Middle Class Joe? More A Carefully Crafted Campaign Slogan Than A Description Of Objective Reality

One of these guys works with his hands... and the other works for Wall Street

Writing for CNN over the weekend, David Gergen came up with a novel warning for Biden. who he asserted "must do much more than assemble a campaign team, match Bernie Sanders in micro-fundraising, and set off on the campaign trail. He must also offer a compelling rationale for why he wants to be president... So far, Biden hasn't signaled what his clarion call will be... [W]hen he declares, Biden might break precedent by promising up front that he will serve for only a single term-- 'one and done'... Unlike other politicians who always seem grasping for power, Biden would have a credible argument that he is truly putting country first." Biden, of course has always been the quintessential politician grasping for power for power's-- and ego's-- sake. He has no program for America, just for Joe Biden. The ultimate careerist.

I don't know whether Gergen was a campaign advisor on the successful Warren G. Harding Back to Normalcy campaign or not, but it would have certainly been right up his alley and the premise is what attracts him to an empty suit like Status Quo Joe. Speaking for wealthy white people, "from my small corner of the country," he wrote, "People want to go beyond getting rid of Trump but are not yet ready for epic new battles over a hard-left agenda. Rather, they are most eager to get the country back on track, restore civility and sanity to our lives and bring a healing to our people." He wants Biden to "begin keeping a list of Republicans as well as Democrats who might join his administration-- his own 'team of rivals' representing a variety of views and backgrounds. There is plenty of precedent for presidents reaching across the aisle to bolster their governing capacities." He seemed especially excited about how JFK picked Ford Motor Company president Robert McNamara, the architect of the Vietnam War catastrophe, to run the newly renamed Department of Defense (after Robert Lovett, "architect if the Cold War," turned him down).

It's no secret to DWT readers that this is a progressive blog and a pro-Bernie blog. My feeling is that since FDR died, America has a series of mediocre presidents, some better than others, but no historically great. Bernie, I feel would be the change America craves-- that transformational greatness we've muddled along without. I'd be perfectly happy with Elizabeth Warren as well. The rest... meh. Better than Trump, one and all. But what a low bar! The only credible nominee who I fear would make a predictably terrible president is Biden, something I have believed for 4 decades and something I've been endeavoring to explain all year. Monday morning, Marc Caputo and Holly Otterbein added to the No-Joe canon with a Politico piece that goes to Biden's personal integrity, 'Middle Class Joe' Rakes In Millions. "'Middle-Class Joe' Biden has a $2.7 million vacation home. He charges more than $100,000 per speaking gig and has inked a book deal likely worth seven figures," they wrote. Yes, he's full of shit with his carefully crafted image as a lunch-pail Democrat, a working class guy the way Randy "IronStache" Bryce is a working class guy. Biden, Inc has an explanation though.

Since leaving office in 2017, the 76-year-old former vice president has watched his bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular, Amtrak-riding guy. He’s repeatedly referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” on the campaign trail and in speaking engagements as he publicly mulls whether to run for president.

While his finances might be unexceptional by the standards of well-heeled Washington politicians, Biden is unique among the top Democratic presidential hopefuls because of his avowed distance from the upper class. It’s central to his political identity. But if Biden runs, his newfound wealth could give his Democratic and GOP opponents an opening to attack him as disingenuous, or at least less than advertised.

For Biden and his supporters, “middle class” isn’t so much a financial status as it is a state of mind, a sensibility that’s ingrained in his political DNA. In a party where voters have grown increasingly wary of income inequality, Biden’s use of the nickname functions as an us-vs-them foil that tells both middle- and working-class people he’s one of them, the little guys sneered at by the elites.

“I know I’m called Middle-Class Joe. It’s not meant to be a compliment. It means I’m not sophisticated. But I know what made this country what it is: ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” Biden said in Kentucky last year, a refrain he’s used repeatedly for years, including when he floated a potential presidential run in 2017.

And Biden’s supporters argue there’s nothing inconsistent or hypocritical about his fatter bank account since he exited the public sector after almost 50 years.

Trumpanzee takes to Twitter to boost Biden Monday morning

Who would dare point out that his entire time in "public service" has been effectively serving the interests of Wall Street and corporate fat cats who have, in turn, served Biden and his family well? A quid pro quo? You bet your ass. Biden, Inc likes to claim that Biden's "entire career has been dedicated to trying to make life easier for hardworking people in this country. The American people know that." That's a laugh and a half and the opposite of the truth. Caputo and Otterbein acknowledge that "Skeptics on the left see it differently."

Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Biden’s earnings on the speaking circuit and elsewhere reinforce his negatives as a Washington insider and deal-maker who cashed out once he left office. At least at the outset, the former vice president is expected to rely on a traditional network of big-money Democratic donors to bankroll his campaign more than his rivals, as opposed to an army of small-dollar givers.

“Joe Biden is the opposite of an outsider and the opposite of someone who will challenge big corporate and moneyed elites on many, many fronts. And his big money and speaking deals would be just the cherry on top of that larger totality of circumstances,” said Green, whose group supports Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “This would be an exacerbating data point in a larger story of him being the wrong person in a moment when people want someone to shake up the political establishment and take on corporate and wealthy elites.”

Democratic voters have grown increasingly concerned with vast income inequality; how to address it is a central issue in the nomination fight. But when it comes to the candidates’ own wealth, Biden’s primary opponents might have a hard time attacking him on his recent money-making ventures because many of them are wealthy themselves.

...Working-class white voters certainly didn’t hold Trump’s wealth against him in the 2016 election, and Biden’s supporters believe he’s the Democrat best able to win them back. They point to some polls showing Biden leading among whites and less-educated voters as well as the rousing support for him last week at the International Association of Fire Fighters union convention in Washington.

The union’s president, Harold Schaitberger, said Biden’s connection to working-class voters is undeniable because Biden-- a Scranton, Pa., native-- is genuinely middle class, regardless of how rich he is.

The International Association of Fire Fighters union is a relatively conservative union and in the last few years has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of Republican politicians like Kevin McCarthy (CA), Chris Collins (NY), Ron Johnson (WI), Peter King (NY), Steve Stivers (OH), Fred Upton (MI), Carlos Curbelo (FL), Mike Bost (IL), Dean Heller (NV), Dan Donovan (NY), Greg Walden (OR), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Jeff Denham (CA), Tom Cole (OK), Rodney Davis (IL), Paul Cook (CA), David Joyce (OH), John Katko (NY), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL)... And of course, lots of shit Blue Dogs and corporate Dems-- from Jeff Van Drew, Kyrsten Sinema, Dan Lipinski, Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Anthony Brindisi to Joe Crowley's campaign against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Perfect for Biden-- and another stain on Obama's legacy.

Better than Trump!

There Is No Way To Clean Up The Disgusting Mess That Is Trump Other Than At The Ballot Box In 2018

Nick Kristof's column in the Times this weekend, Lessons From 100 Days Of President Trump, reminded us that "Trump distinguishes himself in one area: incompetence" and that "Trump remains a bully and a charlatan." Kristof wrote that over his entire career he's "never known a national politician as mendacious, ill informed, bombastic and dangerous as Trump." And it gets worse as he lists a dozen grievances against Trump.

Then yesterday, on CNN's Reliable Sources, Carl Bernstein accused Señor Trumpanzee of having "lied as no president of the United States in my lifetime has, day in and day out."

After Trump's performance at a partially-filled 7600 seat barn in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Saturday night, David Gergen, a former top advisor to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, went on CNN and said his stand up routine was "the most divisive speech I’ve ever heard from a sitting American president." Trump was trying to avoid the embarrassment of being roasted on national TV at the White House Correspondents Dinner so he did a free bread and circuses number for some poor schlepps in Pennsylvania who couldn't afford to take the family to see The Fate of the Furious, Smurfs: The Lost Village or How to be a Latin Lover. Instead he ldelighted them with his litany of lies while they laughed and drooled and screamed "lock her up" and "build that wall" over and over again. He boasted about overflowing crowds and lines of people outside while anyone with an IQ of 80-- about the average, it's calculated, for most Trump voters-- could just look around and noticed rows and rows and rows of empty seats.

Gergen: "He played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or oppose him, he treated them basically as 'I don't care, I don't give a damn what you think, because you're frankly like the enemy.'"

The Daily Beast reported that "everyone was eating it up." These are our countrymen.

The phenomenon of a Trump rally is its collapsing of the space-time continuum. It’s timeless and timely with the recitations of the old themes-- “does anyone remember who our opponent was?”-- and the introduction of the new material-- “Senator Schumer is a bad leader.”

Within these spaces, Trump is largely impervious to criticism. His failures are the faults of the Democrats and Republicans who won’t cooperate with him, and his successes are the result of a unique businessman’s approach to the presidency.

“What Donald Trump really is is an independent president, if you will, for lack of a better term hijacking the Republican Party,” Michael Avila, a Trump voter from New York City, told the Daily Beast. “Which I think is a good thing.”

“I think he needs to get rid of Paul Ryan somehow, someway,” Avila added. “I think he’s a big issue.”

