Republicans Suffer Severe Outbreak of BDS

We suspect most readers are not familiar with BDS. That may be because we just made it up. It stands for "Biden Derangement Syndrome." Presumably, readers ARE familiar with "Trump Derangement Syndrome." This is the dubious claim that some/many non-MAGA people are hypercritical of Donald Trump, not because he is guilty of some sort of wrongdoing, but because the TDS "sufferers" are afflicted with some sort of mental dysfunction.

We find ourselves, for the third time in as many weeks, deploying the old chestnut "in every accusation, there is a confession." We suppose it is possible that some people who are anti-Trump take the matter to extremes, and become obsessed with silly things. Although we kind of doubt it, if only because he offers up so very many real things to be concerned and angry about. You don't need to tell lies about his birth certificate, or his alleged dealings with Ukraine, when he's fomenting insurrection outside the capitol building, committing sexual assault, stealing classified documents, trying to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar, etc.

On the other hand, at least from where we sit, today's right-wing politicians and media are absolute Zen masters when it comes to making mountains out of molehills, as they desperately try to slur their political opponents. We have already taken the view that the book about Joe Biden's alleged decline, and the alleged coverup by his staff, is a basically worthless exercise. He's not in office anymore, he's not going to be in office ever again, and even if he was being protected by White House insiders, those people are no longer in the White House. The Jake Tapper book might have been useful a year ago, but Elvis has long ago left the building.

In other words, we just cannot see what useful result is going to be gained by carping about the subject. If this could possibly be the impetus for some sort of reform, like a constitutional amendment requiring presidents to take a yearly fitness test, then maybe. But we all know that's not going to happen, especially while Donald Trump, who is plenty doddering himself, is in office. The only purposes being served, as far as we can see, are: (1) selling books, mostly to right-wingers who just love hit jobs against Democrats, and (2) scoring cheap political points.

And in the last 36 hours or so, once Biden revealed his cancer diagnosis, it got even worse, and more ugly. Truth be told, it's so unbelievably inhumane and depressing, it was difficult to summon up the energy to write this item. Taking the lead was J.D. Vance, who really could use a punch in the face, or two, or two hundred (if that is deemed to be a threat against the VP's life, the FBI can find us in the guest room at James Comey's place). Here is what Vance said to reporters after being asked about Biden's diagnosis:

Look, I mean, first of all, of course, we wish the best for the former president's health. It sounds pretty serious, but hopefully he makes the right recovery. Whether the right time to have this conversation is now or some point in the future, we really need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job. And that's no, you can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with the recognition that whether it was doctors or whether it was staffers around the former president, I don't think he was able to do a good job for the American people. That's not politics, that's not because I disagreed with him on policy. That's because I don't think he was in good enough health.

In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him. Why didn't the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn't the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with? This is serious stuff. This is the guy that carries around the nuclear football for the world's largest nuclear arsenal. This is not child's play. And we can pray for good health, but also recognize that if you're not in good enough health to do the job, then you shouldn't be doing the job.

Let us point out, yet again, that Biden is NOT doing the job. He is out of office. If you believe there is a serious issue here, or if you believe Vance is offering a substantive critique, then you must come up with an answer to this question: What does Vance want? Does he want people to be prosecuted? Does he want Biden to be banned from serving as president again? Does he want Biden's doctors to lose their licenses? We don't think he actually has an answer to that question.

Initially, as we were mentally outlining this item, we intended to make the observation that even Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who are two of the most classless people ever to serve in federal office, were courteous enough to offer best wishes and to shut their yaps, making Vance look extra bad. And while Vance does look very bad here—he's being described as "evil," "unchristian" and "ghoulish" all over social media—the decency from other Republicans just couldn't last. And so, Trump, et al., also started piling on Biden yesterday afternoon.

