“The moral case for Joe Biden.”

April 26, 2023

          President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced their re-election bid on April 25^th, 2023. The three-minute video containing the announcement is here: Biden Harris Re-election announcement. I urge you to watch the video. It is effective, inspiring, and realistic. It does not shrink from calling out MAGA extremism while emphasizing a message of hope and optimism.

          I also urge you to share the video with family, friends, and neighbors. And while you are at it, go to Joe Biden for President (the official campaign website) and sign up for communications from the campaign. Finally, if you feel comfortable doing so, make a small donation. The donation size is less important than the fact that millions of Americans show their support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris early in the campaign. Such support creates momentum and confidence. I wish it were otherwise, but I don’t make the rules!

          Will you thereafter receive constant fundraising appeals from the Biden-Harris campaign? Of course, you will! But you can always unsubscribe from, ignore, or divert such messages. It is an unfortunate fact that fundraising is an important part of presidential campaigns, so let’s not blame Joe and Kamala for doing what is necessary to win. After all, they are fighting for us!

          The announcement was met with varied responses from major media outlets. Here is a sampling:

• Washington Post Editorial Board, Biden is right. We’re still fighting a battle for the soul of America.

• NYTimes, Biden Is Running on His Record as President. Here’s Where He Stands.

• The Atlantic, Joe Biden Isn’t Popular. That Might Not Matter in 2024.

• The Hill, Trump is enemy No. 1 as Biden makes it official.

• CNN/Jill Filipovic, Opinion: I don’t love Biden, but I’m terrified of Trump.

          Two outlets captured the sense of grudging respect for Biden that seems to dominate much of the media ecosystem. Rolling Stone ran with the headline “Boring is Good: The Moral Case for Joe Biden” with the sub-header, “Interesting” is overrated. Beating a fascist isn’t.”

          Per Rolling Stone’s Jay Michaelson,

If you are a little bit bored by Tuesday’s announcement that Joe Biden is running for re-election, I sympathize. The guy and his re-election campaign are not that exciting. Ageism aside, he’s 80 and showing it. He’s basically an establishment liberal, not pushing for the kinds of systemic changes that many of us — younger people in particular — are pushing for. He’s just not that exciting.

Which is good.

Really good.

          Michaelson explains that America needs Biden to “turn down the heat” while exercising a steady hand. He continues,

Let’s also remember that the Biden administration has done some amazing things. On climate change, the badly named “Inflation Reduction Act” is the most ambitious and significant environmental initiative in American history . . . . But also with reproductive justice, transgender rights, and racial justice — basically, everything the Republican Party is trying to destroy, the Biden administration has fought to protect. And they’ve been a lot smarter than the administration’s social media haters might suggest.

           Vox takes a similar view in its article entitled The quiet radicalism of Joe Biden’s presidency, which asserts that Biden has been a revolutionary president who has disguised his radical achievements as incrementalism. Per Vox,

“We’ve actually undergone incredible, fundamental legislative and structural change, and he speaks about it as if it were incrementalism,” María Teresa Kumar, the president and CEO of the activist group Voto Latino, told me. “Any one piece of legislation, the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure act, the Inflation Reduction Act, any one of those, standing alone, would have been a signature piece of legislation under any presidency. And he has actually couched it in palatable ways so that it brings the country together.”

          To be clear, Biden faces significant challenges in the short term. But Democrats have every right to tout his achievements. Shortly after his announcement, I received a flurry of emails from readers asking for an online resource from which they could “cut and paste” Biden’s achievements to share with friends. Some wanted me to create and maintain such an online resource (beyond my capabilities!). If you want immediate access to Biden’s signature accomplishments, see The Biden-Harris Record | The White House.

          But . . . if any reader is aware of a resource that lists Biden’s accomplishments that can be easily copied/embedded in emails, texts, or social media, please email me (by “replying” to this newsletter) or by posting in the Comments section (paying subscribers).

          One reader urged me to urge Biden and his supporters to go on the attack early and often. The reader wrote, in part,

I believe Democrats need to run a largely negative campaign. I don’t like saying that, but I believe it is the wisest course. For the average independent (not you) the most compelling reason to vote for Biden is that he is not Trump. People need constantly to be reminded just how awful Trump is. You don’t need me to make the list.

