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2024

FITSNews Political Stock Index – 7/22/2024

Reconfiguration …

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A new word is sweeping across the political world today: “Reconfiguration.” Campaigns, pundits, and the general public alike are scrambling to assess the nation’s new political landscape, which was totally reshaped by U.S. president Joe Biden’s stunning announcement Sunday afternoon.

Or at least the announcement attributed to Biden, who hasn’t been seen or heard from since he made it …

Biden’s announced decision to abandon his reelection bid was the political equivalent of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 – and its aftershocks will doubtless be felt right up to Election Day.

Who are the winners and losers in the aftermath of Democrats’ successful coup against their former standard-bearer?

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Over the past year, our founding editor Will Folks and political columnist Mark Powell have been monitoring political developments via our FITSNews Political Stock Index.  As noted, each installment is an assessment of how our subjects fared over the previous week. Positive reports don’t reflect endorsements, and negative ones aren’t (necessarily) indicative of vendettas.

We just call ‘em like we see ‘em …

To view the most recent index, click here. And to get your historical fix, click here.

Got a hot “stock tip” for our consideration? Email Will (here) and/ or Mark (here). Just make sure to include “Palmetto Political Stock Index” in the subject line.

Where should you invest your political capital this week? Let’s find out …

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JOE BIDEN

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STOCK: DE-LISTED

With apologies to T.S Eliot, “this is how the 52-year career of Joe Biden ends; not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

Petulant and pouting, beleaguered on all sides and abandoned by former allies – and sick with COVID on top of everything else – the 81-year-old president bowed to the inevitable Sunday afternoon and dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

Biden entered 2024 with no credible Democratic opposition – and stood a respectable chance of being reelected. The field had been cleared of all serious Democratic challengers, the money was there, and the primary calendar had been stacked in his favor to guarantee he couldn’t lose. On top of that, his leading Republican rival was hamstrung by four separate criminal cases in different jurisdictions. 

Then, just when everything was going his way, former president Barack Obama‘s famous words came into play: “Don’t underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to f*** things up.”

And he proceeded to do just that.

In less than fifteen minutes inside a TV studio in downtown Atlanta four weeks ago, it all came unraveled like a cheap suit in a downpour. As we noted at the time, “Joe Biden accomplished what Republicans could never have done on their own: He totally rewrote the campaign narrative.”

In doing so, he obliterated his chance for a second term live in front of 70 million Americans watching at home.

In the end, Biden was brought down by a triumvirate of problems: Blisteringly bad poll numbers, an utter drought in fundraising (from big and small-dollar donors alike), and rapidly eroding support from within his own party.

There was simply no putting Humpty Dumpty together again. Between former House speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s behind-the-scenes maneuvering and his erstwhile buddy Obama pulling his support, the jig was up.

All that’s left now is running out the clock until noon on January 20, 2025.

What is Biden’s legacy? He leaves behind a mountain of federal debt that Franklin Roosevelt would have envied; a southern U.S. border in shambles; an America whose standing in the eyes of the world is now little better than a punchline; a push for green energy that nobody except progressive eco-radical zealots wanted (coupled with a body blow to domestic energy production). Above all, despite having been elected as a “uniter,” Biden leaves behind an America that — thanks in no small part to his rank partisanship — is more deeply divided than ever.

Now a lame duck, Biden might as well stay in Delaware after he recovers from his illness. He’ll wind up there soon enough, anyway.

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KAMALA HARRIS

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STOCK: RISING

At midafternoon Sunday, the 59-year-old vice president officially became Candidate Harris in arguably the greatest comeback since Lazarus rose from the dead.

Kamala Harris immediately faces a challenge that would put even the most seasoned political pro to the test: How does she distance herself from the failures of an administration she is part of? Remember how they wanted to be called the “Biden-Harris Administration” upon assuming office back in January 2021? Now, it truly is just that. And so Harris inherits all the headaches mentioned earlier.

Oh, Biden assigning her as his ‘Border Czar’ won’t help her with the one issue dominating the concerns of the electorate.

Meanwhile, Harris’ ascension is a dream come true for “Identitypolitik” adherents. They’re over the moon thrilled by the prospect of a black minority woman running for president. Others more concerned about who Harris is – as oppose to what she looks like – are raising serious concerns. They say she folds easily under pressure, cackles and giggles in an unnerving way, speaks in a jumbled ‘word salad’ that makes it difficult to understand what she actually means, and on top of all that is an abysmal manager.

Her adherents insist she has undergone extensive media coaching and claim her public speaking has significantly improved. She is also on solid terms with various factions within the Democratic Party, and her managerial shortcomings have been greatly exaggerated.  

“She’s not as bad as Republicans say she is, and she’s not as good as her supporters say she is, either,” one national reporter told us.

Harris has some daunting tasks ahead of her. She must find and hire new staff, jumpstart moribund Democratic fundraising efforts, and perhaps most importantly of all, she must choose a running mate.

