After months of obsessing over the presidential contest, last week was a whirlwind to remember the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery and understand President Biden takes center stage. The all-but-forgetful president is literally a lame duck; stride has given way to randomness. He seemed lost. They try to apply force in respect, but you are ready for a verbal trip.
Why does Biden think he can serve four more years?
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. He has decades of experience in the White House and Congress.
He has greatly diminished from the politicians I have served in 40 years, from the Senate through the vice president to the White House. First, I respect his decision not to retire, as Democrats do. At the end of 2022, Biden will be 80 years old, but he celebrated the results of the midterm elections, which were exceptionally good for his party and one of the most successful first two years of his presidency (the removal of Afghanistan). They will win important legislation, such as infrastructure legislation, that will benefit them for years to come.
And for the next four, Donald Trump will steal the bragging rights.
The midterms are when Biden must announce that he will not run again, if he will “bridge” to a new leader as he said in 2020. He selfishly did not give way until late in 2024 helping to destroy the Democrats’ chances of keeping the White House, and thereby damaging his own legacy. History will be kinder to him than Democrats are today, let alone voters, but that’s no consolation now.
However, now is the time for his party to look forward. More than a week after the voter’s verdict, Democrats had to stop who pointed the finger. He can look back long enough to recognize, and learn from, the mistakes that led to the last presidential election that still denies his defeat in 2020, connived to overthrow, insurrection and snubbed the peaceful transfer of power – all disgusting.
The next one is to face Trump, whose decision is early – Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense! Matt Gaetz for attorney general! Elon Musk is the de facto vice president! – suggests the radicalism and overreach that lies ahead.
Additionally, the indictment makes it unclear whether Kamala Harris is in a close race, almost certainly closer than Biden.
When all the votes are finally counted, Trump’s margin of victory will be two percentage points or less – the smallest since 1968. Democrats are not expected to retain their slim Senate majority even if Harris wins, and their candidates won in several losing states. , limiting the Republicans’ new majority. Republicans have kept the majority of the House, but barely – and we have seen how hobbled they have been fractiousness when they have no votes to spare.
For all the Democrats’ self-promotion about seeming arrogantly out of touch with America, especially on the issue of transgender rights that Trump used effectively against Harris, voters in many cases took electoral measures for abortion rights, a higher minimum wage and mandatory . paid leave, even in red states. Trump has vowed mass deportations, but exit polls show a majority of voters say undocumented immigrants should be able to apply for legal status, as Democrats want.
The issue of immigration is among the three “I’s” who condemn the Democrats as a whole, along with inflation and the Biden incumbency. Harris, too deferential to those who glorified him, not only did not do enough to separate himself from the unpopular president, he gave the producers of Trump ads a gift when he toward friendly inquisitor on “The View” who “couldn’t think of anything” he would do differently than Biden. It was a rare mistake for Harris in what has been a challenging, but big, start to the campaign.
That’s worse than the Democrats backbite would be a rejection. Democrats did not deny it. They know that Trump’s gains in past performances have been impressive width. He did better in many counties, including in Democratic urban strongholds as well as the Bronx and Queens district represented by left icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “The working class isn’t buying the ivory tower nonsense peddled by the left,” Rep. Bronx Richie Torres tweetedincluding “absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx.’ “Don’t think that Biden or most Democrats don’t use the term; they don’t push back much either.
Trump’s wresting of the working class from the Democrats is almost complete. The only question is whether that support is unique to him or whether it will transfer to post-Trump Republicans.
As annoying as the Democratic squabbling is, it’s a sign of a healthy party look inside after the loss. That the Republican Party did not do so after losing in 2018, 2020 and 2022 – and echoing Trump’s anti-democratic rejection in 2020 – is a symptom of his ill health, despite his victory this year. Democrats rightly lament that the far left has so much influence, if not actual power, that the far right not only influences the Republican Party, it does so. That will be a problem moving forward.
But now, the issue at hand is the Democrats. That has led to catastrophic erosion of cities and suburbs as they have long abandoned rural America. It’s time to rebuild in both places, or at least try.
The party has a deep bench for reconstruction ahead. One such talent, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, offered constructive advice in the New York Times op-ed there – he had me in “I refuse to play the blame game” – although Rx usually described what the Democrats have done, or tried, such as developing affordable health. Still, it’s a start.
Meanwhile, one of the party’s big problems will be solved: In two months, Biden will finally give up the stage.
@jackiekcalmes
