Steve A. Stone
The Biden gambit
By Steve A. Stone
Dear Friends and Patriots,
It's only right for me to make a couple of confessions and admissions up front. I made predictions and observations last year that have proved to be profoundly wrong. Not that it matters greatly in the grand scheme of things, but there have been events no one could have anticipated that changed the entire dynamics of the nation's political stage.
Last year, I declared Joe Biden's candidacy dead. I said he was done and needed to go home. I admitted he might limp along until the convention, but he had no legs and his funding was drying up. Yet ... he's still here, and obviously not close to defeat. Today, he's the front-running Democrat once again. How very odd.
I predicted Elizabeth Warren would rise up and boot Bernie Sanders to the curb. Then, a few unanticipated things happened. Warren's notorious habit of lying about herself began to catch up with her, and her support waned. People began to have visions of her up on the stage next to Donald Trump, listening in their heads as The Donald's derisive comments regarding her many fabrications removes any doubt that she has some rather serious problems and is terminally self-deluded. That's before any discussion of her promises to bankrupt the nation by giving anything and everything to anyone who seems like they might have a request. Forget need! If you even think you want something, Pocahontas is gonna be right there with a government check for you.
Then, there was the prediction that Bernie wouldn't grow stronger. I neglected to account for the most recent generation of the youngest voters, the majority of whom have been trained in our own government schools to believe socialism is a wonderful, ethically superior thing. Behind the scenes, a lot of the more ardent progressives have been martialing those young folks and registering them to vote. The Bernie Bros began to be more and more in evidence. Bernie's strength began to grow. Instead of fading, he seemed to finally figure out how to suck the life out of Warren. As she waned, he strengthened. In debates, she began to come off a something of a shrill, bitchy shrew (is that an oxymoron? I'm really not sure), while Bernie stuck to the same loopy script he's used for at least a couple of decades. Evidently, Bernie's support base is expanding, and he's actually living up to his advertising. More recently, he's been asked some rather pointed questions by the media. It's obvious they're nervous about him. When he was a novelty act, they pretty much left him alone, but now that he's showing power, they're all of a sudden interested in things he did and said as far back as 50 years ago. Now they want to know his opinions of Castro's regime. Now they want to know what his opinions are of the old Soviet Union. Now they want to know what he likes about various other communist regimes. And the media are having a field day with his responses. When he uttered a response to a question on what he liked about Cuba, that went pretty much like, "You have to give Castro his due, he instituted a great literacy program for the Cuban people." It was the media that pounced and pointed out the underlying purpose – so those formerly illiterate Cubans could read and comprehend the propaganda put out by Castro's regime. He gave praise to the universal health care policies of communist regimes, while not seeming to acknowledge that it was mostly policy, but not much in the way of actual care. He made comments easy to understand as advocating for the denial of medical treatment for the elderly. Evidently, Bernie began to scare people in his own camp just a bit.
The establishment progressive Democrats have been waging a behind-the-scenes battle with the more ideologically purist progressive Democrats. Think of the first camp as the Pelosi-Schumer-Dingell-Carville-Juan Williams kind of Democrats, against the new purists of The Squad, Bernie, Warren, and the Bernie Bros. It dawned on the progressive old guard that if the party goes all the way over toward Bernie's side of things, there would be no place for them in any future Democratic administration. They'd be frozen out, just like the Never-Trumpers are on the Republican side. The battle is to maintain the current power dynamic and the current change plan. The Squad and Bernie want to go full-bore toward some variant of a socialist order. The old guard thinks that might spell disaster for them, and are fighting for something a bit slower. Keep in mind, though, both camps have the same ultimate goals. The battle going on now isn't over the definition of objectives or even the calendar date when all those objectives need to be realized. It's completely over image and pacing. The Squad and Bernie want a more obvious and forceful implementation of their agenda, while the old guard wants something that at least superficially appears as a more genteel and less urgently-paced approach. Both sides are committed to implementation of The Green New Deal. Both have still bound themselves to the requirements of the UN Agenda 2030 and all that it implies.