There are, in effect, three different conspiracy theories already circulating in the right-wing-osphere, and being amplified by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Karl Rove and countless others, with Fox, OAN and Newsmax also getting in on the action. Here they are:

1. It's a Cover-Up, Part II: Yesterday, oncologist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel—brother of politician Rahm and of super-agent Ari—went on Morning Joe to do a little armchair doctoring. He said that Joe Biden has likely had the cancer for years, and that he is surprised that it wasn't caught much earlier, since it's the kind of thing that probably would have been caught with the standard screenings.
   
   Almost instantaneously, Trump and other Republicans glommed onto this, and concluded that not only was the Biden White House hiding the President's dementia, they were also hiding his cancer. So, the evils of Team Joe just doubled in magnitude. Or maybe these things are geometric, and they quadrupled.
   
   We're going to point out a few things here. First, while Dr. Emanuel is reasonably close to the Biden administration, having served on a couple of advisory panels, he was not a part of Biden's care team, and has not examined the patient or his records. So, he's speaking out of turn here. Further, he is undoubtedly right that Biden's cancer did not start yesterday, and that it's been within him for some lengthy period of time. That is how cancer works. However, it is not prima facie evidence that Biden and his family knew of his condition back in 2023, or 2022, or earlier. Lots of people have cancer without knowing it.
   
   Finally, even if Biden did know, the fact is that no president ever admits to having cancer (or any other serious health problem, generally speaking). The only example of a president fessing up that we can think of is Dwight D. Eisenhower, who admitted to having a heart attack, in large part because that's not so easy to hide (yes, FDR too, but we're talking about issues that emerged while the person was in office). Ronald Reagan hid his cognitive issues, Lyndon B. Johnson hid his serious heart disease, John F. Kennedy hid his Addison's disease, Calvin Coolidge hid his depression, Woodrow Wilson hid his stroke, Grover Cleveland hid his cancer, etc. It may not be ideal, but that's the way it is. If Trump develops (or already has) some serious health condition, he's not going to admit it, either.
   
   
2. It's a PR Move: This is not necessarily contradictory to conspiracy theory #1, but there is much scuttlebutt on the right (and some on the left) that Biden deliberately waited until Sunday to reveal the news, so as to cut the Tapper book off at the knees.
   
   Maybe it's sorta true. If Biden was going to announce anyhow, might as well try to choose the most fortuitous timing. However, some of the folks in this camp assert that he doesn't really have cancer at all, and that he's going to magically recover in a few months, once the book is forgotten. That's just vile.
   
   
3. It's a Legal Trick: This one is not only vile, it's insane. Some right-wingers are circulating the theory that Biden is not only cancer-free, but that he's dying from brain disease. The cancer story is ostensibly "cover" so that when Biden dies from cognitive issues, his actions as president won't be challenged in court on the basis that he was not competent. All we can say here is: "That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works."

We say again that we do not believe, for one minute, that there is any serious public policy dimension to the faux concern of J.D. Vance and others. It is all good and well to say that, for example, the U.S. should have done a better job of watching the perimeter of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. But if you don't use that to try to make some positive change going forward, then it's just blather.

What we will do now is try to imagine there's some potential political benefit to all of this. This is not such an easy question to answer, because: (1) Biden's political career is over, and (2) the next federal elections are 1½ and 3½ years away. We've (reluctantly) spent the day thinking about it, and here are four possible theories:

1. BDS: If there is anyone who is suffering from a chronic case of Biden Derangement Syndrome, it's Donald Trump, who hates his predecessor with the white-hot heat of a thousand suns. So, maybe this is all performative, for his benefit, and when someone like Vance or Jackson takes a potshot at Biden, they are really just bowing before the throne.
   
   
2. Preemptive Strike: Donald Trump's mental state does not appear to be all that solid either, and it figures to get worse. It could be that bleating about Biden's mental state is meant to inure Trump against similar kinds of criticism.
   
   
3. A Distraction: Right now, House Republicans are trying desperately to move the "big, beautiful" budget bill as fast as they can, because they want to get a vote in the bank before the blowback begins. There is all kinds of stuff in the current version that will be very unpopular with voters, and the more time voters have to learn about that, and the more time they have to give their representatives an earful, the more likely there will be defections. The more oxygen that Biden news and conspiracy theorizing suck up, the less oxygen there is for what's in the budget bill.
   
