Hot Take #1: The Senior Biden Advisor’s Perspective
The president’s going to continue to be out there. And he’s going to make his case for why Donald Trump is a threat to this country, and why there is a better path ahead for Americans,
Anita Dunn, senior Biden advisor in Rep. Jamie Raskin says ‘honest and serious conversations are taking place’ about Biden’s political future after debate by Alexandra Marquez on 30 June 2024 NBCNews
Hot Take #2: Jamie Raskin’s “Insights”
[A] very honest, and serious and rigorous conversations taking place… We’re having a serious conversation about what to do.
Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) in Rep. Jamie Raskin says ‘honest and serious conversations are taking place’ about Biden’s political future after debate by Alexandra Marquez on 30 June 2024 NBCNews
Hot Take #3: Anonymous Lawmaker’s Metaphorical Commentary
This was like a champion boxer who gets in the ring past his prime and needs his corner to throw in the towel,
Anonymous lawmaker in Some Democrats start calling for Biden to step aside and ‘throw in the towel’ on 2024 by Jonathan Allen on 28 June 2024 on NBCNews
Hot Take #4: A “Proposal” for an Open Convention
[T]ime to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee
Anonymous lawmaker in Some Democrats start calling for Biden to step aside and ‘throw in the towel’ on 2024 by Jonathan Allen on 28 June 2024 on NBCNews
Hot Take #5: Speculation on Biden’s Replacement
The chatter of replacement is absolutely going to explode… There is no coming back from this disaster.
Anonymous lawmaker in Some Democrats start calling for Biden to step aside and ‘throw in the towel’ on 2024 by Jonathan Allen on 28 June 2024 on NBCNews
Hot Take #6: Hakeem Jeffries’ Optimistic Perspective
I’ve been very clear that it was an underwhelming performance on Thursday, during the debate, as President Biden and his campaign have acknowledged. It certainly was a setback. But of course, I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback.
Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader, in Rep. Jamie Raskin says ‘honest and serious conversations are taking place’ about Biden’s political future after debate by Alexandra Marquez on 30 June 2024 NBCNews
The Influence of ‘Hot Takes’ on Public Opinion
In the 72 hours since the debate, Democrats have been either huddled in secrecy mumbling their “truths” in the dark or they’ve been out in front of the cameras putting a brave face on it. Either way, their hot take is meant to influence opinion and interpretation.
Speculation is rampant about Biden stepping down or aside as the nominee or the convention being open or any number of other damn things. All of it is a disservice to Biden and the country.
By vying for the hottest of the hot takes and getting the headline with the inside scoop or winning Xitter or whatever it is that people think they’re doing with their social media likes, clicks, and shares, we are have taken our eye off the ball.
Looking Back at 2016: Lessons Unlearned
The Halcyon Days of Trump’s Term
We’re about to repeat 2016, so I guess we haven’t learned from history. Remember 2016? Remember? It was only eight years ago, back in those halcyon days of yore before there were a million unnecessary deaths from a preventable pandemic that took years off the country’s average life span, before investment firms bought up all the housing stock and drove rents through the roof, before greedflation took over the invisible hand of the free market and drove groceries beyond the reach of the average income… at least for your neighbors, not you, but, you know, somebody else, before crime hit twenty year lows that no one knows about. Those wonderful days when a Senate Majority Leader could deny a sitting president the right to appoint a Supreme Court Justice of their choice just because he could. In those idyllic days when a craven junior senator could team up with the House radicals to shut down the government because the way you win political fights is by refusing to compromise. Do your remember the good old days when we were involved in endless wars and women could still have safe legal abortions when they were needed?
Those were the days, weren’t they?
It’s the Supreme Court, Stupid!
What was it we were saying in 2017 after the shock of Clinton’s loss started to wear off, and we realized the fight we were in? It was the Supreme Court, stupid! Wasn’t that the mantra? Never again would Democrats forget that the president appoints supreme court justices and that who sits on the Court really does matter, so we’d vote for the Democratic candidate no matter what so we could claw back the 6-3 conservative majority that is driving us to the #GOPDystopia, right?