Joe Biden has been a problem from the beginning. His obviously limited capacity would normally be an embarrassment and a liability, but today they need him. Previously, I speculated on why he was still in the race. I had recommended he be gently led off the stage and allowed to go home and enjoy his last days (which I don't believe to be many). But, he's still out there, and still forgetting things like which state he's in, what day it is, why he's there, and who's on the phone interviewing him. He's mistaken his wife for his sister on two public occasions. His fantasies regarding things of the past are both confused and confusing. His life's narrative, which was never wound all that tightly, is unraveling badly. All of which leads one to wonder what's going on.
Biden needed a win in South Carolina. He got it. He needed to place at least second on Super Tuesday. He led the majority of races, going away, and is now way out in front of Bernie in the delegate count. It helped that Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar bailed out of their races and declared their support for him after their performances in South Carolina, but do you get what that's about? Is it that both want to position to be asked to be Biden's running mate? Clearly, they can see his probability of lasting very long as President is not very high. Are they thinking what I'm thinking, or did the establishment call and pointedly ask them to abandon their quests?
Today I hear Mini-Mike Bloomberg has decided not to waste any more of his vast fortune tilting at the electoral windmill. With all the potential out there and with hundreds of millions spent, Mini-Mike managed to take the race in American Samoa. I'm certain most Americans have no idea where American Samoa is, or that they participate in our general elections. If Mini-Mike had any effect on this election at all, it's to at least force some people to acknowledge the existence of American Samoa. Otherwise...no...he had no effect at all. Where will Bloomberg's support base go? Will they shift over to Biden? Really, you don't think that's a serious question, do you? Bloomberg doesn't have any support base; he only has hirelings. Oh! I forgot Judge Judy. Oh, well, he's gone, and that's that. Judge Judy can go home now and start up her brand new TV judgeship.
So, what could be shaping up with those Democrats? What's their grand strategy? I'm not a Democrat, especially not an insider. I do have a speculation, though. It's one I shared yesterday with my good friend Dick Coffee, while we were having our regular Patriot's Lunch. It's a speculation I heard Rush Limbaugh repeat almost verbatim not half an hour later as I drove my car back to work. I'll spell it out, and then we can wait and see how close to reality it turns out to be. I just hope it's a better guess than the ones I made late last year.
The Biden Gambit is my name for a plan I believe the Democrats have devised to keep Joe Biden viable as a candidate and to push him through the convention nomination process. It's what I believe accounts for the fact Biden hasn't retired from the contest and gone home already. The establishment progressive elites in the Democratic Party are certain Bernie can't beat Donald Trump. They don't think any of the candidates they currently have can. In truth, they don't believe Biden can, but because he doesn't scare them or threaten their ideas of how to pursue their principal agenda, they're willing to engineer the rest of this campaign season for him and to ensure whoever they pick as his running mate will be the real person they want to see in the Oval Office.
Biden's obvious mental and physical frailties may be working in his favor for once. The smart money people might be betting on a scenario where Biden wins the election in the fall, but obviously fails within a year of taking office. He could either die in office or be removed by the first removal application of the 25th Amendment. My thought is the best Democratic Party strategy is to run their actual candidate in the VP slot, then let time or legislative action take its course with Biden. Of course, there's also that convenient "suicide" option we hear a lot about these days. If that's the thinking process they're running with, we all better spend some time focused on Biden's potential running mates. This is where my speculation ends. There are obvious names: Hillary and Michelle are two that come readily to everybody's minds, though I don't think that's likely. I don't know who the establishment Democrats think will save them now. It's likely they don't either. We'll have to wait and see.
As for later on, after the Democratic Party Nominating Convention, I'm not concerned. There's not much the Democrats can do, short of taking very drastic and illegal measures, to beat President Trump in the fall. If Trump gets in trouble, it'll be because of something he does. If he treads carefully, yet continues to fulfill 2016 campaign promises, he should win by a very healthy margin.
