Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 76
  1. #1
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Post Count
    44,134
    America Hits Bottom With Trump and Biden in 2024
    There was once a time when candidates for high office were expected at least to seem morally fit.
    By Joseph Epstein





    Forgive my repe iousness, but how did it happen that what happened is happening? How has it come about that the more-than-likely presidential candidates of our two political parties in 2024 turn out to be Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

    One can of course be a good man and a poor president. (Jimmy Carter, take a bow.) But no one would argue that either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden is a notably good man. Both have been accused of poor personal behavior. Each has been ethically challenged and found wanting: Mr. Trump by his long experience in the New York real-estate world, Mr. Biden by his 36 years in the Senate. Neither man has been touched by a scintilla of culture. It’s difficult to imagine either ever having read a serious book, sat through a classical music concert, or strolled through an art museum. Charm is far from the long suit of either man. Neither is even especially likable.

    With all these disqualifications, Messrs. Trump and Biden have already been our 45th and 46th presidents, and now each wants a second term. In various polls, Americans have expressed concern about the advanced ages of both men; and in Mr. Biden’s case, this concern is joined to what has been politely termed his waning cognitive powers. Age, though, isn’t the real question about either man. Character is.

    A longtime friend of mine is the elder brother of the jurist Douglas Ginsburg. In 1987, you will recall, the then-young Judge Ginsburg, after having been nominated by Ronald Reagan for a seat on the Supreme Court, was forced to decline the appointment when it was revealed he used marijuana while a college student and an assistant professor. Now, 36 years later, Donald Trump has been arrested and charged with a crime. The papers are full of stories about Joe Biden maybe receiving funds acquired by his son Hunter, who probably got them from foreign governments in seriously shady ways. Such egregious behavior isn’t allowed to stand in the way of either man seeking the presidenc

    If various polls can be believed, many Americans would like to go back—to a time when candidates for high office were required at least to seem morally fit for that office.

    Apart from diehard MAGAistas and some deep-dyed progressives, no one wants either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump to serve a second term as president. Most people would prefer that both men disappear. Many dread an election campaign that figures to bring American politics to a stunning new low.

    Mr. Biden’s winning the presidency in 2020, experts agree, was really about Mr. Trump’s losing it, with more than half of Mr. Biden’s votes being not for him but against Mr. Trump. Trump supporters back their man because they admire his telling off the press—“fake news” and all that—and that he seems ready to detest, as they truly detest, the woke culture of the progressives. Biden supporters—I don’t believe he has any real admirers—back their man because he isn’t Donald Trump.

    How have we come to the pass where two undistinguished, not to say deeply flawed, men will be competing for the highest office in the land? Does it say that the system by which our political parties nominate presidential candidates needs radical revamping? Have party politics in America now devolved to a point lower than the Founding Fathers—or anyone since—reckoned possible? Has the time come to reread, and possibly rewrite, the Federalist Papers? What does it say about the U.S. that it can do no better in choosing a president than the choice presented between the gross Donald Trump and the unctuous Joe Biden?

    A forthcoming presidential election between these two men would only seem to prove the sad wisdom of Joseph de Maistre, who wrote that “every country gets the government it deserves.”

  2. #2
    Yam Tits's Bonespur Xray Ef-man's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Post Count
    20,313
    Both sides not morally fit?

    Damn, that is some real ed up cool-aid you are drinking OP if you believe the both sides storyline.

    Both sides being geriatric, sure, but Ole Joe being morally unfit?

  3. #3
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Post Count
    113,789
    Both sides not morally fit?

    Damn, that is some real ed up cool-aid you are drinking OP if you believe the both sides storyline.

    Both sides being geriatric, sure, but Ole Joe being morally unfit?
    36 years in the Senate is apparently a disqualification, and so is "maybe receiving funds" that "probably came from foreign governments."

    Love the ed snoot and blue-blooded pearl clutching here:

    Neither man has been touched by a scintilla of culture. It’s difficult to imagine either ever having read a serious book, sat through a classical music concert, or strolled through an art museum.

  4. #4
    Yam Tits's Bonespur Xray Ef-man's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Post Count
    20,313
    36 years in the Senate is apparently a disqualification, and so is "maybe receiving funds" that "probably came from foreign governments."

    Love the ed snoot and blue-blooded pearl clutching here:
    Biden a known serial philanderer, known serial adulterer, accused serial rapist? Biden created the "stop the steal" lie and tried to overturn an election? Biden cheated contractors on owed debt?

