a clear consensus. Biden may not remember the June 27 debate debacle, but it sealed his fate.
I said at the time that he was done and predicted he would be out of racing within a month, so his retirement is on schedule.
There’s another reason Biden can’t be saved: If the Democratic incumbent loses the support of the left-wing media, he’s doomed. Without a propaganda machine to cover up his own failures and attack Trump, Biden will be forced to make his case clearly — a task beyond his cognitive capacity.
The New York Times, a Biden slammer, published a harrowing report Saturday detailing how Biden made every effort to save himself.
The Gray Lady was finally beginning to understand: the President was inept and incompetent, and always had been.
With allies like this…
Indeed, Biden and his few remaining allies have given up on arguing that Biden has done a good job as president, instead focusing solely on how bad Trump is becoming.
“It’s time to target Trump,” Trump told donors just before the assassination attempt, a sign that Biden’s luck was running out.
Finally, in a move reminiscent of vultures circling a soon-to-be corpse, Vice President Kamala Harris visited an ice cream parlor on Friday. It’s never tactless to steal your boss’ favorite photo spot!
There is also talk among party officials of holding a mini-primary election before or during the party convention in August, which would require Biden’s cooperation because a majority of delegates have been pledged to vote for him in the first round.
And if Harris doesn’t become the nominee, it could lead to a racial division within the party — a terrible justice given how Democrats have racialized politics for decades.
Meanwhile, the Republican convention was the party’s most heated in years and marked several important developments.
Among them: Republicans are firmly united behind Trump and his goal of transforming the GOP into a populist force for working- and middle-class Americans.
Those forgotten voters gave Trump an edge when he won in 2016, and he is returning to the race with reinforcements and a special effort to attract black and Latino workers to broaden his base.
The roster of speakers was incredibly diverse, including the president of the Teamsters union.
If there was any doubt about Trump’s focus on workers, it was erased by his selection of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. In a statement, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author said he would “focus sharply on the people he fought so brilliantly for – the American workers and farmers of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and beyond.”
It’s no secret that the northern and Midwestern states are key to victory, and Trump’s determination to win them is evident from the way he assigned them to Vance.
Indeed, it was a moment that made it clear why he chose Vance.
In discussions about potential running mates, Trump has consistently cited two general criteria: someone who can help him win and someone who can succeed him.
Republican candidate pledges
Among the candidates, Vance scored highest on both tests. He’s half Trump’s age, clearly a working-class populist, a dedicated fundraiser and a quick thinker.
Sure, they have different views on the economy and taxation, but that won’t matter unless Vance foolishly undermines Trump.
It’s more likely that he will soon realize that there is no future for the Republican Party in pursuing policies that please Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders.
As for Trump himself, his acceptance speech was both moving and disappointing, his calls for national unity and his glamorous portrayal of the attempts to assassinate him making it a must-watch historic event.
Unfortunately, he spoke for an hour and 32 minutes, slipping into a rambling, incoherent rally-talk that diluted the initial impact of what would have been a much shorter talk.
In fairness, he’s had an unusual week, and in an interview with him the day after the shooting, I was convinced that he genuinely wants to unite America and reduce hateful rhetoric.
Though Trump was partially successful on Thursday, he still has work to do to make moderate voters aware of the depth of polarization in the country.
If they could do that, it wouldn’t matter whether the Democratic nominee was Biden or anyone else: a kinder, gentler Trump would win in a landslide victory, building on Trump’s successful policies.