   
4. Laying the Groundwork: Republicans have adopted a very clear strategy in presidential elections of picking a (perceived) Achilles heel of the Democratic nominee, and then hammering on it endlessly, sometimes for years, or even decades. There was Bill Clinton's "slickness," Al Gore's inventing the Internet, John Kerry's flip-flopping, Barack Obama's birth certificate, Hillary Clinton's e-mails, and Joe Biden's hair-sniffing (which fizzled, and so was replaced by Biden's dementia).
   
   If Republicans imagine that the Democratic nominee in 2028 will be someone who was a Biden insider, most obviously if they think it's going to be Kamala Harris, then they could be laying the groundwork for the latest of those propaganda campaigns, eventually evolving into something like "Do you really want to vote for Kamala 'Cover Up' Harris'?
   
   If this is indeed the thinking, note that this approach has a mixed record. Sure, it brought down Kerry, and probably Hillary Clinton as well. But not so much for Obama or Biden. And there's a real possibility of a repeat of 2024, where the Republicans spent all kinds of time laying the groundwork for one line of attack, only to have it go counterfeit when Biden dropped out. If they go all-in on "the cover up," and the Democratic nominee ends up being, say, one of the governors (Andy Beshear of Kentucky, or Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, or Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, for example) then they will have wasted a lot of time and energy.

Please don't think we're sanewashing here. We're just trying to figure out how anyone, particularly someone who wears their "Christianity" on their sleeves, the way Trump and Vance both do, could possibly respond to a very possibly fatal cancer diagnosis with anything other than sympathy and best wishes. Even if you don't really mean it, have the decency to keep that to yourself, and don't try to score points off of someone else's suffering.

And finally, note that while we think the above theories probably have some merit, we have not yet revealed what we think the dominant dynamic is. It's not profound, but we think that the great majority of MAGA types live in a right-wing bubble that feeds upon itself, and that demands that Trump/MAGA win EVERY news cycle at all costs. We suspect that Trump, Vance, etc., as they perform their chest-thumping silverback act for the other MAGA types, have little awareness of how very bad they look to, oh, say, 60% of the country. It's one thing to carp about current policy debates, or even current officeholders. But Biden is an 82-year-old private citizen who is currently confronting his mortality, and is bracing for the battle of his life, which he might well lose. Leave the man alone; to do otherwise is utterly reprehensible. (Z)

Legal News: The Latest on the Various Immigration Cases

The Trump administration has triggered so many legal cases related to its immigration policy that it can be hard to keep track of it all. Here's a roundup of some of the latest major developments:

ICE Arrests of Public Officials

As most readers are aware, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on May 9, outside an ICE detention center, and later charged with one count of trespassing. He and three lawmakers, Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez, all Democrats from New Jersey, visited the Delaney Hall facility to inspect it (federal elected officials have legal authority to inspect detention facilities without advance notice) and also to, once again, issue citations for violating local zoning and planning laws. ICE agents at the facility allowed all of them to enter inside the gates, but as they were waiting to be given access inside the facility itself, agents asked Baraka to leave and remain outside the gates. It is undisputed that he left promptly when he was asked to. He stepped outside the gate and stood on the sidewalk with a group of protesters. The three members of Congress joined him on the public sidewalk. That is when several ICE agents, some masked, came out of the gate onto the sidewalk and confronted them. They pushed and shoved the female representatives and arrested Baraka. He was held at the detention facility for several hours before being released. He was later charged with one count of trespassing. After his arrest, the members of Congress were given a tour of the facility and spoke to some of the detainees, which undercuts DHS' claim that they "stormed" the facility. Even people Donald Trump hires know enough not to give a guided tour to someone who just broke into the place.

