First, Tim Ryan should take a seat. The day Biden's team takes lessons in strategy or tactics from someone who got waxed by J.D. Vance is the day they should all 'spend more time with their families'.
Second, it's a long (too long) campaign - and the media is bored already. Biden's team shouldn't try to feed that beast because it's insatiable, and only winds up with Biden getting eaten alive. There is plenty of time to whack Trump - and it will happen when more than just the media and the political junkies are paying attention.
But he ran a great campaign, in my opinion. Isn’t it good to hear alternative approaches and ideas from legitimate politicians? Doesn’t mean anyone has to take the advice.
Ryan’s campaign was fine, but not great for the very basic reason that he couldn’t beat a very beatable JD Vance. He ran as a ‘centrist’ - distancing himself from Democrats and our issues in an election cycle when those who embraced those did better.
Since his loss, he has decided to cosplay Joe Manchin for the national press - never failing to heap opprobrium on Biden for whatever the issue du jour happens to be. So, I’m not exactly convinced he is a voice anyone needs to listen to.
Ryan ran a very good campaign in a state Sherrod Brown himself will be lucky to win next year. J D Vance knew how to appeal to Trump voters, which won him the election.
Ryan didn’t run as a centrist. He is a moderate and ran as his authentic self, it seemed to me. The day Dems truly reject moderates in our party is the day we are the other minority party.
AOC is smart and full of great and progressive ideas. She is also from a district where a ham sandwich could get elected if it ran as a progressive Dem.
Now that Ryan is out of office he has to make money through media appearances. As he is no longer an elected official, each one of us can choose to listen to him or not as he—like other media types—spouts whatever bullshit they think will attract attention.
The media is doing its damndest to stir the shit pot. Instead of writing about the actual campaign--where the president is going and what he is saying--or about God forbid policy or the threat to democracy Trump poses and the damage he would inflict if he won, it’s these BS stories trying to make Dems seem petty and divisive and (wait for it) in disarray. I often avoid these kinds of stories because they are so obvious in their intention.
No matter what Joe Biden does, in the eyes of the political media it’s wrong. It’s why the NYT Pitchbot account on the formerly known Twitter works so well. The Times has even outdone themselves from time to time when it comes to parody. It’s pathetic. Look at the coverage of Joe’s visit to Florida. It was the governor who refused to meet him, yet the Times headline insisted the opposite. I predict the media is going to be worse than in 2016. The good news is that unlike then, people who normally defend and support them see through the BS, and we have a number of media watchers, including practicing and former journalist/editors calling them out.
The political media have been wrong about, well, everything, from the red wave that was actually a blue tsunami in 2018, to the nomination and election of Joe Biden in 2020 to the red mirage in 2022. They still refuse to admit (or grudgingly acknowledge) that women’s rights and the threats to Roe and bodily autonomy matter. They slobbered over the likes of Youngkin and are now giving the microphone to Vivek R to spew his lies. Then the pundits blame the Dems for having no message (or the wrong one). As a voter and a citizen who loves this country deeply I am pissed off and tired of it--and the pontificating punditry as well.
It’s our jobs to talk to friends and family, to talk up the achievements of the Dems, to support Biden and to remind them how disastrous the GOP has been and will be for the country and our everyday lives. Of the dangers of the 2025 plan, the continued rewriting of history, the attacks on women and minorities, the book banning, destroying public education and infusing it with conservative Christian ideology, and the threats to free speech and the free dissemination of knowledge our libraries represent. Not to mention the embracing of authoritarianism and thugs like Putin.
Roll up your sleeves people and start working right now because 2024 starts with your local elections this November.
A bigger problem is that the media doesn't want to talk about any of Biden or Democratic successes. They'd rather focus on meaningless horserace BS - some of it propaganda being pushed by Trump backers - or local policing stories. Anything but successes and positive news.
Molly Jong-Fast had a great writeup and appearance about this that I noted yesterday:
Glad I could help. Especially since CNN has gone all-in on their BS poll today, it's important to remind folks to push legit news media to cover stakes, not odds. If they want to cover exclusively polls and betting numbers, they can go work the racing sheet at their nearest horse racing track.
