the sunshine presidency

I’m finding a lot of definitions for a shadow presidency, but for purposes of this post, I’m partial to the one like Dick Cheney had when he was calling the shots.  He exploited W’s ineptness to gain great power.

We’re seeing it again in reverse.  With well-timed and well-placed TV appearances, Biden is reminding us what the U.S. could look like with adult leadership.  There’s virtually nothing that Trump can do to counteract that.  He’s abdicated any say over the virus crisis, walking away after his chloroquine/Clorox fiascos.  He’s pushing for reopening even as new Covid rates increase.  And he shows his respect for the George Floyd protests by having his goons plow through one of them so The Don could hold up a Bible, as one pundit said, like a Trump steak.

Add to that the Obamas — Barack with his trademark preternatural calmness, Michelle looking like she’s in charge wherever she goes — and you got an all-star team.

But, wait, there’s more: the Marines have landed.  Retired four-star generals John Kelly and Jim Mattis, survivors of the White House staff, have come out strongly against the President.  It is extremely rare for top brass to do that.  Even some GOP senators are speaking out.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get a cascade effect, but it seems like the political mood is shifting.  After some recent bumps in approval for the virus and the violence in the protests, Trump is slipping steadily again.  And he’s losing support from the fringes of his core.

Everything he does now reeks of desperation.  Expect anything from him, like dropping Pence for Nikki Haley, freeing up Mike to watch “The Handmaid’s Tale” yet again and dream of what might have been.

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Lest we forget: Steve King, the U.S. Representative from Iowa, lost his primary this week.  King is best known for sticking up for white nationalism and asserting that undocumented workers had calves the size of cantaloupes from smuggling marijuana.  I will most remember him for this: “What does this diversity bring that we don’t already have?”