President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Third category should be Already Voted By Mail.

 

Nah, I expect good stuff like TrueSouth from Wright Thompson, John T. Edge and SEC Network.

 

An excellent read, thanks. Definitely worth your time ...

Presidents must be held to higher standards. Their quips move markets. Their words invite or ward off aggression. Save or end lives. Examples abound of even experienced leaders forgetting their rhetorical reach.

Dwight Eisenhower’s 1956 promise of aid inspired Hungarians to revolt against Soviet control, leading most to their death or to exile. Ike never thought they’d take him so literally. He meant moral and rhetorical aid, the thoughts and prayers kind. Hungary’s freedom fighters expected guns, or better yet American troops that Eisenhower never meant to imply would be forthcoming. Desperate people heard what they wanted to hear when the man in the Oval Office was unclear.

Words mattered at the end of the Cold War, too. Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” against his own State Department’s guidance, which also tried to stop him from saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” lest such a direct challenge rile the Kremlin. But that was precisely Reagan’s point. Another word for “rile” is “catalyze,” which is what Reagan hoped to do to the rumblings of change behind the Iron Curtain.

George H.W. Bush also understood the power of presidential proclamations and was thus largely mute when the Berlin Wall finally fell in 1989. “I guess I’m just not an excitable guy,” he told CBS reporter Leslie Stahl and a similarly bewildered White House press corps amazed by his laconic response. But Bush knew presidential triumphalism at that precarious moment might spark a hard-line backlash. “I’m not going to dance on the wall,” he said privately, forgoing personal political gain to preserve America’s Cold War triumph.

Presidents are supposed to care more about the nation’s fate than their own. Barack Obama’s reputation suffered when he refused to back up his own “red line” against Syrian use of chemical weapons in 2013, but he ultimately reasoned his promise to avoid another Middle East quagmire mattered more than his own temporary loss of prestige. Joe Biden’s decision to keep his promise to end America’s generation-long fight in Afghanistan showed consistency even when retaliation for losses endured during the evacuation might have helped him in the polls. Better to demonstrate prudence, he reasoned, than to rashly reverse a well-considered decision in hope of temporarily saving face. ...

International politics is not best overseen by saints or sophists. We are forced to trust the person we put in charge of our security to use their words judiciously. But Donald Trump shuns what Ike learned, Reagan deployed, Bush restrained and Obama realized: The big stick of American power requires speaking not so much softly as reliably.

 

“Thou shall not run the spread offense!”

 

You are very welcome, my friend. I have one of Engel's books: When the World Seemed New about Bush 41 and the end of the Cold War. I've read it twice.

 

Gas today in Michigan: 2.999.

 

It is the night, my body's weak
I'm on the run, no time to tweet
I've got to lie, lie like the wind
To be free again

And it won't be such a long way to go (such a long way to go)
To make it about the border of Mexico
So I'll lie like the wind
Lie like the wind

I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a phone in my hand
Lived nine lives, seems more like ten
Gonna lie like the wind

And it won't be such a long way to go (such a long way to go)
To make it about the border of Mexico
So I'll lie like the wind
Lie like the wind

Accused and tried and my veep they tried to hang
I was nowhere in sight when the church bells rang
Never was the kind to do as I was told
Gonna ride lie the wind this is getting old

 

Michael McDonald weeps. Of course, you could always use his “Taking it to the Tweets.”

 

“Martin, so there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here, do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking? Water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.” I said, ‘I think it’s a good question.’ I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water. But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted, I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark. So we’re going to end that.”

 

The election can't get here soon enough.

 

There’s no double standard. Let’s not question all the flat out lies by the GOP

Tim Walz faces new question: How many 'misspeaks' can a 'knucklehead' get away with?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...walz-gaffes-2024-election-impact/75478078007/