Don’t hold your breath One day ahead of Super Tuesday, the speculation is that shortly after this posts we may see the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Donald “91 Counts” Trump’s Colorado ballot access case. Anyone who listened to the oral arguments knows not to hold their breath for the court to agree with the Colorado supremes (and others) that he’s committed crimes (Washington Post): The high court took the unusual step Sunday of scheduling an opinion announcement for a day when it is not in session. The justices typically issue rulings from the bench, with the author of the majority opinion presenting a summary of the court’s decision. Instead, the court said opinions could be posted on its website Monday at 10 a.m. Colorado’s top court ordered Trump, the Republican front-runner, off the ballot in December after finding that he engaged in insurrection around the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. The state court put its ruling on hold while litigation continued, and the former president’s name will appear on the state’s primary ballot.
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No Labels is going to go after Biden hard, using Trump talking points Lieberman will never stop trying to destroy the Democratic party out of pique that they rejected him that one time. Here’s the latest on No Labels’ attempt to help Donald Trump win the election: With days to go before its previously announced mid-March deadline of finalizing plans for a third party presidential ticket, No Labels still doesn’t have a candidate or a clear plan — even as it looks to take swings at President Joe Biden that its own officials acknowledge are more potent than accurate. And major potential recruits are still holding out: a person familiar with the conversations told CNN that No Labels officials have talked with advisers to Chris Christie, but that the former New Jersey governor has declined to meet with them himself.
After the Supremes released their decision overturning the Colorado Ballot Case ruling, Trump gave a speech and the cable nets were beside themselves in anticipation. If you have a spare 15 minutes to watch it all, I urge you to do it. I wish everyone would see it because they need to be reminded of what he is. This wasn’t a rally where you can possibly chalk up his lunacy to the fever of the crowd. This was him speaking extemporaneously before a camera, just riffing on what he cares about. If you don’t have time (or can’t bring yourself to watch him) here are just a few of the highlights. He says this will bring out country together. Because the country will only come together if Trump wins everything, That’s how this works. Aaaaand…. I think that gives you the gist. And I would hope it will be on the evening news and in prime time so that people who are working can see it too.
The New Yorker interviews Biden “Saturday Night Live” made mad fun over the weekend of comments that President Joe Biden is sharp as a tack “behind closed doors.” The New Yorker this morning offers a peek behind those closed doors. John Harwood tweets that the interview, like his own last fall, “shows talk of his alleged mental decline as utter bullshit.” Evan Osnos writes: If you spend time with Biden these days, the biggest surprise is that he betrays no doubts. The world is riven by the question of whether he is up to a second term, but he projects a defiant belief in himself and his ability to persuade Americans to join him. For as long as Biden has been in politics, he has thrived on a mercurial mix of confidence and insecurity. Now, having reached the apex of power, he gives off a conviction that borders on serenity—a bit too much serenity for Democrats who wonder if he can still beat the man with whom his legacy will be forever entwined. Given the doubts, I asked, wasn’t it a risk to say, “I’m the one to do it”? He shook his head and said, “No. I’m the only one who has ever beat him.
One of the moldiest political tropes around is the one that says a presidential candidate needs to run to the base during the primaries and then pivot to the center once he or she locks down the nomination. It makes some strategic sense, for sure, and we’ve seen it in action many times although it doesn’t always work. But Donald Trump is not one for standard campaign strategy so despite the fact that he’s the defacto nominee of the Republican Party for president, he’s not making any kind of pivot to the center. If anything he’s embracing the MAGA base ever more tightly, despite the fact that there is a substantial minority of his party that’s rejecting him in these primaries. Over the weekend Trump bagged some more wins in caucuses in Michigan, Idaho and Missouri, all three of which were the result of amateur hour mistakes by local and party officials that messed up the usual primary system. Even so, from what we can gather there still exists an anti-Trump vote among Republicans and GOP leaning Independents.
And that is not hyperbole He lost the DC primary. There were just a couple thousand votes but he just couldn’t stand it. So he had another tantrum.
Ending the Gaza carnage Yes, our outrage is selective. In a world of double standards, Nicholas Kristof reminds readers how much we have one toward Israel (New York Times): Rabbi Marvin Hier in The Jerusalem Post condemned “an unprecedented double standard” that relentlessly criticizes Israel’s bombing of Gaza but is unbothered by the Allied bombing of civilians in Germany and Japan in World War II. And the World Jewish Congress cites “criticizing Israeli defensive operations, but not those of other Western democracies” as an example of antisemitism. A fair criticism, Kristof writes, and a false one. In 2023, for example, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 15 resolutions critical of Israel, and only seven resolutions critical of all other countries in the world together, by the count of one pro-Israel group. Does anyone think that represents even-handedness?
Playing the hand you are dealt Jonathan Last throws water on the magical thinking about skittish Democrats replacing Joe Biden on their presidential ticket. (Really? Are we still talking about this?) Scary New York Times polls? How about scarier polls? Virtually all the also-mentions poll worse than Biden against Trump: Harris, Newsome, Whitmer and Shapiro. Ten days ago already, Lawrence O’Donnell’s “the governing will not be televised” monologue refuted Ezra Klein’s speculation about Democrats replacing Biden. If that was not sufficient to dispel the notion that the DNC is going to rub a monkey’s paw and produce a younger presidential candidate, Last provides bullets on why it won’t (The Atlantic): Democrats may have a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but not since 2018. Unless the carnage abates in Gaza soon, there will exist the potential for protests in Chicago that (for those of a certain age) will evoke bad memories from 1968. Even the rowdies of The Big Tent Party will want to avoid that kind of bad press.
That was Trump speaking earlier today. Here are a few more: Here’s Dr. John Gartner analyzing Trump’s speech at CPAC last weekend: Trump manifested a number of phonemic paraphasias. He was trying to say evangelist, for example, but haltingly said “evangelish.” He was trying to say “three years later,” but said, “three years, lady, lady, lady.” Trying to spit out the word “lately,” he sounded like a car with a bad battery struggling to turn over. When Trump can’t find a word his whole demeanor changes. It’s almost like someone pulled the metaphorical plug. Trump looks blank, stops in mid-sentence (or mid-word), his jaw goes a little slack, and when he starts to talk again, he slurs, speaks haltingly, and often looks confused. Trying to get the word out, he shifts to a non-word that is easier to pronounce. When people are losing their ability to use language they use non-words. They start with the stem of the real word, and then they improvise from there. In my family we call sandwiches “slamichs” because that’s what my stepson called them when he was three. It was cute then.
I guess he thinks he can entice some of those RFK Jr voters over to his side. He’s also following this guy’s guidance: Shortly before Joseph Ladapo was sworn in as Florida’s surgeon general in 2022, the New Yorker ran a short column welcoming the vaccine-skeptic doctor to his new role, and highlighting his advocacy for the use of leeches in public health. It was satire of course, a teasing of the Harvard-educated physician for his unorthodox medical views, which include a steadfast belief that life-saving Covid shots are the work of the devil, and that opening a window is the preferred treatment for the inhalation of toxic fumes from gas stoves. But now, with an entirely preventable outbreak of measles spreading across Florida, medical experts are questioning if quackery really has become official health policy in the nation’s third most-populous state.