If they want to over *governing*, they need to cover what's actually happening (AKA the news)), and what the stakes are depending on who is governing. Clearly, as evidenced by Biden & Democratic accomplishments versus the many disasters during the Trump years, it's clear who gives Americans of all political backgrounds more of what they want - and by a clear and far margin, it isn't Republicans.
Thank you for this much needed post! I TRUST Biden to do the right thing ... and he hasn't disappointed. Rather, I feel he is doing an amazing job .. and not 'biting' the bait is a big part of it. I don't want to give trump any more air time than he tragically is already getting!
And when Biden does start talking about Trump, that will be the story, as opposed to what is actually being said. I think it's better to wait until there's an actual candidate on the books instead of this projection guesswork that is going on now. At that point, go out against the candidate (Trump? Someone else?) in full force.
Love that Biden and his team are coming at trump from the side and the back and not head on and love the topics they’re choosing to highlight as they are exactly the ones that show the starkest difference between a Biden America and A GOP America. Would love for Bret Stephens and his ilk to be a topic of one of your newsletters. A wolf in sheep’s clothing who is given free access to the henhouse. People like him seem the most insidious to me because they seem so reasonable up until they’re not. But you have to pay close attention to where they veer into dangerous territory and I fear few people think that hard or deeply.
You make a great case for the Biden team strategy re: Trump. But what Trump is doing is only part of the growing authoritarian puzzle. There is so much brutish and sometimes brutal action happening in the Red state “Laboratories of Autocracy,” where fundamental rights are being attacked. There are millions of people being affected and materially harmed by these assaults, including women, health care workers, “othered” kids and their parents, and so many more. Wondering if the strategy is the same for all of this activity? When is it too early to come to the aide of millions of Americans being denied their rights and liberties in Red states?
True, but IMO "the growing authoritarian puzzle" is too abstract for a political campaign. A campaign coalition in those red states has to include those whose rights are blatantly under attack, but it's also important to emphasize the practical, real-world things that effective representation *could* be accomplishing in those places but isn't. There's very little a political campaign can do to "come to the aid" of those who are under attack. Their candidate has to get elected or re-elected first.
When the time is right, Biden should imitate something that late-night talk show hosts do: Take a leisurely trip through critical tweets and email comments. Biden could read through a list of Trump accusations about Biden's criminal activities. Just read them out loud. I picture him doing this while relaxing in a comfortable armchair, sipping iced tea or lemonade, with Major and Commander at his feet.
This sounds like a decent SNL segment for Jim Carey as Biden: "Coffee with Dark Brandon"
Though I wonder if we'll get a president in my lifetime who is more "hip" not like a Ramaswammy but like a AoC. I'm guessing if someone in the US somehow enjoyed high approval numbers (+65%) the ratings could be worth covering all their successes and the media calculus shifts.
For the first time in history, each one of us has a real one-to-many media resource. Positive news stories, Dan’s Message Box, other sources—we all have the power to spread these ideas to 10, 100, 500 people through our social media.
My wife is a part of a Facebook private group of maybe 500 progressive folks. Many of them are members of other groups. Many of Dan’s Message Box columns and Heather Coxe Richardson’s substacks and favorable news stories get shared there. My wife encourages the further sharing of these stories. Some of these ideas are probably read by thousands of people. She is systematic and dedicated to this sort of publishing, even more so than I.
Let’s all take advantage of this capability, in a focused and strategic way. Dan’s subscribers alone could be an effective force in getting undecided voters to vote Dem, to turn out others, to turn potential voters into actual votes.
I trust Biden and his use of his political experience. He sometimes missteps or speaks awkwardly, but all-in-all he’s a talented politician who can actually leverage his experience. But he isn’t a loudmouth who jumps into every trivial fight. We are all so used to that in a post-Trump world that a skilled, adept politician (e. g. Biden, McConnell, Schumer) can seem quaint and out of touch. They are not.
