Background Briefing: June 30, 2024
If Biden is Lucky to Be Running Against Trump and Not a Younger Candidate, Does That Mean The Republicans Would be Worse Off Against a Younger Democratic Candidate?
We begin with Biden’s disastrous debate performance on Thursday and the chorus of calls from nervous Democrats to resign that followed. While it is clear that Biden is lucky to be running against a deeply flawed candidate and now a convicted criminal and likely a traitor, it follows that if Biden were running against a younger candidate like Nikki Haley, he would be in greater trouble. Now with a cacophony of calls on the Democratic side to run a younger candidate, does that mean the Republicans would be worse off against a younger Democratic candidate? Yet it is not clear who that candidate might be, with some opining as if Vice President Harris doesn’t count. Joining us is Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and the Ida and Meyer Kirstein Chair at Brandeis University. He was formerly an assistant to the legendary I.F. Stone, a chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee, and for 20 years wrote a column at Business Week. His books include Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? and Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy, and we discuss his latest article at The American Prospect, “Biden was so inept that the case for replacing him is now overwhelming.”
The Impact of Biden’s Disastrous Debate on the Democratic Down-Ticket
Then we examine the impact of the debate and a weakened Biden already behind in the polls on the Democratic down-ticket and speak with Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is a Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. He is a former managing editor of Ramparts, was a cofounder of Mother Jones magazine, and serves on the editorial board of The Nation. His books include, The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics.
“Foolhardy Nonsense” Coming From Pundits, the Press, and Anxious Democrats Clutching Their Pearls
Then finally we speak with Allan Lichtman, a political historian who teaches at American University and has studied both the American right and the presidency. The author of The Keys to the White House: A Surefire Way to Predicting the Next President, his prediction system has correctly predicted the outcomes of all US presidential elections since 1984 including the 2016 election when against all odds, he predicted a Trump victory. His most recent books are The Embattled Vote in America, The Case For Impeachment, and Thirteen Cracks: Repairing American Democracy After Trump. He has a new weekly show at 9 PM on Thursdays at @allanlichtmanyoutube and we discuss how Republicans have no principles and Democrats no spine and what Allan calls “foolhardy nonsense” coming from pundits, the press and anxious Democrats clutching their pearls.