The Presidential Address continues to generate comment. Here’s Erick Erickson and his palpable sense of dread:
The fact that the President and his team thought eighteen minutes of yelling a week before Christmas was going to be a helpful reset suggests they have even bigger problems. No one is going to remember this speech in a week, and probably not by the weekend.
That he felt now was a good time to do it seems odd. Certainly, the President’s supporters loved the speech. But will that give them reason to show up next November? They are not showing up with the President on the ballot. How does this speech change that? And independent voters are turning against the President. How does this speech change that?
It’s felt like someone yelling that the Vikings are still going to win the Super Bowl this season and you should believe him, but here in reality the Vikes have been, as they say, mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
Yes, that bad. But what it conveys is a basic poor understanding of the world and how it works. It’s like listening to a monarchist talk about how monarchies are great stuff, when a single decision of a monarch can leave a country a smoking ruin. Think post World War I Germany. And then their belief that some God or ‘nother has picked them for the spot and therefore it was not a bad decision.
My point, besides the observation that most folks who’ve failed to mature will dodge responsibility for bad decisions? That independents who are paying attention will see that behavior and not only recognize it as disqualifying for that individual would-be power-grabber, but damaging to their associated Party as well.
As critical as Erickson is being of his own folks, he needs to double it. No, he really does. Just as do the Democrats of themselves.
Here’s Andrew Sullivan (paywall):
On Wednesday night, we saw someone drowning, not waving. Underwater by 18 percent on the economy and 28 percent on inflation, he barked at us for 18 rushed minutes behind a podium, telling Americans that any economic anxiety is entirely because of Joe Biden, and that a new Golden Age is at hand. He then did a breathless Greatest Hits weave. …
I read that after my composition, but it’s mostly the same: Trump is falling apart as he doesn’t have the skills to navigate reality. Tough on him.
