No wonder the Republicans laugh at us. We are geniuses at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Nobody does it better than the Democrats. Un-be-fucking-lievable. And thank God we have some Republican strategists on our side who are keeping their cool and if we would just listen to them, we might be able to prevail in this election. I read yesterday in the New York Times that Adam Schiff had privately disclosed to somebody that he thought Joe Biden should step down but he did not reveal who the magical replacement should be. Today the story has been legitimized. Washington Post:
“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said.
Schiff joins 22 other congressional Democrats in calling for Biden’s exit, according to a Washington Post tally. He is the first to do so publicly since a shooter attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally and since the Republican National Convention began in Milwaukee.
Schiff is a close ally of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has held the door open for Biden to step aside. He is a former House Intelligence Committee chairman and led the first House effort to impeach Trump.
In his statement, Schiff vowed to support whoever the nominee is, even if that ends up remaining Biden.
You notice that Congressman Schiff does not speak the crucial words, the magical mantra, which is to give us a name. Pass the torch to WHO?? I want to SCREAM IT, I am so upset with this. WHO is this magical Democrat, that is going to kick Donald Trump’s ass, granting for the sake of argument that Joe Biden, the incumbent, cannot do so?
This is Democratic bedwetting on steroids. I am a lifelong Democrat and I’m a third generation Democrat even though I’m only a second generation American. How is that possible? Three of my four grandparents came from Ireland in the 1905 wave and they became Democrats after they became citizens. The fourth grandparent, my maternal grandfather, was a WASP and a Mason and his brother was a Knight Templar. They were also Democrats by dint of being southerners. Their ancestors owned slaves. I got through college because of $8,000 which was left to me by my great-aunt and that came from the sale of what was left of the plantation, when the State Of Virginia bought the place via eminent domain. So maybe I’m wrong, actually, maybe I’m an eighth generation Democrat. In any event, I share this level of detail with you so that you see I am from a lineage which includes every shade of Democrat there is or has been going deep into the history of this country.
We are wont to self-destruction, whereas the Republicans keep their cool. I have seen this my entire life and either read about it or heard about it from others. Probably the last time the Democrats went so utterly batshit was when Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose Harry Truman as his running mate. Woe and behold, Truman ends up President and there was much bedwetting and hysteria over that, I am given to know by people who were alive in that era. But he governed the nation with “simple country common sense,” as one of my friends, a Texan with Missouri relatives, from the WWII era characterized it. Truman was a fine president.
Joe Biden has been a fine president as well. And he is going to be on the ticket. And if Adam Schiff wants him to step down then Adam Schiff — or Rob Reiner, or George Clooney, or Stephen King or any of them — better come up with a name. Because the brutal reality is that there isn’t anybody who is going to do some magical number and swamp Trump. That is Joe Biden’s job and I believe it’s one he can admirably do, if people within his own party will get behind him and stop sniping at him. Here is the reality of the situation that Stuart Stevens, a Lincoln Project co-founder and Republican strategist, codified for us. THIS is what we need to bear in mind.
Call his Washington office 202-225-4176.
I just did. Had to leave a message on voicemail. Among the things I said was how much I HAD admired him and saw him as being Presidential material at some point. But no more. I also made a point of saying “I never until recently thought I say this to you but SHAME ON YOU! And I told him to, as has been suggest lately by many of us and again today by Ursula to GIVE US A NAME! Name this mythical “unicorn candidate” or STFU.
Can CA somehow yank him from the ticket for Senate and replace him with Katie Porter. I know it can’t be done but damn, I wish it was possible!
I immediately called him, too, and voiced my disappointment in his cowardly act. What are these Democrats thinking? It makes no sense to me.
I sent an email thru his website using a zip code, address, and area code in his district. Let him know just how big a f*ck-wad I thought he was and just how bad he was f*cking up. These dumb-asses are going to throw this country into the hands of the xtian nationalists/white supremacists and it is game over for the US.
Let me tell you something. I tried both the D.C. office and his local office in Burbank. Both message boxes were full and could accept no more messages. So i wrote him an e-mail. I used to live in CA-28 and he was my congressman. I guess the districts have been redrawn. I left California four years ago so I don’t know.
I sent him an email and I included the tweet from Stuart Stevens. I pray to God that one of his secretaries forwards my email on to him. We can WIN this effing election but NOT if we’re clawing ourselves to death.
I used to have high regard for Schiff, but I think his judgement has failed him badly this time.
His words are very disappointing in this moment.
I concur. I was freaked out yesterday when I read in the New York Times that Schiff had said this. I was waiting for confirmation today — and damned if he didn’t say it. I am beside myself. I’m going to have a fucking nervous breakdown if Democrats don’t stop lashing out at Joe Biden.
It sounds like schiff and all of these other old farts like pelosi, the guy who writes wonderful books that I will now no longer buy, all of the no back bone, lame a**es have cognitive impairment as opposed to President Biden. They need to pull their heads out and quit running away with their tails between their legs!
Just shared it on my media sites.
Thank you, Marie. Every little bit helps.
A Faw post to be sent to every Democratic candidate and office holder from the top of the card to the dogcatcher.
