Tuesday, February 07, 2023

The Weakness Of The Democratic Party's Presidential Bench...


PoliticalPunditryIsNotProFootball
StateOfTheUnionVille


I usually have a lot of time for the writing of Michelle Goldberg, who is a regular OpEd columnist for the New York Times.

Her latest piece, published in the lead-up to this evening's 'State of the Union' address first extolls the numerous successes of the current US'ian president, Joe Biden:

...(Biden's) presided over record job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. Whereas Donald Trump’s infrastructure weeks were a running joke, Biden signed the largest infusion of federal funds into infrastructure in more than a decade. His Inflation Reduction Act made a historic investment in clean energy; the head of the International Energy Agency called it the most important climate action since the 2015 Paris climate accord. (And incidentally, inflation is finally coming down.) Biden rallied Western nations to support Ukraine against Russia’s imperialist invasion and ended America’s long, fruitless war in Afghanistan, albeit with an ugly and ignominious exit. His administration capped insulin prices for seniors, codified federal recognition of gay marriage and shot down that spy balloon everyone was freaking out about. He’s on track to appoint more federal judges than Trump...

 {snip}

 ...In other words, Biden has been a great president. He’s made good on an uncommon number of campaign promises. He should be celebrated on Tuesday...


Ms. Goldberg then pivots to the latest obsession of the chattering classes of the Acela corridor:

...Biden has been a great president. He’s made good on an uncommon number of campaign promises. He should be celebrated on Tuesday. But he should not run again...

And what, you might be wondering, will the Democrats do if Mr. Biden is jettisoned?

Well, according to Ms. Goldberg, all will be fine given that the party has a deep bench that will serve up a shiny new quarterback to lead them to promised land in 2024:

...Democrats have a deep bench, including politicians who’ve won in important purple states, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Biden said he wanted to be a bridge to the next generation of Democrats. There are quite a few promising people qualified to cross it. A primary will give Democrats the chance to find the one who is suited for this moment...


Hmmm....

Like many of you, I watched third string quarterback Brock Purdy come off the bench and almost lead the San Francisco 49'ers to the promised land before his arm was turned to tunafish by a blitzing Philadelphia Eagles linebacker named Hasson Reddick.

And here's the thing.

Neither Gretchen Whitmer nor Raphael Warnock is Brock Purdy, even if they suddenly grow an extra ten or twelve arms, in the face of blitzing neandercons and vituperative faux media outlet bleatings in a general US'ian presidential election.

In other words, the real issue for the Democrats is precisely their lack of bench depth, which is why the party's power brokers, which included Barack Obama,  got together and anointed Mr. Biden as their candidate in the first place back in the spring of 2020.

OK?


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1 comment:

e.a.f. said...

Yes, O.K.
They don't have a deep well to draw from. Harris hasn't turned out as well as I and many others would have expected.
The Gov. of Michigan is good as the Gov. of Michigan but she would not make a good president because she won't be elected. Warnock doesn't have the profile nor the machine to get elected.
For the upcoming American federal election, they are best to go with Biden again, even if he is 82 and find a better candidate to run as V.P. or Obama has to run again which I'm sure he isn't up for.