Just before Iowa’s first in the nation Democratic presidential caucus next Tuesday, Joe Biden‘s campaign has released its latest Iowa-targeted ad. Entitled “Imagine,” the ad has Biden himself on camera, asking viewers to “imagine all the progress we can make in the next four years,” including affordable healthcare, renewable energy to tackle climate change, and banning assault weapons to reduce gun violence in our schools. At the end of the ad comes the kicker from Biden:
But first, we need to beat Donald Trump. Then there will be no limit to what we can do.
Trump impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks at trial of Donald Trump in U.S. Senate
Last May, when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was still reticent to impeach Donald Trump, she explained that Trump was “self-impeaching.” What Pelosi likely meant was that Trump was digging his own political grave, hurting his chances for reelection in 2020. Pelosi’s prediction seems to be coming true now, as the latest polls indicate that the top six Trump challengers for the general election — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg — all beat Trump in head to head match-ups. This latest good news for Democrats comes as Trump has been impeached (“for life,” as Nancy Pelosi brilliantly said), and is now undergoing a trial for removal in the U.S. Senate.
Rally outside Democratic presidential debate, July 2019
When the first Democratic Party presidential debates had 20 or more participants last year, many viewers found the format unwieldy and unworkable. The candidates never had enough time to answer the questions, and constantly were cut off. While one candidate was giving an answer, one or more other candidates were raising or waving their hands to try to be called upon for a response. The moderators were too intrusive. It was all very distracting, and sometimes provided heat but very little light. Plenty of folks said, just wait until we have fewer candidates, then the problem will be solved.
The Climate Reality Project has taken a step forward in messaging about climate change, by releasing a “Climate 101 fact sheet.” This short publication is more of a talking points tip sheet, and is thus very useful for anyone who is concerned about climate change and who encounters the typical right wing talking points against climate change, that originate with fossil fuel companies.
They want to know what we’re doing about climate change
It’s winter time, so of course many parts of the country and the earth are cold, as expected. Sadly, however, other places are literally burning up. What we also expect this time of year, unfortunately, is for some conservatives in the northern hemisphere to step outside, pick up some snow or put on their winter coat, and say, “See? There is no climate change!” Thankfully, just in time for those family Christmas dinners, the Rainforest Alliance has released a half dozen talking points to counter these phony conservative climate change claims. Democrats, liberals and progressives, or just thinking people who have known for years that the earth is warming, due in part to human activity, and that we’re at a dangerous tipping point, can all benefit from absorbing and then using these talking points. Here is a sampling of some of the climate deniers’ arguments, and suggested responses by the Rainforest Alliance:
Joe Biden has run essentially a general election campaign against Donald Trump from the day Biden joined the 2020 presidential race. For example, while the Democratic primaries don’t even begin until February 2020 and the candidates are slugging it out with each other, Biden aims most of his rhetoric, and his ads, directly at Trump or the general electorate itself. Biden’s first big ad showed world leaders laughing at, ridiculing, and even ignoring Trump on the world stage. Biden’s latest ad, released just yesterday, warns that, if America is to continue its progress towards justice for all, Donald Trump must not be reelected.
Biden’s general election campaign in the primaries may make good sense, given that Biden is the only Democratic candidate this year to have served eight years as Vice President (to beloved Democratic President Barack Obama), as well as having been a long-serving leader in the U.S. Senate, including being Chairman of the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. And such gamble apparently has paid off, as Biden has led the Democratic presidential primary polls, on the national level and in most states, virtually every day since joining the contest.
Therefore, Biden’s next ad should continue his general election theme, and attack Donald Trump on something on which Trump is extremely vulnerable: his physical and mental health, as evidenced by his speech slurring and other behavior.
By now, many people realize that the impeachment of Donald Trump involves a public relations war. On one side, we have Trump and the Republicans claiming that the Democrats are “obsessed with impeaching” Trump, to the exclusion of all else. So what have the Democrats done effectively to counter that charge? Quite a bit, as it turns out.
First, House Democrats unveiled their Articles of Impeachment against Trump while simultaneously announcing that they had reached an agreement with Trump on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade. This is a reminder by Democrats (and they are sure to remind us further) that, not only can they govern and impeach Trump at the same time, they have passed nearly 400 bills, all of which are sitting idly on Mitch McConnell‘s U.S. Senate desk.
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Kamala Harrisabandoned her efforts to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination for 2020. In an email to supporters, Harris wrote:
I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.
On paper at least, the highly accomplished Harris should have been one of the favorites to win the Democratic nomination, and, for a time, she was in the top tier, polling at 15 percent. So what went wrong?
Thanksgiving dinner table, before the political food fight
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has released a humorous, menu-style set of talking points for Democrats to respond to that Republican blowhard who seems to spout off at everyone’s Thanksgiving dinner. The talking points, which can be found in this .pdf, are entitled “Know Your Stuffing.” Each subject has a cute Thanksgiving dinner theme, complete with food graphics, and is designed as a response to a Republican rant, since they always seem to be the ones who bring up these political subjects at the holiday table. For example, there is “Aunt Mary’s ‘There Was No Quid-Pie-Quo,'” described as “a crust so flaky, it falls apart the moment you present it with evidence.” Responses to this talking point are listed under “What to Bring,” and include:
Multiple members of the Trump administration have testified before Congress there was a quid pro quo agreement with Ukraine.
Trump himself—in a memo he released—admitted he withheld aid from Ukraine until they dug up dirt on his political opponents.
Both of these responses even include footnotes to reputable sources for this information.
Republicans defending Trump: melted butter, toast, or both?
Yesterday morning, the House Intelligence Committee held another Donald Trump impeachment inquiry hearing, this time with Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. To say the hearing did not go well for Trump and the Republicans is an understatement. For example, Sondland admitted that “everyone was in the loop” regarding Donald Trump’s demand that Ukraine‘s president provide “deliverables,” meaning helping Trump personally by investigating phony conspiracies about Joe Biden, Biden’s son Hunter, and the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential election efforts, in exchange for a meeting with Trump and crucial military aid for Ukraine that Congress had already approved.
The devastation that Republicans on the Committee must have been feeling was perfectly captured in this bit of video that is part of the tweet below, showing Republican Ranking Member Devin Nunes painfully turning to his side’s counsel after one segment of Sondland’s testimony:
As Sikhs, we are not supposed to be happy about the suffering of other human beings. Watching Republicans signalling with their eyes, “Fellas, we’re screwed” during testimony of Gordon Sondland, I have been a very, very bad Sikh today. #ImpeachmentHearingpic.twitter.com/4fbAqtz5O6
Mind you, Sondland is not some Democratic Party hack. On the contrary, he is a real estate businessman who in recent years has been a Republican Party donor and bundler of contributions to Republican candidates such as Willard Mitt Romney. Sondland, through his companies, donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee, and then received his ambassadorship in return.
Watching Devin Nunes’ reaction to Sondland’s testimony, we can’t help but be reminded of a similar meltdown by a well-known TV character in similar circumstances:
Photo by Sterling College, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/xvdQhy
