Stop the news! There’s too much news! Here’s a few things that happened yesterday:
It’s only Wednesday! Hang in there! And Happy Wednesday.
One Step Forward, One Step Back— Andrew Egger By the arguably insane standards of the present moment—in which our 81-year-old president is expected to have “good days” where his mental and verbal lapses are minimal and “bad days” where they come much thicker and faster—Tuesday was a good day for Joe Biden. He appeared energized and largely in command as he delivered a speech to a supportive crowd at the NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas, boasting of the ways in which he has delivered for black Americans and savaging Trump’s policy record while ridiculing his tone-deaf attempts to court the minority vote. “Folks, I know what the hell a ‘black job’ is,” Biden said, tweaking Trump’s use of the phrase during their recent debate. “It’s the vice president of the United States.” And he spoke reasonably about how Democrats must proceed in prosecuting the political case against Trump even in the wake of the attempt on his life last week. “Our politics have become too heated,” Biden said, but “just because we must lower the temperature in our politics as it relates to violence doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth.” And yet, even here, there were a number of painful stumbles. Despite speaking from a teleprompter, Biden repeatedly got lost in points he was trying to make before cutting his losses and moving on in his now-standard fashion: an abrupt “anyway.” At one point, he seemed mystified by the most basic component of his just-announced plan to control housing costs by instituting national rent controls. “The idea that corporate-owned housing is able to raise your rent 300, 400 bucks a month or something?” Biden said, squinting quizzically at his prompter. “I’m about to announce they can’t raise it more than 55 dollars.” (The actual plan: capping annual rent increases at 5 percent.) In a world where Biden was ahead in the polls, performances like this might be enough to quiet Democratic concerns. But we’re not in that world. And these performances are a far cry from offering the sort of reassurances necessary to close Trump’s increasingly commanding lead. YouGov polling released yesterday found Trump with significant leads in each of the seven key swing states, from a 2-point and 3-point edge in Michigan and Pennsylvania respectively up to a 5-point lead in Wisconsin and a 7-point lead in Arizona. Remarkably, the same slate of polls found Democratic Senate candidates with major leads over their GOP opponents in the five swing states that have Senate contests this year: Across Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Team Blue’s Senate choice leads by between 8 and 12 points. There’s the everyday hubris of a president thinking he alone can carry his party to victory in November—and then there’s the extraordinary hubris of thinking that while underperforming your own ticket by double digits everywhere that matters. Just this morning, Politico reported that another polling memo is currently circulating among Democratic party officials, based on interviews this month with more than 15,000 battleground-state voters:
Milwaukee 2024: Too Painful to Watch— William Kristol
— William Wordsworth, London, 1802 I tried to watch some of the Republican convention last night, but I couldn’t stick with it for more than five minutes at a time. From Trumpists boasting to Nikki Haley caving, it was all too depressing and too infuriating: Truly a fen of selfish men (and women!) smugly wallowing in stagnant waters. But it’s not just depressing. It’s alarming. If only the waters were merely stagnant! But they’re dangerous. Trump-Vance is by far the most authoritarian presidential ticket in modern American history. A Trump-Vance administration would normalize political violence while undermining liberty and the rule of law at home. It would betray allies fighting for liberty abroad. Who is sounding the alarm? Who is our Milton? Yes, we at The Bulwark are doing our best, but—with the greatest respect to my colleagues—we are not Miltons. By the way, I mean “the greatest respect” seriously. I’ve been involved in a fair number of efforts in my almost forty years in Washington, and have never been prouder to be a part of any crew than this group of truth-tellers and liberty-defenders who have—to quote Milton (!)—“the courage never to submit or yield.” But while it would be nice to have a Milton today, that’s not what we most need. What we need is normal political leaders who will grasp the urgency of the moment and act to increase the chances of defeating the Milwaukee authoritarians. That means a presidential candidate who is not aging and failing, ill-tempered and self-absorbed—who is, in a very different way from the Republicans, painful to watch. Someone who won’t, on a call with Democratic members of Congress, respond to a polite inquiry from Rep. Jason Crow (D.-Col.) about national security in this way:
Ugh. This is sad, but also unacceptable. And the only response is: Find me an American leader who will do the right thing and step aside for the sake of the country. But that also requires finding political leaders, leaders of the president’s own party, who will step up and call publicly for Biden to go. One small step in this direction would be to refuse to go along with the Biden campaign’s dishonorable and unprecedented scheme for a virtual ballot that would anoint Biden before the regular Democratic nominating convention, so as to make it harder to pressure Biden aside. What we need from the leaders of the only party that does want to defend liberal democracy is some determination, some imagination, some courage, and some willingness to take risks for the public good. Then perhaps, to quote Milton, “This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.” Quick HitsThere’s a murderer’s row of great pieces up on the homepage today, by the way. Drink deeply from the flagon of indignation!
One other thing: We’ve seen lots of comments recently to the effect that Morning Shots has been a real doom parade recently—which, yeah, it sure has! We aren’t losing hope or our taste for the fight, but it’s hard to argue that things don’t look grim right now. If you’ve got thoughts on how we should be approaching this moment with a minimum of bumming you out over your coffee, we’d love to hear them: And here’s a quick promise: When (if?) the news ever gets more hopeful we will deliver it to you with enthusiasm far exceeding this. Cheap Shots
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