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Welcome to the official home and wonderful world of Pulitzer Prize Winning Political Cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez, daily editorial cartoonist for the Las Vegas Review Journal |
2019 Democrats 04-26-19
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"Uncle Joe" Biden sniffs the hair of little girl in his grasp while Bernie Sanders, dressed as an old lady in a rocking chair hugs a picture of Marx. Cartoon by Michael P. Ramirez
APRIL 26, 2019 BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
JOE BIDEN: WOKE, JOKE, OR BOTH? When I was a young baseball fan, I thought that pitchers who relied on a great fastball would lose their effectiveness more quickly than pitchers with a mediocre fastball who relied on “junk” and guile. After all, speed declines with age while guile, if anything, increases. Eventually, after observing the late career success of to Robin Roberts, I realized that pitchers with a great fastball can reinvent themselves as pitchers with a mediocre fastball, guile, and “junk.” Meanwhile, junkballers lose the mediocre fastball that set up their junk. Which brings me to Joe Biden. Biden never had a good fastball. He finished near the bottom of his law school class at Syracuse University (and lied about this, as well as other aspects of his academic background). When he campaigned for president in 1988, he had to rely on words he stole from a British politician. He has been wrong about nearly foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades, including even the no-brainer decision to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Biden never had success in any endeavor other than politics. That’s true of Bill Clinton and (mostly) Barack Obama too. But they are obviously intelligent (extremely so in Clinton’s case) and achieved the academic success that eluded Biden, to say the least. Biden deserves credit for becoming a Senator from Delaware at a young age. But his two attempts at the presidency were abject failures. If Barack Obama hadn’t needed a non-controversial white running mate with gray hair, Biden would have languished in the Senate forever. Biden’s signature moment in the Senate was the Clarence Thomas confirmation process over which he presided as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He behaved like a deer caught in the headlights. Now, he’s apologizing for the few sensible decisions he made during the Anita Hill farce (Hill, needless to say, isn’t mollified). In short, Biden was a mediocrity during his prime. At 76, he’s past his prime. What, then, does Biden have to offer? Two things, I think. He’s not a socialist and he doesn’t traffic in identity politics. That wouldn’t be much, except for the fact that every other serious contender for the Democratic nomination answers to at least one of two descriptions: socialist and identity politics monger. By contrast, a large swath of Democratic voters answers to neither. This reality, Biden’s name recognition, and his association with Barack Obama make him a formidable-seeming candidate. But there’s a problem. It’s not likely that Biden will run as a purely traditional Democrats. I haven’t heard him part company with the leftism espoused by the rest of the Democratic field. Rather, he’s apologizing for past manifestations of his traditionalism. Biden seems anxious to prove that he’s “woke” — that, in his late 70s, he finally “gets it.” I don’t believe Biden can do “woke” for a sustained period of time. I’m not sure he do it for a month. Moreover, the effort will only make him seem ridiculous and produce even more gaffes than we are accustomed to from the talkative former vice president. This suggests that Biden’s candidacy could go in either of two directions. He might become a laughingstock and, as such, crash and burn. Or Democrats (and eventually the electorate as a whole) might forgive, overlook, or laugh off his attempts at wokeness and accept Biden as a serviceable alternative to his wacky competitors (and eventually to President Trump). In the latter scenario, America might well end up with a president who never had a fastball or much guile — a president who was always a mostly empty suit and who has shriveled with old age. read more If You’re Reading This, You’re Probably Running for President
Money, shame and political machines used to put a leash on political ambitions. Those days are over. By JACK SHAFER. April 22, 2019. POLITICO Jack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer. A mighty flutter of Democrats has flapped its wings into the presidential contest, like so many monarch butterflies making their migratory dash to Mexico. According to NPR’s running count, 19 candidates have announced and another six are Biden their time, exceeding the candidate counts for the famously mobbed 2016 Republican and 1976 Democratic races. Senators are running for president. Mayors are running for president. Members of the House are running for president. So too are former members of the House and a former Cabinet member. A governor and a former governor have announced. Even a spiritual guru and a tech entrepreneur have joined the race. One former vice president has all but announced his candidacy. Booking town halls to full occupancy and making the hajj to Iowa, the candidates just keep on coming. What could possibly explain this upsurge? The delusion that you, too, could become president is nothing new. The syndrome has long plagued minor politicians, generals and corporate leaders who can’t help but compare themselves with the person occupying the White House and then saying, “I could do that better than that jerk.” But unless you were a genuine contender—had executive experience as a governor or political chits to trade or the muscle of a political machine backing you—nothing but mockery awaited the average egomaniac who chanced a run. Times have changed. Also-ran presidential candidates who once faced being jeered whenever they left the house can now look forward to cable news contributor deals. Look at Rick Santorum! Two pathetic runs for the White House and he and his teeth shine regularly on CNN. Or Mike Huckabee, who has the same record and a Fox News Channel contract. In January, presidential loser John Kasich signed with a talent agency as he shopped for a spot on either CNN or MSNBC. In the modern world, you can be a political egomaniac who loses and still cashes in. Unless you think appearing on TV makes you vulnerable to shame and mockery—and I do—the old downside of embarrassing yourself with a weak run for the White House has all but vanished. If Julián Castro doesn’t have an agent yet, he will soon. Experience—especially executive experience—is an ingredient that is no longer part of the successful presidential candidate recipe. The presidential sweepstakes is now an inclusive pro-am event, welcoming even people like Pete Buttigieg who couldn’t get elected treasurer in Indiana. For this, we can assign equal blame to Barack Obama, who parlayed six years in the Illinois Senate and 1,413 days in the U.S. Senate into a winning run, and Donald Trump, who never ran for office before his White House victory. As if fumigating the baseboards, the Obama and Trump successes have flushed implausible presidential candidates into the open who would have otherwise sat on their ambitions and incubated them for a future date. Beto O’Rourke and Buttigieg obviously see Obama when they look into the mirror in the morning and compare their résumés with his. O’Rourke’s over-reliance on “hope” in his speeches speaks to his limited political imagination, while Buttigieg should start footnoting his speeches with nods to the 44th president if he hopes to avoid a copyright infringement suit. Candidates like Marianne Williamson and Tulsi Gabbard must see Trump’s shadow when looking in the mirror, too, thinking that like him they can ride a media rocket-sled to front-runner status first and build organizations last. The woodwork squeaks with so many candidates this year compared with previous cycles in part because a strong front-runner prevented the entry of weak candidates. Hillary Clinton ruled and intimidated in 2008 and again in 2016. John Kerry did it in 2004 (along with a post-9/11 belief that George W. Bush was invulnerable) and Al Gore cleared the field in 2000. So far, 2020 has produced no such Bigfoot to stomp on the wannabes. Neither Bernie Sanders nor Joe Biden—both losers, by the way, and actuarially the worst candidates the party could possibly nominate—puncture anybody’s political self-esteem. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that only 19 candidates have announced. read more |
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