“Super Tuesday?” No, it was more like “Mysterious Monday”…
Presidential campaigns in these United States require a lot of planning, a lot of strategy and yes, a lot of money. Essentially, all such undertakings are not “on the fly,” as it were. If otherwise, then a whole lot more Americans would be running for President every four years…
Take Donald Trump, for example.
On Election Night 2012, “the Donald” watched television as Barack Obama sailed easily to re-election, over the inept and impotent Mitt Romney…a textbook example why selecting the most “electable” candidate is a surefire way to lose an election, in either party. Remember the (twice, was it?) “unstoppable” Hillary Clinton? That night in 2012, as Donald Trump sat alone watching the proceedings, he decided that he would run for the presidential nomination in 2016, in what he saw as a broken Republican party, and even thought up his future campaign slogan “Make America Great.” He called his attorney to see if he could have it trademarked. The next morning, in thinking it over, he decided that the phrase sounded like it was a criticism of his country, so he called his attorney again, and had him revise the slogan to what would appear on millions of baseball caps four years later- “Make America Great Again.”
For the next thirty months, the once and future president carefully and skillfully promoted himself to media outlets, speaking about political issues- most notably trade imbalances, and teasing them with the prospect that he might decide to launch a campaign for the nation’s highest office. As 2014 turned into 2015, the suspense about his possible run was the very talk of television, despite the fact that the coverage of him was largely skeptical. After all, here was a man who for thirty years mastered the media for all its worth. So, when he descended with his wife, Melania, down the escalator of Trump Tower and announced he was running, few could have foreseen the history that was made from that very moment, on. Strategically campaigning in blue collar, rustbelt states and holding countless rallies in stadiums and arenas, Trump outworked his heavily favored opponents, in both the Republican nominating contests and in the general election, to become the nation’s forty-fifth President.
Compare Trump’s quest for the White House to the Democrats who have run, or are running, in this 2020 election.
Many, like Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Julian Castro, Corey Booker, Pete Buttigieg and Tulsi Gabbard, began their campaigns by launching exploratory committees, building organizations and raising money throughout the country. Experienced politicians, after all, know that campaigns are built from the ground up, and are continued to be built until they either succeed or fail.
An early favorite to win the nomination was Obama’s former Vice President, Joe Biden. Yet, as his campaign appearances mounted, it became obvious that Biden’s well-known and oft-excused propensity to misstate and stumble over his own words took on new and impactful concerns by party insiders who felt that maybe, just maybe, the former Vice President was starting to show what many believe to be age-related dementia, This was certainly not out of the question for any man knocking on the door of his ninth decade, but it seemed that Joe’s gaffes went from laughable to pitiful during the past few months.
So, into the fray waltzes billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose diminutive size belies his lofty ego. Thinking that he could charm a country with his intelligence and well-produced TV spots, Bloomberg miscalculated the American people. Erroneously falling into the same lurid and presidential trap as his fellow and current New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio, he thought that the entire country would see in himself, what their own populous but geographically small constituencies presumably see in them. Bloomberg spent in excess of $700 million to launch his quest and the only thing he managed to accomplish was gaining the lion’s share of available television time slots.
Skipping the early caucuses in Iowa and Nevada, along with skipping the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Bloomberg figured that Democrat voters- wary of the apparent decay in Biden’s faculties- would give him a delegate sweep on Super Tuesday…only he figured wrong. Curiously, it was reported the week before, that he purchased no ad spots following Super Tuesday- an indication that he saw the writing on the wall, prior to the balloting.
On the very night before Super Tuesday, fellow candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar suddenly suspended their campaigns and joined former candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke in his home state of Texas, to announce they were suddenly “all in” for Biden. With their dropping out, Bloomberg lost any chance of gaining any ground and Democratic voters across the country, fearing that a Bernie Sanders nomination would automatically mean Trump’s reelection, coalesced behind Biden and gave him primary victories in states from Maine to Texas, and most all of them in between. That Klobuchar and Buttigieg would throw their support behind Biden, aside from their timing, came as no surprise to watchers. O’Rourke, assuming he still had any followers, joined in the jubilation in Texas, largely because it afforded him what he wants most- attention. Biden, ever the one to screw up an otherwise opportune moment, embraced the flashy skateboarder, saying O’Rourke would be put in charge of his gun policy- “Beto,” notoriously not a defender of the Second Amendment. Think about this for a moment…Biden actually said this, in Texas.
Interestingly enough, Elizabeth Warren who still seeks to find a racial identity and grievance group with which she feels comfortable, waited until the day after Super Tuesday to suspend her own campaign. In her narcissistic and wholly self-aggrandizing way, which seems to be her forte’, “Liz” announced the suspension of her campaign, but failed to throw her support behind Bernie, her closest ideological ally. In waiting until after Super Tuesday to quit the race, most of her voters- who would have thrown their support behind Sanders- threw away their votes on her, instead. Had she pulled out on the night before, Sanders would have prevailed in Massachusetts and Maine, and would have come out of Super Tuesday with a delegate lead over Biden. To a watching world, it appeared once again that the fix was in- by Democrat party “super delegate” power brokers, operatives and financiers, to deny the Vermont socialist a chance at the nomination, just as they had four years ago, when Hillary Clinton’s nomination was rigged from the get-go.
Putting all of these machinations together- what with Klobuchar’s and Buttigieg’s sudden love for Joe Biden, Bloomberg’s financial boondoggle and very sudden whole-hearted endorsement for Biden, and Elizabeth Warren putting the screws to her fellow socialist, Bernie Sanders- that something engineered, almost sinister, is going on in the Democrat party. All of which begs the question, who is behind the kabuki that is this nomination process? More importantly, who is pulling the strings attached to the bumbling Biden? A trio of ex-presidents- Bush, Clinton and Obama- who won two terms, but who also shudder at the thought of yet another Trump turn, certainly come to mind. That Bush was a Republican president is irrelevant, for like Clinton and Obama (and his father, for that matter). George W. Bush is a die-hard globalist who finds common cause with his Democrat counterparts.
The latter two, Clinton and Obama, whose wives Biden has said he would consider possibly naming as his running mate(s), have more power in their own party, than any Republican, even the Bushes, ever had in their own party. Furthermore, it has become obvious that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama certainly had much to do with engineering these maneuvers and putting the requisite pressure on Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Warren to do what they did to obstruct Sanders, and pave the way for Biden, who unquestionably lacks the intellect to pull off such a stunt, on his own.
So, the possibility of a brokered Democrat National Convention looms large- even with the party elders rigging it for the former Vice President. In the event Biden fails to gain a majority of Democrat delegates, a possible yet altogether plausible scenario is set for a former first lady, whose first names are Michelle or Hillary, to swoop into Milwaukee and grab the trophy that eludes their favorite dunce, Biden, and their “commie” nemesis, Bernie.
The only thing left to determine is who exactly, whether or not the Clintons or the Obamas- taken together or separately- are pulling the strings on Joe Biden…and given the inherent lack of transparency and ethos that seems to be their frequent modus operandi, it’s once again…
…advantage, Trump
-Drew Nickell, 6 March 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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