Showing posts with label Nicholas Kristof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicholas Kristof. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Froma Harrop says the Biden economy is "amazingly strong." Are Americans too dumb to realize they're prospering?

 Froma Harrop, a second-string cheerleader for the mainstream media's Biden cheer squad, has been called out on the field to do a rah-rah-rah for Joe Biden's disastrous presidency.  

Biden's first-string cheerleaders--Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof, and Thomas Friedman--are exhausted and have stumbled back to the press corps's locker room, intellectually dehydrated. Step down from the presidency, Mr. Biden, they croak before lapsing into a deep political coma.

Not Froma! She's fresh as a daisy and cheerily chirps that Biden's America is "pretty great" and "doing fabulously well."

Harrop points out that the stock market is on a roll, and Americans are spending lavishly. Inflation is under control, she avers, and gasoline prices have come down. Harrop cites Jamie Dimond, JP Morgan's CEO, as saying the average consumer is much wealthier than before the pandemic.

But note the things Harrop did not talk about. Food prices have risen almost 20  percent since Biden took office, and American consumers are not mollified by Froma's observation that inflation is "a worldwide phenomenon."  

Harrop neglected to mention the shocking rise in the cost of housing, automobiles, homeowners insurance, and auto insurance. These rising costs--by themselves--are pushing millions of Americans out of the middle class.

Nor did Harrop think it necessary to mention that the United States is in a shooting war with Russia. It is true that Ukraine, America's proxy, is doing the fighting and dying, but America is buying the missiles, tanks, and ammo. And we are doing it with borrowed money. 

And then there's Israel's savage war in Gaza. The U.S. is providing Israel with the military assets it needs to fight Hamas, and where does that money come from?  No wonder the national debt has reached a catastrophic level.

Implicit in Harrop's Panglossian puff piece is the condescending notion that Americans are too stupid to realize they are prosperous and so delusional that more voters support Donald Trump than  Joe Biden to be our next president.

I look forward to Froma's spin on Biden's presidency after the donor class and the Deep State force Biden out of the presidential race. If she's smart, she will eventually follow the New York Times's lead and urge Biden to step down. 

And Froma is smart.

Joe Biden's presidency: Rah, rah, rah





Sunday, June 30, 2024

If the New York Times ain't happy, ain't nobody happy: The Gray Lady throws Joe Biden under trhe bus

 Perhaps you've heard that old Southern aphorism: "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

Today, I'm modifying this ancient pearl of wisdom to reflect on the odds against Joe Biden winning a second term as the leader of the Free World: If the New York Times, a powerful voice in American politics, ain't happy, ain't nobody happy

And the New York Times is not happy. Less than 24 hours after Biden's dismal debate performance against Donald Trump, the Times editorial board swiftly and decisively called for Biden to drop out as the Democratic Party's nominee for President.

New York Times columnists Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Nicholas Kristof--the Democratic Party's Pretorian Guard--joined the chorus, advising Biden to step away from the vehicle.

Nevertheless, some media voices are sticking with Joe despite the glaring signs that he suffers from dementia. The going-down-with-the-ship camp bases its misplaced loyalty on one of two arguments. 

First is the Howdy Doody crowd. These are the commentators who say that Trump is so odious that a diminished  Biden is preferable. These people would vote for Howdy Doody over Trump.

A second group is sticking with Biden based on race. One writer pointed out that Biden's leading critics are white men over sixty. And we all know we can't trust those guys.

Which group will prevail? My view is this: The New York Times has decreed that Biden must glide down the exit ramp. Eventually, all of Biden's supporters will fall in line.


Why didn't Howdy Doody run for president?