Biden Not Running: November More Clearly a National Abortion Referendum


The Biden age issue is gone. Harris gives Republicans little to pick at. Except for one thing: Her outspoken support of abortion rights. This puts abortion in the cross hairs of the voters more than ever in our history. If Trump wins Forced Birth might gain a little traction in Supreme Court decisions. It might affect liberal states a bit. But if Harris wins, the message will be the Supreme Court is out of step with the public. Harris and liberal legislators, both state and national, will feel confident to go around the Court's decisions.

One thing I was struck with during the past few months is the impact of television. I'm so old I can remember when television with introduced to politics. The big even was a debate between Nixon and Kennedy. I had no TV in my little rented room in Brooklyn but listened on the radio. I felt Nixon, with his deep voice and careful lawyerly use of words sounded better than Kennedy. But punditry said Kennedy was much better than Nixon on TV with his conversational-type answers. Kennedy stunned everyone with his knowledge of "Quemoy and Matsu", islands near Taiwan in dispute at that time.

Now, TV is very uncomplimentary to age such as Biden's. Everyone has an opinion about someone's ability to make good decisions based on wrinkles and mannerism so apparent in closeups on TV. Probably more stage makeup and hair coloring might have made him look a little different as it makes Trump look different. Really, what's the point?

Having long ago been on TV a lot and the subject of much discussion on talk show, letters to the editor and news stories with various narratives, I came to realize it take a lot of skill and experience to move through controversies when the chatter is going in one direction and the politician wants to go another. It's tempting to go with the chatter to survive in order to fight another day. I've always thought Biden was skillful and experienced at dealing with the chattering punditry and moving forward in the direction he had chosen. His small circle of staff had been with his for decades and were skilled as well. Does Harris have much experience or skill in this and can she assemble a circle around her is navigate chattering punditry? We don't know. 

  

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