No Media, No Money, No Más

When Joe Biden and his inner circle were discussing whether he would run for reelection in 2024 they had to be relying on absolute support from three areas in order to be successful.

1.  Support from the mainstream media 

2.  Financial support from the large network of Democrat donors

3.  Support from establishment Democrats and officeholders

Biden and his advisers had to know he was vulnerable in running again based on both his weak performance as President and his advancing age.

The horrific Afghanistan withdrawal, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, inflation, the economy, chaos on immigration and an increasing woke agenda on culture issues were all major political vulnerabilities for Biden.

Do you remember the early promotion of the term "Bidenomics" by the Biden team?

That was designed to try to convince the voters to believe what they knew to be true about inflation, their personal financial situation and the economy was not true.

The messaging failed miserably despite a willing media amplifying it over and over. 

On top of that were more and more questions about Biden's advancing age and declining abilities that were becoming more apparent each month.

It was important to have a compliant and complicit media to produce stories supporting the Biden record and to not investigate or highlight Biden's failing mental abilities.

It was also critical to have the financial support of the large network of Democrat donors. They had to insure that none of them would be persuaded to abandon Biden and put their money behind a challenge to Biden in the primaries. If the money is locked up it leaves no path for another Democrat to even think about challenging. 

Finally, they could not afford any establishment Democrat questioning Biden's agenda in office or his age. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did so and the DNC and the establishment quickly closed ranks and changed the rules to make sure that RFK, Jr. had no path to challenge Biden in the Democrat primaries. 

As a result, Kennedy was forced to mount an independent campaign for President.

The freeze out of RFK was so absolute that even his own family members endorsed Biden.

Kerry Kennedy is RFK, Jr.'s sister.

I guess it is more important to be a loyal Democrat than a faithful family member.

All was proceeding according to plan until two weeks ago when Biden had to get behind a podium at 9pm on a Thursday night across from Donald Trump with no teleprompter, note cards or aides able to cut off questions.

The media who previously was covering up for Biden is now covering him as journalists are supposed to.

It is not going well for Biden.

His every utterance and move is now being scrutinized.

Jake Tapper, one of the CNN moderators at the debate, who was previously known to be a Biden apologist, has clearly seen enough of Joe up close and personal.

Here is Tapper reporting on Biden who said last week in an interview on a Philadelphia radio station that he was "proud to be...the first vice president, first Black woman to serve with a Black president"

Source: https://x.com/zakisolja/status/1810422324195442803

Tapper's comment after reporting this?

Tapper said, "He's proud to be the first black woman?  Not coherent."

Source: https://x.com/zakisolja/status/1810422324195442803

Biden can no longer rely on the media to cover for him.

When you are a Democrat and can no longer can count on The New York Times you know you are in trouble.

NBC News is also out with a story that large Democrat donors to Biden are no longer willing to contribute to his campaign.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/disastrous-biden-campaign-fundraising-takes-major-hit-rcna161214

President Joe Biden’s campaign has already suffered a major slowdown in donations and officials are bracing for a seismic fundraising hit, with the fallout from a debate nearly two weeks ago taking a sizable toll on operations, according to four sources close to the re-election effort. 

“It’s already disastrous,” one of the sources close to Biden’s re-election said of fundraising.  

"The money has absolutely shut off," another source close to the re-election said.

A big donor and fundraiser for Biden was George Clooney. He hosted a huge event for Biden just a week or so before the debate.

Clooney penned an op-ed in The New York Times this week calling on Biden to drop out.

You can be sure that if Clooney had even dared to write such a piece three weeks ago The New York Times would have never published it.

More significantly, Clooney wrote that the Biden we saw at the debate is the same guy he saw at the fundraiser.

"It's devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe "big F-ing deal" Biden of 2010," 

"He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

I remind you that those are the words of a man who just headlined a fundraiser that brought in $28 million for the Biden campaign less than a month ago.

It should also not be lost on anyone that George Clooney is very close with Barack Obama.

Does anyone believe that Clooney is pushing for Biden to drop out without being in touch with Obama?

This leads us to what support Biden has left with establishment Democrats and officeholders.

Most of this group are still stating in public that they are supporting Biden and see him as the best candidate to take on Donald Trump.

However, the principal reason that most Democrats are not publicly asking Biden to drop out is that they are concerned that the Democrat party will be seen as very undemocratic in forcing out their duly elected candidate from the party's primaries.

Those same people also made sure no one could challenge Biden and told voters at every turn that he was "sharp as a tack".

The tectonic plates have to be very unstable beneath the surface.

Is a massive earthquake and collapse of Biden's support inevitable?

Interestingly, well respected journalist Mollie Hemingway, editor in chief of The Federalist, also believes, as I wrote in my last blog post, that Biden is presumably holding on for leverage so that he is assured a large payday for stepping down.

Biden's supporters are going to be eager to point to his press conference last night to argue that all is well with Joe for the campaign and his ability to lead over the next four years.

It will also be easy for Democrats who have made up their minds to point to the press conference as proof that Biden needs to go.

I think this observation from Dan Primack of Axios sums up the key takeaway from the Biden press conference quite well.

However, I think the Democrat operative and official quoted by Axios before the presser correctly point out the problem Biden has going forward.

The bad news for Democrats is that the chaos around Biden looks like it will be prolonged when time is running out to make a change.

The problem Biden has is that what has already been SEEN cannot be UNSEEN.

Add to that those things that Biden needs badly and appear to be lost.

No media.

No money.

Most of the Democrat establishment and officeholders holding on for dear life on an old ship in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane.

Can Biden prevail?

It reminds me of when Roberto Duran took on Sugar Ray Leonard in the World Welterweight boxing championship in 1980.

The fight became known as the "No Más" fight as Leonard pummeled and taunted Duran throughout the bout. Near the end of the 8th round Roberto  turned to the referee shortly after taking a hard left jab flush to his face and raised his hands in surrender and reportedly said, "No Más" ("No more" in Spanish).

How does Joe Biden run a campaign with the media no longer on his side, big donors jumping ship and with increasing risks of more and more Democrats abandoning him each day?

How long before he is forced to say...?

No más.

And if Biden does not say it will it fall to the voters to say it to him directly in November?

No más!