Get A Grip
By Steve Sheffey
Rick Wilson summed up Thursday’s debate in one tweet:
“Biden had a bad night.
“Also, Trump is an existential threat to democracy, the Republic, the Constitution, and our most fundamental liberties, in addition to being a fraud, a liar, a felon, a degenerate, a global embarrassment, and an ally of evil.
“Toughen up. Fight’s on.”
I don’t know what happened with Biden. His voice was raspy and he performed poorly. It’s likely he had a cold. I saw and heard him in person and up close in the Rose Garden at the White House Jewish American Heritage Month Reception last month and he was energetic and in full command. The day after the debate, in North Carolina, he looked and sounded great, although you could still detect remnants of the cold.
I wish Biden had done better but ask yourself this: Do you know anyone who supported Biden before the debate and changed their mind? Do you know anyone who supported Trump before the debate and changed their mind? Televised debates have been theater since they started and they don’t sway votes despite the media attention. Most people watch to cheer their side, not to make up their minds.
Post-debate polling from CNN, Morning Consult, Hart Research, and 538 shows that while voters had strong opinions on how each candidate performed, the debate had little or no impact on voting preferences.
Biden will and should be the nominee and he will win. Get a grip.
We need to stop treating Republicans like toddlers. There is a candidate who should drop out: Donald Trump. Yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer editorial is the editorial of the year — it’s all here. Read and share it now.
But we don’t expect Republicans to demand that he step down. Democrats are hand-wringing about a debate performance where Biden said hardly anything wrong but wasn’t dynamic while Republicans are fine with a 34-time convicted felon with the morals of an alley cat who had sex with a porn star four months after his wife gave birth and who told lies for 90 minutes with vigor.
Trump is a bigot, a misogynist, a fraud, and a bully. His racism, xenophobia, and contempt for democracy, not to mention his unhinged mind, his detachment from reality, his theft of classified documents, inciting an insurrection, refusing to accept the results of a lawful election, legal liability for sexual abuse, hostility to reproductive rights, terrible record as president, and long record of antisemitism are matters of fact.
Trump repeatedly invokes Hitler and the Nazis. Trump dined with Kanye West and white nationalist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Trump said that white nationalists marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us” were “very fine people.”
And some are saying Biden should step down? Why the double standard? And if we are content to treat Republicans as if they have no agency and can’t help themselves when they vote for and continue to support Trump, why on earth should we vote for any Republican who supports Trump, let alone Trump himself? Would you give a toddler access to nuclear weapons? That’s what you’re doing if you vote for Trump.
Trump lied his way through all 90 minutes of the debate. Biden proved that he is no Barack Obama or Bill Clinton when it comes to debate style. But as Monique Pressley pointed out, “the proof of Biden’s ability to run the country is the fact that he is running it. Successfully. Not a debate performance against a pathological lying sociopath.”
Jennifer Rubin wrote, “the debate format allowed Trump to present a nonstop stream of nonsense and lies. Biden was compelled to play whack-a-mole. It is humanly impossible to bat them all down in a situation such as this … Trump can shamelessly lie when moderators don’t fact-check in real time. The format simply does not work with an inveterate liar.”
Biden is guilty of being old. Trump is guilty of 34 felonies and counting. I’ll take Biden, and as Rubin reminds us, “a president’s gait, verbal tics and minor recall errors have virtually nothing to do with the job of being president. The White House occupant is not a ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant, a stand-up comic, a talk-show host or guest; the president is the head of the executive branch and commander in chief.”
Let’s remember the stakes in this election. This is not “The Apprentice.” This is the most consequential election in our lives. Democracy, abortion, the economy, and the future of the Supreme Court are at stake. The choice is a second Biden administration or a second Trump administration. That’s it. If you don’t think people will choose wisely after Thursday’s debate, it’s on you to make sure they do.
A Tale of Two Antisemitism Bills. The bill that will make a difference is the Countering Antisemitism Act but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still refuses to bring it to the floor for a vote despite urging from 61 major Jewish organizations from across the spectrum.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act, with its emphasis on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, is misguided legislation that will not help solve antisemitism on campus or anywhere else. Michelle Goldberg explains why Senators need to stop the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
This thread from the Nexus Project and this article from Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) provide further reasons to oppose the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Alan Solow explains that the Antisemitism Awareness Act’s “claim to helping combat the disturbing surge in anti-Jewish incidents across the United States is, upon closer examination, little more than a symbolic gesture that could actually weaken the fight against this bigotry.”
The Senate should not pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act and should instead bring the Countering Antisemitism Act for a vote.
George Latimer defeated Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). AIPAC did not buy the election. Latimer was a strong candidate and Bowman would have lost with or without its participation. Bowman was down by 17 points before AIPAC started spending and he lost by 17 points $14.5 million later.
AIPAC is good at picking candidates who are going to win and taking credit for the inevitable. Ironically, people who wouldn’t believe AIPAC if it said the sky was blue believe AIPAC when it says that its money made the difference.
Elections are not decided based on Israel. I’m pro-Israel, but if “pro-Israel is good politics” then AIPAC would have run ads against Bowman about Israel. They didn’t because they are smart; they know that most voters don’t vote on foreign policy issues. Of the eight or nine members of the Squad (out of 213 Democrats), Bowman has lost and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) will lose. The rest will win.
It’s as silly to say that Democrats are getting better on Israel because Bowman was, and Bush will be, rejected by Democratic voters as it was to say that Democrats were getting worse on Israel when they won. The media focuses on outliers because outliers are different and outliers are news.
But the vast majority of the 213 Democrats in Congress — including of the Progressive Caucus — are pro-Israel by any reasonable definition. When you step back and look at the forest instead of the trees, it is objectively clear that Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism (no Republican members of Congress have condemned Rep Scott Perry’s (R-PA) latest antisemitic post).
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The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of JDCA.