For Edward X. Young, a 57-year-old actor from New Jersey, sporting an assortment of buttons including pictures of the president and his wife, Trump achieved a great deal in the first 100 days considering the “quasi-Marxist Democratic party” he had to work with.

His one major issue was that Trump didn’t fulfill the campaign promise of putting Hillary Clinton in jail.

“She’s behind the Resistance,” Young told The Daily Beast, referring to Clinton. Trump “should prosecute her and put her and her lousy husband behind bars, and her daughter too.”

Everything else was mostly peachy to Young-- especially the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

“The last time a new Supreme Court Justice was confirmed, in the first 100 days, was 136 years ago in 1881,” Trump proudly proclaimed at one point. “And I was devastated to hear that because I thought I’d be the only one to have done that.”

He’s right on the numbers and the significance (Chester Arthur was the last to do it in that timeframe), but it’s one of those Trumpian anecdotes that misconstrues a rare opportunity that few presidents get as a massive single-handed achievement.

Yet it plays for the cameras and it plays for the audience that hates the cameras. And on the 100th day of Donald Trump’s presidency on a balmy night in Harrisburg, more than 100 miles away from the grind of his daily job, that’s all that really mattered.

“It is truly great to be back in the wonderful, beautiful state of Pennsylvania,” Trump said to the fans. They all seemed to agree-- the mothers of active service members, actors, bikers and even a few skinheads who came down to celebrate the fact that they had taken the country back from the clutches of the elites who had failed them.

It was a country now where you could wear a Pepe the Frog mask and wave a flag representing the fictitious 4chan-generated Kekistan on the lawn where a president just spoke.

And it’s never going to be the same. Even after police on horseback chased Pepe off the lawn and into the night.

Trump woke up Sunday morning, tweeted some of his normal bullshit and then probably watch his pre-taped interview with John Dickerson on Face The Nation, which he referred to as "Deface the Nation." He's such a witty guy. When Dickerson asked him what he knows "now on day 100 that you wish you knew on day one of the presidency," he's learned "how dishonest the media is, really. I've done things that are I think very good. I've set great foundations with foreign leaders. We have you know-- NAFTA, as you know, I was going to terminate it, but I got a very nice call from a man I like, the president of Mexico. I got a very nice call from Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada. And they said please would you rather than terminating NAFTA--  I was all set to do it. In fact, I was going to do it today. I was going to do as we're sitting here. I would've had to delay you. I was going to do it today. I was going to terminate NAFTA. But they called up and they said, 'Would you negotiate?' And I said, 'Yes, I will negotiate.'"

Most Regime observers have noted he was talked out of scrapping NAFTA by the Goldman Sachs crew he recruited to run the economy even before he called Justin Trudeau and Enrique Peña Nieto as a face-saving gesture. Anyway Dickerson was stunned by the shallow response and followed up: "Surely, you've learned something else other than that the media is dishonest... Give me another thing you learned that you're going to adapt and change because all presidents have to at this stage." And the orange monkey told him things take longer than he'd like them to. "It's just a very, very bureaucratic system. I think the rules in Congress and in particular the rules in the Senate are unbelievably archaic and slow moving. And in many cases, unfair. In many cases, you're forced to make deals that are not the deal you'd make. You'd make a much different kind of a deal. You're forced into situations that you hate to be forced into. I also learned, and this is very sad, because we have a country that we have to take care of. The Democrats have been totally obstructionist. Chuck Schumer has turned out to be a bad leader. He's a bad leader for the country. And the Democrats are extremely obstructionist. All they do is obstruct. All they do is delay. Even our Supreme Court justice, as you know, who I think is going to be outstanding, Justice Gorsuch. I think that it was disgraceful the way they handled that. But, you know, I still have people, I'm waiting for them to be approved. Our chief trade negotiator. We can't get these people through."

And then he stumbled through an awkward and cringeworthy attempt to explain TrumpCare 3.0, which he is basically clueless about and sounded very much like his crackpot Adderall-fueled tweets. Does this delusional imbecile sound like a President of the United States to you?

The real question is: What kind of inspirational catch phrase can we expect from the new GOP president?

by Ken

"Most presidents," writes our Washington Post "In the Loop" pal Al Kamen, "have one memorable statement that -- rightly or wrongly -- seems to encapsulate their tenure." Now it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when Al turns to his "pal" David "Human Garbage" Gergen to buttress the case for the importance of pithy presidential one-liners. For the record, here's what the loathsome political superhack has to say:

The reason these phrases are important is that an essential job of presidential leadership is to give meaning to a central thrust of the presidency.

(Right, and David G. would know.)

Anyway, here are the for-instances Al has gathered:

FDR had "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," while Truman had "the buck stops here" and Eisenhower had "the military-industrial complex."

