By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Any day now. That's the word in the streets and hallowed hallways of Congress. President Joe Biden's expected exit from the 2024 presidential election is in the works. Pointed, unguarded nudges have come steadily over the last few days, from national polls to Democratic Party leaders.
Recent gains by Republican aspirant Donald J. Trump have not helped 81-year-old Biden.
Age apparently matters.
Editorials in America's largest, most influential newspapers have led the drumbeat, that and a rain of get-gone commentary on television talk shows. Joe Biden has seen and heard the bad news come calling.
An editorial in The New York Times painted Biden as being "the shadow of a great public servant" who "struggled to make it to the end of a sentence." He's been disappointing and confused., they wrote.
In The Los Angeles Times, a columnist described him as "a tongue-tied octogenarian."
That writer noted Biden "ended one tangled explanation of his tax proposals with the puzzling phrase: " 'we finally beat Medicare.' " Biden was "dismal" at the first debate. "Stunning," he added for killing effect.
What followed was a news media that had old age its focus.
Biden’s closest allies called on him to step aside.
That, we are led to believe by the most recent journalism, could be any moment/day now. It is a behind-the-scenes push currently underway supposedly led by former President Barack Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has had Biden in a political lurch - to fight it to the end or to relent.
Three and a half months remain in this campaign, and yes, much can happen between now and Election Day on November 5th, but there is the reality of where Biden's troubled campaign could possibly go to keep him in the race.
He is battling an equally old man in 78-year-old Trump, but the optics of the two men on the campaign trail could not be much more different.
Trump, meanwhile, has fended off some nagging legal blows, seen the Supreme Court hand him surprising victories and even survived an assassination attempt. Biden's window has shown nothing of the sort, merely that of an old dude being asked repeatedly to step aside for the good of the party and allow for a fairer fight at the polls.
The obvious, we say, is coming...
-30-
Stay with us on the Comments feature. No complaints yesterday by readers who earlier reported getting "Failed to publish" messages after submitting their thoughts. Perhaps it has been resolved...
ReplyDeleteForget the fact that it was supposed to be the American citizens who chose their candidate during the primary elections. Forget the fact that over 13 million registered voters picked him during the primaries to represent them.
ReplyDeleteI'm still sticking with Biden.
DeleteThe Dems, like the Republicans, just want to win. No mystery here.
ReplyDeleteDamned right. Go Joe!!!!
DeleteThe leader of the free world and my country cannot be a rapist, adulterer, tax cheat or convicted felon. That's what I know. Vote Blue.
ReplyDeleteYou said it.
DeleteIn our political system, the party picks the candidate - democrats are doing it, just like Republicans picked the worst American ever!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw Trump's speech last night. I can't believe that this person is being allowed to run for President, this is so SAD.
ReplyDeleteThat's some ugly, fleshy yucky neck. Looks animalistic.
DeletePeople, let this sink in.....Over 40 people, who served in his administration are not supporting Trump! They knew him for what he is - a fraud.
ReplyDeleteHis former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him an idiot and quit the administration.
DeleteWhat I don't like is foreign leaders laughing at my president, like they did when Trump was in office.
DeleteFirst, the brain is a terrible thing to waste, so I read a book last night. I want to see how the global shut down of commerce will play out. It is said to have been caused by a program update by Microsoft. The question will be, is it time to break up Microsoft? They said ATT was too big to be broken up, but they were wrong.
ReplyDeleteBig Business will always evolve
DeleteMicrosoft soon will offer keys for a fee to resolve global outages, wait for it.
DeleteHere come the bank runs.
DeleteMy laptop was on restart loop for an hour after which I turned off my laptop. That company's chief is now talking like nothing happened
DeleteMicrosoft says it has fixed the underlying cause of the global IT outage which has grounded flights and hobbled businesses and services around the world. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on X on Friday that the fault had been identified and “a fix has been deployed,” adding that it wasn’t a cyberattack.
DeleteAll I did was do a windows UPDATE and now my printer won't work
DeleteAirlines suffered huge blackouts. poor travelers.
DeleteTrump has no solution for INFLATION except to give more tax cuts to the wealthy, which is already not working.
ReplyDeleteHis solution for ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is simply to pander to his base's racial fears and build an unsustainable and useless see through fence billed to taxpayers.
And finally his solution for an INTERNATIONAL CRISIS is a complete surrender to both Russia and China.
Sorry, can you please explain who, exactly, was under some illusion that getting shot in the ear was going to do anything to improve Dump’s personality? National Unity? Not these Republicans.
ReplyDeleteStaged.
DeleteIT WAS STAGED.......FULL STOP! He will do ANYTHING to get the attention and sympathy he craves! Just STOP already!
DeleteI see people I know on Facebook quoting the Bible in how God protected trump, and it was predicted so when the Bible was written. They say. Too bad their god couldn’t protect that man behind trump the same way. Maybe God punished him for being at such a filthy place with all those idiots.
