Joe Manchin is not a Democrat anymore. The longtime West Virginia senator made that clear in May, when he reregistered as an independent, a final enshrinement of his legacy as either a reliable “centrist” check on Democratic overreach from a red state or a uniquely annoying media-hungry bloodsucker eager to protect one of the more sinister dossiers of donor money on Capitol Hill. (You can probably guess where I stand on the question.) But whatever: It’s not our problem anymore. Manchin has left the party and announced he would not seek reelection in 2024 anyway. We no longer need to think about him. Right? Right??
Not if Joe Manchin has anything to say about it! Seriously, over the past three days, as Democrats processed a dug-in Biden jumping from the top of the ticket, Manchin apparently felt the need to keep the country updated on all his plans, thoughts, and feelings. First, there was the report that Manchin was considering becoming a Democrat again and throwing his hat in the ring to run for the vacant nomination, a completely doomed and counterfeit proposal that had no chance in hell from the start. (Remember, Manchin reneged his status as a Democrat in May.) Then, mere hours later, he told CBS that he was not planning a campaign, which brought to mind those weeks when Aaron Rodgers swore that he planned on playing for the Jets with a torn Achilles before ultimately writing off those chances as a media-created storyline.
Jim Newell
Republicans Keep Saying Biden Is Unfit to Serve and Must Resign Immediately. About That.
Read More
Even with that thoroughly self-manufactured news cycle out of the way, Manchin was undeterred. He made a point to refuse to endorse Kamala Harris for being “too far to the left,” while also declaring that he wouldn’t serve as her vice presidential nominee—a situation that truly nobody was proposing. (The Harris campaign has already requested vetting materials from at least five possible VPs. Manchin was not among them.) Regardless, reporters have eagerly passed along every morsel of the Manchin saga, and Manchin has surely savored it all, because boorishly amplifying your own meager influence is one of the few political currencies we have left in 2024.
How Nancy Pelosi Persuaded Biden to Leave the Race
Jack Smith’s Final Showdown With Aileen Cannon?
The Supreme Court Can’t Outrun Clarence Thomas’ Terrible Guns Opinion
Republicans Keep Saying Biden Is Unfit to Serve and Must Resign Immediately. About That.
But those same journalists have yet to proclaim the fundamental paradox of Manchin’s media blitz, so unfortunately that responsibility falls to me. Joe Manchin, you’re not a Democrat anymore! You left the party! You no longer get to be a part of the nomination process! You actually don’t get to have a say! That’s not how any of this works! To paraphrase the great Damian Leigh, you don’t even go here.
Look, I know it’s futile to have a bone to pick with Joe Manchin, a person who has stuck around in the Senate to fulfill this exact flavor of vanity: a desire to appear on television and be nonspecifically “troubled” by various avenues of the Democrats. And I also understand that his departure from the party—a coalition so wide and ideologically unwieldy that it’s able to contain Henry Cuellar and Bernie Sanders—is itself a desperate plea for even more attention, especially now that the sheen from his obstinance toward the Build Back Better bill has worn off. But at the very least, we don’t have to cover him as a Democrat anymore, because he’s not a Democrat anymore.
Let’s cover Manchin the way he should be covered: as a lame-duck crank heckling from the sidelines.
Source link : https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/joe-biden-kamala-harris-vp-joe-manchin-stop.html
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-23 17:42:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.