You hear respected media figures like Chuck Todd ginning up fake stories like “Is Biden running?” and realize the press lives on conflict and if Biden is biding his time, well then, let’s make some stuff up. It may not materialize but at least I’m filling airtime and selling commercials.
I look at his defeat of Trump and his accomplishments with slim majorities in the Senate and House in the first two years. He has a quiet leadership and intense focus on his goals. Fate may prevent his running, but if he runs, I would not be surprised to see a 10 million popular vote win, and 350+ in the Electoral College.
To quote the much-quoted Maya Angelou: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." OK, so plenty of people didn't believe Trump, or the GOP in general, the first time, or the second, fifth, or tenth time either, but at this point it's all out there. President Biden doesn't need to call attention to it. People either see it or they can't be persuaded to see it. He and his campaign do need to keep calling attention to what the administration has actually done -- with virtually no Republican help -- in the last 2 1/2 years.
Part of the challenge is that so many USians don't know how government works, or should work. The dysfunction goes back at least to the Reagan administration so you have to be pretty old to have a clue, and maybe to have had some sort of civics ed in high school. Breaking through the right-wing media is hard enough, and the so-called responsible media is nothing to write home about. The Biden-Harris campaign is on the right track, and it's up to us to amplify the message at the grass roots.
I like Biden and team so much. I see what good they are doing. But I am terrified of the polling numbers and the optics. I dont know a single person among my highly educated kids and their peers who trusts age. Nor do McConnel and Feinstein freezing up help the causes. Biden should bow out, due to the optics and bias against age. Plus he broke a promise. If we end up w a T presidency (again despite all the good B and team have done) -- and due to the EC and gerrymandering -- I will not only never forgive Biden and, well, we should all be terrified. What is worth this? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There are plenty of others who could carry on without the baggage of age. I don’t care how rational we, Dan’s readers here, are, nor do I care when or how Biden’s ads take on Tr. There is a deeper issue we are not discussing. Way way way too much at stake. Angry.
He promised not to run again! The deeper issue to me is not communication it is the chance ge will lose. I am no ageist but jeez most are. We can lose! I am afraid. I dont wanna be that person here but this is my tribe.
In the mean time, to the extent our social media and other personal networks allow, we can exploit this period to hammer Republicans as a whole on issues of high interest to those meh on Biden and the marginally engaged, like abortion and climate for example. The MAGA Clown Car and the Presidential campaign are already swamping media coverage of most everything else, and that will only intensify. Anything we can do to get a word in edgewise about Republican anti-Americanism at local, state, and Congressional levels will only help, and it may be our best chance of being heard for quite a while.
I wonder if this is also extends to the other races? Should other democrats be out there ponding Trump or should they also stay away from the attacks. I’m curious how down ballot races for House and Senate shape up. I realize that these tend to be just local and the dynamics are different. I feel like we tend to ignore some “smaller” local races. Republicans have mastered this and as a result the minority continues to set the agenda. However, if we are to continue to drive change for the country, these republicans cannot continue to hold power.
I'm lucky enough to live in southeastern MA and be represented by excellent legislators in both Congress and state government. For candidates running against Republican legislators, especially those visibly identified with the MAGAs, I'm thinking that they can try to show voters what effective representation might look like -- IOW, there's an educational function involved. Attack the incumbent's record, sure, but don't stop there.
If something goes without saying, then you probably shouldn’t say it. And it goes without saying that Trump is a toxic stain on our country and will be as long as he is around. So why not ignore him till he goes away or destroys our country as we know it. It is up to us.
First, Tim Ryan should take a seat. The day Biden's team takes lessons in strategy or tactics from someone who got waxed by J.D. Vance is the day they should all 'spend more time with their families'.
Second, it's a long (too long) campaign - and the media is bored already. Biden's team shouldn't try to feed that beast because it's insatiable, and only winds up with Biden getting eaten alive. There is plenty of time to whack Trump - and it will happen when more than just the media and the political junkies are paying attention.
