It’s a whole new world

Yesterday was supposed to be my day off. I haven’t taken a full day off in nine years, but I intended to take half a day off yesterday and spend it with the family members I’m visiting. I was on someone’s boat – in fact I was driving the boat – when I got the news that President Biden was ending his campaign. I handed off the wheel and had to sit down and gather my thoughts.

I found myself feeling two opposite things at once. I felt a sad anger over a historically successful President, who was basically tied in the polls, being forced out of the race solely because the media wanted a more ratings-friendly matchup. That’s not how Democracy is supposed to work. It’s not how anything is supposed to work. But I also felt something else.

Before I was even able to get off the boat and get back to my computer, Biden swiftly endorsed Kamala Harris, and other party leaders began doing the same. And it suddenly occurred to me that while Biden had been shamefully backed into a corner by a zero-integrity media, he had just pulled off a master stroke. He chose Kamala as his eventual successor to begin with four years ago. And now he was setting her up to become President in a way that was going to allow him to go out on a widely respected high note.

By the time the afternoon was over, it was clear that Democratic Party leaders were going to coalesce behind Kamala Harris (none would dare go against Biden’s wishes in this most selfless moment of his), and that this was going to be an almost bizarrely smooth transition. It also occurred to me that after the media went out of its way to set up the 2024 race in terms of “the old feeble guy is unfit,” the only old and feeble guy currently in the race is Trump.

And so yes I think we’re going to win, if we’re smart about it. At this point it’s really not about what the media does, or what the party does, or what Trump does. It’s about what we do. Unprecedented situations are won by those who put forth unprecedented effort. By all accounts, Kamala Harris 2024 fundraising is already off the charts. If we keep making this kind of effort, we will win it all. Donate to Palmer Report via PayPal or GoFundMe.