Biden Unburdens Kamala To Take Over
One of the most annoying lines that Vice President Kamala Harris is fond of repeating is: "What can be, unburdened by what has been."
At 1:46 PM ET on a slow Sunday, Joe Biden, America's 46th President, decided not to seek re-election. An agonizing 27 minutes later, Biden endorsed Harris as his choice for the Democratic nomination.
It was a remarkable moment in presidential history, very similar to what transpired in 1968. The 1968 Democratic Convention was also in Chicago, the site of the 2024 convention. The 1968 proceedings were marred by chaos and violence that played out on national television. Then, the many disputes over the party's stance on the Vietnam War, civil rights, and other issues, led to a fractured party and a sense of disarray. The top vote-getters on the floor were Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Senator Eugene McCarthy, and Senator George McGovern. Humphrey faced Nixon in the general election and lost in an electoral landslide, winning only 191 electoral votes. Nixon won 301 votes, and George Wallace, running as an American Independent Party candidate, won 46 electoral votes.
On Sunday afternoon, however, there was one significant difference. While LBJ had sought the nomination and reluctantly withdrew from the race after being told he may not win, President Biden aggressively campaigned and won in the 2024 Democratic primary with a 98% margin over four months. He locked up over 99% of the delegates who pledged to vote for him during the first round vote.
In light of the Biden decision, the first-round vote will likely happen as a mark of respect. But the second round vote will be a competitive affair unless Harris sews up her support before then. Former President Bill Clinton endorsed her, putting an end to rumors that Hillary Clinton would want to be in the top spot again. Still, curiously, former President Barack Obama or former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from Harris's Bay Area district, declined to endorse her. The latter two leaders orchestrated the coup that brought Biden down. A messy intra-party fight is on the cards.
Other strange protocol deviances occurred. Biden chose to release his announcement on X with a single-page letter signed on personal letterhead with the name Joseph R. Biden at the top. The events of the day were a party matter, of course, but Biden referred to focusing "solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term." This phrase was to preempt calls for him to resign from the presidency. So, should the letter have been on White House stationery? At least, why not on DNC paper?
The Undemocratic Democratic Party. One thing is clear. The party that calls itself the "Democratic Party" and refers to democracy at every turn - even Biden couldn't resist saying in his farewell post how "We've protected and preserved our democracy" - continued a nine-year streak of extraordinary activism doing everything undemocratic.
First, it was the Russia-Russia-Russia scandal started by Biden staffers such as Jake Sullivan, who worked on the Hillary Clinton campaign. When this proved to be a dud, it was the first Ukraine impeachment scandal started by Adam Schiff, one of the architects of Biden's downfall this week. It turned out that Trump was right after all, given all the information in the Hunter Biden laptop that showed how corrupt Ukraine is and how the Biden family handsomely benefited.
Then came the undemocratic masterplan to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, architected by Tony Blinken, the closest Biden aide responsible for America's disastrous foreign policy today. Blinken used his influence to get 51 intelligence officers to vouch that the laptop was Russian disinformation when it was not. After Biden was sworn in, Nancy Pelosi unleashed another impeachment on Trump and an 18-month partisan congressional investigation for J6 events. When that failed, Biden undemocratically declared that Trump should not be allowed to win and orchestrated a lawfare effort involving federal, state, and local prosecutors to shackle Trump with 93 lawsuits.
And now, the undemocratic means of the Democratic Party have ensnared their top boss, the President. And many more months of undemocratic actions are yet to pass.
The modern Democratic party is one of secrecy, Chinese Communist Party style. Ruled by the dictatorial hands of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, most party members rarely leak anything to the press for fear of retribution. For over three years, dating back to March 2021, when Biden repeatedly fell on the steps of Air Force One, party insiders knew that Biden was not in charge. He had outsourced his administration to cabinet colleagues and a secret cabal run by Prime Minister Ron Klain and other Obama-era stalwarts, including Victoria Nuland and Susan Rice.
However, in CCP style, the Democrats stayed unified in their messaging. Biden was the greatest president ever, who accomplished more in a single term than most presidents have in multiple terms. He opened up the economy from the bottom up, as opposed to trickle-down economics. He unified the world against Russia by expanding NATO.
Everything was a lie.
Under Biden, inflation and interest rates skyrocketed to record levels in 50 years, and federal deficits ballooned. The federal debt became so large that servicing it as a budget line item cost more than $1 trillion, larger than the DOD budget. For the over $200 billion committed to foreign wars, Ukraine is losing. Many international leaders who supported Zelenskyy have been soundly defeated politically - including Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and now, Joe Biden. While NATO expanded to Finland and Sweden, America has lost the Global South countries, which are quickly forming regional alliances.
The 2024 political season has been like no other in American history. Donald Trump was so dominant that he vanquished every opponent despite the lawfare against him. He became the only candidate in history to accept the GOP nomination for the third time. And he became the first occupant of the Oval Office since 1981 to be a victim of an assassination attempt. And, the leader of the Democratic Party, who was coronated and revered and loved and respected for over four years, suddenly faced a mutiny from within. CCP-style.
Who knows what the next four months will bring?