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US Politics: Sitting in Judgement


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Whether or not Biden is the best candidate they've got for this election, they really need more promising leaders coming up the ranks for "tomorrow". Part of cultivating that is going to require some of the experienced hands to make way for fresh faces - as Ty said, take the gold watch and thanks and be part of the healthy cycle of life. Obviously you don't want to jettison all the experience, it's got to be a mix.

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37 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Whether or not Biden is the best candidate they've got for this election, they really need more promising leaders coming up the ranks for "tomorrow". Part of cultivating that is going to require some of the experienced hands to make way for fresh faces - as Ty said, take the gold watch and thanks and be part of the healthy cycle of life. Obviously you don't want to jettison all the experience, it's got to be a mix.

Sure...and a continued Biden administration is how you get that. Folks like Pete Buttigieg can further introduce themselves to the American people. Whitmer and Beshear maybe wind up with a national role, ambassador or secretary of something. The longer Democrats control the White House, the easier it is to fill up the bench.

EDITED TO ADD: I want to address the "Biden is losing his marbles" thing. Why do we think that? Because he occasionally mixes up names? More likely, it is because Fox Noise is broadcasting the message. Nothing about the policy coming out of the White House indicates to me a president who is suffering from dementia or whatever.

It is endlessly amusing to me that Trump, nearly as old as Joe Biden, who advised people to drink bleach and talked about putting UV lights inside them to kill COVID, and who served fast food at an official White House event, is regarded as fully in command of his faculties. Crikey.

Edited by TrackerNeil
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Killing the immigration bill to strike at Biden -- a backfire?  Surely, surely not? 

Leaning Into Migrant Woes, Suozzi Paves Election-Year Path for Democrats
Tom Suozzi’s victory in a special House election in New York buoyed Democrats’ spirits and offered a model on one of the party’s thorniest challenges: immigration.

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In the heart of Long Island, where Republicans have won every major election in the last three years, Tom Suozzi fought through ripping political headwinds to claim victory on Tuesday in a special House election, seizing a coveted swing district that had been held by George Santos.

The outcome flipped one of the five House seats Democrats need to retake the majority in November, giving the party a badly needed shot of optimism. But Mr. Suozzi’s campaign also provided something that may prove more valuable, a playbook for candidates across the country competing on turf where President Biden and his party remain deeply unpopular.

The strategy went something like this: Challenge Republicans on issues that they usually monopolize, like crime, taxes and, above all, immigration. Flash an independent streak. And fire up the Democratic base with attacks — in this case, nearly $10 million in ads — on the abortion issue and former President Donald J. Trump, the likely Republican nominee for the White House.

“It’s a very interesting lesson to Democrats that you can escape your opponent’s attacks on immigration by not only leaning into the issue, but doubling down on it,” said Steve Israel, a former congressman from the district who once led the House Democrats’ campaign arm.

“Instead of trying to pivot around the issue, he charged into it,” Mr. Israel added.

One of the most vivid examples came in the race’s final weeks. Mr. Suozzi was on his way to a meeting one morning and learned that his Republican opponent, Mazi Pilip, was about to hold an event at a Queens migrant shelter blaming him for the nation’s growing border crisis.

The situation had all the makings of a political storm for the party in power — one that other Democrats might have written off as a lost cause. But Mr. Suozzi redirected his car through choked traffic, pulled up just in time to follow Ms. Pilip in front of TV news cameras and threw himself squarely into the fray.

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“You want to try to respond to what the people are hungering for,” he explained at the January event. “This is what the people are hungering for.”

Mr. Suozzi’s victory was not the only piece of good news for Democrats on Tuesday night. They also won a special election to maintain control of a state House seat in a key battleground, Bucks County in Pennsylvania. ....

 

 

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48 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

EDITED TO ADD: I want to address the "Biden is losing his marbles" thing. Why do we think that? Because he occasionally mixes up names? More likely, it is because Fox Noise is broadcasting the message. Nothing about the policy coming out of the White House indicates to me a president who is suffering from dementia or whatever

It really didn't help Biden that he seemed sleepy and rambling at his press conference, even without the Mexico/Egypt mixup. I have some concerns about his ability to do 4 more years of the most demanding job on earth, because senescence can take sudden jumps in the advanced years. Not guaranteed, but it's a reasonable thing to worry about.

I don't doubt his ability to do the job right now. But he does have to get re-elected, and so he and his staff do need to get their shit together. They need to accept the media as it is, and take control of the narrative. Biden needs to find ways to get into the spotlight more, and not fuck it up.

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4 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

All he has to do is talk. And he can't even do that properly. 

Executive level jobs are a piece of piss.

Come on dude. At least try to know what you're talking about before commenting.

Most demanding if you take it seriously, yes. Not so much if you're watching Fox News and tweeting.

Edit: Just look at some before and after pics of previous presidents to see what it does to people.

Edited by Phylum of Alexandria
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4 minutes ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

Come on dude. At least try to know what you're talking about before commenting.

Most demanding if you take it seriously, yes. Not so much if you're watching Fox News and tweeting.

I know plenty of C-suite types. The 'work' they do is nothing like the work their underlings perform. 

Attending meetings and delegating tasks is literally all he has to do. 

I can think of dozens of jobs far more demanding than being POTUS. 

Edited by Spockydog
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So what is the difference? Other than access to nukes, please tell me what the practical, day to day differences are between beig POTUS and a CEO of a top firm? 

The roles and responsibilities are practically identical. 

 

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I mean, if you change the word Demanding to Important, you'll get no argument from me.

But let's be honest, having every single whim catered for, and being mollycoddled by the hundreds of people running around after you, is never going to be demanding. 

It's like when people talked about QEII when she died, as if she was this relentless worker, literally working her tits off until she dropped dead for the sake of the country.

Erm, no. 

 

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7 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Oil rigger. Brain surgeon. Airline pilot. 

There's three I just pulled out of my ass.

Wherever you pulled them from, these jobs differ from the presidency in many ways. First of all, the folks who hold them are not continually under the microscope of public scrutiny, with every word, action and gesture dissected and criticized. Second, these folks are not subject to the thicket of laws that govern how a president must communicate--remember Obama trying to keep his Blackberry? Finally, even the world's most preeminent brain surgeon gets to take a vacation, but the president is on call all of the time, every day, every minute, every where. 

So I'd say that being president is a pretty damn demanding job. If you do it like Trump--barely at all--it's less so.

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8 hours ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Frankly I don't think anyone that was at least in college in the 90's should be in office. 

While I get the sentiment, that would eliminate not only all boomers, but all GenXrs, and decent bunch of older or just precocious Millennials from office.  Unless you are thinking of one of the hangers-on from Animal House, only like a third of the remainder that can vote would even meet the minimum age for President.

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20 minutes ago, horangi said:

While I get the sentiment, that would eliminate not only all boomers, but all GenXrs, and decent bunch of older or just precocious Millennials from office.  Unless you are thinking of one of the hangers-on from Animal House, only like a third of the remainder that can vote would even meet the minimum age for President.

Pete Buttigieg is one year younger than Ty's cutoff, so he'd go from being one of the younger people there straight to being the new Biden. 

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21 minutes ago, Larry of the Lawn said:

It can't be that tough, Donald fucking Trump and G.W. Bush did it.  

Haha, after Trump, I remember thinking, "Clearly, the nation can get by without a functional president. Maybe we should make it a part-time job?" ;)

Edited by TrackerNeil
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