Schiff and others remind me perfectly of a newly elected Tory MP in the UK Parliament enthusiatically speaking to his Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, about the opportunity to face down the (Labour) enemy on the opposite benches.
Churchill’s reponse: “The opposition occupies the benches in front of you bu tthe enemy sits behind you”.
Trump creates and thrives on chaos. Why add more?
I wrote Schiff an email just now and I included this Stuart Stevens commentary from here in the post. I hope to God that one of his assistants forwards it to him.
I have a high regard for Schiff and like his aggressive approach and energy. Both he and Pelosi have previously hinted they think it’s time for Biden to step aside, but you are absolutely right. They need to put forward an alternative. Sniping only makes the situation worse.
I’d still like Biden to release his delegates, stay in the race, and open up the convention for challengers. If he wins it clears the air and gives him extra momentum going into the stretch.
If he loses, a new ticket is propelled into the race and can win if the new candidates have name recognition, qualifications and financing. If I were a delegate in an open convention and Gretchen Whitmer stepped forward as a challenger, with all due respect to President Biden, I’d give her my vote without hesitation knowing that she would trounce trump in November.
No disrespect to you, Roger, but we are way beyond that. We need to hang on and just win. We need to stop the infighting. Period. End of discussion. Whitmer can do whatever in 2028. Not now.
Excellent article as always Ursula
While I realize Adam Schiff is selfishly worried about his own election, he has joined the ‘opinionators’ who have substituted negativity for logic.
They rattle off this ‘pass the torch’ baloney without a single thought of who will or should accept the torch or who will be burned when the torch is passed.
We all have the same information as they do, but the voters understand the consequences of not supporting the Biden/Harris ticket more than these selfish ‘opinionators’ do.
And the difference is the voters are not only working on electing a Democratic President and VP, we are working on electing Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.
Adam Schiff and the rest of these ‘opinionators’ do not have some special knowledge that the rest of us lack—(they should but they obviously do not). We all have the same information, but we understand it better than they do.
We are working to save Democracy – WTF are they doing but running their mouths. What for? To win an argument even if they are the ones creating the damn argument just so they can call it a win?
This is the epitome of Democratic stupidity and as I said in my article, I am a lifelong Democrat descended from Democrats. But this takes the cake.
If this was being presented as, “President Biden should step down and Governor Newsom (as an example) should take the torch,” that would be one thing, but there is no BEARER named for the torch to be passed to! Just a generic “Biden should pass the torch.” To what, the thin air? Does Schiff want to take the torch?
This is NUTS!
“Who?” is the right question.
If Adam would apply as much specificity to this question as he did during the impeachment it would be mighty helpful.
Who is the ONLY question.
I developed a great admiration for Mr. Schiff when he was conducting the J^ invesigation. But now I don’t know what the hell Schiff thinks he’s doing. I do know that he’s from California and that he’s a good friend of George Clooney. Guys, running a presidential campaign is not the same as being a casting director in Hollywood. I have a lot of confidence in President Biden. I have no confidence at all in you guys.
Well said. I, too, have nothing but admiration for how Schiff conducted the investigations he spearheaded. But this asking Biden to step down and not naming a successor is pure madness. We are 110 days away from Election Day. And we’re going to get a new candidate? When the present candidate is an incumbent PRESIDENT?
I don’t care if Joe Biden is in a jar of formaldahyde, I’m voting for him. We can win this election if we stop freaking out.
Schiff needs to stfu.
I concur. The last thing we need is dissension within our own ranks.
I, too, used to respect Schiff…until the Senate primary in CA. I am not a resident of the state, but I love Katie Porter (and her white board) and I donated to her campaign. I could not have been angrier when Schiff gamed the CA primary by giving a large amount of money to the campaign of REPUBLICAN idiot Steve Garvey. In CA, the top 2 finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Schiff was sure he could defeat Garvey, but he clearly was afraid to face a single-mom, van-driving younger woman who is brilliant at putting CEOs in the hot seat. Screw you, Schiff!!
I am very upset by this. I used to live in CA-28 and Schiff was just fine. My banker knew him personally and we agreed how much we liked the man. My neighbor across the street took her kids to meet the congressman at a town hall. Everybody liked and respected the man. And now he does this.
Do the people trashing Biden NOT SEE that they’re giving the election to Trump? Do they SERIOUSLY THINK that Kamala has some magical ability to beat Trump? If not her, then whom?
Dear dam Schiff,
I use to admire you, now you have ended up in my sewer as one of the most despicable politicians I have ever known, and if Trump becomes our President, I will consider you one of the reasons this happened., should President Biden be hounded off the ticket.
Do take me off your email list, I never want to hear from you again.
I hope you sent that to his email. I sure would.
Seriously, why the hell is he doing this? It’s something about California, because, Clooney, Schiff, Pelosi, and in a way I don’t quite understand, probably Newsom, are all in cahoots. Can anyone explain it?
I just sent an email. It took a bit of doing to find an address but the Beverly Hills Mercedes Benz dealers may or may not object to me using their address lol. I sent the information posted above with the preface that I respected his work but no longer respect him and that he along with the other Democratic Party naysayers will be held accountable by the voters, who all support President Biden, if dfg gets elected and destroys democracy. Every little bit helps I guess. I hope…