The Patriot Post® · Behold the Biden Boat Anchor
Just how bad is it for Joe Biden and the Democrats? This bad: A New Jersey truck driver with a $153 campaign war chest is poised to unseat the state’s longest-serving Senate president.
Really. Ed Durr, who says he’s “not seeking power or fame, only to give the people better representation,” went door to door with family and friends to try to win people’s votes in South Jersey’s Third Legislative District, and it just might pay off. His opponent, Democrat Steve Sweeney, has been the Garden State’s Senate leader for more than a decade. Clearly hoping for a miracle, the Associated Press hasn’t yet named Durr the winner, even though he has a 2,000-vote lead with more than 99% of precincts reporting.
What explains this? Anti-incumbent sentiment? Maybe. After all, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy just barely escaped a stunning defeat Tuesday, winning by a single point over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a heretofore obscure former assemblyman and accountant in a state Joe Biden carried just last year by 16 points.
Speaking of Joe Biden, he’s an incumbent, too — and a resoundingly unpopular one at that. Indeed, the Good Ship Biden is now the S.S. Brandon, and the same Democrats who climbed aboard during the first few months of his administration are now bailing furiously. Cap'n Joe isn’t worried, though. He thinks the American people will settle down and get with the program as soon as Congress passes his Build Back Better boondoggle.
It makes sense: If folks are upset about the economy, inflation, illegal immigration, woke education, reverse racism, soaring gas prices, empty store shelves, the permanent pandemic, and the Democrats’ incessant need to meddle in their lives, why not simply spend ‘em into oblivion?
“People need a little breathing room,” Biden said. “They’re overwhelmed. And what happened was I think we have to just produce results for them to change their standard of living and give them a little more breathing room.”
Asked about the impact that voter dissatisfaction with his administration had on Democrat losses in Virginia, predictably Biden balked: “I’m not sure that I would be able to have changed the number of very conservative folks who turned out in red districts who are Trump voters.”
“Trump voters” in “red districts”? Is he delusional? These elections were in solid-blue Virginia and deep-blue New Jersey, not West Virginia and Wyoming. Of course, Biden was a major factor in conservative turnout — and the turnout of plenty of others who weren’t your typical Trump voters. His Virginia polling, much like his national polling, is deep under water.
Despite this — or perhaps because of it — Biden tried to pivot back to his bloated Build Back bill and his ruinous tax plan: “People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things, from COVID to school to jobs to a whole range of things and the cost of a gallon of gasoline. And so if I’m able to pass and sign into the law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly. I do know that people want us to get things done. They want us to get things done. And that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic [sic] Party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.”
But dour Demo strategist James Carville isn’t buying it. “What went wrong is stupid wokeness,” he insists. “Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island. Buffalo. Look at Minneapolis. Even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this 'defund the police’ lunacy, this ‘take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools’ — people see that. And it really has a suppressive effect all across the country on Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a woke detox center or something.”
Democrats, though, seem to be looking at each other — which is often the case after an electoral earthquake such as this. “Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys,” quipped columnist John Kass, likening today’s Democrat Party to the ill-fated Donner Party, devouring themselves while the Republicans helpfully hand them the utensils. We’d say Kass’s comparison is a delicious thing to ponder, but perhaps that’s in poor taste.
In any case, the S.S. Brandon continues to take on water.
UPDATE: In a colossal upset, Ed Durr, the aforementioned trucker with the $153 war chest, has indeed knocked off New Jersey’s longest-serving state Senate president.