Biden Speech

[MWmetalhead]

The lighting was poor because the venue where the speech was given was not made for TV, and evidently the planning was subpar.

The speech itself was akin to kicking a hornet's nest. I'm not sure what the President felt he was accomplishing. I thought the speech was politically unwise.

Shenanigans? There are rules you have to follow to get on the ballot, and that petition failed, just like with the fraudulent signatures that knocked out a lot of the gubernatorial candidates. Quit being a drama queen.

I think there are a LOT of people unhappy with the decisions by the two GOP members of the Board of Canvassers (and yes, there are some people who are certainly happy with that outcome).

At the end of the day, I think the Michigan Supreme Court will have the final say in any event.

Pro-abortion advocates should be directing their ire toward whichever firm is responsible for the egregiously sloppy printing of the proposed ballot language.

I agree with how the two GOP board members voted, for what that's worth. Ballot language should not be a grammatical cluster fuck, and a proposal that seeks to amend the state constitution should be phrased as such.

[Matt]

Just watched the speech. He did a really good job… it may be the best speech he’s ever given. He basically said what any president before Trump would have said. It’s a throwback to 30 or 40 years ago in style but that’s ok. It’s also an attempt at what he’s been rather good at in his career… getting to the brink, being left for dead and rising from the ashes. He is polling in the mid 40’s now. This looks like a win. He isn’t going to effect Republicans enthusiasm up or down with it. Their attitudes are baked in. But he can give a speech or 5 like that and rally Democrats.

The lighting didn’t look nearly as bad as you guys are making it out to be. They were going for somber I think.

That's one view, but I'd say the WSJ Editorial Board hit the nail on the head:

It’s been obvious for years that while Democrats claim to fear and loathe Donald Trump, they really can’t live without him. They need him around, they want him around, because they think he’s their ticket to remain in power.

Any doubt about that proposition vanished with President Biden’s Thursday night speech that had a single political purpose: Elevating Mr. Trump to the center of the fall campaign. Forget all the high-minded talk about saving democracy, which is hardly in danger in a midterm election in which Mr. Trump isn’t even on the ballot. Democrats want to pretend the former President is on the ballot to campaign against as the great Democratic foil.

The strategy is especially helpful for Mr. Biden, whose main (and perhaps only) utility to Democrats is as the man who defeated Mr. Trump. Without Mr. Trump to kick around, the unpopular 79-year-old President will likely be nudged, or perhaps elbowed, aside by younger Democrats in 2024. But if Mr. Trump runs again, Mr. Biden has a raison d’etre. As our columnist Holman Jenkins has argued, the two men are political co-dependents.

That’s why Mr. Biden has so pointedly goaded Mr. Trump and his followers with the “MAGA Republican” label. His escalating rhetoric is intended to smear the GOP as under Mr. Trump’s sway and “semi-fascist.” If voters believe the stakes in November are the future of democracy, the autumn debate will shift from inflation, rising crime and woke ideology. More Democrats might vote, and the party might hold Congress.

All of this is deeply cynical and divisive. It contradicts Mr. Biden’s pledge, during the 2020 campaign and in his inaugural address, that he would unite the country. He repeated that claim of “unity” on Thursday but by now it is a throwaway line.

His strategy is to out-Trump Trump by polarizing the electorate around the former President because he thinks a majority will come his way. Even as we write this, his own party is running ads in New Hampshire to support the most MAGA Republican in the GOP Senate primary. A group allied with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is supporting the other main GOP candidate.

In his broadside, Mr. Biden is maligning half the country and the 70 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump. He includes a line that “not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans” are MAGA, but that too is a token gesture. He quickly moves on to say that “there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans and that is a threat to this country.”

Yet the people who really saved American democracy after the 2020 election and on Jan. 6 were Republicans:

• governors, secretaries of state and legislators who resisted Mr. Trump’s demand to change slates of electors to the Electoral College;

• judges appointed by Mr. Trump who followed the evidence and the law in assessing claims of election fraud;

• lawyers at the White House and Justice Department who refuted the claims of Mr. Trump’s clown-show legal team of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell;

• and above all Mike Pence, the Vice President who followed the Constitution in rejecting Mr. Trump’s private and public pressure to stop the counting of electoral votes that certified Mr. Biden as the victor.

If Mr. Biden believed his saving democracy rhetoric, he’d include those Republicans as heroes of the cause. But he won’t because his democracy line is a political gambit. He has to smear most Republicans as would-be fascists to make swing voters believe none of them can be trusted with power.

***
It’s possible this will work for Democrats in November, especially if Mr. Trump keeps taking Mr. Biden’s bait. Mr. Trump did precisely that on Thursday night with a typically ad hominem rant in response to the speech, which is exactly what Democrats want.

But we wonder if the voters will be as gullible. They’ve been able to observe over the 20 months of the Biden Presidency that Democrats have their own authoritarian temptations and have acted on them when they can.