Plus, she must infuse a sense of transparency back into Democrats’ electoral process. Biden was driven out by an effective coup staged by party elites despite having won more than 14 million votes earlier this year. Harris must convince Americans she is a legitimate candidate and not a political love child fathered in a smoke-filled room.

Oh, she must also lay out her vision for America, too.

That’s a mountain of work to do ahead of a convention that launches in just four weeks …

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NANCY PELOSI

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STOCK: RISING

If there’s one takeaway from the whole Biden departure debacle, it’s this: Though she’s merely a representative from San Francisco now, Nancy Pelosi is the undisputed Queen Bee of the Democratic Party. The House speaker emerita is being credited far and wide as the driving force behind the “oust Joe” movement.

“She’s a master strategist who’s always thinking five moves ahead,” one journalist who’s covered Pelosi for decades said.

Consider a phone call late last week about polls revealing how precarious things would be for Democrats with Biden at the top of the ticket. When the former nominee tried to shake off the dismal numbers as “unreliable,” she immediately got his own pollster on the line – having had him on standby for just such a moment.

Was Pelosi’s “Good Cop, Bad Cop” approach what drove Biden to finally wave the white flag?

The Beltway certainly believes so …

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DEMOCRATIC VEEPSTAKES

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STOCK: RISING

Now that the incumbent vice president is running for the top spot, there’s suddenly a horserace for No. 2. And the early buzz centers around one name. 

Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona is generating the lion’s share of interest at the moment. The 60-year-old has a colorful life story. A naval aviator who flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, he later became an astronaut who flew four missions in space, including commanding the shuttle Endeavor’s final flight. (His identical twin brother Scott is also an astronaut, and to date they are the only siblings to have traveled into space.)

Kelly is also the husband of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot and nearly killed by a deranged assassin in 2011. When Kelly was elected in 2020, he became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in formerly ruby-red Arizona since 1962.

Reports indicate Kelly is also a lackluster campaigner, though, described as more cerebral than inspiring. 

Still, as one national GOP strategist told us recently, “a Harris-Kelly ticket could cause a lot of heartburn for Republicans this fall. It’s the one scenario that keeps me awake late at night.”

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ABORTION

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STOCK: RISING

Even before the June 27, 2024 presidential debate that proved to be Biden’s undoing, we knew abortion (or “reproductive freedom” as Democrats have rebranded it) would be a major issue in this election. They have vowed to make it so ever since the U.S. supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion on demand.

The June 2022 decision returned the issue to the states and allowed each one to make its own laws governing the procedure.

That libertarian approach suits Republican Trump, who applauded the landmark reversal. It also infuriated Democrats who demand abortion should be enshrined as a constitutional right without restrictions.

Should Harris emerge as the Democratic nominee, would having a woman (and stepmother of two daughters) at the top of the ticket reframe the issue to her political advantage?

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NEW ELECTION DYNAMICS

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STOCK: RISING

In an instant, the 2024 election calculus totally changed.

“Everything is different now,” a national journalist told us. “Assuming Harris is the Democratic nominee, how is that going to look on TV? Suddenly, Trump, who had looked almost like an Olympic athlete compared to Joe Biden, now looks like an overweight 78-year-old white guy who’s not fast on his feet physically. Contrast that with a younger, more energetic, photogenic woman. The storyline is now ‘boring vs. exciting.’”

Add to that a mainstream media eager to reprise its role as cheerleaders for Democratic presidential candidates. The MSM took a breather shilling for the left over the past few months after it became obvious its figureheads had been complicit in covering up Biden’s cognitive decline. The legacy press acted just as shocked as top national Democrats to discover the man who holds the most important job in the world wasn’t as sharp as he used to be. With Biden now out of the way, the MSM can now revert to form and serve as the trumpet section for whoever merges from Chicago next month as the nominee.

But Republicans can at least console themselves with one small victory in the image war: Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as running mate is a big victory for hirsute supporters. The bearded Vance’s selection marks the first time a person with facial hair has appeared on a major party ticket in nearly a century. The last was mustachioed Charles Curtis, who left office as Herbert Hoover’s VP in March 1933.

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3 comments

Nanker Phelge July 22, 2024 at 12:43 pm

Fitsnews continues to deliberately lie. Domestic energy production is at an all time high. A lot of the debt was incurred by Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut for the ultra rich. Border crossings are down.

It’s hilarious to watch Republicans crap their pants and get hysterical about Biden dropping out, trying to claim that there will be legal challenges and it’s “undemocratic”. Hahaha.

Trump is unable to control himself. It won’t be long before he starts unleashing a racist, misogynist tirade against Harris.

Reply
Bob July 22, 2024 at 2:01 pm

Also, how is Trump going to explain why he gave $5000 to Kamala’s re-election bid for AG in 2011?

Republicans are so fucked.

Reply
Bob July 22, 2024 at 1:57 pm

Got to laugh at the so-called party of “Law and Order” running a felon for office, while the Democrats run a former prosecutor.

Wonder when Trump will follow Biden and drop out? Oh wait, he’s betting everything on the White House to save him from prison.

Reply

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