ReplyDeleteAnti-immigrant, racist FOX newsman Lou Dobbs died yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSpeak only good of the dead.
He’s dead. Good.
Stop it. I’m just getting over four days of gastroenteritis. Watching Trump speak would be fatal. Just reading here is bringing on waves of nausea.
ReplyDeleteThe lineup of celebrities who lead-in to Trump's triumphal speech: the manager of his golf club and another golfer, Hulk Hogan and the head of the World Wrestling Federation who assaulted his wife in a restaurant and it was caught on tape.
ReplyDeleteNo politicians, no former officials nothing. NADA
Not a single actual genuine celebrity???
Trump has atrocious taste.
Let's hope Joe Biden makes the right decision.
ReplyDeleteIt can no longer be ignored after the "Debate". Everyone knows Biden is old as is McConnell and Grassley. When McConnell froze, Republicans swept it aside as well.
ReplyDeleteThere should be a law that a President cannot run for office if he/she is over 70 years old. It's not an old man's job. Trump should withdraw, too. he's way overweight. One more Quarterpounder and..........
ReplyDeleteRepublicans and Russian bots all over the Internet. They want Joe to stay in the race. Such FEAR!!!!
ReplyDeleteBecause with any other democrat, clumpy Trump would be the OLD GUY!
DeleteAmericans are not happy with Trump's staged assassination.
DeleteThe convention was the biggest joke ever and all of those that showed up are the CLOWNS
ReplyDeleteYeah, I had a feeling this would happen. People are tired of his comedy routines. The entire Republican Party is a joke.
And our Congresswoman Monica De la Cruz gave a speech in which she talked about her grandpa picking watermelon. sheeeeesh.
Delete@12:21 Yes, that was pitiful. Always with the farmworker for Mexicans in politics.
DeletePoor Monica looked like a mature old broad at a dating gathering for seniors.
DeleteThe donor coup makes me think of Trump. The decision of the major donors to withhold donations from Democrats running in the House, Senate, and the White House reveals a truth, money buys elections. This is scary. I cannot force anyone to donate, but I can fear their influence when candidates refuse to do as they are told.
ReplyDeleteDon't fall so easily for the reporting on donors. Those guys do things behind the scenes.
DeleteThe time has come for Trump's live federal court case to start in DC. The truth needs to come out, so people know what they are voting for. Please President Joe Biden, do your duty and order Trump's fair and impartial televised federal court trial to begin immediately.
ReplyDeleteI find the Depends patch on his ear hilarious. A slight nick at the top and he had them put this on. Always playing the victim
ReplyDeleteThe GOP candidate for president actually brought up Hannibal Lector during his nomination acceptance speech. I've never been more embarrassed for America.
ReplyDeleteHe's hopeless.
DeleteDid you see where Melania ducked kissing Trump when she went onstage? ha ha aha ha ha Melania is just doing the minimum needed to keep Donald funding her lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteStormy Daniels was the REAL First lady; that's why Melania wouldn't pucker-up........
DeleteMelania already looks like an ex-wife.
DeleteInvestigators now believe that the Steam account in the name of the man who shot at former President Donald Trump over the weekend is fake
ReplyDeleteFor a long minute, I really thought that Trump had changed with this near-death experience, but then after watching his nomination speech it reminds me of exactly why I can't stand him. I can't see myself voting for a person who quite literally cheated death and still hasn't changed!
ReplyDeleteIt was a sham. Watch it all come out.
DeleteOn Trump shooting: There is NO fool proof way of protecting anyone
ReplyDeleteThe 20 year old was tired of Trump's bullshit.
DeleteTrump lives in Bizarro world!
ReplyDeleteNO BUMP for Trump off his psycho convention! GO JOE!!!
DeleteThe world is always just one computer glitch away from total meltdown. Gotta love living in the tech age. (Love your blog. at lunch here in our office)
ReplyDeletePres. Biden has to be able to make his own case for re-election, and it's pathetically evident that he's increasingly incapable of doing so. If he was doing so, journalists would be saying so.
ReplyDeleteJust a reminder that the reason Trump had to pick a new VP is because his supporters tried to kill the previous one.
ReplyDeleteYeah, where is old fly-in-my-hair Mike Pence? ja ja ja
DeleteI support Biden 100% Biden has done more to help America and the American people than any other President we have had for years. I am 73 and have seen some Presidents. It's always the Democratic Presidents who do more for our own people as well as having better diplomatic relationships around the world.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not mistaken, the doctors never spoke to the Nation in reference to the severity of his injury to his ear, did they?
ReplyDeleteIf I were Biden watching Trump’s speech last night, I’m not so sure I would be convinced that I need to leave the race, either.
ReplyDeleteInteresting in that I agree with that.
Deletewe need to stop these leaks and tell people to shut the f'up, they are not helping matters. It's Biden or a wanna be dictator, that's it.
ReplyDeleteI do think, at this point, the public assertions by Biden and his team that he’s staying in the race is simply the brave face….and that the reports suggesting that he’s making plans to step down are real.
