The Outsider Perspective Issue 381 | The Beltway Outsiders

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Good Friday Morning! And I hope everyone in the Texas and Oklahoma region stays safe from these historic wildfires. It’s currently the second-largest wildfire in US history, burning 1.1 million acres of land.

This week, I will delve into the White House’s plan to get Biden’s 2024 campaign back on track – links to follow.

Quick Hits:

There was a total and complete meltdown among New York Times journalists/columnists this week over a piece in The Atlantic. It was so bad that Jesse Singal contacted the Atlantic to see if they’d fact-checked the article. They had, and multiple other people verified the story. Here are the opening paragraphs that are entirely true but that NYT employees are actively denying (I cannot make any of this up, even with AI). Adam Rubenstein writes:
- On one of my first days at The New York Times, I went to an orientation with more than a dozen other new hires. We had to do an icebreaker: Pick a Starburst out of a jar and then answer a question. My Starburst was pink, I believe, and so I had to answer the pink prompt, which had me respond with my favorite sandwich. Russ & Daughters’ Super Heebster came to mind, but I figured mentioning a $19 sandwich wasn’t a great way to win new friends. So I blurted out, “The spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A,” and considered the ice broken.
- The HR representative leading the orientation chided me: “We don’t do that here. They hate gay people.” People started snapping their fingers in acclamation. I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that Chick-fil-A was transgressive in liberal circles for its chairman’s opposition to gay marriage. “Not the politics, the chicken,” I quickly said, but it was too late. I sat down, ashamed.
Keep an eye on this story: fired journalist Catherine Herridge was held in civil contempt this week for refusing to reveal a source. CBS News seized Herridge’s personal files as soon as she was fired. Where this heads, I don’t know. But something is fishy about it.
If you want to understand how utterly successful capitalism is, here’s a headline this week that would be shocking at any other point in human history: “Obesity now greater risk to global health than hunger, study finds.” I don’t doubt this. It says that 1 billion people now battle obesity. In the 1960s and 1970s, people claimed there would never be enough resources to feed the world population we have now. Not only has that happened, we’re a fat planet. Hunger still exists, that’s for sure. But when obesity is the problem and not hunger, you know we’ve crossed a landmark moment in human history.

Where you can find me this week

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On The Second Anniversary Ukraine Needs A Miracle In This War – Conservative Institute

Biden’s Electric Vehicle White Whale Vanishes – Conservative Institute

Mitch McConnell Became A Great Senator Right When America Needed It – Conservative Institute

The White House Makes Its March Stand Against The Removal Talk

For two weeks, I talked about how the Democratic Party would push toward getting Biden off the ticket. The special counsel report was an utter disaster from top to bottom, and polling has not improved for the White House. Looking at polling since the first of the year (around 40 polls in the RCP), Biden has a lead in six of them. Trump leads or is tied in all the rest.

Intense frustrations started boiling over at Biden last fall. NBC News reported in November Democrats were at a 5-alarm fire status with the Biden White House.

Right now, the heat on Biden has died down a bit. That’s partially because Trump dominates the news with his legal cases. The other reason is that the White House is trying to turn things around in March.

Here’s the plan: the White House is building up the upcoming State of the Union Address, scheduled for March 7th, to build him up. They wanted to bring a peace deal to Congress over the Israel/Hamas conflict. That’s why we got a weird news cycle where Biden announced he had one, but neither side of the conflict agreed that they did. I have no idea what Biden or the White House was doing on that.

The goal is to have this be the big speech that pushes back on all the negative news Biden is getting. I’m just not confident Biden will be able to deliver.

In the State of the Union lead-up, Biden had his annual physical. The New York Times had very skeptical coverage of the released report:

President Biden on Wednesday was declared “fit for duty” by his longtime doctor, who said that the President had undergone an “extremely detailed” neurological exam that did not turn up evidence of stroke, neurological disorders or Parkinson’s disease.

In a summary of Mr. Biden’s third presidential physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. Kevin O’Connor did not say whether the examination contained common tests for assessing cognitive decline or detecting signs of dementia that are often recommended for older adults.

Basically, “yes, we see the doctors report, but we can’t verify anything about it.” That’s a telling point for the Times because they’ve been one of the main culprits in reporting about Biden’s issues. They don’t trust this report from the White House, but they’re carrying water anyway.

The Times also had this paragraph:

The summary released by Dr. O’Connor reflected a lengthy and detailed examination. But the President, his advisers and a team of 20 physicians ultimately declined to provide detailed information about Mr. Biden’s cognitive abilities. Doctors use their discretion in providing assessment tests, and not all doctors perform them. Physicians often use conversations with patients as a screening device.

The White House is pushing the physical and report as a big win. But when the Times is even calling this out in their reporting, you know things are bad.

In addition, the President held “dueling visits” at the southern border on Thursday, with him in one spot and Trump in another. Undoubtedly, the President will reference this and the deal he tried to secure in Congress as proof that he’s serious about the border. I’d expect a new executive order to try and stem the immigration tide.

But what this tells you is what the White House is most concerned about in the lead-up to the State of the Union: the border, Biden’s health, and the war in Israel. He’s going to bring up abortion and other things, but he’s most concerned about those three issues and is trying to reverse trend lines.

The following week or two are critical for the White House. They need Biden to land this series of events. And they need something that’s become impossible: a coherent speech.

White House aides even had Biden to a “surprise” interview on Seth Meyers’ late-night show. They’re pretending that this is an interview. One White House journalist had this to say: “Another Washington reporter who’s covered the Biden White House told Fox News Digital the Meyers appearance was ‘a typical response from the Biden team when press relations hit a breaking point.'”

This is it. Democrats told the White House they needed to “flood the zone” with Biden to combat the stigma building around them. They’ve responded with a weak doctor report, a trip to the border, and a Seth Meyers interview while building up to the State of the Union.

Could this strategy work? Sure. It could. But we’re entering the seventh consecutive month where Biden consistently loses to Trump in the polling averages. If Biden’s strategy falls flat, or even worse, implodes, he will be up a creek without a paddle.

This is the big stand by the White House, though. They’re trying to respond to the Hur report. I don’t think it’s enough. But we shall see.

Links of the week

MSNBC legal analyst says First Amendment makes US ‘vulnerable,’ calls for ‘common sense’ speech restrictions – NYPost

Columbia University Hospital DEI Chief Is Serial Plagiarist, Complaint Alleges: Alade McKen plagiarized pages of material from Wikipedia – Washington Free Beacon

If Berkeley Wants to Protect Free Speech It Will Expel Its Rioters: Campuses must have the highest tolerance for expression, but no tolerance at all for violence like that exhibited by an anti-Israel mob this week. – Greg Lukianoff and Angel Eduardo – The FP

We’ll Miss Mitch McConnell: As we head for another Trump-Biden race, the doctors are fleeing the congressional asylum. – Peggy Noonan, WSJ

Mitch McConnell Picked Up the GOP Slack – Commentary

The Supreme Court’s Grant in Trump v. U.S. (UPDATED): The justices reframed the question presented in the case and expedited its consideration. – The Volokh Conspiracy

What Is the Plan for Ukraine? – National Review

Document From 2022 Reveals Putin’s Punishing Terms for Peace: Draft peace deal drawn up shortly after Russia’s invasion shows Ukraine was confronted with becoming a neutered state – WSJ

X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week

A small band describes why dealing with California’s tax code is awful – even when you don’t live or work there.