In Liberty,
Steve
© Steve A. Stone
March 13, 2020
Dear Friends and Patriots,
It's only right for me to make a couple of confessions and admissions up front. I made predictions and observations last year that have proved to be profoundly wrong. Not that it matters greatly in the grand scheme of things, but there have been events no one could have anticipated that changed the entire dynamics of the nation's political stage.
Last year, I declared Joe Biden's candidacy dead. I said he was done and needed to go home. I admitted he might limp along until the convention, but he had no legs and his funding was drying up. Yet ... he's still here, and obviously not close to defeat. Today, he's the front-running Democrat once again. How very odd.
I predicted Elizabeth Warren would rise up and boot Bernie Sanders to the curb. Then, a few unanticipated things happened. Warren's notorious habit of lying about herself began to catch up with her, and her support waned. People began to have visions of her up on the stage next to Donald Trump, listening in their heads as The Donald's derisive comments regarding her many fabrications removes any doubt that she has some rather serious problems and is terminally self-deluded. That's before any discussion of her promises to bankrupt the nation by giving anything and everything to anyone who seems like they might have a request. Forget need! If you even think you want something, Pocahontas is gonna be right there with a government check for you.
Then, there was the prediction that Bernie wouldn't grow stronger. I neglected to account for the most recent generation of the youngest voters, the majority of whom have been trained in our own government schools to believe socialism is a wonderful, ethically superior thing. Behind the scenes, a lot of the more ardent progressives have been martialing those young folks and registering them to vote. The Bernie Bros began to be more and more in evidence. Bernie's strength began to grow. Instead of fading, he seemed to finally figure out how to suck the life out of Warren. As she waned, he strengthened. In debates, she began to come off a something of a shrill, bitchy shrew (is that an oxymoron? I'm really not sure), while Bernie stuck to the same loopy script he's used for at least a couple of decades. Evidently, Bernie's support base is expanding, and he's actually living up to his advertising. More recently, he's been asked some rather pointed questions by the media. It's obvious they're nervous about him. When he was a novelty act, they pretty much left him alone, but now that he's showing power, they're all of a sudden interested in things he did and said as far back as 50 years ago. Now they want to know his opinions of Castro's regime. Now they want to know what his opinions are of the old Soviet Union. Now they want to know what he likes about various other communist regimes. And the media are having a field day with his responses. When he uttered a response to a question on what he liked about Cuba, that went pretty much like, "You have to give Castro his due, he instituted a great literacy program for the Cuban people." It was the media that pounced and pointed out the underlying purpose – so those formerly illiterate Cubans could read and comprehend the propaganda put out by Castro's regime. He gave praise to the universal health care policies of communist regimes, while not seeming to acknowledge that it was mostly policy, but not much in the way of actual care. He made comments easy to understand as advocating for the denial of medical treatment for the elderly. Evidently, Bernie began to scare people in his own camp just a bit.
The establishment progressive Democrats have been waging a behind-the-scenes battle with the more ideologically purist progressive Democrats. Think of the first camp as the Pelosi-Schumer-Dingell-Carville-Juan Williams kind of Democrats, against the new purists of The Squad, Bernie, Warren, and the Bernie Bros. It dawned on the progressive old guard that if the party goes all the way over toward Bernie's side of things, there would be no place for them in any future Democratic administration. They'd be frozen out, just like the Never-Trumpers are on the Republican side. The battle is to maintain the current power dynamic and the current change plan. The Squad and Bernie want to go full-bore toward some variant of a socialist order. The old guard thinks that might spell disaster for them, and are fighting for something a bit slower. Keep in mind, though, both camps have the same ultimate goals. The battle going on now isn't over the definition of objectives or even the calendar date when all those objectives need to be realized. It's completely over image and pacing. The Squad and Bernie want a more obvious and forceful implementation of their agenda, while the old guard wants something that at least superficially appears as a more genteel and less urgently-paced approach. Both sides are committed to implementation of The Green New Deal. Both have still bound themselves to the requirements of the UN Agenda 2030 and all that it implies.