I guess, we didn’t really learn that lesson, because we’re talking about Biden being OLD!!1! OMG, so old!!?! How’d we end up with a nominee that freaking OLD!!!?!!1! Maybe it’s better not to vote or even consider voting for another round of Trump paying pee-hookers to piss on the Resolute Desk, the Constitution, and the American people while he transfer the wealth of the middle class to the 1% and sells our state secrets to the highest bidder and improves his money laundering brand with oligarchs around the world. Maybe that really is better than, so old.
Hot Takes: The Edgy Viral Leading Edge of Commentary
The problem with all of those hot takes being so edgy and daring that we are actually considering doing what has never been successfully done before (replacing the presidential nominee of a major political party and having that new nominee win). Ooh. That’s a bold insightful leadershippy politician, right there. That’s a hip cool pundit and we heard it first on the cable news or Interwebs TV thingee and, OMG, we Xitted all over it before anyone else did and got a ton — for us that is — of likes, shares, and clicks. We were the envy of all our social media friends for a couple of hours.
The problem with those hot takes breeding hotter takes is that they begin to reify opinion and make it seem like a consensus conclusion has been made when it is just politicians, reporters, and influencers vying for likes, shares, and clicks in a world that moves at the speed of social media.
Cooler Heads Prevailing? Pushing Back on the Hot Take
Luckily, there is push back on these hot takes. If your social media feed is anything like mine, you’re seeing the don’t replace Alfred with the Joker, Batman, just because Alfred is old, memes. And other really cleaver insights into our complex political, economic, and social situation that only a competent democracy-committed president can address.
We’re also seeing the not-so driven by social media-like needs for viral influencer status sources like, friend-of-the-blog, Tengrain, repeatedly pointing this point out in as pointed away as possible over on his Interwebs platform, Mock, Paper, Scissors! And, even the illustrative-likes of historian, Heather Cox Richardson, made the point in her daily newsletter, Letters from an American.
So, maybe, just maybe there is hope that an memeable hot take viral moment early in the Election 2024 cycle won’t quite bring the house of cards down just yet.
What do you think? How is your tally of Biden too old vs it’s democracy and keeping a world that can support 7 billion people going?
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The image was found on Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide using a DuckDuckGo Creative Commons search.
The Psy of Life 
I was decidedly behind Biden even after his horrible performance. Watching the elections currently taking place in France, however, I’m not worried about a return to 2016, I’m worried that the right may be far stronger than it was in 2016. Macron won decisively in 2017, squeaked into office in 2022, and his party is getting crushed in the current legislative race with the right strongly ahead. Every US election poll I’ve seen for months, has shown Trump in the lead—always noting the margin for error but Trump is consistently ahead. I live in Michigan, a key swing state, where the Muslim population is meaningful and their leaders have not endorsed Biden. I have three kids in their 20s and they tell me their peers are not a bit enthusiastic about the election. I agree with you that Biden is unquestionably a better candidate on every front I can think of but so far, he has failed to attract the support of huge segments of the voting block that he can’t afford to lose.
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Howdy Carol!
Election 2024 is definitely haunted by the ghosts of Election 2016. We take our eye off of the stakes at our own peril, and I’m afraid that’s exactly what we’re doing by allowing ourselves to be distracted by Biden’s signs of totally normal aging.
The post that was published was very different fro the one that I was trying to write. Originally, I had wanted to use the French elections and the fallout from Biden’s debate performance as more evidence that we are our own worst enemy because we are too interested in short-term gains and not affected by long-term consequences.
From what I can tell, a lot of the anger in France against Macron is based on the ways his government and the EU are trying to cope with climate change, reaching further back, #COVID19 policies and contingents, and even further back with demographic changes due to immigration and asylum seekers.
The problem is that we are being very short-sighted in general. Trying to blunt the effects of climate change will mean real economic hardship for all of us. The problem is exacerbated because the billionaires and their global companies that are responsible for so much of the causes of climate change refuse to do anything that will cost them their chance at becoming 500 billionaires and aren’t content with merely being 100 billionaires. The situation is ludicrous.
