Reality rudely follows Biden to Las Vegas

Are we having fun yet? (Biden addressing he NAACP National Convention at Mandalay Bay Tuesday. Photo: Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

People come to Las Vegas for a good time and to leave their troubles behind.

But even before President Joe Biden tested positive for covid in Las Vegas Wednesday — the White House says he’s okay — the soundtrack accompanying his campaign swing to Nevada wasn’t “Viva Las Vegas” but a sad trombone.

When Air Force One landed in Las Vegas Monday night, of five Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation, only one was at the airport, Rep. Steven Horsford. 

Horsford, who as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus has been among the most ardent defenders of Biden staying in the presidential race, would end up accompanying Biden to a series of Southern Nevada campaign stops Tuesday. He was the only member of Nevada’s congressional delegation who did.

When Democratic senators met with officials from Biden’s campaign last week, Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen, according to a report in Politico, worried out loud that Biden couldn’t win Nevada, and complained about a campaign memo that prioritized the upper Midwest at the expense of Nevada and other battleground states.

When asked by Politico to comment, the Rosen campaign gave a statement that was very much like earlier statements Rosen has given to Nevada Current and other media, including a statement she made to a Reno TV station Monday: It didn’t include the word “Biden.”

Even before Biden’s tragic debate, Rosen, who leads Republican opponent Sam Brown in the polls (for now), was treating Biden as if he were Voldemort (he who must not be named), and airing ads boasting about how much she enjoys voting against Democrats and with Republicans on occasion.

Biden was scheduled to address the Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization UnidosUS at the MGM Grand Wednesday, an address that was canceled after Biden’s positive covid test.

A few hours earlier, an AP-NORC Center for Public Research poll was released showing 65% of Democrats think Biden should step aside.

The other 35% who want Biden to stay in the race include Ron DeSantis.

Also Wednesday, Democratic congressman and California U.S. Senate nominee Adam Schiff called on Biden to step aside, the most high-profile elected Democrat so far to do so.

About the same time, the Democratic National Committee announced it has delayed its cockamamy plan to have convention delegates nominate Biden virtually weeks before the Democratic National Convention starts on August 19. The Democratic congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, reportedly backed the decision to put the skids on Biden’s needlessly preemptive coronation.

Also yesterday, the New York Times reported Schumer and Jeffries came away from conversations with Biden “frustrated” that the president “did not appear to be listening to their dire warnings.” Today, the Washington Post reports that Schumer and Jeffries have told Biden what everybody else has known for weeks if not months – Biden’s continued candidacy puts Democrats at risk of losing both the House and the Senate.

Addressing the NAACP national convention at Mandalay Bay Tuesday, Biden tried, not entirely successfully, to present himself as a vigorous candidate ready to rumble.

 “I’m all in!” Biden shouted.

Sandwiched amid the occasional slurred sentence and mangled syntax, even while using a teleprompter, his declaration looked and sounded forced, as if even he wasn’t convinced.

Biden proudly invoked a history of mutual support between him and Black voters, and listed some of the many accomplishments of his term as president.

But Biden also tried to sound optimistic and looked to the future, outlining his top priorities in a second term.

“Come hell or high water we’re going to restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land,” he declared. 

And he said he is “determined” to make the expanded child tax credit permanent. The expanded credit was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, and provided eligible families with monthly installments. The program reduced child poverty in the U.S. by half. After Congress allowed the act to expire, child poverty doubled to previous levels.

The problem with passing those measures, or any other part of what Biden considers an unfinished agenda, is that progress depends on a Democratic president and Democratic control of Congress.

However small that chance it is, it is smaller still with Biden at the top of the ticket. The day before Biden got on his flight to Las Vegas, an unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.”

All of that, along with a Republican National Convention where a critical mass of delegates appear supercharged in the belief Donald Trump was deliberately saved by divine intervention, was hovering over Biden’s trip to Las Vegas. 

And then, poor soul, he got the covid and had to go home to quarantine in Delaware.

Biden’s visit to Nevada didn’t look like a productive campaign swing. It looked like a wrecked train.

Biden has blessedly moved away from his Trumpish-sounding “only I can beat him” schtick. The writing is becoming more clear on the wall. Signs are lighting up, pointing to the exit. The earlier he gets out of the race, the better he, and his legacy, will look. 

The longer he stays in, the more his legacy will resemble a bad trip to Vegas.

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