Moderating: This Millennial, Boomer, Gen Xer bit is becoming a hijack. Take it to a new thread please. It needs to end here.
And thank you @gnarator.
Deleted hijack
I don’t see how that can be concluded.
Much of the damage was ameliorated by the initial presence of high level professionals (many of whom subsequently were fired or quit) and thousands upon thousands of average Joe bureaucrats who kept things running.
After a couple years to get rid of several of those folks, we saw the result on the high end - lots of cabinet level officials and their subordinates who weren’t very good at their jobs. And at the low end, one of the things that Trump and his associates eventually pushed to do was unilaterally fire civil servants to more easily install loyalist flacks in the ranks.
To the extent it shows anything, it’s that in the short term, the damage an average, non-malicious person can do can be held in check by momentum - by the “grownups in the room” so to speak who have been doing those types of jobs for years and are experts at it. The long term depends on those people actually staying on and being allowed to do what they’re good at.
If the argument is that a puppet President can do a decent job (defined by, I guess, just keeping things rolling?) if surrounded by career politicians and bureaucrats to make all the actual decisions, sure. But if you are relying on such a person for actual policy decisions, it doesn’t follow at all. What happens in this situation when Russia decides to invade another country? Or there’s a global pandemic? In acute emergencies, people look to a central voice of authority, and that just doesn’t exist in this case.
We all saw how badly that went when it became clear Trump wanted to actually make important policy decisions and surrounded himself with loyalists rather than experts. Things gradually started to careen badly out of skew after the competent ones left or were kicked out.
And should such a person be POTUS with an actively hostile Congress? Forget about it. Stuff just won’t get done.
Right. As we are seeing right now, with just one chamber of Congress being controlled by recalcitrant burn-it-all-downers, someone “not stupid or malicious” would not be allowed to do the work.
…
In any case and back to the thread title: if as was expected by many before election day Trump’s defeat would have resulted in the customary just going the Hell away and the party looking for who’s next (or the longed-for fantasy of many others of him promptly being put in jail or bankrupted into indigence by plaitiffs), that is, the opposition NOT being Trump or people who obey Trump, Joe Biden would have had an expectation of serving just as the restorer of “normality” and there would have been an argument for honorably stepping away to let normal life resume.
Normal life has not resumed and the opponent of normality is still Trump & acolytes. Who feel that their job is not done until they DO destroy the Establishment and only Trump does not give a f****** about what that entails. And in turn that means there’s no “your job is done” narrative to push on Biden. Thus it’s still them.
I think we also have to be mindful of the non-zero chance that a Trump 2.0 could bring us a packed and stacked Supreme Court that virtually empties the bench at the Federalist Society.
OK, I see where you’re going on this.
I would note that there is a lot of misinformation out there about Biden’s condition. And it seems to be making an impression even overseas (to the Aussie OP of this thread, for instance).
He’s actually a better, and more effective president than either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. He strongly governs in ways they never could. But he won’t get the credit unfortunately. I think Clinton & Obama are better natural speakers and politicians. Biden is better at the sausage-making itself. Not so good at public speaking.
I just want to say that while I think is age is a major concern regarding his re-electability, I think Biden is an excellent President, especially as my respect and admiration for him has grown tenfold in the past few months.
I’ll add to the chorus. Biden has been a terrific, consequential president. Amazing how such a doddering Methuselah got so much done, isn’t it?
Need the article or need a prefrontal cortex?
I am reasonably sure my son (age six) knows what the prefrontal cortex is. He is an intelligent kid but he needs to learn that from somewhere. I certainly never told him. I’ll ask him.
I listened. Its is not really comedic, but yes, there was some levity. I live in a different country, so I rarely listen to US politicians; generally I read reporting linked to from SMDB.
But that podcast interview - to me - makes him seem a warm, self deprecating and honest man. The opposite of the bloviate Trump.
Sure, but that’s not often a high visibility job other than some key votes. It’s not like she’s been giving press conferences about the vote negotiations. She hasn’t been seen accomplishing or leading anything.
That’s a great example of Biden demonstrating he’s not a doddering old fool like the Repubs want you to believe. That’s the kind of interview Biden could have done for the Superbowl.
Is there likely to be a Presidential debate ahead of the election?
To my knowledge that is still an unknown. I think Trump is highly unlikely to agree to one. And I would expect Biden would insist on certain things, such as mics being off when it isn’t the other person’s turn to speak, that Trump would find objectionable. DJT has a serious problem with shutting up and letting others talk in those setting.
‘I am paying for this microphone!’ ~ DJ"RR"T
I’d love to see Dark Brandon come out in a debate.
And I’d really love to see someone pull a ‘Yondu and the Broker scene’ on Trump. It just might make his head explode. And it would be hilarious.
Commission on Presidential Debates announces dates and locations for 2024 general election debates
I will go out in a limb a bit and say that two of these will occur. The reason is historical precedent. In 2020, despite Trump’s antics, and COVID, two of the debates did take place.
Will Trump try to set unacceptable conditions? Yes, but Biden will insist on sticking with the rules set by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, as before. Trump will be concerned that if he insists on his conditions, it will look like he is scared to debate.
As to why I predicted two debates not three, that’s pure guesswork. But either candidate could miss a debate due to illness, and refusing once would be consistent with Trump’s drama game. Also, if one candidate is clearly ahead in the polls, they will be temped to sit on their lead…
So I guess I was right about Biden?
On which particular points?
Right. The OP was talking about dementia, and various RW forums have taken Biden’s withdrawal as him conceding that he is cognitively impaired. Heck, aren’t Republicans talking about impeachment on that basis?
But no, Biden dropped out because he had a terrible debate and then was polling awfully.
In terms of the debate, I don’t think a neurologist would make a diagnosis on the basis of just screwing up various details. I’ve had public speaking car crashes that were much worse. And Trump gets a lot more confused, he just looks a bit more vigorous when he does it.