Joe Biden has been a problem from the beginning. His obviously limited capacity would normally be an embarrassment and a liability, but today they need him. Previously, I speculated on why he was still in the race. I had recommended he be gently led off the stage and allowed to go home and enjoy his last days (which I don't believe to be many). But, he's still out there, and still forgetting things like which state he's in, what day it is, why he's there, and who's on the phone interviewing him. He's mistaken his wife for his sister on two public occasions. His fantasies regarding things of the past are both confused and confusing. His life's narrative, which was never wound all that tightly, is unraveling badly. All of which leads one to wonder what's going on.
Biden needed a win in South Carolina. He got it. He needed to place at least second on Super Tuesday. He led the majority of races, going away, and is now way out in front of Bernie in the delegate count. It helped that Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar bailed out of their races and declared their support for him after their performances in South Carolina, but do you get what that's about? Is it that both want to position to be asked to be Biden's running mate? Clearly, they can see his probability of lasting very long as President is not very high. Are they thinking what I'm thinking, or did the establishment call and pointedly ask them to abandon their quests?
Today I hear Mini-Mike Bloomberg has decided not to waste any more of his vast fortune tilting at the electoral windmill. With all the potential out there and with hundreds of millions spent, Mini-Mike managed to take the race in American Samoa. I'm certain most Americans have no idea where American Samoa is, or that they participate in our general elections. If Mini-Mike had any effect on this election at all, it's to at least force some people to acknowledge the existence of American Samoa. Otherwise...no...he had no effect at all. Where will Bloomberg's support base go? Will they shift over to Biden? Really, you don't think that's a serious question, do you? Bloomberg doesn't have any support base; he only has hirelings. Oh! I forgot Judge Judy. Oh, well, he's gone, and that's that. Judge Judy can go home now and start up her brand new TV judgeship.
So, what could be shaping up with those Democrats? What's their grand strategy? I'm not a Democrat, especially not an insider. I do have a speculation, though. It's one I shared yesterday with my good friend Dick Coffee, while we were having our regular Patriot's Lunch. It's a speculation I heard Rush Limbaugh repeat almost verbatim not half an hour later as I drove my car back to work. I'll spell it out, and then we can wait and see how close to reality it turns out to be. I just hope it's a better guess than the ones I made late last year.
The Biden Gambit is my name for a plan I believe the Democrats have devised to keep Joe Biden viable as a candidate and to push him through the convention nomination process. It's what I believe accounts for the fact Biden hasn't retired from the contest and gone home already. The establishment progressive elites in the Democratic Party are certain Bernie can't beat Donald Trump. They don't think any of the candidates they currently have can. In truth, they don't believe Biden can, but because he doesn't scare them or threaten their ideas of how to pursue their principal agenda, they're willing to engineer the rest of this campaign season for him and to ensure whoever they pick as his running mate will be the real person they want to see in the Oval Office.
Biden's obvious mental and physical frailties may be working in his favor for once. The smart money people might be betting on a scenario where Biden wins the election in the fall, but obviously fails within a year of taking office. He could either die in office or be removed by the first removal application of the 25th Amendment. My thought is the best Democratic Party strategy is to run their actual candidate in the VP slot, then let time or legislative action take its course with Biden. Of course, there's also that convenient "suicide" option we hear a lot about these days. If that's the thinking process they're running with, we all better spend some time focused on Biden's potential running mates. This is where my speculation ends. There are obvious names: Hillary and Michelle are two that come readily to everybody's minds, though I don't think that's likely. I don't know who the establishment Democrats think will save them now. It's likely they don't either. We'll have to wait and see.
As for later on, after the Democratic Party Nominating Convention, I'm not concerned. There's not much the Democrats can do, short of taking very drastic and illegal measures, to beat President Trump in the fall. If Trump gets in trouble, it'll be because of something he does. If he treads carefully, yet continues to fulfill 2016 campaign promises, he should win by a very healthy margin.
In Liberty,
Steve
© Steve A. Stone
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