Dear Friends and Patriots,

No one likes to admit they were wrong, but most times it’s the right thing to do. I’ve admitted it before, but today I want to make a more complete confession of my errors regarding Joe Biden’s candidacy, then offer up something of a theory of how I ended up on the losing end of what looked to be a certain bet.

Here are quotes from my last book, 2019 – PELOSI LEADS THE COUP:

P. 250, “It’s interesting to watch Joe Biden fade away. I never once thought the guy had any real political legs. Everyone who knows him understands the guy is far too average to be vying for President. In the words of Rudi Giuliani, “Hey, the guy’s just dumb. He’s always been dumb.”

P. 261, “I see Biden continue to weaken. He never really had a chance. His candidacy was mostly media hype and the delusional wishes of the Democratic Party Old Guard, who have lost out to the new crop of socialist activists who are now taking over. Expect Biden to hang on as long as he has money, but expect his money supply to dry up eventually. He may try to last until the convention and attempt to fight there, but don’t expect that to be anything more than his Don Quixote move. His run is dead; he just can’t admit it.”

In more recent times, I did admit I was wrong. In a piece I published on 4 March of this year entitled “THE BIDEN GAMBIT,” I admitted as much, and speculated that Biden was chosen to carry the Democratic Party flag as a strategic move. This is the paragraph of that article that’s most germane:

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.

Today, I had a different thought. There could be something really positive going on in all this that everyone missed.

This morning, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, looking for something interesting; keeping up with the gossip-monger mullings and the witty memes. I found myself stopped by one post from a friend who had forwarded another post asking everyone to log onto President Trump’s Facebook page and then onto Joe Biden’s page and see how many of their friends had “liked” each. There were several comments below the post. They looked remarkably alike. All had “scores” for Trump that were many times those for Biden. In fact, all Joe Biden’s “likes” were reported as single-digit numbers. I had never thought of doing that kind of check. I recognized it as a really informal poll, but one that was pretty personal. “What the hell!” was the thought in my head. I went onto both Facebook pages and checked the numbers. My own numbers were far in excess of those I’d seen in the comments on my friend’s post. The number for President Trump’s “likes” was 304. The number for Biden was 6. That sort of stunned me because I know my “Friends” list is made up of a mixture of people. I did that on purpose. Probably 1/3 of my “Friends” are related to me. They’re there for familial reasons. I never question their ideology. Another 1/3 are people I served with in either the Navy or Coast Guard. Those 2/3 are on my list for reasons that don’t involve politics, and they’re a true admixture of political leanings. The other 1/3 of my “Friends” are mostly libertarians of various kinds and a few local people I know through my various comings and goings. I was amazed at the 50:1 ratio I saw in the numbers I gleaned. What could account for such a huge difference?

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to the news, and there was the usual blather about the President, mostly a bit negative, and some about Biden and his impending announcement for his choice of running mate—his proposal for our next vice president. Something in that dialog hit a neuron in my brain. The neuron fired. I had a thought that was new to me. It’s the thought I was missing when I made the written statements above about Biden. It’s the thought that may be a real clue to the Biden candidacy and why it happened when all the smartest money was betting he’d never, ever be the Democratic Party candidate.

I’d forgotten something that’s very important. I forgot the truth that there are hundreds of thousands, and possibly even millions of Democrats for Trump out there. It was fairly well known a lot of Democrats had voted for Trump. I recalled the TV reports out of Ohio of displaced factory workers who were gambling on Trump’s pro-business restoration position to work to their benefit. That, and Trump’s words to the black community, “What do you have to lose?” Yes, those memories were flashing in my head like neon signs, and they made me realize what could be the truth about the Democratic Party primaries and possibly even the polling numbers we see.

How many of you think those Democrats for Trump have changed their party affiliation? I’m certain some have, but equally certain most haven’t. Why would they? Their local areas are generally controlled by the Democrats, and they know if they’re to have any influence in local politics they need to maintain their affiliation, not jump to any other party and risk being marginalized in the political discussions that affect their local schools, property taxes, and all other issues of importance in their daily lives. Unless a majority in a local area decides to switch parties, doing so solely as a personal initiative might be thought of as too risky.