Trespassing is a misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum punishment of up to 30 days in prison and a fine of $500. In New Jersey, criminal trespass requires entering or remaining in a structure, knowing you have no right to do so. A defense to such a charge is the reasonable belief that they were permitted to enter, like, say, when ICE opened the gate and let them in. Last week was the first status conference before a magistrate judge, during which Baraka requested a preliminary hearing where the prosecutor will have to present their evidence that there is probable cause to move forward. The problem is, there is no such evidence. And so, in a move that should surprise no one, the charges were dropped on Monday night. Presumably, they got the headlines they wanted with the arrest, but when it actually came time to put up the evidence, they said, "Just kidding!"

That said, the Trump administration is not quite done with this little performance piece, because after dropping the charges against Baraka, they announced they were filing charges of assault and obstruction of law enforcement against LaMonica McIver. One wonders how they're going to explain the subsequent tour they gave her and the other officials after she supposedly assaulted an officer? Guess they don't have to concern themselves with those pesky legal facts when they're just trying to make a splash to distract from the frivolous charges against Mayor Baraka. After they're forced to drop these charges, then maybe they will cover that up by filing charges against Bonnie Watson Coleman. Rinse and repeat.

Interestingly, it was just last Friday that "Attorney General" Pam Bondi proposed eliminating the requirement for the Public Integrity Unit to sign off on any indictments of public officials, which serves as a check on politically-motivated prosecutions. No doubt the timing is just a coincidence.

Potential Liability of ICE Officers

The scene outside the Delaney Hall ICE facility was scary to watch, as are the other videos of ICE arrests, including one showing agents shoving a 16-year old girl to the ground before handcuffing her on the street in front of her house as neighbors frantically tried to protect her. In engaging in these types of arrests, while wearing masks to hide their identity and putting the public's safety at risk, these agents are putting themselves at risk of personal and professional liability. They can be held liable for excessive force, civil rights violations, and any dangerous situations that result in harm to members of the public. In addition, DHS regulations require ICE agents to identify themselves before they can detain anyone. The Library of Congress, before it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc. put out a very helpful primer on the limits of ICE authority.

The bottom line is these officers will most likely get sued and will probably be hit with substantial damages claims.

Charges Against Judge Hannah Dugan

Wisconsin Superior Court judge Hannah Dugan pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest. Prosecutors claim that she helped a defendant avoid arrest at the courthouse by letting him and his attorney leave by a door close to her chambers. The defendant was arrested outside the courthouse.

In his first term, Donald Trump had a judge arrested on similar charges, which were later dropped. On Wednesday, Dugan's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that she is immune from prosecution because her actions were "official acts" for which she cannot be held liable under the Supreme Court's holding in Trump v. U.S.. Wouldn't that be the height of irony: The decision that gets Trump off the hook also thwarts his intimidation campaign and revenge tour.

John Yoo Weighs In

In a sign of just how extreme the Trump administration's actions are, conservative lawyer John Yoo, author of the infamous torture memo from the halcyon days of the George W. Bush administration, says the administration has gone too far. When the guy who says waterboarding isn't torture and who found novel ways for W. to evade the Geneva convention by ramping up the use of black sites thinks you've gone off the rails, it may be time to recalibrate your meds. In an interview with NPR, Yoo said there is no justification for Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act and that Congress has not ratified the action as required, nor have the courts. He said that the attacks on 9/11 were widely recognized as an act of war and Congress specifically authorized the use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain people involved in that attack. But Yoo emphasized that even then, anyone detained in the U.S. was entitled to, and was given, due process. Only those captured in Afghanistan or on foreign soil could be held without due process. In light of the recently declassified intelligence community memo that Tren de Aragua is not an arm of the Venezuelan government and that the U.S. has not been "invaded" by Venezuela, there is no basis to invoke the AEA in the first place.

Oh, and about Miller's briliant idea to suspend habeas corpus? Yoo says that would be grounds for impeachment.

This item is not exhaustive, by any means. We expect to have more on these subjects tomorrow. (L)

Walmart, by the Numbers

We have several other stories to write about, but this posting is already pretty long, and the first item was pretty soul-crushing, so we're going to hold those until tomorrow.

