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by MARK POWELL
In the Chicago of 1924, whenever a gangster was gunned down, the biggest arrangement of flowers at his funeral came from the rival mobster who’d had him rubbed out. So it was on Monday night in the Chicago of 2024 – on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
It was branded as U.S. president Joe Biden‘s valedictory, a warm send-off for a man who has supped at the public trough for more than half a century (illegally so, according to House Republicans). And yet the au revoir was arranged by the very people who orchestrated his abrupt exit from the 2024 presidential race.
Biden’s lengthy career actually ended in an Atlanta television studio on June 27, 2024 when, over two excruciating hours, he showed the world what couldn’t be denied any longer: He wasn’t playing with a full deck. Biden’s disastrous debate performance revealed the 81-year-old was well past his prime – and that his cognitive impairment was so obvious (and so serious) many believed the 25th Amendment should be invoked.
In fact, invoking the 25th may have been one of the threats that pulled Biden out of the election kicking and screaming…
After the debate, Democratic Party powerbrokers sprang into action. Biden had already clinched the nomination (all viable rivals had been sidelined and the primary calendar was stacked in his favor), so they turned up the pressure by degree, first privately and then publicly, twisting off the money tap, leaking dire polls showing him racing for a blowout defeat in November, even turning the obedient MSM against him, driving him inch by inch into a corner until – trapped like a rat with no avenue of escape – he finally threw up his hands and called it quits.
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And how did his party treat him at the national convention that was originally intended to be the capstone of his half-century career? With the same saccharine show of faux emotion those Chicago mobsters displayed in the Roaring Twenties.
The Biden send-off was presented to the public like an ornate gift bag, stuffed to overflowing with tissues of gratitude for his “selfless sacrifice” at stepping aside to allow the Democratic Party’s future to emerge. Party honchos sent word to the state delegations well in advance to make sure Old Joe was swaddled in affection as he toddled off into the sunset… beginning his transition from presidential powerhouse to political has-been.
In reality, Biden was given the bum’s rush.
Monday night of convention week is a time when both parties cover their obligatory bases – getting the people they least want to be seen out of the way as fast as possible, freeing up the spotlight later in the week to shine solely on the new standard-bearers. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former first lady Hillary Clinton and a host of others the party preferred to keep at a minimal profile were paraded on and off stage. There we so many of them – and they spoke for so long – they pushed the night’s grand finale (which, not so coincidentally, was Biden’s as well) way past his scheduled 11:00 p.m. EDT start time.
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It was well after 11:30 p.m., when millions of people in the Eastern and Central Time Zones had already tuned out, that the soon-to-be-former president finally got to speak.
The address, sadly, was Joe Biden at his absolute worst. Because in this closing chapter he dropped the last pretense of dignity he might have had and openly embraced what he became the moment he took office in 2021: A party hack. Having already had his knees cut out from under him by his fellow Democrats, Biden bowed even lower before the new orthodoxy in his final address – delivering an obsequious oration of utter obeisance.
After campaigning as a “uniter” who would bring Americans together, Biden instead became the most blatantly partisan president since Lyndon Johnson. And in his swan song on Monday night, he uncorked haymaker after haymaker on those who dared to object. The same guy who begged Americans to tone down the political rhetoric in the aftermath of last month’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump proceeded to vilify all those who disagreed with him – from Trump on down to everyday conservatives.
In a microwave reheat of the hyper-partisan State of the Union address he gave five months ago, Biden rattled off his “greatest hits” once more (conveniently omitting the trillions in new debt incurred and the vicious inflation he and his fellow Democrats have unleashed on working people). He brayed about “democracy,” he pled for “reproductive freedom,” he painted Kamala Harris as a cross between Indira Gandhi and Mother Teresa – disparaging all who dared see things differently than he.
How they kept him awake so late is a closely guarded state secret. When Biden wrapped up nearly an hour later (with the clock pushing 12:30 a.m. EDT), Harris joined him on the stage for the obligatory handclasp as delegates cried and cheered and wailed and shouted their lungs out. And in their private luxury hotel suites, watching on big screen TVs, the party honchos heaved giant sighs of relief when he finally left the stage. For edging a wildly unpopular president out of the limelight for the rest of convention week is like coaxing a woman with a bad cough out of a kissing booth at a fair.
They’re hoping out of sight will now translate into out of mind as they set about scrubbing the first name off of the phrase “Biden-Harris administration.”
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For his part, Biden obligingly played along. Upon leaving the convention hall, he was taken straight to Air Force One and whisked off to California, where he’ll spend the rest of the week vacationing.
There was a final irony in all this. It has been said that Biden was the victim of a coup, ousted under duress from the renomination he had rightfully won in the primary process. But it was a coup conducted with the full support of everyday rank-and-file Democrats. At no time did any delegate stand up and resist by saying, “No! I am pledged to vote for Joe Biden, and that is exactly what I’m going to do in Chicago.”
Not one.
In other words, the very delegates cheering their outgoing standard bearer so loudly Monday night also acquiesced his overthrow. In the end, their hatred of Donald Trump was stronger than their love of Joe Biden.
