The Selling Of The President

A 'must-watch' wide-open Democratic convention could be a nightmare for Trump: analysthttps://t.co/DcbEAmyHFy

— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 29, 2024

"If Biden were to accept reality and step aside, for once, Democrats would have a genuine opportunity to match Trump’s theatrical dominance," before adding, "What could draw more people into politics than a must-watch nightly drama, with the fate of the nation at stake?"

There it is, said plainly.

Mind you, conventions in my lifetime were spectacles organized to rally the delegates and inspire votes. I remember Nixon in ‘72, when primaries had largely superseded conventions. His inauguration was more like a four-day choreographed coronation. There was more attention paid to the fact of the planned “spontaneous events” (actually a term used in the planning documents) than to the carefully staged events themselves. And Nixon was about as comfortable performing in public as Trump is sitting quietly in court. He was, in other words, terrible at public performance.

But now it’s all about “theatrical dominance.” In 2016 it was “economic anxiety.” I don’t remember what the explanations were after that, except it’s never xenophobia, or nativism, or racism, or the plain appeal to “us,” (MAGA) v. “them” (all who are not MAGA, or worse, Democrats). Trump couldn’t be any plainer about this. He started it before descending the Trump Tower escalator, with Obama and birtherism. It took J6 before the MSM dared call it “the Big Lie” (a term that seems to have gone back on the shelf). They have yet to acknowledge Trump’s open and obvious racism (in display again in the last debate, but conveniently overshadowed by Biden’s failure to perform). Trump is an unrepentant racist, but he doesn’t speak with a drawl or claim southern roots, so I guess he can’t be? Or be said to be?

Or is racism just the hidden wound we must at all costs keep hidden? 

The funniest thing is how dated these arguments already are. Biden rose in the polls after the debate; but more concretely, he gained $27 million, far more than Trump is reporting (wait for it…). The idea that Biden must step aside is laughable, now more than ever. What’s even more absurd is the idea a brokered Democratic convention would be “must see TV!,” and lead to Democratic dominance in the polls (which always matter more than electoral outcomes, until those are the reality. At which point all these pundits turn into Otter from “Animal House:” “You fucked up! You trusted us!” If they’re ever that honest.). It is not a serious suggestion. It’s meant to be, but it objectively isn’t. Opinions are like assholes: everybody’s got one, especially on how to run political campaigns.

Editorial | If Donald Trump delivers his unrelenting stream of lies, fake statistics, and baseless accusations in a raspy, stammering voice, we will also call upon him to exit the race.

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) June 29, 2024

What else matters?

Of course, the only way Biden can prove he’s unfit for office is to withdraw his re-election bid now. If he doesn’t, he’ll be declared unfit by the MSM until he wins. At which point, just like the polls that will once again be wrong (although argued to be misunderstood, in the same way the Delphi Oracle was never wrong, just misinterpreted), this will all disappear as if it had never been.

After all, if the MSM doesn’t talk about it, we can’t, as a nation, think about it, right?  It worked in 2016, when nobody could imagine, much less think about, Trump winning. Right?