However, we did have an item yesterday about Walmart, and how Donald Trump's demand that the company "eat" the tariffs is absurd. Reader M.M. in Bloomington, IL, wrote in with some numbers that put a finer point on that, and we thought it would be good to share as a follow-up. So, take it away, M.M.:

What if Walmart "ate" the 30% Trump tariff on goods produced in China? Some numbers about the Walmart business, publicly available:

• $463 billion: Walmart's average Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a year
• 60%: The percentage of Walmart's COGS that are produced in China in a year

This suggests:

• $277.8 billion: the total estimated cost to Walmart for Chinese imports (now subject to a 30% Trump tariff)
• $83.34 billion: Additional new COGS attributed to the tariff, to be paid by the importer of record as it is received into the U.S. This is the potential gross ADDED cost to receive Chinese-produced goods into the U.S. that the President is asking Walmart (and its suppliers) to "eat."
• $16.3 billion: Walmart's net income in 2024.
• $67 billion: LOSS to Walmart if it were to eat/absorb the full cost of the 30% tariff (and don't forget that, for some period of time, there was a 145% tariff).

And finally:

• 4,600: Number of Walmart stores in the U.S.
• 1.6 million: Number of people employed by Walmart in the U.S. (it is the largest private employer in the country)

Published market information suggests that Walmart represents 7.3% of all U.S. retail sales in a year (21% of grocery items). Walmart, of course, is not the only retailer that sells goods produced in China. It's safe to assume that Walmart's import statistics are not that terribly different from every retailer in the US that offers similar products.

Thanks, M.M.!

This underscores that if Trump sticks with his trade war, he's going to have a real "Walmart problem," for lack of a better term. The tariffs are going to hit people in the wallets, particularly his supporters, and they are going to know exactly who is responsible. Not great for someone who campaigned on bringing down the cost of eggs. (Z)

Democratic Presidential Candidate of the Week, #34: Mitch Landrieu

The beat goes on. Here are the half-dozen potential Democratic presidential candidates we've profiled so far:

40. Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ)
41. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
42. Al Franken
43. Jon Tester
44. Jon Stewart
45. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

And now, Mitch Landrieu, this is your life.

• Full Name: Mitchell Joseph Landrieu
  
  
• Age on January 20, 2029: 68
  
  
• Background: Landrieu has deep roots in his hometown of New Orleans, as he was born there, and so too were his parents and grandparents. Sometimes, white folks whose families have been in the South since the mid-to-late 19th century are the descendants of literal carpetbaggers, but that is not the case here. Several of Landrieu's great-great grandparents came to Louisiana from Sicily, while another, whose name is not known, for obvious reasons, was enslaved.
  
  "Louisiana born and bred, mostly Sicilian ancestors" is another way of saying "Catholic," and Landrieu certainly is. Indeed, he can thank the Church for his entire education, as he went to several Catholic elementary and middle schools, then Jesuit High School in New Orleans, then The Catholic University for his B.A. in political science and theater, and then Loyola University of New Orleans for his J.D. That's something like 19 years at Catholic educational institutions. Can you imagine how much guilt Landrieu felt by the time he was done with school?
  
  Initially, Landrieu planned to become a Broadway actor (hence the theater degree). However, his father saw one of his auditions and said: "Boy, I love you but you need something to fall back on." And that's what led to law school. Once he had his J.D. in hand, Landrieu spent his twenties and thirties in the practice of law. Well, sort of. He quickly came to recognize that he had a talent for mediation, and so became an in-demand, and well-paid, arbitrator, leading the firm International Mediation and Arbitration, which he founded. One can imagine Landrieu having more luck with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy than... some people, let's say.
  
  
• Political Experience: Massachusetts has the Kennedys, California has the Browns, Wisconsin has the La Follettes, Pennsylvania has the Muhlenbergs, and Louisiana has the Landrieus. Given that he was seemingly born to be a politician, as the son of New Orleans mayor/HUD secretary Moon Landrieu, and the brother of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, it's not surprising that he entered the arena at a young age. Keep in mind that "member of the legislature" is a VERY part-time job in most of the South. Landrieu was first elected to the Louisiana house at the age of 28, spending 16 years there, while in the midst of his work as a mediator. He earned a reputation as an outspoken lefty populist, and often did battle with the famously corrupt governor Edwin Edwards, despite their being members of the same political party.
  