  5. #5
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Post Count
    113,789
    Biden a known serial philanderer, known serial adulterer, accused serial rapist? Biden created the "stop the steal" lie and tried to overturn an election? Biden cheated contractors on owed debt?
    I would have cited racism, plagiarism and fibbing rather than something hypothetical about the Senator from MBNA.

  6. #6
    Yam Tits's Bonespur Xray Ef-man's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Post Count
    20,313
    I would have cited racism, plagiarism and fibbing rather than something hypothetical about the Senator from MBNA.
    If we go by similar criteria: "The papers are full of stories about Joe Biden maybe receiving funds acquired by his son Hunter, who probably got them from foreign governments in seriously shady ways." Should Rafael Cruz be removed from office as his dad was involved in the JFK assassination and Rafael may be the Zodiac Killer?

  7. #7
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    Trump is worse.

    It's an easy choice CC is doing backflips to not make.

  8. #8
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Post Count
    44,134
    I would have cited racism, plagiarism and fibbing rather than something hypothetical about the Senator from MBNA.
    It will be interesting to see if there is really anything to the allegations of bribery from the justice department whistleblower.

    https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/fbi-fi...mer-subpoenas/
    Last edited by CosmicCowboy; 05-04-2023 at 11:10 AM.

  9. #9
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    It would've leaked to the press already.

  10. #10
    coffee's for closers FrostKing's Avatar
    My Team
    Chicago Bulls
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
    Post Count
    19,410
    Trump is worse.

    It's an easy choice CC is doing backflips to not make.
    "Racist" border walls

    Vs

    Mentally decapitated



    On the moral compass, only one waged War overseas

  11. #11
    Believe. daboom1's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2019
    Post Count
    8,022

  12. #12
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Post Count
    44,134
    Trump is worse.

    It's an easy choice CC is doing backflips to not make.
    I choose not to choose either one. Either way the country can probably survive 4 more years of a ty President. Maybe 2028 will give us better choices.

  13. #13
    I cannot grok its fullnes leemajors's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Post Count
    24,176
    Why does he post bull like that?

  14. #14
    dangerous floater Winehole23's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Post Count
    113,789
    It will be interesting to see if there is really anything to the allegations of bribery from the justice department whistleblower.

    https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/fbi-fi...mer-subpoenas/
    all rumor so far

  15. #15
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    "Racist" border walls

    Vs

    Mentally decapitated



    On the moral compass, only one waged War overseas
    Trump is worse.

    Easy choice.

    Continue your backflips.

  16. #16
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    I choose not to choose either one. Either way the country can probably survive 4 more years of a ty President. Maybe 2028 will give us better choices.
    One wants to end the country as we know it.

    Easy choice you're too much a of a pussy to make.

  17. #17
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Post Count
    44,134
    That's basically what I said. I wonder if the FBI will comply with the subpoena? It seemed pretty specific.

  18. #18
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    You won't believe what's on Hunter's laptop! I can't even say! Explosive!

  19. #19
    Mr. John Wayne CosmicCowboy's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Post Count
    44,134
    One wants to end the country as we know it.

    Easy choice you're too much a of a pussy to make.
    LOL @ chumps "ending democracy" talking points.

  20. #20
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    LOL @ chumps "ending democracy" talking points.
    LOL @ CC's pretending his party hasn't gone hard in that direction

  21. #21
    coffee's for closers FrostKing's Avatar
    My Team
    Chicago Bulls
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
    Post Count
    19,410
    One wants to end the country as we know it.

    Easy choice you're too much a of a pussy to make.
    And the other wants to end the World as we know it.

  22. #22
    coffee's for closers FrostKing's Avatar
    My Team
    Chicago Bulls
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
    Post Count
    19,410
    LOL @ CC's pretending his party hasn't gone hard in that direction
    Speaking of going hard in directions. Warmongering...

  23. #23
    Alleged Michigander ChumpDumper's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Post Count
    154,406
    And the other wants to end the World as we know it.
    Speaking of going hard in directions. Warmongering...
    Explain your sentence fragments.

  24. #24
    Believe. Adam Lambert's Avatar
    My Team
    Dallas Mavericks
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Post Count
    4,912
    If the moral standard for president is "accused by opposing party for bribery/nepotism" that's a high bar for any president in recent memory to clear. I'm 100% on board with saying Biden isn't a mental fit for the presidency but the author's making a huge stretch to bothsides the moral fit between the two candidates.

  25. #25
    Savvy Veteran spurraider21's Avatar
    My Team
    San Antonio Spurs
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Post Count
    100,825
    since when do you care what europe thinks

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •