Biden descends to self-parody

Yesterday CNAV covered the Biden campaign’s latest pitch: that Donald J. Trump is a dangerous authoritarian. The campaign, and their allies, charge that Trump will summarily execute many of his enemies, and silence the rest. As Attorney Mike Godwin once said was inevitable, they have trotted out the allusions to the Nationalistic Socialistic German Workers’ Party. (Never mind that the Democrats might as well be the Internationalistic Socialistic World Workers’ Party. That’s assuming they really have the welfare of workers at heart, which more and more workers now doubt.) But in their latest hyperbolic pronouncements and displays, the Biden campaign and their allies have sunk to self-parody. The self-parody is so striking that one might well believe that some of what we see is parody. But the problem for the Biden machine is that they have not disavowed any of the more melodramatic displays.

The Biden Harris HQ Account

First, consider an account on X called Biden-Harris HQ. It has a mirror on Mark Zuckerberg’s latest addition, Threads. On both platforms, the account describes itself thus: “Just the facts, Jack. A project of Biden-Harris 2024.” On X, they have pinned this post from October 5:

But why does the account use a line-drawing-like image of President Biden, with bright flashes of red light for eyes? If this really is the campaign’s “official digital rapid response channel,” someone has not designed it well. The profile image is a caricature of Biden, something one of his detractors would put out. Red eyes are a common symbol of one suffering from – or availing himself of – demonic or diabolical possession.

This is why CNAV can forgive any reader for viewing the output of that account from yesterday, and saying, “Ah, come on! This is parody! How can you, a reputable news agency, take this seriously?” CNAV could say that virtually every other news agency that has covered this account, takes it just as seriously. But we won’t say that. CNAV does not use the policies of other news organs as a policy-setting standard. But the most recent posts on that account are of Biden’s own speeches, a propos of the apparent release of 24 hostages from Gaza, and a ceasefire that might – or might not – be holding. So if he said the things in these videos,

then at least some things on this account are real.

The Thanksgiving Dinner Pointers

But then came the Thanksgiving Dinner talking points:

One can well believe this is not serious. But what are we to make of this?

Axios did say what that first post quoted. But they also admitted that prices in 2022 were higher than in 2021 – and they haven’t fallen back to 2021 levels. Nor has anyone said anything about Trump-era prices.

Quentin Fulks, the deputy campaign manager, repeated some of the talking points in that eight-post thread. He also contradicted himself – for he cannot say with justice that Biden wants more freedom rather than less, when he talks about “standing up to the NRA.” To “stand up to the NRA” is to advocate for gun confiscation. Period, end of memo.

Again, if that post had featured an actor, it would be parody – except that they featured someone’s registered trademark (MSNBC). Anyone who does that, without the consent of the trademark owner, risks crippling litigation. So we must assume that Quentin Fulks is who he says he is, and actually said those things.

Now about those fuel prices:

Price is the intersection of supply and demand. Demand has suffered, because people have fewer places to go. Many of the places they went, have closed forever. Furthermore, Republicans flipped the House last year – and MAGA Republicans flipped the Speakership this year. So don’t let Biden take credit for that. Not the Biden who curtailed oil exploration from his first day in office.

A Trump shooting spree?

Apart from the Biden campaign talking about “standing up to the NRA,” they accuse Trump of preparing to “shoot people at will.” Neil Munro at Breitbart picked up on that, and on “rounding up Latinos into mass detention camps.”

Lay aside for a moment the migrants who have died trying to get to our border and cross it. Lay aside also Biden ordering border wall contractors to down tools and go home, leaving holes in the wall. (And recently, selling off wall building materials.) The pResident’s campaign is accusing Trump of threatening summary execution. Joe Scarborough said the same, as Benny Johnson captured:

And, of course, MSNBC contributor (and former Senator) Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) made the inevitable Godwinian comparison:

Dick Morris pointed out this afternoon that Donald Trump had every opportunity to do these things as President. Actually, he didn’t – no President does. But if Trump were going to break the law in a second term, why didn’t he break it in the first? Even though his opponents call him a serial lawbreaker, they have not accused him of having broken this law in his first term. How can they explain why Trump would do something so atrocious, that he didn’t do before?

The Biden self-parody syndrome

The answer is, they can’t. And they either don’t realize they can’t, or they take the American people for fools. Either way, the Biden machine, such as it is, has descended to self-parody. Everything they do or say, looks like a caricature of itself, them, and Biden.

This would be funny were it not so dangerous. But That Speech of September 2, 2022, makes it dangerous. Biden gave his impression of Cicero orating against his rival, Catiline. Indeed he did everything but call explicitly for a declaration of national emergency against Trump and his supporters. And now he has ordered an ideologically corrupt Special Counsel to indict Trump on various spurious charges. Yet with every indictment Trump only becomes more popular. Thus the Biden camp becomes more desperate. Desperate people do desperate things – but, as Dick Morris points out, desperate measures don’t always work. And in this case, they only make those who take them look foolish.