Bidendämmerung: Twilight of the Biden: Meltdown at Debate vs. Trump: #swapJoeout
The main thing everybody was watching in last night’s debate was whether Biden could pull it off. Especially Democrats, because they’re thinking of switching him out.
He didn’t. He was dismal, especially at the beginning. His performance confirmed this was a setup. His handlers set this earliest debate ever to display his decrepitude. The NY Times headlined online just a couple hours after the event, “Democrats Talk About Replacing Biden on the Ticket.”
It reported a hashtag circulating among Democrats on social media: #swapJoeout. Biden is stubborn and won’t give up the job he’s coveted his whole life. So the Cabinet could meet and remove him under the 25th Amendment. Kamala becomes the first woman president, first Asian president and second black president.
She agrees not to run in return for the next Supreme Court nomination, announcing, “I need to work full time as president repairing the damage Donald Trump caused to Our Democracy.” That lets the DNC swap out Biden for the California psychopath, Newsom.
Biden’s white-hot hatred for Trump gave him increasing strength through to the end. Trump’s hatred for Biden also was palpable. Their hatred for each other mirrors the hatred both sides in America now have toward one another. Which will end badly.
Trump was as sharp as he ever has been. Biden repeatedly called him a liar and the worst president ever. Trump said the same about Biden.
The CNN moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, were surprisingly fair. Even though both obviously loathed Trump. Maybe their role in the charade was just to let Biden unravel. The format helped Trump, because it kept him from interrupting so often. A couple times the mic was cut, but not many.
The main concern I always have, about nuclear war, came up only twice, and not by the moderators. Biden warned, “What happens if in fact you have Putin continue to go into NATO? We have an Article Five agreement, attack on one is attack on all. You want to start the nuclear war he keeps talking about. Go ahead. Let Putin go in and control Ukraine and then move on to Poland and other places. See what happens then.” He left the impression the U.S. going to war would be automatic.
Actually, NATO’s summary says, “Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.” Note “consider an act of violence,” not automatically commit a particular country, meaning the USA, to war.
Also, Putin isn’t going to attack Poland. He just wants to make sure Biden doesn’t put nuclear missiles in Eastern Ukraine.
Trump brought nukes up toward the end, saying, “We’re closer to World War III than anyone can imagine. They don’t respect him. They don’t fear him.”
Biden snapped, “You want World War III – him.” Then he brought up Trump wanting to leave NATO. Which would mean Putin would take “take Kiev,” then move into Poland. Trump said he threatened to pull out of NATO if the Euro-deadbeats (my phrase) didn’t pony up more money, which they did.
I wonder how much Americans really worry about NATO and Ukraine, which few can find on the map despite more than two years of war. They just don’t want their sons – and daughters – dying in another senseless war on the other side of the globe.
But the fact is Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Putin over Ukraine has led us closer to nuclear war than we’ve ever been. Even the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved when Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated. Biden keeps escalating the war, even as Ukraine’s population is being decimated. The Russians have been killing up to 2,000 Ukrainians a day the past week.
They disagreed about who did the most for veterans by helping the Veterans Administration. I can say from personal experience it was Trump. I’ve used the VA for about 15 years. And it got much better when Trump took over in 2017. Since Biden was put in charge in 2021, it has gotten worse.
I only get a little care from the VA because I have Medicare. And that’s my subjective experience. For example, under Trump, phone calls promptly were answered. Under Biden, they take longer. A small thing, but small things indicate bigger things. Such as parts falling off Boeing airliners.
But I imagine it’s worse for the guys – and gals – who also depend on the VA for most of their care.
The big VA scandal struck in 2014, under President Obama and VP Biden. And the Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee at the time in the Senate was Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist. He wants to turn the whole U.S. medical system into one huge, socialist operation run as badly as he did the VA.
Biden tried to use the old ploy of Republicans destroying Social Security. He brought up a House Republican proposal to cut benefits – which, he didn’t note, would have been part of setting up a partly privatized system. I’ve written elsewhere such a plan wouldn’t work and couldn’t pass even if it did. But Trump never has favored that.
Trump got in some good jabs at Biden over Social Security and Medicare being bankrupted by the 18 million illegals brought in under Biden. That solidified Trump with seniors, while advancing his popular positions about limiting immigration.
Democrats have been making a big deal about abortion lately. They think it will be a winning issue, as it was in 2022. But as the debate showed, this year it’s just one issue among many. Biden got lost in defending the legal vagaries of Roe v. Wade, which was reversed by the 2022 Dobbs decision.
Trump was clear he backed turning the issue back to the states. Unfortunately, he backed allowing the mifepristone abortion drug and abortion in some cases. But as he said, limiting those can’t be sold to the voters.
Trump also brought up how Biden favors legalized abortion right up to the moment of birth – and even after. He brought up former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, in 2019, defended so-called “born-alive” abortions. Although it was disputed at the time what he really meant. But Biden didn’t dispute it at the debate.
On abortion, the issue during the debate was a wash because neither side could be convinced to change positions. Likewise on the Jan. 6 riot. I don’t think most Americans are following this anymore.
Biden brought up Trump’s criminal and civil cases, including the 34 felony convictions in the absurd New York City case. Biden taunted, “You have the morals of an alley cat.”
Trump replied, “He went after his political opponent. My poll numbers went up and we took in more money.”
The end of Wagner’s Ring Tetralogy is “Götterdämmerung” — Twilight of the Gods. This is Bidendämmerung: Twilight of the Biden. The Fat Lady is singing.