This morning, Alan Grayson officially endorsed Ben Braver for a Florida state Senate seat that includes parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties. The reason this endorsement is significant for Braver is that though Pasco is pretty red, Grayson was pretty popular in some of the precincts.
Grayson’s endorsement of Braver is worth reading no matter where you live. Grayson had put a lot of thought into what makes someone a successful, worthwhile legislator. He told me what he said in the endorsement truly applies to Braver:
I endorse Ben Braver for the Florida Senate because he is what you want in a legislator. Here are my top 10 reasons:
(1) He wants to improve the lives of ordinary people.
(2) He understands the role that both the government and the law play in our lives.
(3) He understands that in order to change the law, he has to get others to go along, and he has some sense of how to do that.
(4) He has good ideas about how to solve real problems in people’s lives.
(5) He’s very intelligent; he thinks with ideas, not cliches.
(6) He understands that all of this must be communicated to the voters.
(7) He respects the voters and he wants to discuss things with them, not pander to them or push their buttons.
(8) He isn’t in it for himself, or for fame or money or power.
(9) He intuitively understands the power of the greatest good for the greatest number.
(10) He sees other people as human beings, deserving respect and dignity.
. . . and we need many more, like him
That’s what I call an endorsement! If you’d like to see Braver— and Grayson— working together the Florida Senate next year, then by all means, please click here and contribute what you can to the two of them.
Yesterday, Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan began the day by noting how an embattled Biden was launching “the ‘I’m-not-going-anywhere-but-I-do-need-more-sleep’ tour [yesterday] in Wisconsin. In addition to appearing in Madison, Biden [did] interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and some radio reporters. Biden will be in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Biden used the “I’m not going anywhere” line on Thursday evening at the White House. He and Vice President Kamala Harris joined hands as they watched the July 4th fireworks… [T]he wave of unrest inside the party continues. Mega donors are openly talking about dumping Biden for Harris or another candidate. While there’s speculation that the majority of Hill Democrats want Biden out, it’s impossible to know that until lawmakers return next week.
A few minutes after I read that I got an invitation to join President Biden on a private zoom call. I would have turned that down in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ’90’s, oughts, tens and now, more than ever, I can’t stand hearing the sound of his voice. Yeah, hard pass. I don’t want to see Trump win or see our country get flushed down the toilet, but a zoom call with Joe Biden? Please not that!
Yesterday, commenting on the debate, Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted that “as a brain specialist, it was concerning to watch President Joe Biden, and it quickly became clear that I was not alone in my reaction. Over the past week, I received more than a dozen calls, texts and emails from medical colleagues who, like me, specialize in the brain. It wasn’t that what we noticed was necessarily new but that it was particularly pronounced, and right from the start of the debate. From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression. To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case. The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public... [T]he trajectory of aging varies from person to person. Biden is 81, and Trump is 78. Both have already lived longer than the average American male lifespan of 74.8 years. This isn’t necessarily surprising, as both men have access to high-quality health care, and they don’t drink or smoke. Biden’s medical team has previously disclosed that he had two separate brain operations for aneurysms, including one that ruptured on the left side of his brain, in 1988, and there is some evidence that this type of hemorrhage may increase the risk of delayed cognitive problems later in life. Trump’s father died of Alzheimer’s disease at 93. Neither man has any other known risk factors for cognitive decline.”
Trump does at times display some of these same signs as Biden, including nonsensical rants as well as confusing names and current events. He said he’d undergone the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, known as MoCA, in the past. According to his medical team, he received a perfect score when he took the test in 2018. Trump said he took a second cognitive test for his last physical exam at the end of 2023 and “aced it.” … Trump has not released his actual medical records, and memos about his health that were previously released have at times used hyperbolic language, unusual for medical documentation.
…The last official report in February was a health summary which concluded that the president was “fit for duty.” The White House said a team of 20 doctors, including a neurologist, participated in completing his physical. An “extremely detailed” neurologic exam found nothing consistent with neurological disorders, the summary said. It also found no evidence of Parkinson’s disease that might explain his stiff gait and decreased expression in his face. Although— parkinsonism— a set of movement symptoms such as stiffness and tremor— there are other causes as well, and it was not clear in the medical report that those had been investigated. They did find evidence of neuropathy and arthritis in his feet, which can cause numbness, weakness and pain. There was no mention of any sort of cognitive testing.
…The White House has rejected requests from the press to release more medical records and question Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. Biden’s press secretary said O’Connor watched the debate and had no concerns afterward.
If that’s true, O'Connor should lose his medical license.
I’ve indicated many times over the years— and more so recently— that I didn’t vote for Kamala Harris when she ran for Attorney General, Senator or, most recently, vice president. I had hoped to never cast a ballot for someone so intensely mediocre that it’s tragic that she’s in politics. Not as tragic as Trump, of course, but that bar is low enough to scoop a pile of dogs hit off the pavement and run that for president. No, really. Yesterday Mehdi Hasan began an essay endorsing Harris like this “I have never been a fan of Kamala Harris.” And he was also an outspoken opponent of her 2020 presidential run.
