Spitballing

This is supposed to be the big weekend.  Come Monday Biden will supposedly announce whether he stays in the race after isolating himself with COVID the past few days.  Some are even speculating he doesn't have COVID but is using the time for reflection.  There's a whole lot of "spitballing" going on, as Tomi Lahren put it, but so far no hard evidence that Joe will withdraw from the race.

So why does the media continue to wag the tail of the dog, so to speak?  I suppose it makes the Democratic Convention potentially much more interesting than the anemic Republican Convention we just witnessed.  All those bandages on the ears of loyal MAGA followers as they craned their necks to hear their beloved leader speak.  It was enough to make anyone gag, especially as the Orange King rambled on for what is now regarded as the longest acceptance speech in convention history, much of it spent retelling the fateful shooting that left him with half an ear to hear him talk.  It resulted in a stream of amusing memes like this one,

We all knew he would milk the shooting for all its worth, but kissing the helmet and hugging the coat of the fallen firefighter who took a bullet protecting his family was over the top by any standard.  It reminded me of the time he hugged the American flag at a CPAC convention.

538 has been all over the place on predictions since the shooting.  Four days ago, Nate had Biden winning on aggregate counts 54-46 but today he has Trump up 51-48.  That's not a very big bounce for a guy who has had everything fall his way the past few weeks, including the classified documents case against him tossed out by his hand-picked judge in Miami.  I'm not sure if Nate factored all these events into his prognostications.  I have to think there is a very large segment of the electorate that is appalled by these partisan judicial decisions and might see this as grounds to render their own verdict on Trump in November.

Whatever the case, the mainstream media is still insisting that Biden step down and open the door for a younger nominee at the convention.  The obvious choice is Kamala Harris, but she doesn't fair any better in the polls than Joe, and in some cases even worse.  I don't think the Democrats want to have a brokered convention.  So now there is talk Kamala and Josh Shapiro might run together in order to save the Democratic "blue wall."  A mixed race woman and a Jew.  That would certainly make for an interesting ticket!  Just spitballing, I guess.

This is what happens when you have a bunch of political pundits with too much time on their hands.  Rather than dissect the Republican convention and tell us of all the abominable things the GOP is proposing under a Trump/Vance administration, i.e. Project 2025, we get fantasy predictions on a Democratic ticket at the convention next month.  I've gotten tired of responding to the news feeds on Yahoo!

The amazing thing to me is that Trump is not farther ahead in the polls after all this manufactured panic over Biden's mental health.  I suppose it is because most people don't see Trump as the "stable genius" he proclaims to be, especially after picking up bits and pieces of that horrendous acceptance speech.  That was enough to make any armchair neurologist question that man's state of mind.  Donnie was all over the place.

Yet, the media is all in for Trump.  I saw a very specious article in Business Insider that credited the latest time the Dow broke 40,000 to Trump.  FTR, this is the third time the Dow has crested over 40,000 only to fall back on its gains, and as I speak it is tumbling downward yet again.  Nevertheless, some business insiders are places their bets on Trump, including the nefarious Jamie Dimon.

There was a WSJ rumor that Elon was "all in on Trump" by offering a whopping $45 million per month to America PAC only for Mr. X to say "fake gnus."  So far, the money hasn't shown up in the PAC's reported income.  It makes me think that most business insiders aren't as anxious to declare themselves for Trump as the media purports.  So far it has been mostly crypto billionaires like the Winklevoss brothers who have contributed to this notorious PAC.  Just spitballing again.

What did get my attention was the new president of the Teamsters speaking at the Republican Convention.  No one saw this coming including the Teamsters themselves who know full well that the GOP is not on its side.  Yet, Sean O'Brien gave an effusive speech, treating Trump is president-elect and hoping he might get some crumbs thrown his way by pledging his fealty to the Orange King.  

Unions have already lost Wisconsin and Indiana thanks to the Republicans, and you can bet Ohio will become a right-to-work state in the near future.  I'm not sure what Sean hopes to gain other than maybe to spare the Northeast.  Anyway, that's not up to the President but the states themselves.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden lays low.  I think in large part because he hit the ground running after his dismal debate performance and has been trying to make up for lost time.  Whether it is COVID, fatigue or questioning his political future, no one can really say as the Biden household is keeping its lips sealed.  This has led many to speculate that Jill is now ruling the roost and that it is she who we should be worried about.  I think these persons have been watching "House of Cards" reruns on Netflix.

I guess we will find out early next week if any of these spitballs stuck to the wall.