But he ran a great campaign, in my opinion. Isn’t it good to hear alternative approaches and ideas from legitimate politicians? Doesn’t mean anyone has to take the advice.
Ryan’s campaign was fine, but not great for the very basic reason that he couldn’t beat a very beatable JD Vance. He ran as a ‘centrist’ - distancing himself from Democrats and our issues in an election cycle when those who embraced those did better.
Since his loss, he has decided to cosplay Joe Manchin for the national press - never failing to heap opprobrium on Biden for whatever the issue du jour happens to be. So, I’m not exactly convinced he is a voice anyone needs to listen to.
Ryan ran a very good campaign in a state Sherrod Brown himself will be lucky to win next year. J D Vance knew how to appeal to Trump voters, which won him the election.
Ryan didn’t run as a centrist. He is a moderate and ran as his authentic self, it seemed to me. The day Dems truly reject moderates in our party is the day we are the other minority party.
AOC is smart and full of great and progressive ideas. She is also from a district where a ham sandwich could get elected if it ran as a progressive Dem.
Now that Ryan is out of office he has to make money through media appearances. As he is no longer an elected official, each one of us can choose to listen to him or not as he—like other media types—spouts whatever bullshit they think will attract attention.
The media is doing its damndest to stir the shit pot. Instead of writing about the actual campaign--where the president is going and what he is saying--or about God forbid policy or the threat to democracy Trump poses and the damage he would inflict if he won, it’s these BS stories trying to make Dems seem petty and divisive and (wait for it) in disarray. I often avoid these kinds of stories because they are so obvious in their intention.
No matter what Joe Biden does, in the eyes of the political media it’s wrong. It’s why the NYT Pitchbot account on the formerly known Twitter works so well. The Times has even outdone themselves from time to time when it comes to parody. It’s pathetic. Look at the coverage of Joe’s visit to Florida. It was the governor who refused to meet him, yet the Times headline insisted the opposite. I predict the media is going to be worse than in 2016. The good news is that unlike then, people who normally defend and support them see through the BS, and we have a number of media watchers, including practicing and former journalist/editors calling them out.
The political media have been wrong about, well, everything, from the red wave that was actually a blue tsunami in 2018, to the nomination and election of Joe Biden in 2020 to the red mirage in 2022. They still refuse to admit (or grudgingly acknowledge) that women’s rights and the threats to Roe and bodily autonomy matter. They slobbered over the likes of Youngkin and are now giving the microphone to Vivek R to spew his lies. Then the pundits blame the Dems for having no message (or the wrong one). As a voter and a citizen who loves this country deeply I am pissed off and tired of it--and the pontificating punditry as well.
It’s our jobs to talk to friends and family, to talk up the achievements of the Dems, to support Biden and to remind them how disastrous the GOP has been and will be for the country and our everyday lives. Of the dangers of the 2025 plan, the continued rewriting of history, the attacks on women and minorities, the book banning, destroying public education and infusing it with conservative Christian ideology, and the threats to free speech and the free dissemination of knowledge our libraries represent. Not to mention the embracing of authoritarianism and thugs like Putin.
Roll up your sleeves people and start working right now because 2024 starts with your local elections this November.
No one can sit this out.
I agree with you strongly on your idea that “It’s our jobs to talk to friends and family, to talk up the achievements…”
I hope we all do that, in any person-to-person or online way that we can.
A bigger problem is that the media doesn't want to talk about any of Biden or Democratic successes. They'd rather focus on meaningless horserace BS - some of it propaganda being pushed by Trump backers - or local policing stories. Anything but successes and positive news.
Molly Jong-Fast had a great writeup and appearance about this that I noted yesterday:
https://twitter.com/_silversmith/status/1699486489044791653
Thanks for posting this - I meant to read Jong-Fast's piece but forgot. Appreciate the link and reminder.
Glad I could help. Especially since CNN has gone all-in on their BS poll today, it's important to remind folks to push legit news media to cover stakes, not odds. If they want to cover exclusively polls and betting numbers, they can go work the racing sheet at their nearest horse racing track.