Kennedy, on Day One, had "ask not what your country can do for you," and Johnson had "I shall not seek, nor I will not accept, the nomination . . . "

Nixon had "I am not a crook," Ford had "our long national nightmare is over," and Reagan had "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Bush I had "this will not stand" after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and Clinton had "the meaning of is, is" and "I did not have sex with that woman" and "the era of big government is over."

Bush II had "the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon," in the bullhorn speech at the rubble of the World Trade Center, and also "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Back to Al and his pal David "The Political Debauchee's Debauchee" Gergen:

Slogans such as "New Deal" and "New Frontier" gave meaning to what presidents wanted to do and what they wanted the country to do, Gergen said. One of the "great surprises" of the Obama presidency, Gergen added, is that "despite his reputation as a splendid orator, there doesn’t seem to be much that he said in his first three years in office that comes close to 'ask not' or 'fear itself' or 'tear down this wall.'"

(Well, that's not in my Top 100 Surprises of the Obama Administration, or my Top 100 Disappointments, but I suppose it could figure in the Top 500. Top 1000 for sure.)


IF YOU SENSED A LOOP CONTEST TAKING SHAPE . . .

Bingo!

Loop Fans can help! It’s time for the first "What did Obama say? What should he say?" contest.

We need your suggestion -- one per entrant, please - of some phrase or sentence that Obama uttered that might long be remembered either for its own elegance or as a symbol of his presidency.

You can also suggest -- again, one per entrant -- Obama should say that would be emblematic of his tenure. The top 10 entries in each category (you can enter both), as determined by an independent panel of judges, will get the coveted Loop T-shirts and mentions in this column.

To enter, please go to wapo.st/loopcontest and enter under the "comments" section at the bottom.

But hurry! Entries must be submitted by midnight Nov. 14. In case of duplicates, first in will win. (You may want to double-check that there’s an active e-mail address associated with your washingtonpost.com log-in. If we're unable to successfully contact the winner within three days, the prize will go to a runner-up.)

Good luck.

BUT WHAT KIND OF PITHY CATCH PHRASE
CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE NEW GOP POTUS?

Isn't this where the real, er, fun begins? (As always, it's funny as long as we ignore the likelihood that one of these, er, people will actually be our next president.) I've been working so hard to block out the craziness that I've had to throw together just a few quick takes. I'm sure you've got ever-so-much-doozier suggestions, but for starters let me throw these out.

WILLARD (ROMNEY) INC.:
"Corporations are people, my friend."

MICHELE "BATS IN THE BELFRY" BACHMANN:
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake. We've had a hurricane."

HERMAN "I DON'T RECALL" CAIN:
"If I were forced to eliminate a department, I would start with the EPA."

RICK "SEÑOR PIÑATA" PERRY:
"The idea that we would put Americans' economy at -- at -- at jeopardy based on scientific theory that's not settled yet, to me, is just -- is nonsense. I mean, it -- I mean -- and I tell somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said, here is the fact, Galileo [right] got outvoted for a spell."

[Judging from the expression on Galileo's face, one might speculate that this portrait was painted during that spell when he was getting outvoted. You can almost hear the exasperation in his voice as he rasps, "Ooh, this vote was so close!"]

Or if that's too long, we might settle for Rick's pithier and possibly even more inspirational:
"I kind of feel like the piñata here at the party."

#

Perhaps Republicans Believe That Only A Blowhard With Multiple Bankruptcies Knows What It Takes To Game The System In Their Favor

Everyone was getting angry with Village Idiot David Gergen last week. I don't understand why. Whenever he's on TV yammering away his hackneyed conservative blather I just picture him running around the woods with Kissinger and Dubya in their birthday suits after all the women are shuttled back to Frisco at 3pm and they can all start urinating in peace.

WEST

Florida freak Allen West was bragging all over Washington last week-- to anyone who bothered to listen to the blowhard freshman-- how he wouldn't vote for Boehner's with Obama on the spending resolution to keep the government afloat. He claimed

$39 billion in cuts is insufficient. Asked whether he was pleased with the agreement on policy riders, West responded, "It's all about the money."

West, a freshman who is popular with the Tea Party, said he is a firm "no" on the measure, which will be voted on next week.

And yet, when last night came, there was West, teabaggers be damned, voting with the 208 Republicans and 140 Democrats in favor of the compromise, having abandoned the 28 Republican radicals he usually likes being seen hanging around-- Bachmann, King, Broun, Gohmert, Amash and fellow Floridians Connie Mack and Steve Southerland-- who all voted NO.

