Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell struck up a friendship during their nearly quarter-century in the Senate together. Now in their 80s, the Democratic president and the Senate GOP leader appear to be giving political cover to each other as they fend off questions about their advanced age and health issues.
Notably, McConnell, R-Ky., 81, hasn’t joined Donald Trump, 77, and other Republicans who have attacked Biden’s age, health and mental acuity as he seeks re-election.
And after McConnell’s second freeze-up last week, Biden was one of the first to call McConnell, telling reporters that his “friend” sounded like “his old self” and that such episodes are a “part of his recovery” from a fall and a concussion this year.
No, I don’t. But that doesn’t matter to the republican voters. And that’s where I think the original assertion that the democractic party would have a cakewalk in 2024 with a candidate who is under 65 falls apart (let’s be honest, by definition a non-viable candidate can’t win, and Trump changed the definition of viable in 2016).
You and I know that. But when Swalwell was seeing his approval ratings going up during Trump’s first impeachment hearing, this story is exactly what the republicans drudged up against him. And loyal republican voters will bring it up again if he runs for president again. And they’ll have no problem saying they have to vote against Swalwell because of it.
I like Swalwell. I would vote for him in the general if he’s the nominee based on what I know right now. But I’m saying I don’t think there is any candidate who could unify the progressive, liberal, centrist, independent, and non-voters enough to make the election a cakewalk. It should have been a cakewalk in 2016, but it wasn’t. It should have been a cakewalk in 2020 but Trump actually received more votes than in 2016. He actually won the second most votes in the history of the country in 2020! And he’s out here spouting literal fascism, while actively being prosecuted for like 100 felonies, including trying to subvert our democracy (ie fascism) and he’s trouncing the other republican primary candidates! He’s polling over 50% in the primary, and the second place candidate has less than a third of that!
The democrats could run literally Jesus, and I still think it would be a close election due him being a Jewish immigrant who hangs out with poor people and prostitutes (bunch of welfare moochers who just want free stuff and promote crime, think of the children), preaches we should sell our belongings to fund clothing, feeding, and sheltering the poor (communism!), and the whole love your neighbor thing (ie he’d probably tell Israel to chill out and be nice to the Palestinians, so that would totally ruin the Evangelicals’ plans for armageddon and the rapture).