President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I don't necessarily believe - nor did I say - his meds are "scrambling his brain."

But if your headline depends on the phrase "flashing a sharper edge," you might want to report on all the possible reasons for recent changes in his behavior, demeanor or methods of expression.

 

Especially in light of

As he has morphed into a different kind of politician than anyone expected him to be, Mr. Fetterman has lost some of the top advisers who helped get him where he is today — the ones who guided him through a turbulent Senate campaign and debilitating health episodes, including a life-threatening stroke before he was elected and a six-week hospitalization just after he arrived in the Senate when he was treated for clinical depression.

Mr. Fetterman’s longtime political adviser, Rebecca Katz, the person he spoke with first in the morning and last at night through his 2022 Senate campaign and who has been at his side since 2015, has recently moved on.

His first Senate chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, who kept him connected to the outside world during his stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, quietly resigned last month, taking on a role as an outside adviser. Three top press liaisons have left his office, including Joe Calvello, his communications director and a close aide who had been with him since the 2022 campaign. (Despite the high-level departures, Mr. Fetterman’s office has less turnover overall than average for a Senate office.)

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/clout/john-fetterman-staffers-joe-cavello-20240329.html

https://nypost.com/2024/03/30/us-ne...-backlash-over-politicians-pro-israel-stance/

 

For what it’s worth, Fetterman’s views on Israel and immigration haven’t really “changed” at all.

 

That's my point.

While the views haven't changed, the mechanism for expressing them has.

 

Being Pennsylvanian is often at odds with being in polite society.

 

He certainly knows the crowd would love him.

 

Honestly, I'm sure there are things that have changed. I think it's odd to go right to meds. I really do, but maybe I'm in the minority there.

I can imagine this job is a pretty major stress on the guy; he may not be able to do more than six years.

It's an increasingly hard job to do, period. Your staff lives on social media and the internet; they can live and die with every critique, especially if they're progressives who feel a need to solve every wail on the web. You have weirdos across the political spectrum coming up to you with their phones, trying to conduct longform struggle sessions on the spot. There's a video out there of Fetterman sitting on a bench surrounded by perfectly nice people who nevertheless want an immediate audience with him on Israel/Palestine and want to film all of his responses.

And maybe he got to Congress and realized at least some of the Republicans aren't seething devils, while some of the Democrats are cold, unpleasant people. What do you do when, suddenly, your avowed enemy is kind of likable?

 

Mean Eggs and Scam

I do not, do not like
the unified reich

 

Guess who's bringing the word salad to the Memorial Day picnic?

 

Alison Cooper?

 

Alice Cooper's evil twin.

 

Obviously it wasn't a typo from Trump. We know exactly what he meant with that.