          There is truth in the reader’s observation. Sadly, negative campaigning works—and Biden will be subjected to an enormous amount of negative messaging largely based on conspiracy theories and racist tropes about Democrats. Trump will be vulnerable on many fronts—a fact that Biden acknowledged by beginning his 2024 re-election announcement with video of January 6^th. So, Biden understands the need to hit Trump hard politically.

          Biden’s re-election announcement was slightly overshadowed by negative developments relating to Trump and the Supreme Court. That is not all bad—because it makes the point that “boring but revolutionary Joe” is what the nation needs. In the words of Rolling Stone, “Interesting is overrated.”

More scandal on the Supreme Court.

          It turns out that Clarence Thomas isn’t the only justice who failed to disclose sources of income on his disclosure forms. Justice Gorsuch sold a vacation home (in which he held a partial interest) to the chairman of a national law firm that makes regular appearances before the Supreme Court. While Gorsuch listed the receipt of income from the sale, he did not list the person who purchased the vacation home—thereby concealing possible sources of ethical conflicts. See Politico, Law firm head bought Gorsuch-owned property.

          Per Politico,

For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colo.

Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court . . . .

Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms.

Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser. That box was left blank.

Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court . . . .

          Frankly, this entire situation stinks. Even if Gorsuch did not violate the law (and I don’t yet have a view on the subject), he violated the spirit of impartiality and independence that should govern the Court’s business.

          Not to worry. Senator Durbin has invited Chief Justice Roberts to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee to clear up this mess! Oh, wait! Justice Roberts has declined Durbin’s invitation to testify because Roberts knows he cannot possibly defend the Court’s patent corruption. See Reuters, Supreme Court’s Roberts declines to appear at Senate Judiciary hearing. Or, as Huffington Post put it, It reeks! Roberts refuses Senate!

          Justice Roberts invoked “separation of powers” as grounds for his refusal to testify. That might be a persuasive excuse if Roberts was exercising his power to rein in the corruption on the Court. Given his dereliction of duty, he should at least have the decency to cooperate with Congress to rehabilitate the Court.

Something to celebrate!

          The state of Washington enacted an assault weapons ban today! See CNN, Washington governor signs statewide ban on sale of assault-style weapons. Equally important, Governor Inslee signed legislation enacting a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases and a law “empowering consumers with the ability to sue firearm manufacturers or retailers for irresponsible conduct.” The latter provision may be the most effective way to restrain irresponsible gun sales by manufacturers and retailers. Kudos to the state of Washington for showing the way forward!

The end of FiveThirtyEight.com?

          Ten years ago, Disney/ABC purchased the polling data website FiveThirtyEight.com. ABC News just terminated Nate Silver’s employment at the website, along with most of his staff dedicated to political polling. The puzzling development is discussed in Talking Points Memo, The (Almost) End of 538. Silver still owns the intellectual property that drives his polling aggregation models, so he may re-invent FiveThirtyEight.com elsewhere.

Correction.  

          Yesterday, I wrote, “According to the LATimes, Carlson was fired for dissing management in private texts and emails.” The sentence should have stated, “According to The Washington Post, Carlson was fired for dissing management in private texts and emails.” Thanks to the readers who noted the error.

 Concluding Thoughts.

          On April 26, 2023, I will celebrate my 67^th birthday. My wife and I have known each other for 61 of those years! (We met in First Grade!) She has made every year special, and I am the person I am because of her. Thank you, darling!

          In the April 24, 2020, edition of the newsletter, I wrote a short essay about turning 64 years old. The essay has stood the test of time, so I repeat it as my wish for my 67^th birthday:

When I’m 64.

          So, what do I want when I’m sixty-four?

          When I’m sixty-four, I want our nation to experience a rebirth. I want Americans to reclaim the rule of law at the polls in November [2020]. I want our nation to begin a period of healing and return to decency. I want Americans to understand that we have vastly more in common with one another than not, and I want America to know that it has vastly more in common with our global neighbors than not. I want science to be viewed as a force for good and enlightenment, the crowning achievement of millions of years of human evolution. I want everyone to feel in their bones our precious and tenuous connection to Earth, ‘the only home we’ve ever known.’ I want everyone to appreciate the blessings we have rather than resent blessings bestowed on others. I want everyone to realize that we have a moral obligation to clothe, feed, house, and protect those who need our help. I want everyone to recognize the dignity inherent in every fellow human being. That’s what I want when I’m sixty-four.

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          Bless all of you for accompanying me on this journey! It is an honor and a privilege! Talk to you tomorrow!