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It is a truth universally acknowledged (by the Gang of 500) that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama would have kicked Donald Trump’s arse if 42, 43, or 44 at their peaks had ever appeared on the same ballot with 45.
MAGA World would surely dissent, but all three of Mr. Trump’s immediate predecessors knew how to engage in policy and theme cooption while simultaneously wielding both a savaging hammer and a light, mocking touch.
In other words, Trump might have seemed a formidable force when facing off against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, but that’s because…he was facing off against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
As political analyst Heather Cox Richardson writes in the news cycle:
One of the hallmarks of a personality like that of former president Donald Trump is that he cannot stop escalating. It’s not that he won’t stop; it’s that he can’t stop. And he will escalate until someone finally draws a line and holds it.
Is there any anti-Trump figure in the Democratic Party or in the Republican Party who can draw a line and hold it against Donald Trump today?
Can Joe Biden?
Too much and not enough has been written about the remaining sources of Donald Trump’s power. There is much commentary on the dimensions of 45’s influence, and much on the implications of his dominance, but all too little on WHY his sway remains so strong.
Part of it is the say-anything cult of personality that anyone being honest has to acknowledge the existence of – along with the necessity of denouncing said cult as one of the low points in modern American history.
But honesty also requires the recognition that a not-insignificant part of Trump’s mojo comes from his stance on issues on which he is more in line with popular opinion than your typical New York Times columnist is.
Team Biden tacitly admits this reality with their Trump-like positions and rhetoric on China, Big Tech, Afghanistan, etc – and with their reluctance to tread into areas such as vaccine passports and I.R.S. empowerment to which Democrats would otherwise be drawn.
On crime, immigration, masks, teachers unions, and inflation (to name just five), Joe Biden has what Rick Perry would call some political tsuris.
It doesn’t mean Donald Trump is right and Joe Biden is wrong on these matters – but there is Democratic political vulnerability here that one gets the impression is more grave than it would otherwise be if Trump were being faced down by a world-class smiter.
Now, as is often the case, Lindsey Graham just might be overstating the case:
Next year’s midterm elections will be as good to Republicans as the seminal 1994 vote which gave the GOP unified control of Congress for the first time in more than 40 years, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) predicted Monday night.
“I think there’s a tidal wave brewing,” Graham told Fox News’ “Hannity”. “I think this is going to be 1994 all over again. When you look at rampant inflation, out-of-control crime and a broken border and just [a] general lack of knowing what you’re doing, lack of competency … the Republican Party’s going to have a great comeback if we recruit the right people. (New York Post)
Trump will be front and center Tuesday, of course, because of the wall-to-wall coverage of the opening congressional hearing on the events of 1/6, with the Dominant Media’s love affair with the Pelosi Narrative and with Liz Cheney blossoming anew.
Important stuff to which attention must – and will be – paid.
But do the (im)possible and put yourself inside the head of Donald John Trump and imagine what he thinks (and will say) about all these Biden challenges that are also in the news:
1. On the teeter-tottering bipartisan infrastructure deal (which the smart money still says will be revived, at least as far as the Senate is concerned), Trump is already making mischief, and, thus, making passage less likely.
2. Soak in this essential reading Politico story on the possibility that Team Biden will encourage fresh mask mandates, Trump catnip.
3. Read this head-smacking quote from Biden’s ally:
“In order for everyone to feel safe and welcome in their workplaces, vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.
(Which, of course, will cause cognitive dissonance in MAGA World since its denizens are no more psyched about vaccine mandates than is Ms. Weingarten, but, hey, the “friend of my enemy is my enemy” formula always applies at Bedminster.)
4. This essential reading poll (that I carelessly forgot to include in Monday’s edition) about the attitudes of Detroiters regarding crime and policing, and this horrible ripped-from-the-headlines incident involving another close Biden ally:
Joe Biden -- like Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, and Mitt Romney – is imbued with the elevated political skills required to reach the lofty heights he has achieved.
And not all of his current travails are being caused by his inability to lacerate Donald Trump and diminish his grip on the Republican Party.
But it would be a mistake to say Trump merely has a hold on the GOP.
To what extent Biden’s predecessor – without Twitter, under investigation, and increasingly marginalized by the Dominant Media – still has more influence than is commonly appreciated (and why that is….) is going to tell more of the tale of the balance of 2021 and beyond than some would like to admit.
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ESSENTIAL READING
* Speaking of Trump and the Bushes, 45 gives the nod to incumbent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over George P. Bush in their contested primary, which should come as a surprise to no, except maybe P. himself.
Jeb: Not surprised.
The Texas Tribune has more here.
* Gerard Baker play-by-plays the current scorpion dance between Facebook and the left, in a column whose main flaw is the failure to appreciate the difference between a behemoth and an historically fearsome death star/Tech Nation State.
* John Podhoretz, as only John Podhoretz can do, deconstructs the greatness of the late Jackie Mason, in a manner too grand to excerpt here. Read it all.
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