Joe Scarborough has joined the chorus of lefties kvetching over Joe Biden's bad poll numbers. As here, here, and here, libs are stamping their collective feet, moaning, it ain't fair!
Monday's Morning Joe devoted a long segment to making the case that America [read, Biden] is doing great.
The segment keyed off Scarborough's Atlantic column entitled "America Is Doing Just Fine: The United States deserves a robust defense."
Mika opened the segment by reading -- interminably -- from the column. Scarborough piously proclaimed that "the purpose of this column wasn't to talk about Joe Biden or Donald Trump or anybody else. It was to talk about America."
Riight! But Joe's funniest line was this: "despite the blather that cable news hosts spit at you daily, your country is doing pretty damn well." His show could be called "Spitting Blather." It's just such a pro-Biden blather program.
Throughout the segment, Scarborough and Jon Meacham bemoaned the "massive disconnect" between how wonderful life is in Biden Land, and his paltry poll numbers.
At times, the true purpose of Scarborough's endeavor broke through, as when Mika claimed that "it is fair to say that Joe Biden has led that international effort." Scarborough just had to agree: "well, he certainly has."
And then there was Meacham, at the end of the segment, who said given the "great power stuff" between Russia and NATO, "don't you want a grown-up sitting there, to take the call?" Yup: Biden's so grown-up, there's a good chance he would be taking an extended nap when the call came in.
So intent was Scarborough to make the case for Biden that he even blamed Republicans for the shambles of woke ideology that American academia has become. He bizarrely accused Republicans of "trashing college campuses, doing everything but taking over, presidents' offices in universities." What?
Scarborough also dismissed Biden's disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. He pointed to a poll showing that a majority of Americans supported withdrawal. But Scarborough failed to mention that the same poll showed that 71 percent of Americans believed that Biden's handling of Afghanistan was poor or fair.
And Meacham, dependable Scarborough sidekick and occasional Biden speechwriter that he is, blamed the "disconnect" on the polarization of American politics. He attacked conservatives for trying to make believe "the world is ending," and holding Biden responsible for it.
But when it came to the left, why, their fears are totally justified in Meacham's eyes!
"On the left, you have to be perpetually on edge about fascism at home. And there's a hugely legitimate reason to worry about fascism at home. Because the only threat, I mean, the main threat to the world, the American state that you just described, is internal."
Meacham demanded that the case for American/Biden be made "again and again." You can count on Scarborough and company to do just that all the way to Election Day!
There was also the amusing spectacle of Scarborough having written in his column that "Uncle Sam deserves a modern day Atticus Finch to argue his case before the American people."
And by "Uncle Sam," we know Scarborough actually meant Uncle Joe Biden. And who better to play the hero's Atticus Finch role than that self-described "simple country lawyer," Joe Scarborough himself!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/10/23
6:08 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, Joe, you have a new piece in The Atlantic, it's out just moments ago, and it's on my favorite topic: which is, where America stands with the world as the NATO summit starts.
And you write this: America is doing just fine. You argue, quote, Uncle Sam deserves a modern day Atticus Finch to argue his case before the American people.
. . .
Though a fulsome defense of Uncle Sam often requires dialectical thinking. But remember this, even with all of its failings, America has fed and freed more human beings than any other country in history. And despite the blather that cable news hosts spit at you daily, your country is doing pretty damn well.
And I think it is fair to say, Joe, Joe Biden has led that international effort.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, he certainly has . . . I will say, on the foreign policy side, Joe Biden has done extraordinarily well. Afghanistan the one challenge, which I discuss also in this column.
MIKA: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: It was done -- it was promised by the past three presidents to do the same thing. And 70% of Americans supported Joe Biden doing that when he did it. Even 55% of Americans supported him after he did it.
The purpose, though, of this column wasn't to talk about Joe Biden or Donald Trump or anybody else. It was to talk about America.
Jon Meacham, as I was going through the Fourth of July reading, it was, oh, 75% of Americans think we're going in the wrong direction. I could find another poll, though, that said 75% of Americans say their economic standing is good or excellent right now. And there's this, there's this bizarre disconnect between perception and reality.
I also go down, so many things in this column about, for instance, Republicans now have become the new, the new lefties, trashing, you know, college campuses, doing everything but taking over, you know, presidents' offices in universities.
Despite the fact every year, our universities and colleges are ranked the best in the world and the most powerful people in the world desperately try to get their children into our universities. The smartest kids on the planet come to our universities. And yet, they're constantly trashed as woke and weak.
And we hear all of this, Jon, and there's just a massive disconnect. The fact is, the United States is the most powerful, most productive, most successful country on the planet. And yet we never hear that from our politicians. Year in and year out.
JON MEACHAM: I think one of the great disconnects that you've pointed out is between people who talk about these things publicly, people who poll on them, and then, in a cycle, then talk about the polling results, and what people genuinely think.
And my own sense is that part of the wages of having such a radically polarized political class, whichi s to say those who have an economic, cultural and often ideological stake in an unfolding political drama. Because of that polarization, it's not in anyone's interest to say what you just said.
Because what's interesting about, hey, everything's good? Yeah, there are problems, we should work on it. You know, that, that's not going to get people outraged. It's not going to guarantee advertisers that people are going to tune in.
You need, on the right, you need to think that the world is ending and that President Biden, bizarrely, is leading this these end times.
And on the left, you have to be perpetually on edge about fascism at home. And there's a hugely legitimate reason to worry about fascism at home. Because the only threat, I mean, the main threat to the world, the American state that you just described, is internal.
. . .
I think the main problem, and I think this helps explain the president's polling numbers, is that there's little incentive in a polarized political climate to say what you just said, however true it is. And I think that's what, the case that has to be made again and again.
And it may be the people who decide the 2024 election are not watching us this morning, are not tuned into the minute-to-minute, but who are, in about five or six states, and are going to assess the state of the nation sometime next year.
And I think that that's not necessarily a bad thing. Where it is -- where it does create a cost, though, is that what we're seeing this week with President Biden going to NATO with this unfolding story, is this is why we have presidents. This is why we need serious people to be president. Because I was looking at the map you had. Look at -- look at that. Look at the size of Russia, the size of NATO. This is great power stuff that can go -- look at that! [onscreen map showing Russia and NATO countries] -- that can go wroing.
SCARBOROUGH: It's amazing.
MEACHAM: And don't you want a grown-up sitting there, to take the call?
