Take note, Republicans. Emmanuel Macron just showed us the political reality of liberals everywhere; they’ll foment chaos before they let conservatives try their hand at governing. After France’s conservative National Rally (RN) soared in the EU elections, Macron dissolved Parliament, called snap elections, and cut a deal with a let-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, to ensure a liberal ruling coalition. Leftist candidates dropped out to consolidate votes for one liberal, resulting in a chaotic alliance of socialists, communists, and various green factions.
On top was the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI), whose leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, ruled out governing with Macron’s liberals on Monday; thereby ensuring a hung parliament and making Macron look like a chump. Mélenchon advocates military non-alignment for France, opposes sending sophisticated weaponry to Kyiv, and proclaimed it was “high time to negotiate peace in Ukraine with mutual security clauses.” That’s a U-turn from Macron, NATO’s biggest advocate and promisor of French troops in Ukraine if needed. Oops! And, RN increased its seats in Parliament by 50% to become France’s single largest party.
Not to be outdone, Joe Biden scheduled an unusually early presidential debate, hoping to reverse Trump’s unrelenting lead in the polls. Despite setting the time, place, and format, the President looked like a corpse, gave gaffe-filled answers, and muttered unintelligible statements; thereby igniting a viral BIDEN MUST DROP OUT movement in the Democrat Party, starting with Obama election guru David Axelrod: “Biden is headed for a landslide defeat to a lawless and unpopular former president.”
Clinton acolyte Lanny Davis: “This election should be about saving us from a man whom everyone in the Democratic Party believes poses a grave threat to the country and the Constitution.” Even his allies in the media penned hundreds of Joe Must Go editorials. Mr. Biden should step aside, but he won’t. Long prone to confirmation bias, Biden heard a different message; Axelrod saying Trump was unpopular with voters, and Davis saying everyone in his party hated Trump.
Biden probably believes that he can overcome Trump’s 3-point lead, and fired-up Democrats will turn out to push today’s 121 “toss up” electoral votes into his column. Especially after Jim Clyburn (D-SC) left the Congressional Black Caucus meeting with four words: “I’m riding with Biden.” Buried in the anti-Biden editorials, Clyburn found a few recalling Biden’s 2020 victory over a sitting president, a few citing Biden’s incumbency and $200 million in campaign funds, and a few saying a “convicted felon” would never win on Election Day.
A ray of hope is all Biden needs. Voila! Friday’s New York Times headline – “The Strongest Case for Biden Is His Resilience in the Face of the Onslaught” – and a NPR/PBS/Marist poll with Biden leading Trump 50% to 48%. Because Biden, aboard Air Force One, amidst the Secret Service agents, and with convention delegates locked up, is still the most powerful man in the world – not Bill Clinton, not Barack Obama, and sure-as-hell not George Clooney. If Biden’s lost a step, he hasn’t forgotten how Washington works: fight to the bell, and avoid the KO punch.
Like an aging Ali, Biden is using rope-a-dope on his party and the press to make it to the convention in five weeks. Starting with his Big Boy presser at the NATO conference that did not impress but allowed 24 million TV viewers to see the President stand at the podium for an hour. Politico nailed it: “President Joe Biden didn’t entirely stumble at his high-stakes NATO press conference on Thursday, but his performance and continuing defiance to stepping aside has frozen Democrats in place once again over the president’s embattled candidacy.”
Biden bought three weeks (because Big Media will be preoccupied with the GOP convention and Summer Olympics) until – two weeks before the convention – he becomes his party’s least bad option to beat Trump. He’s not stepping down, his cozy cabinet’s not invoking the 25th amendment, and every Democrat knows the open warfare required to shame Biden out of office will leave the party in shambles; thereby making their own re-elections less likely. To hell with democracy, this is about POWER.
Which is why Macron called Marine Le Pen a “threat to democracy” in spite of her party’s rapid growth; 50% since 2022, and biggest share (37.1%) of this year’s popular vote. Not to be outdone, Biden called Donald Trump a “threat to democracy” and now ignores the will of his own Democrat Party; 56% of whom want him to end his candidacy (source: Ipsos). Isn’t the real threat to democracy dismissive elites like Macron and mean-sounding monocrats like Biden?
Especially Biden, who invited fear to get elected (Russian disinformation letter) and loathing to stay elected (propagate “white supremacist” GOP threat). It was all just hardball politics until Saturday, when Trump was hit by a sniper’s bullet in Pennsylvania. Team Biden sprung into action: repeated calls from Biden until he “personally spoke” to Trump, orders to pause all Trump “attack” ads, and an email commanding Biden’s entire staff to stay off social media. Heartfelt – – or because of the widely reported call to hundreds of donors last week?
That’s when Biden smack-talked: “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Not blaming a sniper’s actions on Mr. Biden, but I’ll bet that quote – and celebrities posing with Trump’s severed head or threatening to punch him in the face – is a topic at this week’s GOP convention: how far will so-called liberals go to hold onto power?
The image of Trump, bloodied but defiant, being surrounded by Secret Service agents is a powerful reminder. Who denied a Kennedy secret-service protection? Who’s vilified Trump ad nauseam since 2018? Whose DOJ has hounded his chief political rival non-stop? Who told Jimmy Carter to drop out “for the good of the party” in 1980, but won’t hear of it in 2024?
Spoiler alert: Joe Biden.