If they want to over *governing*, they need to cover what's actually happening (AKA the news)), and what the stakes are depending on who is governing. Clearly, as evidenced by Biden & Democratic accomplishments versus the many disasters during the Trump years, it's clear who gives Americans of all political backgrounds more of what they want - and by a clear and far margin, it isn't Republicans.
I would be happy if everyone would quit talking about Trump. He’s a carnival act.
Thank you for this much needed post! I TRUST Biden to do the right thing ... and he hasn't disappointed. Rather, I feel he is doing an amazing job .. and not 'biting' the bait is a big part of it. I don't want to give trump any more air time than he tragically is already getting!
And when Biden does start talking about Trump, that will be the story, as opposed to what is actually being said. I think it's better to wait until there's an actual candidate on the books instead of this projection guesswork that is going on now. At that point, go out against the candidate (Trump? Someone else?) in full force.
Love that Biden and his team are coming at trump from the side and the back and not head on and love the topics they’re choosing to highlight as they are exactly the ones that show the starkest difference between a Biden America and A GOP America. Would love for Bret Stephens and his ilk to be a topic of one of your newsletters. A wolf in sheep’s clothing who is given free access to the henhouse. People like him seem the most insidious to me because they seem so reasonable up until they’re not. But you have to pay close attention to where they veer into dangerous territory and I fear few people think that hard or deeply.
You make a great case for the Biden team strategy re: Trump. But what Trump is doing is only part of the growing authoritarian puzzle. There is so much brutish and sometimes brutal action happening in the Red state “Laboratories of Autocracy,” where fundamental rights are being attacked. There are millions of people being affected and materially harmed by these assaults, including women, health care workers, “othered” kids and their parents, and so many more. Wondering if the strategy is the same for all of this activity? When is it too early to come to the aide of millions of Americans being denied their rights and liberties in Red states?
True, but IMO "the growing authoritarian puzzle" is too abstract for a political campaign. A campaign coalition in those red states has to include those whose rights are blatantly under attack, but it's also important to emphasize the practical, real-world things that effective representation *could* be accomplishing in those places but isn't. There's very little a political campaign can do to "come to the aid" of those who are under attack. Their candidate has to get elected or re-elected first.
When the time is right, Biden should imitate something that late-night talk show hosts do: Take a leisurely trip through critical tweets and email comments. Biden could read through a list of Trump accusations about Biden's criminal activities. Just read them out loud. I picture him doing this while relaxing in a comfortable armchair, sipping iced tea or lemonade, with Major and Commander at his feet.
This sounds like a decent SNL segment for Jim Carey as Biden: "Coffee with Dark Brandon"
Though I wonder if we'll get a president in my lifetime who is more "hip" not like a Ramaswammy but like a AoC. I'm guessing if someone in the US somehow enjoyed high approval numbers (+65%) the ratings could be worth covering all their successes and the media calculus shifts.
For the first time in history, each one of us has a real one-to-many media resource. Positive news stories, Dan’s Message Box, other sources—we all have the power to spread these ideas to 10, 100, 500 people through our social media.
My wife is a part of a Facebook private group of maybe 500 progressive folks. Many of them are members of other groups. Many of Dan’s Message Box columns and Heather Coxe Richardson’s substacks and favorable news stories get shared there. My wife encourages the further sharing of these stories. Some of these ideas are probably read by thousands of people. She is systematic and dedicated to this sort of publishing, even more so than I.
Let’s all take advantage of this capability, in a focused and strategic way. Dan’s subscribers alone could be an effective force in getting undecided voters to vote Dem, to turn out others, to turn potential voters into actual votes.
Absolutely! I am doing the same and encouraging others to do so as well.
I trust Biden and his use of his political experience. He sometimes missteps or speaks awkwardly, but all-in-all he’s a talented politician who can actually leverage his experience. But he isn’t a loudmouth who jumps into every trivial fight. We are all so used to that in a post-Trump world that a skilled, adept politician (e. g. Biden, McConnell, Schumer) can seem quaint and out of touch. They are not.
