Poll Panic

The New York Times sent Democrats across America into shock Sunday morning with this story: “Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Siena Poll Finds.” There are three ways to look at this. First, don’t panic At the first poll briefing I ever went to, in Jim Hunt’s first campaign for governor…

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Four More Years?

An aging President faces questions about his fitness for a second term. His poll numbers are discouraging. Americans are down on the economy. The opposing party smells blood. Joe Biden in 2023? Maybe. But also, Ronald Reagan in 1983, 40 years ago. Then, things changed. In 1984, a Reagan-Republican rout reshaped politics for decades to…

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The Age Thing

The Washington media is all wrong on this Biden age “issue.” Did you catch him at the White House Correspondents Dinner? He’s still got game. Will the media put the age scope on 76-year-old Trump? Have you watched him haul his butt out of a golf cart? Or struggle to construct a coherent thought? Ageism…

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Biden’s Age: The Kid is All Right

I’m old enough to know the problems an 80-year-old man can face. I get why Democrats worry. The gait stiffens, hearing gets iffy and words – names! – can be elusive. But old people know a lot that young people don’t. We know, first of all, what it’s like to be young. Young people don’t…

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Biden vs. Putin and Republicans

Republicans revered Ronald Reagan for bringing down the Soviet Union, the “evil empire.” But Trump and MAGA Republicans swoon over Czar Putin’s iron-fisted rule, gay-bashing and bare-chested manliness. President Biden armed the Ukrainians and united the free world against Russia’s brutal invasion. Now he is sending Ukraine tanks. Courageous Ukrainians exposed Putin’s military as rotten,…

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Thanks, Joe

Three years ago this month, they said Joe Biden was too old and too out of touch to be elected President. Then he won South Carolina, swept the nomination and whipped Trump. Two years ago today, when he was inaugurated, they said he couldn’t get anything done with a 50-50 Senate and a thin House…

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Sizing up the Democratic field

Size matters in politics. Yes, physical size: Think Trump looming over Hillary in their debates, or Reagan vs. Carter or George H.W. Bush vs. Dukakis. But just as important is political size, psychic size – call it heft, command presence or the aura of leadership. The Presidency is a big job. To get there, a…

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Promise Us, Joe: Don’t Run

Joe Biden’s book, “Promise Me, Dad,” is pure Biden: warm, heart-wrenching and, though short, pure-Biden windy. It reminds you what a great human being Uncle Joe is, what a great Vice President he was – and why he shouldn’t run for President. There’s something of a Biden boom now, especially among my old white male…

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Ryan and Biden bidin’ their time

Paul Ryan and Joe Biden are playing high-stakes poker. Who will hold and who will fold? Biden still isn’t decidin’ whether to run for President. But he’s taking shots at Hillary Clinton just as she’s getting a poll bump from her debate performance. And Biden seems to be rewriting history on what he told President…

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Say it ain’t so, Joe

Don’t do it, Joe. Don’t run for President. A Biden candidacy has appeal. Democrats would have a happy-warrior version of Donald Trump, an authentic character who campaigns with joy, gusto and an unfiltered mouth. A warm, genuine human being who has seen tragedy and suffering, yet soldiered on. But he will lose. He will be…

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