I’m an old friend of Joes in both senses. And I’m a subscriber, for money. Sanity clause deserves the support. My reaction to this column was that a conclusion was missing. About Joe Biden. Joe Klein has commented very, very, very often about Biden’s age, faltering steps, aged senescent appearance, wish there were someone else. Etc. The Gettysburg piece with Trump made something else obvious. The media has complet normalized Trump - yes,he’s terrible and woukd be awful, but look at Biden, wishhe weren’t there. It’s time to stop. Biden is what we got, yes it woukd be better if he were 20 years younger, he looks all of 81 (I’m older than Biden is and guess what? If you’re 81, you look and feel,it. Can’t get away from it) But he’s been a good president and if you think that managing the multiple crises of the last years is,simple then you’re as dumb as my cousin a good ole boy who thought the turtle got on the fence post,by accident. I
Ahh, Bo. I think I've been fair to Biden, especially when it comes to policy stuff. I've given him credit for the massive bipartisan legislation he's gotten through. I think his foreign policy has been wise. But my job is to observe, not obfuscate. You just can't ignore Biden's age. As my podcast partner John Ellis believes, that's the threshold lens through which most voters approach Biden. And you can't ignore his failures--especially on the southern border, which is inexplicable...or his premature support for electric cars, which will be exploited by Trump. My general support for his presidency would be about as credible as Marjorie Taylor Greene's support for Trump if I were just a cheerleader. That's not how I roll, as you know.
Ahh Joe, as you know I think you’ve overdone it. The point that he is old has now been made. He can’t change it, nor can anyone else. And there is no one in the known universe who doesn’t know it. The alternative - the orange guy - is about as old, and in worse shape, and psychotic, and far far less articulate but (like the shortstop who can’t hit but on the other hand can’t field) he is also a proto authoritarian, was a terrible president, has surrounded himself with the worst of America, and is a criminal. At some point the media has to stop normalizing this awful person. I don’t know but what you choose - a guy who tried a coup, is guilty of rape, or a guy who may be somewhat too fond of electric vehicles. The next effort by the “sound, responsible “ media will be to urge a debate so they can really normalize. ‘“ President Biden we are asking about inflation and electric cars right now. We’ll consider President Trumps efforts at a coup at a later point”.
Do you think I've normalized Trump here? As you and every last Sanity Clause reader knows, I think Trump is a sociopath who tried to overthrow American Democracy. He must be stopped. But that won't happen by gilding the lily about Biden and the utter stupidity of the Democratic Party's left. Sanity isn't "balance." It is an attempt to locate reality.
But how do we get the people who seem convinced things were better under Trump to come back to reality? That’s the question that has to be resolved before we get to November.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "
~ ~ ~
Donald J. Trump on April 12, 1014:
“Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable ― I mean, it was so much and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways.
“Gettysburg. Wow. I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch. And the statement of Robert E. Lee ― who’s no longer in favor, did you ever notice that? No longer in favor ― ‘Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill. He said, ‘Wow, that was a big mistake.’ He lost his great general, and they were fighting. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys!’ But it was too late.”
I’m an old friend of Joes in both senses. And I’m a subscriber, for money. Sanity clause deserves the support. My reaction to this column was that a conclusion was missing. About Joe Biden. Joe Klein has commented very, very, very often about Biden’s age, faltering steps, aged senescent appearance, wish there were someone else. Etc. The Gettysburg piece with Trump made something else obvious. The media has complet normalized Trump - yes,he’s terrible and woukd be awful, but look at Biden, wishhe weren’t there. It’s time to stop. Biden is what we got, yes it woukd be better if he were 20 years younger, he looks all of 81 (I’m older than Biden is and guess what? If you’re 81, you look and feel,it. Can’t get away from it) But he’s been a good president and if you think that managing the multiple crises of the last years is,simple then you’re as dumb as my cousin a good ole boy who thought the turtle got on the fence post,by accident. I
Ahh, Bo. I think I've been fair to Biden, especially when it comes to policy stuff. I've given him credit for the massive bipartisan legislation he's gotten through. I think his foreign policy has been wise. But my job is to observe, not obfuscate. You just can't ignore Biden's age. As my podcast partner John Ellis believes, that's the threshold lens through which most voters approach Biden. And you can't ignore his failures--especially on the southern border, which is inexplicable...or his premature support for electric cars, which will be exploited by Trump. My general support for his presidency would be about as credible as Marjorie Taylor Greene's support for Trump if I were just a cheerleader. That's not how I roll, as you know.
Ahh Joe, as you know I think you’ve overdone it. The point that he is old has now been made. He can’t change it, nor can anyone else. And there is no one in the known universe who doesn’t know it. The alternative - the orange guy - is about as old, and in worse shape, and psychotic, and far far less articulate but (like the shortstop who can’t hit but on the other hand can’t field) he is also a proto authoritarian, was a terrible president, has surrounded himself with the worst of America, and is a criminal. At some point the media has to stop normalizing this awful person. I don’t know but what you choose - a guy who tried a coup, is guilty of rape, or a guy who may be somewhat too fond of electric vehicles. The next effort by the “sound, responsible “ media will be to urge a debate so they can really normalize. ‘“ President Biden we are asking about inflation and electric cars right now. We’ll consider President Trumps efforts at a coup at a later point”.
Do you think I've normalized Trump here? As you and every last Sanity Clause reader knows, I think Trump is a sociopath who tried to overthrow American Democracy. He must be stopped. But that won't happen by gilding the lily about Biden and the utter stupidity of the Democratic Party's left. Sanity isn't "balance." It is an attempt to locate reality.
But how do we get the people who seem convinced things were better under Trump to come back to reality? That’s the question that has to be resolved before we get to November.
Brilliant.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESSES
Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "
~ ~ ~
Donald J. Trump on April 12, 1014:
“Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable ― I mean, it was so much and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways.
“Gettysburg. Wow. I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch. And the statement of Robert E. Lee ― who’s no longer in favor, did you ever notice that? No longer in favor ― ‘Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill. He said, ‘Wow, that was a big mistake.’ He lost his great general, and they were fighting. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys!’ But it was too late.”
Some people have to learn the hard way that the price of freedom is never cheap.