“So it is with some surprise reluctance and even trepidation,” he wrote, ‘that I am now writing these words: Joe Biden should stand aside and endorse Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. Yes, it is time for those of us who have been loud critics of Harris to make an even louder case for the vice-president. To lock arms with the dreaded KHive and put aside our longstanding doubts about the vice-president’s political skills.” Oy! Me? Why?
“Because the future of our republic may depend upon us doing so.” Oh, yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking about too. Although… the voters don’t like her. She rubs everyone the wrong way. And can she stand up to Trump without losing her cool? He thinks Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom would be better than Harris but he believes the Democratic Party establishment is unwilling “to take a punt on an ‘open convention’ in Chicago next month… Therefore, the only viable alternative to Biden right now is Harris— especially as she was elected alongside him by 81 million Americans and is also the only potential nominee who can access the $91 million in his campaign bank account right now. So, with apologies to my 2020 self, let me make a (reluctant) case for why the vice-president should take over from her boss.”
First, her numbers. For as long as I can remember, the argument from Team Biden has been that if Joe steps aside, then only Kamala becomes the candidate, and she has even less chance of beating Donald than Joe does. The vice-president polls worse than the president, they constantly whisper to reporters (off the record).
Now, that may have once been true. But it simply isn’t the case any more. Even before last week’s debate, a Politico poll showed Harris outperforming Biden in Black and Hispanic communities, where Trump has been making inroads, while a Bloomberg News poll revealed a vice-president “increasingly endearing herself to swing-state voters.”
On Friday, the day after the debate, Data for Progress published a poll showing Harris performing “the same as Biden in a head-to-head matchup against Trump”. By Tuesday, a CNN poll was showing Harris, unlike Biden, “within striking distance” of Trump, thanks in part to “broader support from women (50% of female voters back Harris over Trump v 44% for Biden against Trump) and independents (43% Harris v 34% Biden).”
You might not want to believe it, and lazy pundits may say otherwise, but the polling is pretty clear these days: Harris actually has a better chance than Biden of beating Trump. And, unlike the president, the veep’s numbers have— and you’ll be hearing this phrase a great deal in the coming days— room to grow.
Second, there’s her record. With the exception of Biden himself, Harris has served in elected office— as a district attorney, state attorney general, senator and vice-president— longer than any Democrat elected to the White House in my lifetime. As a former prosecutor, she is ideally positioned to make the case against Trump, a convicted felon.
Who do you want standing on stage at the second debate in September, rebutting Trump’s lies, bigotry and nonsense? The woman who went viral when she grilled Bill Barr and Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate judiciary committee, or the man who went viral for saying he’d “beat Medicare”? Who is more likely to highlight Trump’s deeply unpopular stance on abortion? A female candidate who has spent months hammering Trump on abortion and made a historic visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic, or a male candidate who couldn’t answer a simple question on abortion rights without going off on a weird and incoherent tangent about a migrant murderer? Who is going to bring more energy to the Democratic presidential campaign— a vice-president who recently urged an audience of young voters to “kick that fucking door down,” or a president who is only “dependably engaged” between 10am and 4pm?
Third, there’s the Gaza-shaped elephant in the room. Prior to last week’s debate, it wasn’t Biden’s age that I considered to be his biggest electoral liability. It was his horrific stance on Gaza, from his non-stop supply of arms to Israel to his nonexistent “red line” on Rafah. Support for Biden among not just Muslim-American and Arab-American voters, but young and Black voters, has been plummeting since 7 October 2023. More than half a million “uncommitted” Democratic voters, who could affect the results in multiple swing states, have urged the president to end his unconditional support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Given Biden refuses to budge on this issue, a Harris candidacy might offer a fresh start for Democrats on Gaza. Remember the headline in Politico from December? “Kamala Harris pushes White House to be more sympathetic toward Palestinians.” Or the NBC News reporting from March on how Biden’s national security council “toned down parts of her speech” calling for a ceasefire, because the original draft “was harsher on Israel”?
“She is definitely better on Gaza than he is,” a well-connected member of the administration told me a few weeks ago.
To be clear: I’m not saying Joe Biden can’t win or that Kamala Harris won’t lose. I’m simply saying that there is a younger, more popular, more effective campaigner ready and willing to go, who could turn the page on Gaza while giving Trump the rhetorical drubbing he so deserves.
I’m reminding Democrats that they still have time to choose between trying to elect the oldest president in American history, whose age has become a weight around his neck, or trying to elect the first female president, the first Asian American president and the second Black president, which could energize their demoralized base.
American democracy, as Democrats themselves repeatedly tell us, is on the line. And if we all have to join the KHive in order to try to save that democracy … then so be it.
The Dems are losing the election over Gaza and there’s nothing they’re gonna do to change that whoever the candidate is.