I love the idea of a Whitmer-Warnock Dem presidential ticket

Few Americans are excited about a repeat of Joe Biden versus Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. I'm sure not. 

Sure, as a Democrat I hugely prefer Biden over Trump. I think Biden has done a very good job as president, better than expected, absolutely.

But Biden doesn't excite me. He doesn't even enthuse me. His appeal for me and many others is more that he's a competent decent person who isn't Trump.

That worked to elect Biden in 2020. I'm deeply worried that the same game plan won't work in 2024.

And the stakes are too high to risk Biden going down in flames, giving Trump another four years in office when every indication is that Trump would be much more successful at turning the presidency into his authoritarian throne of power, smashing democracy and the rule of law into smithereens. 

That's why I found an article in The Bulwark so compelling. A.B. Stoddard has a terrific idea in To Beat Trump, Democrats Need a Whitmer-Warnock Ticket. 

As soon as I thought about Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock  being the Democrat president and vice-president candidates respectively, I felt an Obama-era surge of enthusiasm well up within me.

Here's an excerpt from the article.

DEMOCRATS HAVE A DEEPER BENCH than many people appreciate. In particular, there are two leaders from swing states who can provide generational change, a fresh start, and a far more serious threat to Trump than Biden can: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Whitmer, 52, is one of the most experienced, exciting, and winning Democrats in the country. She is as tough a candidate, and leader, as the Democrats can find, and she was vetted as a potential VP pick in 2020. Warnock, who has won pluralities or majorities in five elections in three years, is the cerebral 54-year-old senior pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church. He grew up in public housing, went through a messy divorce—no longer disqualifying in the age of Trump—has small children, and was the top small donor fundraiser from either party in 2022. The dramatic stakes of his election gave him national name recognition: Less than 10 percent of Warnock’s individual donations came from within his state.

Young. Dynamic. Diverse. Competent and experienced. Broadly appealing. Can mobilize core voters. Would deliver two battleground states. Those are seven big boxes already checked. 

There are other benefits: Such a ticket would take away the core self-justification of the No Labels project, would seriously dent West’s vanity run, and would circumvent the ever-expanding Hunter Biden issue. 

Comments

[tucson]

Here is an article I thought was accurate in regard to Trump vs Biden:

Picture this: You serve four years as president of the United States. During your term, inflation stays under two percent. Real wages and consumer spending power rises about 9 percent for American workers; unemployment is less than 4 percent after the pandemic.

Fairly good showing, correct?

In addition, migrant crossings at the southern border drop about 80 percent by the time you leave office. No wars erupt. The jihadist group ISIS is decimated by American power. Putin and Xi are relatively contained.

That seems to be a fairly good resume, but there is scant national reporting of it. Instead, salacious charges of corruption involving Russia dominated headlines for two years before and during your term. A Special Counsel is appointed to investigate. His report says there is no corruption. The national media does not celebrate.

You can despise Donald Trump all you want, but the facts are in stone. He ran this nation far better than Joe Biden. Comparing the two is similar to stacking FDR's achievements against Herbert Hoover's.

But millions of Americans do not agree with this analysis and continue to "hate" Trump. They have only one valid reason for that emotion: the colossal Trump-driven fiasco after the 2020 election.

None of that, including January 6, should have happened, and it has obliterated Donald Trump's Oval Office record as a successful manager.

Some history. The "get Trump" movement began in early 2016 when it became obvious he might secure the Republican nomination. It accelerated as Hillary Clinton's campaign failed to persuade many independent voters. Almost in lockstep, the liberal media pounded Trump on a daily basis while extolling the virtues of Hillary.

In print, the blitzkrieg was led by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and USA Today. On television, CNN and NBC News actually competed to see who could damage Trump the most. It was a tie, but, ironically, CNN's over-the-top partisanship destroyed its credibility as a news-gathering operation. To this day, it has not recovered.

But no lessons have been learned. The aforementioned news agencies are openly currently supporting President Biden by hiding his deficiencies and alleged corruption. The leftist media is also cheerleading the legal cases against Trump without a shred of balance or skepticism.

If Hunter Biden were named Donald Trump Jr., do you think the "grifting" coverage might be a bit different?

Rhetorical question.

So that's the "sting." Honest, balanced reporting and news analysis are on the endangered species list. The scorpions who control most media companies are more driven than ever to impose progressive policies and get pliable people like Biden and Kamala elected.

The result is a lot of power and money is being used to prop up incompetence and corruption.

And that sting hurts every one of us.

--Bill O'Reilly