We’re doing the same thing in the States. We aren’t looking at the long-term consequences of electing Trump, the destruction of our democracy and the end of a climate that can support 7 billion human beings. We’re looking at more immediate issues, Biden’s age and gaffes, inflation, immigration. Many of which are completely made out of whole cloth by a press desperate for a horserace so they can maintain ratings and a GOP desperate to defeat Democrats so they can create an oligarchy.
The parallel to 2016 with Clinton being the most qualified person to have ever run for the presidency is uncanny. That anyone would consider voting for Trump after what he did the first time round is nothing short of unbelievable, but that’s the way humans work, and that’s why we’re our own worst enemies.
Huzzah!
Jack
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If you’re calling for Biden to step aside & to have a new Dem presidential candidate step up to the plate, you might as well concede to Trump right now.
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That’s about the size of it. It just is an unbelievable state of affairs. And, now with the Supremes handing Trump the gift of a lifetime…
Huzzah!
Jack
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The US is fucked. But the US has been fucked for a long time, so it’s just business as usual IMHO.
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Howdy Silver!
We’re fucked and we’ve been fucked. It is just getting worse and the we aren’t even getting kissed any more.
Jack
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I haven’t looked at Huffington Post yet this morning, but I expect it will still have the same screaming headlines as since Friday of the same hot takes and new ones of the “Biden must drop out” genre. Several of the are from people who used to make sense. It is sad to see a formerly sensible and fairly liberal organization fall into the same trap as the New York Times.
I’m struck by the number of “Anonymous Politicians” in the examples you cited. Those are people who should have answered, “No Comment”, or “Let’s not go off half cocked.” Of course, anybody who answered the reporter that way would not have been included in the report. Hot take culture is not interested in reserving judgement, a practice that the wise advisors throughout history have recommended highly.
I’m imagining a scene of Chicken Little running in circles screaming that the sky is falling while a fox watches and waits for the rest of the chickens to panic too.
I’m 79, a bit younger than Joe and older than Donald. I have had first hand experience of a parent who had real dementia. Donald is much closer to that than is Joe.
We do not hire a President to be primarily a debater. And, nobody succeeds in that job alone. They need a good team, and Biden has one. He also has half a century of experience in government and 12 years experience in the executive branch. Nobody who is suggested to replace him as the candidate even comes close.
I hear one news today that the GOP are planning to simplify their party platform, taking out all mention of plans and policy beyond vague platitudes. I guess they don’t want to tell their voters about the real agenda in Plan 2025. Bait and switch is one of the oldest scams.
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Howdy Bob!
It’s become really difficult to figure out where to get my news from. I usually use a couple of legacy companies like NBC and then the BBC. I like the Guardian, too. But, the politically aligned outlets are increasingly suspect in their reporting. I’ve even cut down on the amount that I listen to MSNBC because I want to keep my head clear of openly biased reactions.
However, the dedication of the legacy media to bothsidesism and the horserace is debilitating. CNN’s moderation of the debate was a catastrophe that never should’ve been except they need a horserace to stay relevant. If they would’ve said to Trump, either you quit lying or we’re ending the debate here and now, they would’ve salvaged something of their reputations and election, but they didn’t.
It occurs to me now that a panel of judges with score cards ranging from 1 to 10 like the Olympics would be helpful in future debates. At least, it would make it more entertaining, which is the only thing we seem interested in anyway.
That the GOP is trying to pull a fast one like the bait-and-switch platform and Plan 2025 is not surprising. That the media is colluding with them in doing it is only mildly surprising. But, all of it is depressing since it will probably work.
Like I wrote several years ago, if the GOP succeeds in replacing our democracy with an oligarchy, most white Americans will hardly notice since they will continue to vote or at least be allowed to vote every election and be the benefactors of enough of the policies of the oligarchs to keep them happily participating.
No, I’m not depressed. You’re depressed.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The panel of judges might put the debate in it’s real media context, entertainment, like Dancing With The Stars, or the talent contest shows.
Trump would never admit that he is lying. At least in part, much of the more over the top stuff may well be dementia confabulation. I saw that process in my Dad, and some of T’s ranting has a similar quality. Whatever the cognitive process, we know he simply does not care whether a statement is true if he thinks it is useful.
I am hoping that the newsies can get off the subject of Biden’s age and focus on Trump’s immunity.