TRUMP

Everyone I know insists Donald Trump is just making noises like he's running for president (of the United States... of America) in order to get some viewers for his tired TV sitcom-- an elaborate Newt or Palin-worthy publicity stunt. But I'm not so sure. Is it beyond the realm of consideration that Trump is just holding the Republican Party and it's credulous, bumpkin base up to ridicule? I mean even Trump couldn't possibly believe the nonsense that's been pouring out of his mouth lately. Yesterday's Brattleboro Reformer summed it up nicely in a feature, Trump in 2012:

In an indication of how lacking the Republican field of presidential nominees for 2012 is, blow-dry, flip-top Donald Trump recently placed second (tied with former Governor Mike Huckabee) behind Mitt Romney in a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump also placed second to Romney in the latest survey of New Hampshire Republican primary voters.
We’d like to say we are astounded by that poll result, but there’s really no way to predict what those whacky Granite State Republicans are going to do from one moment to the next.

On the Today Show, Trump said people connect with him because "I happen to be smart. I happen to have a lot of common sense."

He also said "I built a great company. I would run a great, great country. This country would be great again."

OK, let’s step back for a second and consider something.

In 1991, Trump filed business bankruptcy and almost had to file for personal bankruptcy. A year later he had to once again declare bankruptcy.

We’re not done yet.

In 2004, he filed for bankruptcy protection and restructured his debt and in 2009 he filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Maybe that’s how he plans to fix the nation’s financial woes-- file bankruptcy.

What Trump has proved about his intelligence is he knows how to game the system and walk away unscathed.

Trump is also favored over all Republican contenders by Tea Party supporters, according to a recent NBC/WSJ poll.

When asked if he considers himself a member of the Tea Party, Trump said, "I think so."

He's also looking for any jingoists he can dig up beyond the teabagger set.

"Unless we get the oil, I have no interest in Libya," says Trump.

Here's a candidate who is willing to go on CNN and say-- of COURSE it's about the oil! You don't get involved in a place like Libya to help a bunch of rebels you don't really know:

"We don't know who's being slaughtered," says Trump. "We cannot be the policemen for the world."

Yes we can't be the world's policeman.

He prefers the Genghis Khan model:

"In the old days when you had a war, when you won the war, you won. If they had oil, if they had diamonds, if they had gold - What's going to happen in Iraq is absolutely amazing, two minutes after we leave, Iran is going to take over the great oil fields of Iraq. If I'm president at the time, Iran is not taking over the Iraqi oil fields, we will."

The Trump Doctrine. Don't just occupy Iraq-- colonize it.

I bet he'd also be the first president who instead of pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey, would just chop its head of right there on the South Lawn.

Didn't Palin already stage some kind event like that?

America's Worst Airline

That would be Delta and their timing, as always, was impeccable as they sent out announcements about private jet travel being "within reach" for a mere $43,900... just as the Republicans and Obama slashed up another segment of what was left of the social safety net:

Hello Mr. Klein,

Now is the perfect time to try the flexibility and convenience of private jet travel.

Experience Delta Private Jets with the 10-hour Fleet Membership Card-- starting at $43,900* in the light jet category-- and enjoy guaranteed availability and fully-refundable hours that never expire, along with a heritage of service and safety.

Or better yet, travel with the long term assurance offered by the Air Elite Jet Card, which includes simplified "all-in" hourly pricing that includes taxes and fuel and locked-in rates for up to two years. With the Air Elite Jet Card, you'll have the option to use the funds for both private and commercial travel. And you will also receive SkyMiles® Diamond Medallion® status and 20% savings on full-fare First or BusinessElite® tickets on Delta flights.

Learn how you can start enjoying the many benefits of private jet travel by visiting DeltaPrivateJets.com or calling 1-877-541-3548.

* Does not include taxes of approximately $3,400 if all flights are domestic; taxes are lower for international flights. Membership fee does not include a variable Fuel Component Adjustment ranging from approximately $690 per hour for a Light Jet to $1,170 per hour for a Large Jet as of April 1, 2011.

Don't ask me why they sent this to me. In a former life I was president of a division of Warner Bros. There were 4 private jets at my disposal. I think I was the only divisional president who never ordered one. I thought it was sinful when the cost could go towards promoting our artists' music instead. I always thought it was a decadent excess and I was even embarrassed to ride with other people on their private jets.

Bastard Fairies

Let's elevate the discussion. Our old friends the Bastard Fairies are on hiatus, Yellow Thunder Woman did the very unbarstardly thing of getting pregnant, and is now super happy and settled back on the reservation. In the meantime Robin has been busy launching a new band called Well Hung Heart and he sent along the first video yesterday, "This Is Not Love," which you may like as much as I do: