21 Comments

Historically fascinating but as pertains to the present seems to miss the mark. LBJ wasn’t suffering from dementia and delegates declared at the convention. There is nothing Biden can learn from this piece of history. But I greatly enjoyed hearing about it in depth.

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Great situation. Biden will not be defeated because of a "big lie". He will lose because he can't function as the leader of the free world.

Instead, we get the soon to be octogenarian whose word salad defies sanity and oh yeah, the originator of the 2020 Big Lie that he is still pushing.

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Hi, Nellie Bowle's comments were disabled. If you read this please pass along that I'm glad she went on the Andrew Klavan show. I am a conservative (Klavan type) & very much wanted to find an honest journalist on the other side. She is it and I wish the two of you the best with your new baby. Subscribed for a year because of it.

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Listening to Jerry Rubin of the Yippies being all maximally radical was very funny, because we all know how it ended: by the 1980s he had become a Wall Street trader. (Way to stick it to the man, bro!)

Tood Gitlin captured this extraordinary metamorphosis in one of the best quips I've ever read: 'From "J'accuse" to Jacuzzi'.

[Gitlin, 'The Sixties', p. 433]

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Do we have our own King George III? What if the one in charge is not mentally capable of understanding that he is not mentally capable of being in charge? 25th Amendment is the only remedy.

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Thank you for an insightful history lesson and the similarities of the mood of the country (racial tensions, political protests, campus unrest). I suspect that many Americans have been making the same comparison.

The key difference is that 1968 had to do with politics rather than the President’s ability to lead. I wonder how (or if) the latter would factor in. In an age of self-selected media coverage I think our country is even more divided now than in 1968. The WSJ’s Potomac Watch podcast did an excellent analysis of what the next steps could look like for the country. We’re in uncharted territory.

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How odd:

The entire country is thinking about whether an 81-year-old will pull out in time.

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Who is the narrator of this piece?

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Great job! Thanks for this!

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founding

I've written Biden's speech. Here it is, "While it is evident to me and to everyone that I am not a physically young man, I still have the experience and capacities to lead this great country. I will run. My vice president, Harris, has decided to pursue other career alternatives and I would like to announce my new running mate will be Barrack Hussein Obama."

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The better analogy is to 1973 and 74. President Biden is holding back release of the Hur tapes the way President Nixon held back release of the Oval Office tapes. Both were the best evidence of what was and is going on. Those tapes from the special prosecutor need to be released immediately. This is true even if the president resigns. It's never the crime, but always the cover-up.

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There is a difference. LBJ decided not to run.

Joe wants to run and doesn't want to step down. Why? How will history judge him? That is the question. The only president so far to step down exited with, "I am not a crook." What will Joe say, joining that single elite of quiters? "I am not senile."

It is about history and how history will see you.

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I always think of the late 70s and that mess. This country judges President Carver very well and he was awful. It’s the media. They run the ENTIRE narrative.

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This would be a career defining opportunity for a speech writer. There are so many ways for a brief resignation speech to make it favorably into the history books. Just frame it all around the good of the country.

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founding

Yeah politicans today don’t have the class of the ones in the 1960’s. Even Nixon, he resigned rather than drag the country through a trial. But thats not 2024, today politicians are out for personal glory.

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"It was indelible and undeniable proof that the leader of the free world lacks the stamina and acuity to do the job for four more months, let alone four more years. "

Enough of the "leader of the free world" bullshit, Ms. Weiss. You will end up supporting whichever loser this political party supports precisely because of their disdain for freedom. Freedom on conscience and freedom from the coercive power of the state is not something Democrats appreciate.

The Party of the Confederacy, the KKK, Jim Crow laws and Japanese Internment Camps, DELENDA EST!

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founding

Don’t you have to be a subscriber to comment? So you pay a monthly fee to tell them how much you don’t like them everyday?

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Yes. I do. I believe it is important for the chattering classes to see some real "chatter" every now and again. When I tire of their tax, I will desist. Not before.

The Democratic Party of America, DELENDA EST!

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founding

Fair enough

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How can he think back to the time of Johnson when he can't tell what time of the day it is?

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Jul 4
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FDR solved a problem at that time

I would hope he is not happy with this administrative state

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