Biden Nails It Again

Joe Biden has been under pressure to respond to Trump's attacks on him and his depiction of Biden as a radical leftist bent on encouraging violence and seeking the support of extremists while turning a deaf ear to the cornerstone of people worried about the growing chaos and lawlessness in the country.  Yesterday, Biden responded aggressively and forcefully  to Trump's claims that a Biden administration would make America less safe in a twenty-minute speech in Pittsburgh.

"I want a safe America: safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops," Biden said, adding, "Let me be crystal clear: safe from four more years of Donald Trump." 

Biden clearly condemned the violence emanating from protests against racial injustice and warned demonstrators that allowing violence to get out of hand destroyed the very communities they were trying to help.

"Rioting is not protesting," Biden said.  "Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those who do it should be prosecuted." He also said, “Violence will not bring change. It will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites ... it makes things worse across the board, not better. It’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught and it must end."

He also laid into Trump on how he let the COVID-19 pandemic to spiral out of hand, making Americans less safe even without civil unrest, as well as how Trump's handling of  COVID-19 decimated the economy.  He even cited Kellyanne Conway's observation that more violence helps Trump and how Trump supporters incite violence on their candidate's behalf.

Biden then asked voters to answer whether they're safe after four years of Donald Trump.

"Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames," Biden also stressed.  "But we must not burn. We have to build."

Needless to say, Biden made a few comments that might not sit well with progressives in his efforts to appeal to the center.  He said that most cops are good, decent people, a characterization that progressives might have a problem with.  Biden tried to cast aside Trump's insistence that how would ban fracking, saying that he would not.  Yes, and the left definitely has a problem with that!  (And in spite of his clean-energy program, which, of course, satisfies no one among the far left.)  And he quoted Pope John Paul II in urging people not to be afraid.  (If you're a Democrat and you want to shore up your own base, John Paul II is probably the last pope you want to quote, not just because of his mishandling od the Church sex-abuse scandal but also because of his own cultural conservatism.)

Biden's biggest mistake would not be anything he said yesterday.  His biggest mistake would be thinking that he doesn't have to say any of that again, because Trump lies so much and so often that this speech will hardly be the last word.  Biden has to keep up his rhetoric because Trump will keep up his rhetoric.  For now, though, Biden has more numbers on the scorecard.   

Obama On Afghanistan

I wasn't all that impressed with President Obama's speech on Afghanistan tonight, but then I didn't expect to be. He announced that 10,000 troops will be withdrawn by the end of this year, with a total of the removal of 33,000 troops by the end of September 2012. That will still leave twice as many troops - 66,000, according to one count - as there were when Obama took office in January 2009.

This stance pleases no one. House Speaker John Boehner laments that the plan is based more on the calendar than on strategy, and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) says that more responsibility with global security should not be the sole responsibility of the United States, adding the Boehner should support tax increases to keep the war in Afghanistan going if he feels we should - rather than cutting domestic programs.

Noting that plenty of damage has been done to al Qaeda and the Taliban and that the Taliban should be prepared to negotiate with the Afghan government, Obama says that the U.S. is on track to get troops out of Afghanistan entirely by 2014, once Afghanistan is relatively stabilized. Uh, that's three more years. Haven't we been there long enough? And Obama's stated re-commitment to rebuilding our infrastructure and reviving our economy rang hollow in light of the fact that we haven't been able to do either.

Based on Obama's plan, the only certainty about 2014 is that January 1 that year will fall on a Wednesday.

Her Majesty's a Pretty Nice Girl

Queen Elizabeth II was in New York today, making her first speech to the United Nations since 1957. To give you an idea of how long ago tat was, Prince Charles was still too young to be contemplating marriage.

The queen spoke about the importance of the United Nations achieving peace and aiding humanitarian efforts and found that, while progress has been made since the last time she addressed the UN, she emphasized that more needs to be done.

One would laugh at the idea of the queen taking a short time out to visit New York after having spent a week in Canada and acting like the kindly old matron we Americans know her as, but bear in mind, Canada's in the British Commonwealth and we're not. Besides, the queen, who turned 84 in April, has witnessed so much history from her position as head of state that it wouldn't hurt to take her advice on achieving world peace and combating terrorism, just as it didn't hurt her to deliver it in person - for greater effect.

Rock on, Your Majesty!

But please, don't require American tennis players to bow to you - we can go only so far.

Uh-Uh, Mr. Wilson!

President Obama not only spelled out his views - rather concrete views at that - on how to reform the health care system in his speech to Congress, he got more people on his side , according to the latest polls. He's now emphasizing the moral need to cover more people and aim for universal coverage, and the Republicans remain unmoved.

Obama's proposals would require everyone to obtain health insurance while creating a subsidy those who currently can't afford it. His proposals also include banning insurance companies from refusing to insure people with pre-existing conditions or cancelling their coverage and taxing insurance companies that offer premium plans to wealthier individuals. All of this would costs $90 billion a year over a decade.

But - get this - Obama also wants to see a public option, even though he stopped short of demanding it.

Obama offered a lot of good ideas and a couple of mediocre ones - anything to keep single-payer proposals of the table - but his biggest boost may have come from South Carolina House member Joe Wilson, when the Republican called him a liar right in the middle of the speech. The charge was over Obama's insistence that his plan would not cover illegal immigrants. And even though Wilson apologized, many Republican leaders and right-wing talk radio hosts compounding the disaster by insisting the Wilson was correct about this. He isn't, but he's not as wrong as John Boehner or Sean Hannity will be if they think they've done harm to Obama's efforts to get a health care reform bill passed.

They've only hurt themselves.

Some people must wonder what folks in other countries must think of this lack of decorum. Well, based on the raucous question-and-answer sessions in the British Parliament with the prime minister, the Brits might want to see more of it here!