You hear respected media figures like Chuck Todd ginning up fake stories like “Is Biden running?” and realize the press lives on conflict and if Biden is biding his time, well then, let’s make some stuff up. It may not materialize but at least I’m filling airtime and selling commercials.
I look at his defeat of Trump and his accomplishments with slim majorities in the Senate and House in the first two years. He has a quiet leadership and intense focus on his goals. Fate may prevent his running, but if he runs, I would not be surprised to see a 10 million popular vote win, and 350+ in the Electoral College.
Biden and Harris have already declared.
I said Fate may prevent his running.
And as for Chuck Todd’s speculation, having declared for office doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind.
That having been said, I like him and expect him to win.
To quote the much-quoted Maya Angelou: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." OK, so plenty of people didn't believe Trump, or the GOP in general, the first time, or the second, fifth, or tenth time either, but at this point it's all out there. President Biden doesn't need to call attention to it. People either see it or they can't be persuaded to see it. He and his campaign do need to keep calling attention to what the administration has actually done -- with virtually no Republican help -- in the last 2 1/2 years.
Part of the challenge is that so many USians don't know how government works, or should work. The dysfunction goes back at least to the Reagan administration so you have to be pretty old to have a clue, and maybe to have had some sort of civics ed in high school. Breaking through the right-wing media is hard enough, and the so-called responsible media is nothing to write home about. The Biden-Harris campaign is on the right track, and it's up to us to amplify the message at the grass roots.
I like Biden and team so much. I see what good they are doing. But I am terrified of the polling numbers and the optics. I dont know a single person among my highly educated kids and their peers who trusts age. Nor do McConnel and Feinstein freezing up help the causes. Biden should bow out, due to the optics and bias against age. Plus he broke a promise. If we end up w a T presidency (again despite all the good B and team have done) -- and due to the EC and gerrymandering -- I will not only never forgive Biden and, well, we should all be terrified. What is worth this? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There are plenty of others who could carry on without the baggage of age. I don’t care how rational we, Dan’s readers here, are, nor do I care when or how Biden’s ads take on Tr. There is a deeper issue we are not discussing. Way way way too much at stake. Angry.
What promise did he break and what deeper issue are you referring to?
He promised not to run again! The deeper issue to me is not communication it is the chance ge will lose. I am no ageist but jeez most are. We can lose! I am afraid. I dont wanna be that person here but this is my tribe.
When did he promise that?
In the mean time, to the extent our social media and other personal networks allow, we can exploit this period to hammer Republicans as a whole on issues of high interest to those meh on Biden and the marginally engaged, like abortion and climate for example. The MAGA Clown Car and the Presidential campaign are already swamping media coverage of most everything else, and that will only intensify. Anything we can do to get a word in edgewise about Republican anti-Americanism at local, state, and Congressional levels will only help, and it may be our best chance of being heard for quite a while.
I wonder if this is also extends to the other races? Should other democrats be out there ponding Trump or should they also stay away from the attacks. I’m curious how down ballot races for House and Senate shape up. I realize that these tend to be just local and the dynamics are different. I feel like we tend to ignore some “smaller” local races. Republicans have mastered this and as a result the minority continues to set the agenda. However, if we are to continue to drive change for the country, these republicans cannot continue to hold power.
I'm lucky enough to live in southeastern MA and be represented by excellent legislators in both Congress and state government. For candidates running against Republican legislators, especially those visibly identified with the MAGAs, I'm thinking that they can try to show voters what effective representation might look like -- IOW, there's an educational function involved. Attack the incumbent's record, sure, but don't stop there.
If something goes without saying, then you probably shouldn’t say it. And it goes without saying that Trump is a toxic stain on our country and will be as long as he is around. So why not ignore him till he goes away or destroys our country as we know it. It is up to us.
Thank you for explaining not only the what but the why of effective messaging.