I, for one, did not know, I’m embarrassed to say, about this classic Beach Boys cover of a classic Beatles tune:
ENJOY!
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Every news story is either dog-bites-person (not surprising) or person-bites-dog (surprising!) – but some stories are both.
Our cases in point:
Dog bites person:
Leading up to today’s 4pm Oval Office chat, TeamBiden still has the same answer for everything that politically ails them: MAGA Republican extremists support dangerous policies.
Person bites dog:
With the clock ticking, it still isn’t clear who is speaking for, strategizing for, or negotiating for Team Blue.
****
Dog bites person:
The entire political world spends more than 48 hours obsessing about one poll.
Person bites dog:
Peter Baker uses the poll to bring the New York Times into reality, which is that this new data should not have been treated as some big revelation, that anyone paying serious and close attention has known for some time that Donald Trump could end up beating Joe Biden:
No single poll means all that much, especially so early in an election cycle, and the president’s strategists as well as some independent analysts questioned its methodology. But even if it is an outlier, other recent surveys have indicated that the race is effectively tied, with either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump holding narrow leads within the margin of error. Taken together, they suggest that the president opens the 2024 campaign facing enormous challenges with no guarantee of victory over Mr. Trump.
The data has left many Democrats feeling anywhere from queasy to alarmed. Mr. Biden’s case for being the pair of safe hands at a volatile moment is undermined in their view if a president who passed major legislation and presides over the lowest unemployment in generations cannot outperform a twice-impeached challenger who instigated an insurrection, has been indicted on multiple felonies, is on civil trial accused of rape and faces more potential criminal charges in the months to come….
Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant, said it was telling that Mr. Biden was essentially tied or behind “a former president carrying more baggage than a loaded 747” and warned Democrats against complacency.
“Democrats are in denial if they think Biden cannot lose to Trump in 2024,” he said. “Trump can most certainly win. Joe Biden is asking the country to elect a candidate who will be 82 years old, who has clearly lost a step, running with a vice president whom almost no one in either party thinks is ready for prime time.”
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Dog bites person:
The Biden White House press office continues its Trumpian practice of excluding disfavored journalists from being around the president and only the New York Post (whose reporter was barred from a Monday event) covers the flap – and (naturally) takes the opportunity to remind the world about Joe Biden’s known connections to his family’s buckraking:
In 2013, Hunter co-founded with Chinese state entities BHR Partners, which was registered 12 days after he joined then-VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children. The current status of Hunter’s 10% stake in the firm, which says it manages nearly $2.2 billion in assets, remains unclear.
In a different Chinese venture, Hunter and James Biden received at least $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018 from CEFC China Energy. Joe Biden was referred to as the “big guy” in a May 2017 email that said he was due a 10% cut, and an October 2017 email from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas.
In 2015, Joe Biden hosted his son’s Mexican business associates at the vice president’s residence in Washington. In 2016, Hunter Biden emailed one of them, Miguel Aleman Magnani — apparently while en route to Mexico aboard Air Force Two with yet another business associate — complaining that he hadn’t received reciprocal business favors.
At an April 16, 2015, dinner at DC’s Cafe Milano, then-VP Biden joined his son and a small group including Vadym Pozharskyi of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma — which paid Hunter up to $1 million per year to serve on its board — a three-person Kazakhstani delegation and Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Person bites dog:
The Washington Post editorial board sounds like the New York Post editorial board in demanding Joe Biden actually hold real, frequent, serious press conferences.
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Dog bites person:
Gerard Baker won’t stop, can’t stop undermining the actual Trump challengers with the guts to get into the arena by pining for the Hamlet of the Old Dominion, Glenn Youngkin.
Person bites dog:
Andrew McCarthy says a verdict against Trump in the alleged rape case would be based on the playing of the “Access Hollywood” tape and represents the greatest known threat to the former president’s political prospects.
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Dog bites person:
Team DeSantis one again effectively boasts on background to a vaunted news organization (in this case, the Associated Press) about its Super PAC hiring in key states as a way to demonstrate Big Mo and seek narrative page turning.
Person bites dog:
Matt Bai makes a novel argument about how Team Biden should handle its worrying Veep issue:
So if I were giving Biden advice he surely doesn’t want, I’d tell him to steer into the storm rather than away from it, and run with Harris almost as if he expected her to take over. I’d make her a constant fixture at Biden’s side in public events and in the kind of extended interviews she’s mostly avoided doing. I’d turn the campaign into what Hollywood calls a “two-hander” — a show with two protagonists.
Because this is the lot Biden chose, inevitably, when he elevated Harris nearly three years ago. He knew the stakes. He must have believed then that she had the ability to win over voters and lead the nation if it came to that — and it’s hard to believe she could have come this far if she didn’t. There’s really no choice now but to find out.
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Dog bites person:
The Associated Press:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his country’s Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square that “a real war” has been unleashed against Russia by the West’s “untamed ambitions,” shortly after the Kremlin’s forces rained cruise missiles on Ukrainian targets.
“Today civilization is once again at a decisive turning point,” Putin said at Moscow’s annual commemorations celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. “A real war has been unleashed against our Motherland.”
Person bites dog:
[Insert your own joke here about poor Russians searching for war-time meat….]
