Are liberals delusional, or just trying to gaslight you?

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

It’s no secret to those of us tuned into politics that a lot of Democrats are totally delusional. Almost nothing they say is grounded in any sort of fact or rational analysis. It has gotten so absurd that Bill Maher has been making fun of them.

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But this Salon story is something special. The headline blares “Uncle Joe believes: Behind the scenes, Democrats clearly now think they can win.” Perhaps they do, or perhaps Salon is whistling past the graveyard, but in either case the premise is stupid. Unless something radical changes Democrats are still going to get crushed this November and even the fraught politics of abortion can’t save them.

Uncle Joe, by the way, was Joseph Stalin’s nickname. How appropriate.

The author, Brian Karem, rhapsodizes about the bizarre event celebrating the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” that was held on the same day that inflation numbers blew away expectations, sending the market crashing. MSM outlets broke away from covering the event to focus on the market crash. Yet Karem describes it in the breathless way that rock concerts are described by teenage girls.

As Karem describes it, the opening acts were a mixed bag. James Taylor was amazing, Chuck Schumer not so much.

At times I had to remind myself why we were there. Certainly watching James Taylor perform “Fire and Rain” was a draw. He was the opening act. Schumer was dull, Pelosi was amusing — even reminding the crowd when to applaud — Harris gave a predictable stump speech and Jacobs was impressive.

Then a very energetic Joe Biden took the stage. He spoke for nearly 30 minutes in the heat, after taking off his jacket, and then spent another 30 minutes shaking hands and meeting with supporters in the typically hot and humid D.C. weather. While his detractors say he’s lost a step, the only step he actually lost on stage was when he stepped on his own suit jacket and apologized for that — noting that it was a good thing his mother wasn’t around to give him grief for it. None of this will be acknowledged by Biden’s political opponents, of course, who continue to purposely cast his lifelong problem with stuttering as evidence of dementia. Nor will they acknowledge that he can handle himself for an hour with a throng of people on a sticky day, with a dexterity and humor that should make most of them jealous.

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Yes, contrary to what everybody can see before their very eyes, Biden was mesmerizing, using his Mick Jagger-like energy to wow the crowd. He practically danced his way through the event before he turned to shake the hand of his imaginary friend Harvey the Rabbit.

The Salon writer walks away from his rock concert experience at the White House with a happy thought: Democrats believe they are going to kick butt this November because they are the political equivalent of Sally Fields winning the Oscar: Americans really like Democrats. They really really like them.

Karem just had to get in a question to the president this special day, and he got the opportunity to shout one out to the president as Biden was lithely dancing his way across the White House lawn like Michael Jackson:

There was really only one question to ask. Democrats in the Senate and House have danced around their chances in the midterm elections for the last few weeks, as the sweeping nationwide anger from the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade has mounted.

Dobbs was a game-changer: Democrats eye abortion as key to midterm success.

So I asked it: “Mr. President, are you going to hold onto the House?” Ten words. I was happy I got that out succinctly. I knew he heard me over the din of music and glad-handers because he looked up at me standing on the press riser and smiled. Then he proved he was better at being succinct than I was.

“Yes,” he said to a round of applause from his remaining supporters as he strode away and entered the residence.

Whether or not he retains that swagger after the midterms will be decided by American voters.

But there is no doubt that one-word answer told us more clearly than all the speeches and the thousands of people on the South Lawn why we were there: Biden honestly believes his party will hold onto both the House and the Senate.

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Biden may believe that the Democrats will have a good November, but that is more due to the fact that his brain has turned to oatmeal than that he has a great grasp of the political realities of the day.

It is true that the Dobbs decision put the brakes on Republicans’ clear political momentum from earlier this summer, but it is also clear that abortion and Leftists’ hate for Donald Trump are their only issues, and those will likely not be enough to save their majority in the House and perhaps the US Senate as well.

Why? Because things are going very very VERY badly in the US, and Americans know that. And when push comes to shove economics trump just about everything else in the voting booth.

Is it possible that Democrats pull it out in the final weeks of the campaign? Anything is possible, of course. But the trends and history suggest that the polls showing Democrat strength today are just as wrong as polls that showed Hillary Clinton with a 99% chance of winning in 2016.

If I were a Salon writer or a hopeful Democrat I wouldn’t hold my breath for a Democrat blowout in Congressional elections. It could be years, not months, before that happens.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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