Monday Short Cuts
Notable quotables from Bharat Ramamurti, Rich Lowry, Michael Barone, and more.
The BIG Lies
“There’s always going to be mistakes. … In the main, I think the FBI did it the right way.” —former FBI Director James Comey after the Durham report confirmed FBI collusion in the Trump/Russia hoax
“The idea that the president’s agenda has been restrictive to business investment is just not based in reality.” —Biden economic advisor Bharat Ramamurti
Political Futures
“Biden’s stumbles are not minor incidents, or a laughing matter. … Biden is 80 years old, is in decline, and has a stiff, shuffling gait that makes you hold your breath when he’s negotiating stairs or any place with potential obstacles. At his age, once the falls start, they usually don’t stop. Democrats should be thinking long and hard whether this is the vessel they want to ride into 2024 — and to portray as up for performing the job of president of the United States in a second term extending all the way until January 2029. … There may be no good alternative to Biden for Democrats, but having to hold your breath every time he climbs or descends the steps of Air Force One is a big problem and one that isn’t going away from now until Nov. 5, 2024.” —Rich Lowry
“Overall, an incredible 68% of U.S. senators in the current Congress are aged 60 or older. The single most popular subgroup, at a whopping 34% of the putative ‘world’s greatest deliberative body,’ is the sexagenarians — most of whom are old enough to receive Social Security benefits. The constitutional minimum age for being a U.S. senator is 30, but the cumulative share of senators in the current Congress under the age of 50 is a paltry 10%. There are three times as many senators in the current Congress aged 70-79 than there are senators aged 30-49. That ought to be alarming — these men and women are charged with decisions pertaining to declaring war and assessing our most sensitive intelligence, among other crucial matters.” —Josh Hammer
“Normally, voters do not have much information about a candidate’s executive modus operandi. About Trump and DeSantis, and about Joe Biden, they do. In their party’s two leading candidates, Republican voters have a choice between a former president with a record of deferring to experts with mixed and sometimes dismaying results, and a state governor with a demonstrated capacity for mastering the details on issues and following through and getting results.” —Michael Barone
Re: The Left
“Most Americans just want to get along whenever possible, not fight about sensitive social issues if they can help it and, most of all, not be mean to people. That’s a laudable attitude in general, but when up against radical, ideologically driven opponents, oftentimes you have to push back. If you don’t, they won’t stop. As we have now seen, just trying to get along can end in pure insanity. That’s precisely how we ended up with little kids being taught about super sensitive sexual topics at ages when they should be playing in sandboxes.” —Neil Patel
Upright
“The radical Left thinks the only way to be successful in this country as a child of color is to be the ‘exception.’ Yesterday’s exception is today’s RULE. In America, you can go as high as your character, your talent, & your grit will take you.” —Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)
“We are not defined by the color of our skin. We are defined by the content of our character, and if anyone tells you anything different, they’re lying.” —Tim Scott
Insight
“The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.” —Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814)
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