I had seen the headline of the Politico article already (and ignored it; it's Politico, after all. Joe Biden was doing national politics when the Politico reporters were still a gleam in their daddy's eyes. Seriously.) But then put that caption (Biden goofed!) up against the pull quote Ms. Haberman notes, and the pulled thread unravels the tapestry.“Some of this is performative – those Republicans presumably read the occasional newspaper and knew that the 2-bill thing was the only ticket.” https://t.co/Y95ZooIxqV
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 26, 2021
Biden may lose his temper once in a while (which honestly is even funnier), but this is kabuki for the GOP. They went to the border first (uselessly), then chided Harris for going to the root of the immigration problem coming to the border. When she finally went to El Paso, she was: (a) too late; (b) at the wrong point on the border; (c) hadn't been there twice yet. I'm only surprised Politico didn't worry that story for a week or more.
Biden is playing 'em all like a fiddle. He didn't goof. He knew exactly what he was doing. Even the story that "aides are scrambling" is probably a leak to Politico alone, knowing they'd run with it like a dog with a bone.
Dogs are cute; they ain't necessarily that smart. Maggie Haberman is smart.
It is one of my biggest surprises how skilled Biden turns out to be in politics. Obama and Clinton were neophytes, Carter too much of an outsider and too decent for it. I think it's going to turn out that the non-Ivy guy who spent a lot of time in the Congress is going to outdo the Ivy guys, I cannot in good conscience consider Annapolis to be an Ivy equivalent. Politico and The Hill, favorites of Brian Lamb along with Matt Drudge and Chuck Todd, and on NPR. They are pointless.
ReplyDeleteWe forget what a skilled politician LBJ was. Such skills are an asset. I also think McConnell isn’t that good at it, so much as he’s been fortunate in his opponents. Biden is taking him to school.
DeleteI should clarify: we’ve forgotten because LBJ was almost 60 years ago. About time we had another skilled Democratic POTUS in office.
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