  Landrieu finally became a full-time politician in 2004, when he was elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana. Louisiana is one of those states that elects governors and lieutenant governors separately, and so Landrieu spent the first half of his 8 years in the number two slot serving alongside Democrat Kathleen Blanco, and the second half serving alongside Republican Bobby Jindal. The two men did not get along, to say the least, and because Mary Landrieu was already in the U.S. Senate by then, the Landrieu siblings would often tag-team the Governor with their criticism.
  
  It is not especially common to move from statewide office to a mayoralty; usually the movement is in the opposite direction. That said, the dynastic Jerry Brown did it. And so did Landrieu, taking over as mayor of New Orleans in 2010. The city was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina at that time, and by all accounts, he did his job well, even being voted the best mayor in America in a survey of... well, America's mayors. He also tore down four Lost Cause-y statues, honoring Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard and the Battle of Liberty Place, which was an 1874 white supremacist rebellion against Reconstruction. Many sources say that one of the statues was of Stonewall Jackson, but those folks are confusing New Orleans with Richmond, VA. For his efforts to get rid of the statues, despite much blowback from both sides of the aisle, Landrieu received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Not long thereafter, he wrote a bestselling book about the matter, entitled In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History.
  
  Landrieu has toyed with runs for other political offices, but since leaving the mayoralty of New Orleans, he's held no elective posts. He did serve as a key advisor to Joe Biden, working in particular on infrastructure, and then helping lead Biden's ultimately abortive 2024 presidential campaign.
  
  
• Signature Issue(s): Equality. That's very broad, we know, but Landrieu's career has been focused, in roughly equal measure, on combating class disparity and racial disparity.
  
  
• What Would His Pitch Be?: "I can rebuild the Obama-Biden coalition."
  
  
• Instructive Quote: "The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered."
  
  
• Completely Trivial Fact: If anyone ever does a movie about Landrieu's life, he wants to be played by... Denzel Washington.
  
  
• Recent News: Landrieu is currently on a 21-city "listening tour," with an eye toward understanding the concerns of working-class Americans. This, of course, is exactly what politicians do when they are thinking about a presidential bid.
  
  
• Strengths for the Democratic Primaries: (1) He is a white guy who is popular with Black voters (like Joe Biden); (2) It's not just an act, he really does connect with working-class voters; (3) He's a Southerner, and Southern states dominate Super Tuesday.
  
  
• Weaknesses for the Democratic Primaries: (1) He is part of a generation of politicians whose time appears to be past, and in a party where voters appear to want younger and more dynamic candidates; (2) He may be too close to Joe Biden, particularly if this "Biden health cover-up" business (see above) has legs; (3) Outside of Louisiana, Landrieu is virtually unknown to Democrats under the age of 60.
  
  
• Polls: Anyone polling the presidential race is not asking about Mitch Landrieu. And he didn't even make the cut for YouGov's ongoing tracker of "America's 400 Most Popular Politicians." That's not good, since many of the people who DID make the cut are either long retired from politics or are dead (e.g., Gray Davis, Michael Dukakis, Donald Rumsfeld, Anthony Weiner, Sam Brownback, Herman Cain, etc.).
  
  
• How Does the Readership Feel?: We asked readers for their thoughts on Landrieu running for president; here are some of those responses:
  
  
  • K.F. in Madrid, Spain: While Mitch Landrieu would indeed be among the "safe white guys" in a Democratic primary field, he brings far more to the table than many may realize.
    
    First, he is not just a white male, but a white Southerner. As mayor of New Orleans, he courageously countenanced the intersectional issues of race and the vestiges that remained from the Civil War, eventually removing several statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate symbols. I highly recommend his book on this topic, "In The Shadow of Statues". After he removed the statues, he delivered a passionate speech outlining the reasons for his actions by including a lot of historical and cultural context. He helps people see things through a different lens by walking in their shoes and he shows how no matter where we come from, we all have some shared hopes, dreams, fears, and struggles.
    
    Landrieu is a gifted speaker, very smart, not too old, and he does have executive experience, as mayor, lieutenant governor, and as the infrastructure czar under Joe Biden. That already makes him more qualified than most of this current administration combined.
    
    Downsides include low name recognition, his association with the Biden administration (though in 2028 people may be nostalgic for those more normal times again), and he may be perceived as too moderate for some and too "woke" for others. But a moderate white Southern Democrat has been a winning formula before, (see Clinton, Bill, and Carter, Jimmy), so why not? Pair him with a Midwesterner like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and that could be a strong ticket.
    
    Fun fact: Landrieu has a background in musical theater.
    
    
  • A.G. in Scranton, PA: Well, he's a white male, and it would seem most American voters like those.
    
    His head kinda looks like an egg. If it's not an expensive one, most American voters like those.
    
    He's apparently a straight man. That's something most American voters seem to like, oddly enough, even most "straight" male voters. If I had to listen to, look at, and follow someone, I'd probably want that to be a woman, but I guess straight guys can like looking at, listening to, and following powerful guys for 4-8 years, right?
    
    He's from Louisiana. Most American voters believe Louisiana is a bunch of over-privileged, bratty college-aged white girls who wish Girls Gone Wild was still filming so they could piss off their fathers by flashing the camera and making out with their roommates in the 10% of New Orleans that white people cared enough about to fix, a place filled with racist cops, administered by the most corrupt government on the planet.
    
    Most American voters love college-aged girls who flash the camera, don't give a crap if innocent people are executed, and are happy they don't have to live in that French sewer we actually bought... without getting a goddamned receipt so we could goddamn well return it.
    
    Me? Yes, college-aged girls who flash the camera are fine, as are those who make out with their roommates, and I would definitely support them for president if it would piss off their fathers.
    
    That was the question, right?
    
    Seriously, Mitch Landwho?
    
    
  • J.C. in Honolulu, HI: When I think of Mitch Landrieu I think of Vice President Al Gore. Gore could not even win his home state of Tennessee in 2000. Never a good sign if you cannot win your home state. Landrieu will not win Louisiana. His sister even lost re-election to the U.S. Senate.
    
    Maybe a vice-presidential contender in 2028 but not president.
    
    
  • J.B. in Bend, OR: Mitch and I were law clerks at the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1985. I can tell you from direct experience that he has a sincere and engaging personality. He is also very politically astute, coming from a multi-generational political family. He was twice elected mayor of New Orleans with majorities of Black and white voters and would make a formidable presidential candidate. I think his biggest problem is that he is from Louisiana, which is not exactly "the mother of Presidents" territory.
    
    Fun fact: the Star Trek Original Series episode "The Return of the Archons" was almost certainly inspired by New Orleans Mardi Gras and the mayoral administration of his father, Moon Landrieu.
    
    
  • A.B. in Davidson, NC: Mitch had some role in the removal of Confederate statues, but isn't that well known. He doesn't seem like a fighter either, from first glance. More the pragmatic liberal with some administrative experience. Going from mayor to president is a hell of a leap even if you're politically gifted, and he has a larger problem if he tries to run.
    
    He occupies a lot of the same lane that Pete Buttigieg would run in and Pete is a lot more well known.
    
    
  • A.J. in Moorhead, MN: I had to Google this guy, which is the first one of the six so far, which means my entire comment (and the biggest strike against) can be summarized as: "who?"
    
    
  • F.B. in Des Moines, IA: We don't need any more people named "Mitch" in Washington anytime soon.
  
  
• The Bottom Line: We just can't see it happening. He's a candidate for a Cabinet post in the next Democratic administration, maybe, but not for president.

Next week, it's #33, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). If readers have comments about Ossoff running for president in 2028, please send them to comments@electoral-vote.com.

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---The Votemaster and Zenger