The Phony Campaign

2020-08-16 Update

In this week's Eye Candy, Michael Ramirez celebrates Wheezy Joe's Veep pick: [Baggage]

Our two-row table was looking pretty pathetic, so I tossed in the Libertarian Party candidate, Jo Jorgenson, and the Green Party candidate, someone named Howie Hawkins.

What our country needs: a president with a nine-year-old's name. (Didn't we learn from President Jimmy?)

President Bone Spurs closed his win-probability gap with Biden by another 2.8 net percentage points, Hm, with 11 weeks to go, and assuming he keeps closing at the same rate… nope, not going to do that.

Candidate WinProb Change
Since
8/9
Phony
Results
Change
Since
8/9
Donald Trump 40.4% +1.6% 2,670,000 +1,110,000
Joe Biden 56.6% -1.2% 1,060,000 +555,000
Howie Hawkins 0.0% --- 92,500 ---
Jo Jorgensen 0.0% --- 26,400 ---

Warning: Google result counts are bogus.

  • Of course, the Trump campaign's video in response to the Kamala pick is right up our alley: "Slow Joe and Phony Kamala".

    Uh, sure.


  • But you're wondering: should we count on Kamala Harris?. Fortunately, Jim Geraghty has the answer: Don’t Count on Kamala Harris.

    There’s a reason people laughed so hard at Maya Rudolph’s portrayal of Harris as a woman who thinks she’s in a TNT legal drama. Harris often speaks like she’s the protagonist of a John Grisham novel — grandiose tributes to the law and justice that just happen to align with whatever she politically needs at any particular moment.

    Harris did rise further, winning election to the U.S. Senate. Winning a statewide Democratic primary in California is usually a matter of money, name recognition, and which competitor has the strongest preexisting base of support; Harris had already won statewide races, and Representative Loretta Sanchez had not. But Harris’s arrival in Washington coincided with the arrival of Donald Trump, an event that filled the Democrat Party with an endless rage that they could lose to a man like him. Democrats wanted anger during the Trump era, so Harris repositioned herself as the administration’s toughest foe in the Senate.

    You probably noticed that Harris flip-flopped on Medicare for All, independent reviews of police shootings, decriminalizing border crossings, and abolishing ICE. She hit Joe Biden for opposing a federal mandate for busing but later said she herself wouldn’t support a federal mandate. For all her toughness and tributes to principle, she repeatedly demonstrated that she would say whatever was needed to impress the audience in front of her.

    And she has the disquieting habit of laughing uproariously at something she's just said. It doesn't have to be remotely funny. Sample:

    It's probably sexist of me, but I find this extremely grating.


  • Via Ann Althouse, a Biden tweet:

    Ann quotes Breitbart:

    Breitbart reacts: "Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted Sunday that 'Michael Brown’s life was taken in Ferguson' — a reference to the founding myth of the Black Lives Matter movement, which claimed Brown was murdered by police in cold blood.... Left-wing activists popularized the slogan 'Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,' and claimed that Brown had been shot in the back with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender. Journalists and mainstream media pundits gave credence to the claim.... The Department of Justice under the Obama-Biden administration investigated Brown’s death and confirmed that there was no basis for charging Wilson under federal law. The investigation also suggested that Brown had attacked Wilson in his patrol car, reaching into the vehicle and attempting to seize the officer’s gun. In the ensuing struggle, part of Brown’s thumb was shot off. Brown ran away, and Officer Wilson pursued him. Wilson fired only when Brown charged at him...."

    That's impressively phony pandering right there. Joe should say: "Under a Biden Administration, the Department of Justice will railroad cops without regard to evidence or due process."


  • And in our "It's A Funny Old World" Department, Jacob Sullum notes a tad of hypocrisy: Rejecting Biden’s Threat of a Nationwide Mask Mandate, Trump Suddenly Respects Limits on Presidential Power.

    Democrats, who routinely complain about Donald Trump's power grabs when they do not like the results, quickly change their tune when they see presidential orders as the easiest way to impose a nationwide policy they favor. Trump, meanwhile, never hesitates to assert authority he does not have, except when it comes to policies he opposes.

    That utterly unprincipled approach to executive power is vividly illustrated by the debate between Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden about face mask mandates, which yesterday led Trump to utter these words: "If the president has the unilateral power to order every single citizen to cover their face in nearly all instances, what other powers does he have?" This is the same man who last April asserted "total" authority over COVID-19 lockdowns, saying "the president of the United States calls the shots."

    Probably both Biden and Trump are of the right age to have watched Woody Allen's Bananas and thinking it was a documentary.


  • And Elle Reynolds of the Federalist reports: Biden Touts Catholic Faith A Month After Vowing To Crack Down On Nuns.

    The Democratic National Convention’s Twitter account posted a video touting Biden’s Catholic background on Sunday, exactly one month after Biden vowed to strip a group of nuns of their right to refuse providing contraceptives that violate their Catholic beliefs.

    Someone needs to give Joe a sharp rap on the knuckles with a ruler.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 4:54 AM EDT