DeleteI won’t pretend that I definitively know what the answer is, but I do know that I have yet to hear a viable plan if Biden steps aside at this late stage. Harris is the only viable alternative option in my mind because of ballot issues and the 100-million-dollar war chest that cannot be transferred to someone not currently on the ticket. Passing over her would also rightfully infuriate Black voters. But if we are to believe AOC, Harris is far from the consensus pick for party elites. That is just asking for a disastrous outcome. The grass is not always greener on the other side
ReplyDeleteTrump mentioned Hannibal Lecter again, and praise for Victor Orban. Not to mention promising to deport 10 million+ people. He went off teleprompter very early again, and it was 1½ hrs (!) of mostly incoherent word salad.
ReplyDeleteHe is in a serious state of mental decline, and the MSM need to pick up on this fast. But they won’t (MSM owned by the oligarchs, and they just love Trump because something, something… taxes), so we need to!
After the RNC and Trump’s speech I think either Biden or Harris at the top of the ticket can beat Trump, although I think Biden has a better chance of holding the House and the Senate. This is a time when Americans are going to vote for stability and against derangement. Biden at the top of ticket is therefore less risky.
ReplyDeleteMAGA going after JD Vance's Indian-descent wife. And just like Ted Cruz, JD Vance will fail to defend his wife against the insults and slurs of MAGA, because he would rather have a ticket on the Trump Titanic than a healthy marriage.
ReplyDeleteShe was born here but she looks to them like an immigrant. poor woman.
DeleteHonestly getting a little boring. Bring on the election already.
ReplyDeleteDitto. I am not blaming the blog editor. He is just reporting. But it seems that every time these anonymous sources say Biden is leaving, Biden comes out and says he is staying.
DeleteBiden is just waiting for the right moment. isn't that what politicians do all the time?
DeleteHulk Hogan at the Republican convention? Talk about a has-been. What, El Santo was not available?
ReplyDeleteHell no, El Santo wouldn't be seen at that freak show!!!
DeleteI'm voting Dem no matter what anyone does. No way I vote for the convicted felon Trump.
ReplyDeleteYou and 81 million others
DeleteIf anyone believed a brush with death was going to grow Trump a heart and soul, its clearly evident that is an impossibility. His “sweet talk” quickly reverts to lies and a vengeance rant. He is who he is PERIOD.
ReplyDeleteHe, his family and politian MAGA disrupters should not be anywhere near the WHITE House ever again.
The only choice we have of saving democracy and this country is to
VOTE BLUE.
Man, what a week it's been. Damned glad it's Friday.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe anything Trump says that sounds sane. If it sounds sane, he's lying and will never be sane if you let him win the Presidency. He isn't going to change, he can lie and manipulate and get you to change your mind, but the truth is, he is a liar, cheat and felon. Don't forget that. If you are voting for Trump, you have been greatly manipulated to do so.
ReplyDeleteit’s shocking that any member of the media would fall for a "New Trump" after the shooting, do so after eight years of similarly empty promises. Maybe they did so out of amnesia or gullibility. Maybe they really wanted to believe that Trump would play the unifier this time.
DeleteThey were wrong.
Trump shooter
ReplyDeleteA 20 year old that worked in the kitchen of a nursing home?
3 encrypted bank accounts overseas?
The plot thickens.
Too many catastrophic failures to be "just a bad day" for secret service
Deletewe are fked if the mainstream media keeps treating Trump like this is completely normal.
ReplyDeleteHow's this: Trump posing and holding up his fist, making him a clear target, was because he knew the plot - one shooter and not, say, several with rifles. What if it had been two/three shooters with multiple bullet clips? Naaaaah, he knew exactly what was going down.
ReplyDeleteTrump sounds like a broken record . . Nothing's changed about that Felon
ReplyDeleteOne of the most revealing parts of VEEP-selectee JD Vance’s story concerns his cultural conditioning at Yale University where he received "tens of thousands of dollars in need-based aid" as "one of the poorest kids in school."
ReplyDeleteAffirmative Action ring a bell?
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, national co-chair of President Biden’s reelection campaign, said today that Biden is "weighing" who would be the best Democratic nominee to defeat Trump in November, indicating Biden is carefully evaluating the option of stepping aside for another candidate.
ReplyDeleteLeaving work and headed for a drink, but -
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
What?!?!
Do you not or can you not read!!!
President Biden has already said he will not quit!!!
The DNC has said President Biden is the nominee!!!
The voters gave President Biden a win in the primary!!!
The voters will decide on Nov 5th!!!
Get over it!!!
Joe Biden will win in a landslide!!!
Just let the voters decide! I appreciate your thoughtful input!
ReplyDeleteI wonder, yet again, exactly how much did Melania demand for her presence at the convention, the cringey greeting on stage, and the clearly distasteful obligatory hand holding?! He's revolting.
ReplyDelete