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We’ve had such compelling news this past week or so. If the SCOTUS decision granting Trump a muddled limited immunity doesn’t remind everyone of the 2016 election and our failures there, I don’t know what will. If the battle cry of Remember Election 2016 doesn’t motivate people to vote and participate in the election, I don’t know what will. It is a fascinating sobering time we live in when we see the foibles of biases and heuristics play themselves out on a national stage.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Fascinating and sobering. to be sure. It has been 1209 years since King John signed the Magna Carta, 375 since Charles I was executed for the treason of claiming to be above the law. That’s a long history of a legal principle to tear up for the benefit of one would-be dictator.
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Howdy Bob!
I guess that is the thing to the casual informed observer, it is unbelievable that anyone who aspires to American jurisprudence and a seat on the Supreme Court would be willing to so openly, so completely, so unashamedly throw American democracy and all of our legal traditions away.
But then, our current experience has opened all of our eyes to the strong anti-democratic subcurrent that has run through American society since before its inception and its very strong attempts to replace our democracy with authoritarianism. We hear calls to return to teaching civics in our schools, but as a product of the last curriculum to include civics lessons, no one taught that there has been a long, continuous, ongoing, dedicated effort to ending our democracy and that it will continue as long as we are a country.
I am surprised, continuously surprised, at how organized, well-funded, and determined the effort is. Disbelief is the thing that I keep coming back to. It just doesn’t seem possible given my understanding of our country, but here we are. The evidence is out in the open for even the most casual observer to see.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I don’t recall either the authoritarian or anti-intellectual threads in our political tapestry getting much mention in my civics classes, or history class in K-12 school. All the enemies of democracy mentioned were foreign or foreign connected (Communists). I was aware in my High School years (graduated 1963) of the John Birch Society, the KKK, and Neo-Nazis, but not by way of the school curriculum. It becomes easier to notice such things when you’ve been reading “1984”, “Brave New World”, “Animal Farm”, and “Fahrenheit 451”.
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Howdy Bob!
I’ve been spending a lot of time this week contemplating those ideas, too. Even having read Animal Farm and 1984, etc, they seemed so far removed from the reality in the US, so abstract, that they don’t seem possible here. Those are things that might happen in the future or to other people, but not to us.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I think that most people of my generation who read those took them as talking about things in the USSR. I read them differently. I saw Joe McCarthy on TV when I was 6 years old. I recognized him and his kind in those books. Then, came the Birchers.
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Howdy Bob!
I think that’s why Rachel Maddow’s Ultra podcast series is doing the nation such a service, it’s too bad that our media sources have become so decentralized that it doesn’t get wider exposure. The world we live in. I quit using Google because every search result tries to sell you something rather than provide information that you’re looking for. Social media has been destroyed as a way of social connection and communication because of the disinformation promoting algorithms they all use, and by all I mean Zuckerberg and Musk.
The majority of us have not connected those authoritarian dystopians to the US. It was always the boogeyman that Americans could say, it might happen to those European countries or those developing countries, but it will never happen here. But the reality is that our entire history has been a struggle between the rich and advocates of the common man to wrest the most benefit out of the government for themselves. Unfortunately, the rich have been winning that fight, especially of late. We give just enough to the middle class to keep us from revolting.
Anywho. We always have seen authoritarianism as something that couldn’t affect us because of democracy. Turns out, we just never understood democracy very well. That was the lesson of 2016, which, turns out, we didn’t learn very well.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Those who have understood democracy ever since the Athenians who invented it have known that it is a fragile flower that needs constant tending and guarding, a way of life, not an institution built of stone.
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Howdy Bob!
The people who guard the democracy are the voters. We’ve not been guarding our democracy. We’ve not thought that it needed guarding, except for those who want to contract the franchise, taking the vote away from all those who don’t deserve it and shouldn’t have it.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Truth
On another track, I got to thinking about the ages of many of the people wanting Joe to quit. Anybody born after 1960 is too young to have been politically aware in 1968. Any one born after 1965 probably has no memory of it at all. And after ’68, it is just history that they may not have learned well, if at all. Witness memory makes a difference.
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