Besides, party affiliation is one thing; voting is another. Once someone is in the voting booth, no one knows who they actually cast their votes for. It’s not uncommon for supposed party stalwarts to vote across party lines on a regular basis. They may deny it, but the vote totals tell the truth. In 2016, we all witnessed massive crossover voting. The swing states were won by Trump because enough Democrats had their fill of hollow promises from the likes of Hillary Clinton and were willing to cast their lot with Trump. They knew Trump was right. What did they have to lose?

My thoughts today are that it’s those same Democrats for Trump or people just like them that account for the political scenarios we’re seeing today. They want no part of the radical agendas proposed by their party’s candidates. They reject socialism. They reject massive debts. They reject debt relief for deadbeat students. The reject open borders. They reject doing nothing substantive about Chinese abuses in trade. They reject the “anything goes” lack of morality that’s central to the Democratic Party’s initiatives to broaden its base. They reject the anti-life, anti-capitalist, anti-military, anti-pretty much everything about America pitch that was made by most of the Democrats. So, what was their response? They lined up in their primaries and voted for the one person they knew would be easiest to defeat in the general election—Joe Biden. They understood they could do it without a guilty conscience. After all, wasn’t Joe a moderate? He wasn’t anywhere nearly as radical as Sanders, Harris, or Warren, or most any of the others. “Old Joe” was a safe vote! If he became President, he at least wouldn’t be a socialist sell-out, but he was also the easiest candidate for Trump to compete against. After all, Joe was obviously failing and often made little sense. Trump could handle him. It may just be that the Democrats for Trump were the ones who put Joe Biden where he is.

It could also be that those same Democrats for Trump are responsible for the polling numbers we see. I’m reminded of “Operation Chaos.” Do you remember it? It was conceived by Rush Limbaugh, who pushed his listeners to support Hillary Clinton in 2008. He urged Republican voters to cross party lines in the primaries to try to get Hillary nominated as the Dem’s candidate instead of Obama. Rush wanted to create chaos in the Democratic Party in hopes of bettering the chances of the Republican Party. He knew, as did I, that John McCain couldn’t prevail over Obama. But, Clinton? Yeah, he could do that. It could be that Democrats for Trump are taking all the calls from pollsters and filling out poll mailings and checking the boxes for Biden in order to make it appear Biden is much stronger than he is. If so, it could be there’s another “Operation Chaos” in play, but one not being popularized or publicized as the one Rush organized.

In recent weeks, it’s apparent that Joe Biden has decided to adopt much of the more radical stances of his erstwhile competitors. It’s also true he’s bringing some of those same competitors into his fold. He seems to have anointed Bernie Sanders as his principle economic advisor, and has stated he wants Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to come aboard with his camp to manage the implementation of The Green New Deal. His position papers indicate he is willing to dedicate trillions of dollars toward accomplishing the provisions of The Green New Deal. Biden has also tapped Robert Francis “Just Call Me Beto” O’Roarke to be his Gun Control Czar, should he be elected. All of those things are indicators that Biden has either adopted a full-tilt progressive ideology, or he’s just plain demented and in the full control of his party’s progressive cabal. It doesn’t matter, really. What may matter is his pick for V.P. The list of “possibles” is a bit disturbing. The thought of any of them succeeding a President Biden should scare the beejesus out of anyone. They’re all over-the-pale radical progressives. But, it could be he won’t pick from among those the media touts. It could be he’ll try to get former President Obama more firmly in his corner by picking the former FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. Wouldn’t that be something!

Biden has stated if elected, he wouldn’t run for a second term. That was a brilliant statement to make. It might mean he’d have a chance of living through a term, if he’s lucky enough to serve one. Otherwise, I don’t think many smart bettors would place much money on him living very long at all. Saying he’d step down might be good insurance. It also reinforces the truth that we all need to watch out for whoever his running mate is. When he makes his announcement, we could be looking at POTUS #47.

Now that you’ve read your fill about Joe Biden, allow me to stick my neck out and make another prediction. Donald Trump’s margin of victory will be wider than in 2016. MAGA, Baby!

In Liberty,

Steve A. Stone