Disasters in the Passive Voice

Good morning. The Associated Press wants you to know Joe Biden, off on another vacation at the beach, is surrounded by disasters in the passive voice.

The Associated Press @AP

Within an hour, President Biden was dealt a trio of setbacks. The Pentagon said a drone strike that killed 10 Afghans was a mistake. A panel rejected COVID booster shots for all Americans. And France recalled its U.S. ambassador.

apne.wsOne stunning afternoon: Setbacks imperil Biden’s resetWASHINGTON (AP) — It was an hour President Joe Biden would no doubt like to forget. On Friday, the Pentagon acknowledged that a drone strike in Afghanistan killed 10 civilians , including seven children, not terrorists.

“Was dealt…”. Who dealt them? Was it the AP in the spirit of “you smelt it, you dealt it?” No, of course not. It was Joe Biden himself.

As the Pentagon announced American military personnel had killed a man and his children, not terrorists, we can all now say publicly what the Biden Administration would shame us for — the “over the horizon” capabilities he claims will keep us safe are largely a branding scheme for incompetence.

The dead man, by the way, was an Afghan employee of an American charity who had been helping good people escape. No one at the Pentagon will lose their job for this. General Milley thought it was a righteous counter strike.

While that was happening, the FDA rejected Biden’s scheme for booster shots for everyone. Biden insisted he’d keep us all safe, could beat COVID, and would get everyone vaccinated. He is failing. He dealt it himself.

The French Ambassador is really the nothingbuger, but holy hell if Donald Trump had done what Biden did and caused this, you know the media reaction would be intense. The French, basically, have their own plans for the Pacific. They wanted to sell Australia some used diesel submarines. Instead, the UK, US, and Australia are forming a Super Very Best Friends Alliance and the Aussies get new, very quiet, nuclear subs as a way to counter China — but we’re not supposed to say that last part out loud.

This is a good deal. The French can pound cheese.

Notice the AP, it its list of issues for the Biden Administration does not include the border issue in South Texas. There is a media campaign to ignore it, but that won’t last much longer. The numbers have swollen to over 15,000 people under that bridge in Del Rio, TX. This is an invasion and the federal government is constitutionally obligated to counter an invasion. Biden is on vacation instead. This is truly unacceptable. If I were a Republican mega donor, I’d be running an ad campaign with the images to show what the media will not.

RNC Research @RNCResearch

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd: “Biden’s got a pretty big credibility crisis on his hands because all of these problems in some ways showed up after he said basically the exact opposite.”

Biden is governing in the passive voice and the media’s use of it cannot protect him. His polling continues to crash. Most Americans may like vaccine mandates, but they do not like the federal vaccine mandate. It won’t help him with inflation and global chaos and dead men with their dead children proving his tough guy speaking on Afghanistan is all talk. It won’t help with an invasion happening at the Southern border.

Where are the Evangelicals for Biden?

By the way, I’m old enough to remember when prominent evangelicals were blasting the Trump Administration for his handling of the border.

Where are they now? Where are the voices decrying the Biden Administration’s handling of the situation at the border? There is a humanitarian crisis. There are dead bodies — including of pregnant women — in the desert. There are abandoned children roaming the desert.

Where are the evangelicals for Biden who spoke up against Trump and the border situation?

The Media Rally in DC

Brian Stelter @brianstelter

Even though it was a dud, "Small crowd at Capitol protest" is still the lead story on Sunday's WaPo front page. Why? Because, as the story's lead says, it was "the most anticipated visit by right-wing activists to the nation's capital since a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on 1/6."

The Washington Post, echoed by Brian Stelter, claims the rally this weekend in Washington was “the most anticipated visit by right-wing activists.” For whom was it “the most anticipated” event?

The press.

The press equaled or exceeded the number of visitors. They gave it disproportionate coverage. I am not kidding when I say I would have not even known it was a thing until I started seeing freak out coverage at the end of last week. No one I know talked about it and I know people who went to DC for January 6th.

Only the media covered it and they covered it hoping that they could use it to tie it back to January 6th to hurt Republicans. This was a media conjured event where maybe 100 people showed up at a protest and they were outnumbered by the press. Likewise, in at least one incident, the police stopped an armed man at the rally who also happened to be a policeman.

Again, this was a media event for the media anticipated by the media and given coverage by the media solely to try to keep the January 6th narrative alive for the media and the Democrats.

Been There, Done That, Mr. President

Donald Trump is going to screw up the GOP’s chances of taking back the Senate. I am deeply concerned about Herschel Walker in Georgia. I hope he can do it, but I think he has so much baggage the Democrats will exploit that it will hurt the GOP. In other states, Trump seems to be vetting people who are more prone to praise him than build viable coalitions for winning.

If Larry Elder can’t win in California, I assure you Vernon Jones can’t win in Georgia and the President and his supporters need to exercise some discernment in their vetting processes for candidates.

One of the areas of concern is President Trump’s stated ambition of ousting Mitch McConnell from leadership. But President Trump cannot even get Mo Brooks from Alabama to go on record in support of that.

For years, I backed candidates dedicated to ousting McConnell. A good portion of them would go to Washington, get co-opted, and let McConnell off. Others crashed and burned in the polls. I even backed Matt Bevin against McConnell in a primary. It was awesome. I even got taken off TV by Fox News after McConnell’s wife complained. I stuck with Bevin. He lost, but went on to become Governor.

At some point, you have to know when you’re beaten. I’ve given up ousting McConnell and try, at least, to appreciate what we get with him — a ruthless operator who knows the inside game better than we do. He has packed the courts with Trump appointed judges and understands that is far more important than anything Congress is going to do of late.

McConnell, out of power, is a master disrupter and foil of Democrat wishlists. In power, I think he coddles his more liberal members too much, but at this point I have to concede he navigated as best anyone could the Trump agenda, including tax cuts and judges. He holds together his caucus more competently than Kevin McCarthy ever could. I’ll take McConnell over McCarthy and even if I would prefer otherwise, I know I’ve been beaten on that front. Trump will be beaten on that front too. He might as well move on lest he’s forced to argue the Senate Republican leadership elections were stolen by zombie Hugo Chavez and voting machines. McConnell will be the GOP leader. I’ve learned that lesson.

The real person who needs to be ousted is Kevin McCarthy. McConnell is a competent insider who does get things done and has some level of conviction and skills to build coalitions. McCarthy is an overly ambitious lightweight who trips over the weight of his own vanity. He needs to not be Speaker. The GOP will regret it if he is.