Joe Biden Is A Good President, The Country Is Better Off - On Friday, we got another really good jobs report, and the President gave his first big campaign speech of 2024, a spirited and powerful defense of our democracy. Yesterday the President gave another important early 2024 campaign speech in South Carolina decrying the “poison of white supremacy.” Together, these events confirm our basic understanding of the 2024 election right now:
Joe Biden is a good President. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong, and winning elections across the US.
Republicans, on the other hand, are making an enormous mistake in sticking with Trump, who is far more degraded, extreme and dangerous - and further away from the electorate - than he was in 2020 when he lost by 4 and a half points. His performance on the stump is far more erratic, and he keeps making hugely consequential political mistakes (calling for a repeal of the ACA - WTF?).
All of this is why, as we enter 2024, in every way possible, I would much rather be us than them.
Here is how I see it now:
2022 - the red wave which never came
2023 - the recession which never came
2024 - the strong Trump campaign which will never come
For more on 2024, catch this new Deep State Radio pod where I join David Rothkopf, Tara McGowan and Tom Bonier; my MSNBC op-ed and Morning Joe appearance; and a recent post where I argue while our coalition is wandering a bit right now, our numbers with Hispanics and younger Americans are likely far better than some recent polls have shown, something Harvard’s John Della Volpe also discusses in a new analysis.
The Morning Consult weekly tracking poll released this morning has Biden up, 43%-42%. He had been down in this poll over the past month or so. It’s a reminder that Biden is either tied or leads in a majority of the independent polls taken since Thankgiving. Trump may have been ahead earlier in the fall but that is no longer the case. We will see if other polls show this Biden uptick, something that one can imagine happening given rising consumer sentiment and Biden’s campaign ramping up.
Here’s how the President’s speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church ended yesterday - “Four More Years” - Yes, the campaign has begun. Let’s get to work people and win this thing!
Winning FL HD 35 Next Tuesday - My Interview With Tom Keen - Above please find an interview I did with Tom Keen this morning. I wanted to make sure folks in our community got to learn a bit more about him, and let him pitch you directly. It was a fun discussion, and Tom is a great guy and a very strong candidate. Please watch, share and here’s how you can learn more, and support him:
Donate - Learn More - Phone Bank - Text Bank - Phone Bank w/Maxwell Frost - Orlando Sentinel Endorsement
I know many of you have already been hard at work for Tom - thank you. For everyone else please consider donating or taking an action for Tom in this homestretch. The election is next Tuesday, January 16th, and early voting has begun. If a few thousand members of the Hopium community give or volunteer in the coming days it makes it far more likely we flip this seat and start this year with a strong win in a very important expansion state.
Enjoy these comments from members of our community:
Suzanne Brockman - “Yesterday, as a member of Simon’s Hopium community, I phonebanked for Tom Keen (FL 35, with a special election on 1/16, early voting has begun) and connected with D-registered voters, one of whom didn’t even know about the election! I’ll be phonebanking again this week before I move on to phonebanking for the Tom of February’s special election (Tom Suozzi, running for Santos’s NY seat). I’m not losing what’s left of this democracy without a fight, and I encourage you to do the same. Give time or $$ or, like me, both.”
Ellen Gottlieb - “Dear Mr. Rosenberg, thanks for the heads up on the Tom Keen FL HD 35 race. I'm canvassing beginning at 9:00 AM on January 7th and again during GOTV. Four friends are joining me. Ellen”
And after we elect Tom Keen, we will work to elect the next Tom, Tom Suozzi, in NY-3. Tom joins us live on Jan 24th (register here) and here’s how you can support his campaign:
Donate - Learn More - Get Updates - Canvass/Make Calls - Write Postcards
Ellen Bender - “Reading today's newsletter and the comments the passion for democracy in this community is palpable. So glad to be in this fight with you all. One step toward making this a blue 2024 would be flipping NY-03 from red to blue next month. My law school classmate Tom Suozzi is running in a Special Election for his old seat in Congress and could use help. If you have been paying attention, Long Island has gone red for the past 3 elections (2021, 2022, 2023). Winning back NY-03 on February 13th is the first step toward winning back the districts we lost in NY in 2022 and winning back the House in November.”
Susan Denning - “Looking forward to virtually meeting Tom Suozzi later this month. I connected with Activate America for NY addresses and just dropped postcards in the mail in support of getting Tom elected to Congress on Special Election Day Feb 13. Let's do this!”
Poland’s Foreign Minister Makes A Very Strong Case for Our Funding of Ukraine - I found the argument he makes here to be very persuasive, and important:
Keep working hard all. 2023 was a very good year for us. Let’s make 2024 even better - Simon
My Interview with Tom Keen,"Four More Years," Why We Must Fund Ukraine