Today’s announcement by Special Counsel Robert Hur that President Joe Biden is “a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” throws the entire upcoming presidential election into turmoil.
Loyal Democrats who defended Biden against MAGA attacks will have to regroup and decide if Biden is worth defending or if the DNC should finally be held accountable to rank-and-file Democrats who have known about Biden’s memory lapses for years but covered it up in their self-serving interests.
Today’s announcement by Hur is as bad as the July 5, 2016 announcement by FBI Director James Comey that Hillary Clinton had mishandled e-mails on her server, but that no charges would be filed. Comey’s controversial announcement of his investigation was made without approval from the Justice Department, so his ill-timed
In Comey’s 2,314-word announcement, he concluded that “although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, we judge that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” But that conclusion was at the very end of his long report. By then voters were wondering why he announced something that he was not prosecuting. To many voters, it sounded like a courtroom question, “When was the last time you beat your wife?” It didn’t matter if the person being questioned was even married or if he never beat his wife. The fact that it was asked already implies guilt.
Hur’s conclusion today from an impartial special prosecutor makes public what White House and DNC insiders have known for a long time. They knew Biden was fragile and in no shape to run in 2024, but they failed to address the need to find a replacement, or even to prepare Vice President Kamala Harris, the invisible woman without any demonstrated expertise or portfolio, as even a weak stand-in for Biden.
Now, average Democrats outside of Washington are disillusioned with the process and disgusted with the faceless crowd that runs the DNC and the other shadow presidential committees and think tanks that are always asking people for money.
What good are the contributions if no leader inspires confidence, motivation, energy, and inspiration?
The DNC is the Biggest Problem
This is not a new problem for the DNC. It was best exemplified when Hillary Clinton ran, and her mismanaged campaign seemed more focused on derailing the campaign of progressive Bernie Sanders than on defeating Trump. Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was even fired for her mismanagement and e-mail attacks on the Sanders campaign. Wasserman-Schultz must have been an abysmal, malignant manager to be publically fired as campaign manager from the politically correct Clinton campaign. But even then, the Clinton campaign could not face up to its mismanagement.
When I asked Florida Congresswoman Lois Frankel (D-22), a friend of Wasserman-Schultz, and a local feckless fixture who has held this office since 2013, why the Dems lost the election, she told me they lost due to “Russian interference,” a popular claim at the time, but one that has never been proven.
The Dem party inbreeding is as toxic as the Republicans, but now the Dems have to face the reality that loyal Dems don’t want the Biden-Harris ticket to move forward. The obvious problem is that the DNC and its close allies, intentionally prevent younger and more ambitious CONgresspeople from taking the limelight away from the people at the top of the pyramid.
This is due to ego, and the fact that top DNC people have great jobs and perks, and if the clique stays in place, tremendous job security. What’s even better for them is that the average Democratic party activist probably cannot even name the top three people in the DNC. They are intentionally faceless, but wield their power and poor judgment in private so they cannot be held accountable to the grassroots. Who is Jaime Harrison, the DNC chair?
On paper, the DNC is led by Jaime Harrison, who ran for the Senate from South Carolina and lost to Lindsay Graham in 2020. A committee elected Jaime, and Harrison’s main job is fundraising and establishing a party brand. Harrison was preceded in this office by the very forgettable Tom Perez.
But, being the head of the DNC doesn’t seem to require great presence and oratorial skills, since its main goal is branding. But in this, they have failed miserably. They also have failed to respond to falling poll numbers from Biden and Harris. So it’s still not clear who wields the real power.
The other problem is that the Dems are wimps. While the Republicans have no qualms about steamrolling lies and right-wing propaganda, the Dems foolishly still adhere to the Hillary Clinton-Michelle Obama naive mantra that “when they go low, we go high.” That’s a big mistake and it embodies the DNC’s wimpy posture.
As an example, look at Attorney General Merrick Garland. First, Garland, who may be a great judge, but is certainly no administrator, waited eight months to appoint Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. Why did Garland wait? No one knows. But since time is of the essence to take Trump to trial before the election, his delay could give Trump the presidency.
The second wimpy thing Garland did was appoint a Republican (Hur) to investigate the Biden classified documents case. Hur made the unnecessary editorial comments that Biden appeared senile, a sure sop to the MAGA Republicans. There is no doubt that Hur is getting many congratulatory phone calls from the MAGA camp.
The DNC’s Shadow Management
As this article finds, the DNC has a shadow operation and it may be run by ex-president Obama. According to David Samuels of Tablet Magazine, “There are regular meetings at Obama’s house in Kalorama ( Washington DC neighborhood) involving top figures in the current White House.” This includes foreign policy decisions. “There are large parts of White House policymaking that belong to Barack Obama because they’re staffed by his people, who worked for him and no doubt report back to him. Personnel is policy, as they say in Washington.”
But does Obama have any input into replacing Biden? Certainly, Obama knows that Biden’s memory is failing and that he is frail. But this still leaves average Dems who are now very disillusioned about who is in charge and whether Obama, by default, takes a role here to find a replacement.
But not so fast. Obama is not a great leader either.
David Garrow, the author of Dreams from My Father, a biography of Barack Obama, said that Obama is “too lazy. This is in the book. It goes back to him being Hawaiian. At one point, he (Obama) says, ‘I’m fundamentally lazy and it’s because I’m from Hawaii.’ That’s close to the actual quote.” Obama also once told a fellow lawyer in the firm where he worked that he wanted to be rich, so he could have a private jet and a valet.”
So where does that leave grassroots Democrats who hate Trump, but now feel deceived by the DNC? Not in a good place.
The Dems need to find replacement candidates for Biden-Harris ASAP. It’s doubtful they can move fast, but not looking for replacements means that the upcoming election between a convicted rapist, tax cheat, and sociopath versus a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” is a pathetic choice. It will deflate the energy of many Democrats. Many could not even have the energy to vote. The nation is in big trouble,
