Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I think if the Democratic Party nominates Biden, they are looking at a loss. This election would end up looking like 1984. Biden has a lot in common with Walter Mondale, who of course defeated a large field of other primary candidates in the period 1983–84 and then lost in the fall as Reagan cruised to re-election. The Democratic Party’s best chance is for this cycle to end up looking NOT so much like ‘84, but more like ‘76. Remember, the Dems also had a large field in ’75 - ‘76. The candidate who emerged from that field was NOT an old familiar figure (not Muskie or Humphrey), but someone who had been utterly unknown to most of the country until the campaigning had gotten underway — Jimmy Carter. Who then defeated Gerald Ford in the general election. The Democrats need a fresh face to emerge from their large field, and then they need to come together behind that fresh face. Tulsi Gabbard (portrayed above) might pull off the Carter role.

Joe Biden's Democratic rivals are going to have to try to cut him down to size. Biden was becoming the Cascades Bigfoot of their fight for their party's nomination even before he announced he was running. Now that he has announced that he IS running, Bigfoot is likely to turn into a Himalayan Yeti. (Yes, I'm assuming that's larger.) They may well use the tale of Hunter Biden's Ukraine adventure to this end. I'm looking at news reports and trying to get a handle on this. Hunter Biden, the former VP's younger son, is not to be confused with his brother Beau, the fellow who succumbed to cancer in 2015. Hunter was a director of eCommerce policy issues in the Department of Commerce under President Clinton. He much later (in 2014) became a member of the board of something called Burisma Holdings, the largest non-government natural gas producer in the Ukraine. That's where our story starts to pick up. Only FOUR DAYS after Burisma announced that Hun...

In the wake of the whole let's-not-default escapade, I don't see Cruz as   the   nominee of the Republican Party in 2016. He might be   a   nominee, though, in a fractured-party context. In much the same way that the Democrats had three nominees in 1948. Cruz would be a Henry Wallace type figure.   The Bush family remains powerful in the Republican Party and I think they'll back somebody. This could mean Jeb, portrayed above, but if he doesn't want the job (and he   might   be rational enough not to want it) it'll mean some family associate. The Bushie to be named later (TBNL) will be the Henry Truman type figure in my '48 analogy.   There may also be an outlier, a regionally-limited figure who nonetheless wants a spot at the table, like Strom T. in the 1948 Democratic context. In the 21st century Republican context, though, the regional outlier will be a northeastern Republican who will be open to the charge tha...