No rubbed-out gangster ever got a more touching floral spray at his funeral than that…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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24 comments
Imagine getting “81 million votes” then being pushed out by a drunk a few years later
You make more sense when you just type MAGA.
I know. I try to keep it short for the uneducated, illiterate folk on team Harris. MAGA folks understand me just fine.
Great piece.
Not unlike liberals calling Trump literally Hitler, then sending “thoughts and prayers” after he got shot. Very genuine.
Almost as genuine as Trump’s concern for Mike Pence on J6.
This is the guy who has pretend interviews with his imaginary LGBTQ+ friends.
I am not making that up.
… or not unlike conservatives sending “thoughts and prayers” to the families of innocent children murdered in their schools as a result of Republican gun policies. Very genuine.
I can understand how you would feel that way. It’s sad, but it’s always confession and projection with MAGA. You can’t fathom people who are profoundly opposed to a person becoming president, but not willing to kill him to prevent it from happening. Trump would kill his political opponents in a heartbeat if he could get away with it, it’s just the type of person he is, and the type of supporters he attracts. But I still don’t want him killed. Heck, I don’t even want him in jail, I just want him and his grifter kids to go away and find some other country to screw over, or just live out their life playing golf, hanging out with their billionaire buddies, and reminiscing about how great things would be if they ruled the world, and everyone was kissing their ass again.
You asked once before if you could go back in time would you kill Hitler before he rose to power? If you are a Christian or just a decent person, the answer has to be a resounding, No. Life is not yours to take and since you can’t predict how the future will unfold if you change the past, you simply have to live by a set of ethical standards that apply to all. Trump has no such standards, and neither do most of his supporters.
Creepy incel loser weirdo douchebag sez what?
Cope
I come here expecting the right wing spin but it’s gotten sloppy, to the point where it comes across as the GOP trying to convince themselves of their own crap.
lol
Look maga. No matter how hard you cry and whine…Biden isn’t coming back to run against your super old, mentally crumbling felon and his weird little couch-fucking goof VP pick.
Democrats are looking forward and sure as hell looked energized as all get out last night (Biden got a 4 minute ovation. Hillary got almost the same. The “Lock Him Up!!!” chants were thunderous).
That was just night one!
The swag they were selling outside the DNC convention was a sight to behold. The Kama Kameleon starter kits with knee pads and a “Hawk-Tuah'” tee shirt was a sell-out item.
We get it, you’re hot and bothered by a strong, liberal woman of color. Admitting it is the first step!
But she’s not strong. Think he’s bothered by a weak woman being passed off as your statement.
You can type more than MAGA?
Way to go, lil buddy!
So you agree? She’s unqualified
“But she’s not strong.”
lol
“She’s unqualified”
Sure, whatever you have to tell yourself bud. We already know what’s next. “She stole the election!” Hopefully DC police is on their A game in January so we don’t have to clean feces off the walls again.
You should try being an adult. Can’t say it is glamorous all the time, but being an overgrown toddler is glamorous none of the times.
Coming from the guys who’s fellow trumptard wear diapers and maxi-pads on their ears.
Thats not even made up. Trumpers were wearing adult diapers and maxi-pads on their ears, unironically, in support of the pants shitting felon.
Now they’re carrying around containers of JD’s “sperm”, which is totally not creepy and bizarre.
The diaper thing is completely unoriginal though, just ask Charlie Kirk.
Honestly I know most Republicans who aren’t serial cheaters or deep in the closet are totally sexually repressed but putting their fetishes on public display isn’t a healthy way of dealing with that fact.
Man, these Republican water carriers sure don’t know what to say or do about Kamala & Tim without instantly owning themselves. Like, nothing at all.
The GQP is preparing for massive losses up and down the ballot. It’s going to make 2020 and 2022 look like tiny Blue ripples.
Marky Mark, are you ok? You sound a little…emotional.
“At no time did any delegate stand up and resist by saying, “No! I am pledged to vote for Joe Biden, and that is exactly what I’m going to do in Chicago.””
He released his delegates to Harris. Are you equally outraged that Haley delegates voted for Dementia J Trump at the GQP convention?
Excellent! One of the best articles describing the Democratic party. The majority of Dems have no idea of “What is Truth”.
As I read this article, I pondered how two people could have watched Joe’s speech and come away with such divergent views of the whole night. Then it dawned on me. Of course, you see it that way. You are devoted to a person who is a self-absorbed egomaniac, and you can’t even fathom a man who would put his future, his personal ambition, his ego, and what might be best for him aside for the good of his country. You can’t accept that some leaders might be devoted to something higher than themselves, because if you accept that it makes your guy small and petty, which he is.
I never argue with Trump cult members anymore. They can’t be reasoned with. They sit around and nod their heads as Trump gets up at speech after speech and spews his standard set of lies before rambling on and on about how smart he is, how attractive he is, how big his crowd sizes are, and how he is the only person in the world capable of fixing our horrible disgusting country; followed by a lecture on sharks and electric boats and Hannibal Lecter. I would advise you to look into deprogramming, but you won’t so, carry on with Trump’s deranged view of the world.