Not Another Heir Apparent

House Democratic whip James Clyburn of South Carolina (above) says he thinks President Biden is providing able and steady leadership despite his readily advancing age, and he plans to support him for re-election.  Clyburn (who is 82) does add, however, that if President Biden chooses not to run again in 2024, he would recommend that the party get behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Well, let's not even bother with primaries, then!

Here we go again . . . another Democratic heir apparent to succeed a Democratic President, chosen by the party establishment in advance and anointed by the press as "inevitable." Any other Democrat interested running for President may as well not bother.  Never mind that Biden is unpopular right now - even more so than Trump was at this time in 2018 - and that Kamala Harris is even more unpopular . . . and she recently proved that she can't even tough out an interview with that King of France God guy. 

Because this scheme of anointing an heir apparent worked so well in 2000 . . . and 2016 . . .

How far back do you want to go?  Walter "Fritz" Mondale, who had toyed with running for President in 1976 but decided not to because it was too expensive, was set to be the 1984 presidential nominee after having served as Jimmy Carter's Vice President and would have served in that office through 1984 if Carter had been re-elected. Just before the 1984 caucuses and primaries began, Newsweek famously asked "Can Anyone Stop Fritz?"  Yes: His name was Ronald Reagan.

Does anyone even realize that the last Democratic heir apparent to win the Presidency was Martin Van Buren in 1836?

And just for the record, the last time a Democratic President was elected to succeed an outgoing Democratic President was 1856. And James Buchanan wasn't President Franklin Pierce's heir apparent - he was his opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination!  

President Harris?  Hey, Mr. Clyburn, you sure you don't want to rethink this?

Biden Blowout

One of the old lions of the Democratic Party just stormed into March like one.  Joe Biden won a decisive victory in South Carolina primary.

He came close to winning a majority of the popular vote, something Tom Steyer - who has since withdrawn as a presidential candidate - likely prevented him from doing after spending money on TV ads in the state like a working stiff who drank a lot of take-home pay (is that a great Billy Joel lyric, or what?).  But a win is a win, and this was a big win for Uncle Joe.  As of this writing, Biden has won for delegates in South Carolina for every one delegate Bernie Sanders - who came in a distant second at 28 percentage points behind - picked up, 28 to 7.  Biden's speech about restoring decency and goodness to America encapsulated what this campaign is and should be about, as Donald Trump represents the exact opposite.

U.S. Representative James Clyburn (above, with Biden) introduced Biden at the victory party for the former Vice President as a good man and as a man one can trust. Biden showed how much he earned that trust by urging people to consider what's at stake in November and reaffirming his commitment to the very virtues of America that Trump has undermined.  Clyburn underlined all that in his introduction of the former Vice President by reminding people that only a good nation can be a great nation.  Biden's speech got him some favorable free media that could compensate for his lack of money, for now at least, and it could help him in key Super Tuesday contests coming up this week.

The biggest loser in South Carolina was probably Donald Trump, who appeared in the state in a really the day before the primary to troll the candidates and tried to get Republicans to vote in the open primary for Sanders to help the candidate he thinks he defeat the most handily (didn't work, did it?), and he made himself look even more foolish than usual.  Biden still has his work cut out for him  He has to face Sanders in upcoming primaries and caucuses and also has to deal with the formidable Michael Bloomberg for dominance of the center-left Democratic faction.  But right now, things are looking up for him.  And it makes sense that one of the greatest soul records ever served as the theme music at Biden's South Carolina victory celebration.       

Biden His Time Again

I gotta tell ya, I thought Joe Biden was left for dead on the side of the road to the White House, and I was actually looking very hard at Michael Bloomberg for awhile, but the former Vice President seems to be picking up momentum at just the time he needs it.

South Carolina congressman James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of the House of Representatives, endorsed Biden publicly yesterday, and after struggling in the polls against Bernie Sanders and the insufferable Tom Steyer in the Palmetto State, Biden found himself leading in the South Carolina primary in a new Clemson University poll by eighteen points.  Despite a few gaffes in Tuesday's debate that could only be called Bidenesque - he grossly overstated the number of Americans killed since 2007 as a result of gun violence by tens of millions - he came across as confident, knowledgeable, and strong.  He demonstrated the indignation and outrage against the Trump administration that led him to campaign for the Presidency in 2020 in the first place.  If he wins big in South Carolina that could change everything about the 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign.  If he loses big in South Carolina, that too could change everything about the 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign.

Bloomberg did better in the debate, and he regained some of his footing in my opinion, but his mere existence continues to irk Elizabeth Warren and distracts from some of the more shocking statements made about Fidel Castro and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas coming from Bernie Sanders.  Sanders is proving to be something of a loose cannon that could fire a volley into the Democrats' own chances of winning the Presidency in November, and either Biden or Bloomberg will likely be in a better than position going against Sanders than Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar after Super Tuesday on March 3 depending on what happens on this rare Leap Day primary in South Carolina.  After seeing this debate, I feel a little better about the Democrats' chances of unseating Trump.

Until I see that the the Republican National Committee has twenty dollars for every one dollar the Democratic National Committee has.  That's where Bloomberg's money will come in handy, whether he's the party's presidential nominee of not.         

Nancy With the Smug Face

On the one hand . . . Nancy Pelosi is an aging, elitist bourgeois liberal who's out of touch with both mainstream America and the younger members of the Democratic Party rank and file, and she really ought to step out of the way and let someone else be Speaker of the House of Representatives . . . someone who is more in tune with Main Street and less in tune with K Street.

On the other hand . . . Nancy Pelosi is a masterful leader who can advance the progressive agenda and progressive legislation by prioritizing important bills and programs that show effective, competent governance and saving the left wing from its worst, most self-destructive impulses.

*SIGH* . . .  I listen to one side and they sound right, and then I listen to the other side, and, God! - they sound just as right, and I'm right back where I started.  President Warren Harding probably had more clarity when he said the same thing about the 1921 tax bill.  But I guess it doesn't matter which side I think is right, for it appears that Nancy Pelosi is going to become Speaker once again, the first Speaker since Sam Rayburn to serve nonconsecutive terms . . . and at 78 the oldest Speaker of the House since John McCormack.  

Pelosi has survived not just because of her effective leadership of and fundraising abilities for House Democrats but because she has isolated potential successors from her inner sphere, making challenges to her control of the House Democratic caucuses fool's games - as Tim Ryan, depicted as a fool by Pelosi-friendly pundits, found out when he ran for House Democratic leader for the now-closing 115th Congress.   Ryan, a white guy from Ohio, has refused to challenge Pelosi, and the most plausible alternative candidate for Speaker to emerge was a black gal, Ryan's fellow Ohioan Marcia Fudge.  But she declined to go for it.  Oh, Fudge!

Pelosi's closest confidantes are incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and incoming House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carlina, two chaps not much younger than she is.  The House Democratic leadership is such a gerontocracy that even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' First Presidency must be wondering when they're going to get new blood.  But she did pass the Affordable Care Act, and she also . . . umm . . . well, she passed the Affordable Care Act.  And since the Democrats need experienced leadership, and since Tim Ryan was told in no uncertain terms what he could do with himself when he expressed interest in where and how he could get that experience, oh, well, we just might let Nancy have another go at the speakership.

I'm right back where I started.