Bye Bye Biden
You can stop worrying that Joe Biden will clutter the Democratic presidential primary ballot. The New York Times reports that Biden was paid $200,000 for a speech supporting a Michigan Republican for re-election, infuriating Democrats who thought they had a shot at unseating Rep. Fred Upton.
Mr. Biden was collecting $200,000 from the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan to address a Republican-leaning audience, according to a speaking contract obtained by The New York Times and interviews with organizers. The group, a business-minded civic organization, is supported in part by an Upton family foundation.
Mr. Biden stunned Democrats and elated Republicans by praising Mr. Upton while the lawmaker looked on from the audience. Alluding to Mr. Upton’s support for a landmark medical-research law, Mr. Biden called him a champion in the fight against cancer — and “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.”…
Mr. Upton alluded to Mr. Biden’s praise in a debate with [Democratic candidate Matt] Longjohn the next day, and his campaign sent out a mailer stressing Mr. Upton’s bipartisan streak, including Mr. Biden’s description of him as “the reason we’re going to beat cancer.”
Biden’s spokescritter chalked it up to Upton’s support for cancer research — as if the Democrat, Matt Longjohn, would be against cancer research. Longjohn lost by 4.5 percent.
Also from the article:
Since leaving office, Mr. Biden has sought out opportunities to earn substantial income — mainly through paid speeches and a multimillion-dollar book deal — and his newfound wealth would be closely scrutinized in a presidential race. …If Mr. Biden were to have charged a similar range of fees for all his comparable speeches since leaving office, he would most likely have collected between $4 million and $5 million through speeches over the last two years.
The proof of that is the story itself — it started with a FOIA request from America First, a RWNJ outfit that’s clearly worried about a Biden candidacy.
Lots of people in Wilmington won’t be surprised by the money-grubbing, but lots of Democrats will be disgusted by it. Those in Michigan’s Sixth District certainly were.
“It just gives Fred Upton cover and makes it possible for him to continue to pretend to be a useful, bipartisan fellow,” [county Democratic chair Eric] Lester said. “I entered the hall with positive feelings about Mr. Biden and felt very frustrated.”
Lots more details at the link.
PS: This illustrates how damaging stories about political figures get produced. It doesn’t start with reporters, it starts with opposition research that’s fed to reporters.
this is all so shocking
News to you, though, wasn’t it?
He couldn’t even wait to get into the race before tripping over himself.
Good riddance. Enjoy retirement.
Buh, bye, Joe. Haven’t been a supporter of his since he fu**d over college debtors with his bankruptcy bill that wouldn’t let the former students discharge student loans!
Actually I’m happy to hear it, settle’s the Joe issue for many of us, incredible that he did it but it is revealing.
Coup happening in Venezuela. Trump supported it by tweet. Sitting members of Congress are supporting the unelected guy too.
https://mobile.twitter.com/thamesdarwin/status/1088212944951918592
“How many Latin American governments do we have to overthrow before you understand that socialism will never work!”
I recognize Kerri as my Senator.
Meanwhile in Davos….
Billionaire @MichaelDell on @AOC’s 70% marginal tax rate on millionaires:
“Name a country where that’s worked — ever.”
Co-panelist and MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson: “The United States!”
https://mobile.twitter.com/markmobility/status/1088197844257902593
Folks, this is all very legal. Very cool.
Venezuela is probably not a great example of the virtues of socialism. I’ve got no love for the other side either,
they arent really socialism. As soon as a government has a cult-of-personality type head, it stops being anything other than authoritarian. Whatever they call themselves or whatever facade policies they adopts, doesnt change the fact that Socialism doesnt exists if an autocrat runs it.
You don’t know anything about Venezuela. Chavez was excellent and couldn’t be removed by capital interests. The oil in Venezuela was nationalised on Jan 1 1976. Chavez was democratically elected in 1998 because the neoliberal administrations were crushing poor and middle class people. (See Carlos Andres Perez.)
In the ’98 election where 63% of the electorate came out Chavez won 56% of the vote. His rhetoric was important to stave off right wing influence.
No one has ever questioned the soundness/fairness of any democratic election in Venezuela. It’s a funny definition of authoritarian. It’s “authoritarian” because the US gov’t and the US press call it that.
ben says:
January 24, 2019 at 8:23 am
they arent really socialism. – ben
You don’t know anything about socialism or Venezuela.
Lula Livre
Maduro is an example of capital fighting back. Look at the election figures. No one, not the UN, no one has questioned those results.
Still a lousy model for socialism. And they can’t be surprised that capital fought back. It must suck to be a Venezuelan.
Not if you can play baseball really well. Otherwise, yes.
Joe responds:
.@JoeBiden: “I read in New York Times today that I — that one of my problems is if I ever run for president, I like Republicans. Bless me, father, for I have sinned. But…from where I come from I don’t know how you get anything done.”
You could see that coming.