Mr. Biden forgives half-a-trillion dollars in student debt without the assent of Congress. White House aides collude with tech platforms to silence dissenting voices on Covid. His regulators stretch the law beyond previous understanding to impose more control over the private economy. And that’s before they get the votes to break the Senate filibuster, add new U.S. states, override 50 state voting laws, and pack the Supreme Court.

Mr. Biden has become his foe’s polarizing mirror image. It is exactly what he promised as a candidate he wouldn’t do.

[TC Talks]

My heart goes out to Kevin McCarthy and all the other conservative victims for being called semi-fascist. Conservatives are the first to cast stones but they know how to cry like a baby when somebody hurts their feelings and it just makes me feel sad...

Hours later, Kevin McCarthy, in Scranton, Pa., gave a prebuttal of Biden’s democracy speech in which the House Republican leader demanded that Biden apologize to MAGA Republicans for calling their ideology “semi-fascism.” “The first lines out of his mouth should be to apologize for slandering tens of millions of Americans as fascists,” McCarthy said.

Of course, Biden’s semi-fascism remark was directed at MAGA leaders such as Trump and McCarthy — not the masses they’ve hornswoggled with their anti-democratic lies. But McCarthy used a classic fascist tool: casting the powerful in-group as the persecuted.

[Matt]

Biden and his party can go fuck themselves: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... -primaries

[Motown322]

My heart goes out to Kevin McCarthy and all the other conservative victims for being called semi-fascist. Conservatives are the first to cast stones but they know how to cry like a baby when somebody hurts their feelings and it just makes me feel sad...

Hours later, Kevin McCarthy, in Scranton, Pa., gave a prebuttal of Biden’s democracy speech in which the House Republican leader demanded that Biden apologize to MAGA Republicans for calling their ideology “semi-fascism.” “The first lines out of his mouth should be to apologize for slandering tens of millions of Americans as fascists,” McCarthy said.

Of course, Biden’s semi-fascism remark was directed at MAGA leaders such as Trump and McCarthy — not the masses they’ve hornswoggled with their anti-democratic lies. But McCarthy used a classic fascist tool: casting the powerful in-group as the persecuted.

That pendulum swung really fucking fast from "FUCK YOUR FEELINGS!!!!" to "I am so offended by this speech."

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

Biden and his party can go fuck themselves: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... -primaries

This is true. I thought the Democratic involvement in the Pete Meijer race to be abysmal. Meanwhile, we are left holding the bag in Macomb County. John James has a war chest, and we have Carl Marlinga. Marlinga is a horrible candidate and a moderate at best, but he deserves more support $$$. The Michigan Dems abandoned us and chose not to recruit a worthwhile candidate. It's inexcusable.

[Rate This]

Biden and his party can go fuck themselves: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... -primaries

This is true. I thought the Democratic involvement in the Pete Meijer race to be abysmal. Meanwhile, we are left holding the bag in Macomb County. John James has a war chest, and we have Carl Marlinga. Marlinga is a horrible candidate and a moderate at best, but he deserves more support $$$. The Michigan Dems abandoned us and chose not to recruit a worthwhile candidate. It's inexcusable.

It’s called Rat Fucking… not kidding… both sides engage in it although Republicans have used it more in the last 30-40 years.

[Rate This]

Biden and his party can go fuck themselves: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... -primaries

Democrats are finally stepping up and fighting fire with fire.. too bad.

[bmw]

Just remember what happened last time the Dems did this (ie, Hillary's "Basket of Deplorables") (hint - she lost).

[Rate This]

Just watched the speech. He did a really good job… it may be the best speech he’s ever given. He basically said what any president before Trump would have said. It’s a throwback to 30 or 40 years ago in style but that’s ok. It’s also an attempt at what he’s been rather good at in his career… getting to the brink, being left for dead and rising from the ashes. He is polling in the mid 40’s now. This looks like a win. He isn’t going to effect Republicans enthusiasm up or down with it. Their attitudes are baked in. But he can give a speech or 5 like that and rally Democrats.

The lighting didn’t look nearly as bad as you guys are making it out to be. They were going for somber I think.

That's one view, but I'd say the WSJ Editorial Board hit the nail on the head:

It’s been obvious for years that while Democrats claim to fear and loathe Donald Trump, they really can’t live without him. They need him around, they want him around, because they think he’s their ticket to remain in power.

Any doubt about that proposition vanished with President Biden’s Thursday night speech that had a single political purpose: Elevating Mr. Trump to the center of the fall campaign. Forget all the high-minded talk about saving democracy, which is hardly in danger in a midterm election in which Mr. Trump isn’t even on the ballot. Democrats want to pretend the former President is on the ballot to campaign against as the great Democratic foil.

The strategy is especially helpful for Mr. Biden, whose main (and perhaps only) utility to Democrats is as the man who defeated Mr. Trump. Without Mr. Trump to kick around, the unpopular 79-year-old President will likely be nudged, or perhaps elbowed, aside by younger Democrats in 2024. But if Mr. Trump runs again, Mr. Biden has a raison d’etre. As our columnist Holman Jenkins has argued, the two men are political co-dependents.

That’s why Mr. Biden has so pointedly goaded Mr. Trump and his followers with the “MAGA Republican” label. His escalating rhetoric is intended to smear the GOP as under Mr. Trump’s sway and “semi-fascist.” If voters believe the stakes in November are the future of democracy, the autumn debate will shift from inflation, rising crime and woke ideology. More Democrats might vote, and the party might hold Congress.

All of this is deeply cynical and divisive. It contradicts Mr. Biden’s pledge, during the 2020 campaign and in his inaugural address, that he would unite the country. He repeated that claim of “unity” on Thursday but by now it is a throwaway line.

His strategy is to out-Trump Trump by polarizing the electorate around the former President because he thinks a majority will come his way. Even as we write this, his own party is running ads in New Hampshire to support the most MAGA Republican in the GOP Senate primary. A group allied with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is supporting the other main GOP candidate.

In his broadside, Mr. Biden is maligning half the country and the 70 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump. He includes a line that “not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans” are MAGA, but that too is a token gesture. He quickly moves on to say that “there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans and that is a threat to this country.”

Yet the people who really saved American democracy after the 2020 election and on Jan. 6 were Republicans:

• governors, secretaries of state and legislators who resisted Mr. Trump’s demand to change slates of electors to the Electoral College;

• judges appointed by Mr. Trump who followed the evidence and the law in assessing claims of election fraud;

• lawyers at the White House and Justice Department who refuted the claims of Mr. Trump’s clown-show legal team of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell;

• and above all Mike Pence, the Vice President who followed the Constitution in rejecting Mr. Trump’s private and public pressure to stop the counting of electoral votes that certified Mr. Biden as the victor.

If Mr. Biden believed his saving democracy rhetoric, he’d include those Republicans as heroes of the cause. But he won’t because his democracy line is a political gambit. He has to smear most Republicans as would-be fascists to make swing voters believe none of them can be trusted with power.

***
It’s possible this will work for Democrats in November, especially if Mr. Trump keeps taking Mr. Biden’s bait. Mr. Trump did precisely that on Thursday night with a typically ad hominem rant in response to the speech, which is exactly what Democrats want.

But we wonder if the voters will be as gullible. They’ve been able to observe over the 20 months of the Biden Presidency that Democrats have their own authoritarian temptations and have acted on them when they can.

Mr. Biden forgives half-a-trillion dollars in student debt without the assent of Congress. White House aides collude with tech platforms to silence dissenting voices on Covid. His regulators stretch the law beyond previous understanding to impose more control over the private economy. And that’s before they get the votes to break the Senate filibuster, add new U.S. states, override 50 state voting laws, and pack the Supreme Court.

Mr. Biden has become his foe’s polarizing mirror image. It is exactly what he promised as a candidate he wouldn’t do.

There are candidates running in many states wanting to make massive changes in the voter processes that would benefit the GOP… at least they believe the changes would. Sounds like a 5 alarm fire. The argument that there is no threat of Trump isn’t on the ballot might make sense if they weren’t running openly denying 2020 and trumpeting changes WE MUST MAKE TO NOT HAVE ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION!!! Because that’s their argument the WSJ editorial is not worth the pixels you just wasted.

[Rate This]

Just remember what happened last time the Dems did this (ie, Hillary's "Basket of Deplorables") (hint - she lost).

That was a sound bite that was useable… calling them “MAGA Republicans” is calling a spade a spade. They aren’t Regan Republicans or Cheney Republicans or Romney Republicans… they are MAGA or bust Republicans who have unbending loyalty to the guy who uses MAGA on bumper stickers. This ain’t a basket of deplorables dude…

There is no rallying point there and no sound byte to use to spark anything.

[Ben Zonia]

Really, wanting to make your country great again when the world powers that be are trying to destroy Western Civilization, should not be controversial.

Biden's speech is being panned world wide and many compared him to Hitler, with the fist and arm gestures and Satanic backdrop.

When you point to Trump supporters as Fascist, three fingers are pointing back at you.

[MWmetalhead]

I suspect most Dem candidates on the ballot are not looking for "help" from the President. If he wants his allies to win in November, it would be wise of him to keep a low profile as opposed to making awkward stump speeches in prime time.

[Rate This]

I suspect most Dem candidates on the ballot are not looking for "help" from the President. If he wants his allies to win in November, it would be wise of him to keep a low profile as opposed to making awkward stump speeches in prime time.

He and the Democrats have momentum and it’s a turnout election… their base historically doesn’t turn out well in midterms. They’d be absolute fools not to rally the base and try to exploit that momentum.

[Rate This]

Really, wanting to make your country great again when the world powers that be are trying to destroy Western Civilization, should not be controversial.

Biden's speech is being panned world wide and many compared him to Hitler, with the fist and arm gestures and Satanic backdrop.

When you point to Trump supporters as Fascist, three fingers are pointing back at you.

If western civilization outside of a fairly small collection of right wing folks is unconcerned I would say your argument is bullshit. There isn’t a cadre of people conspiring behind closed doors to overthrow western civilization. The right, particularly in America simply took changes in society and made up an entire narrative out of thin air. Said narrative is a lot closer to a made for TV movie plot than reality.