This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
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Biden faces battle with Democratic base over Israel, Ukraine, border
President Biden is facing a fight with his base over an emergency foreign aid spending package that may reach the Senate floor this week.
The package, which would provide aid to Israel and Ukraine but include tough border security measures in order to win over Republicans, could add to his problems generating enthusiasm among Democratic voters.
Young Democrats in particular are increasingly disaffected with Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, complicating his ability to connect with a key demographic that views the president’s age as a red flag.
Now Biden also faces blowback from Latino and progressive voters about the border security deal. It reportedly would give the president broader authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings or detain them at the border.
Biden’s readiness to embrace a deal appears to be part of a calculation that he needs to appeal more to moderate and independent voters to win reelection, given the persistent skepticism among many younger progressives about a second Biden term.
It could also simply be the price for winning support for Ukraine, now that border measures have been tied to funding for Kiev.
Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential and vice-presidential campaigns, warned that Biden can expect blowback from his base.
“It will, in the short term, undoubtedly result in some people being very upset. That’s part of what these compromises are about,” he said.
But he also cast it as something that could help Biden long-term.
“I do think that if somehow he and his team can pull off some kind of comprehensive deal which would provide funding for Ukraine and to an extent for Israel, as well as deal with what is perceived to be a very difficult situation at the border, I think it will be a big win for the president,” Devine said.
He also said the reality is that Biden has to deal with “a radicalized Republican Party” given the GOP’s control of the House.
“Yes, I think there will be blowback, but will that extend all the way until next November? I don’t think it will,” Devine said.
Biden is getting stronger pushback from Democrats in Congress as negotiators close in on a border security deal.
“My message to [the president] is clear: We cannot cave to Republicans’ demands for ineffective and cruel Trump-era immigration policies as a ‘price to be paid’ for aid to our allies,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who is emerging as a leading advocate for immigrants’ rights in Congress, warned Friday.
Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, said Biden appears to be making more of a play for centrist and swing voters to make up for his weak numbers with Democratic voters.
“He feels that there aren’t enough voters among Latinos for an open border policy,” he said of the president.
Biden may calculate that the prospect of Trump returning to the White House will establish a floor for his support among Democratic voters, Baker added.
“One of the basic assumptions is he can never alienate the left enough to cause them to desert him in the face of a challenge from Trump,” Baker said.
Many Democratic lawmakers and strategists think Democratic voters will rally around Biden if former President Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination, as polls forecast.
But the persistent lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters for a second Biden term — especially young voters — has become a top concern within the party.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released last month showed Biden virtually tied with Trump among voters younger than 30, with 30 percent supporting the president and 29 percent favoring Trump.
It’s a dramatic drop compared to the 2020 election, when Biden carried 60 percent of voters under 30.
An NBC poll released last month found that 70 percent of voters aged 18-34 disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.
And a Quinnipiac poll from last month showed 41 percent of Democratic voters said their sympathies lie with Palestinians, while 34 percent said they were more sympathetic toward Israelis.
Growing concerns among Democratic voters over the carnage in Gaza has bubbled up among Democrats in Congress.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Biden this past week to cut $10.1 million in military aid to Israel, arguing the destruction in Gaza has surpassed the U.S. firebombing of Dresden and Japanese cities in World War II.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) shared a New York Times op-ed on the social media platform X urging the United States to change course on Gaza.
He urged his Senate colleagues to read it and “work to protect and prevent innocent lives from being lost.”
Biden’s poor ratings on the war come on top of concerns that younger Democratic voters have about his broader handling of the economy and his age.
A Wall Street Journal poll published last week revealed that less than a third of voters under the age of 35 think the economy is doing well. It also showed Biden underperforming with young voters and Black and Latino voters.
A CNN poll conducted in late August showed that two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters wanted a nominee other than Biden. About half of the Democrats surveyed said Biden’s age was their biggest concern.
A senior Senate Republican aid speculated that Biden’s weak support from Democratic base voters was a major factor behind the president’s reluctance to engage with Republicans in serious negotiations over border security until last week.
GOP senators say Biden’s team came to the table so late that it will be impossible to get the emergency aid package passed through both the Senate and House until next year.
The bright side for Biden is that signing a bill that provides billions in new military aid to Israel and cracks down on the flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border could help vulnerable senators up for reelection in Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Devine, the Democratic strategist, said a deal on Ukraine and Israel funding and border security reform will help Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.).
“It’s important in those states and races,” he said. “This is not going to be about winning in base Democratic states, it’s going to be about winning in swing states.”
Biden faces battle with Democratic base over Israel, Ukraine, border
President Biden is facing a fight with his base over an emergency foreign aid spending package that may reach the Senate floor this week. The package, which would provide aid to Israel and Ukraine&…
thehill.com
"On the left bank of the region of #Kherson , Border Guard units destroyed a Russian self-propelled gun, a truck and a unit of special equipment with targeted launches."
"A Russian attack, repelled by the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, resulted in the destruction of 3 Russian tanks and 2 BMPs destroyed and one damaged."
Bernie’s ignorant. Big surprise.
The firestorm created in the initial raid now reached a fury of devastation that beggars the imagination. Historian Donald Miller writes vividly of the hell unleashed: “People’s shoes melted into the hot asphalt of the streets, and the fire moved so swiftly that many were reduced to atoms before they had time to remove their shoes. The fire melted iron and steel, turned stone into powder, and caused trees to explode from the heat of their own resin. People running from the fire could feel its heat through their backs, burning their lungs.” Miller also points out a forgotten fact, that 70 percent of the victims actually suffocated from carbon monoxide discharged by combustion.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/apocalypse-dresden-february-1945
Among American troops in World War 1, disease deaths were higher than combat deaths, 63,000 to 51,000
Those look like they are straight from Santa's Workshop...
Nice. the Su-34 is a top of the line jet. Well, by Russian standards, anyway. Every lost air frame is important.
Maybe this has already been posted but if it hasn't and you have time it's insightful to the lives these warriors are living. There are some blurred injuries but beyond that i don't think there's anything too egregiously gruesome.
US Senate will not finish Ukraine, border deal this year
Russia-Ukraine live updates: Zelenskyy says Ukraine army has asked for up to 500,000 more people to be mobilized; foreign aid wobbles
Russia launched its fifth air attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv this month, Ukrainian officials said, reporting that Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 18 of the 19 Russian drones launched at the city as well as Odesa, Kherson and other regions.Ukraine’s military is asking for an additional 450,000 to 500,000 people to be mobilized, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told media in a wide-ranging press conference, though he added the decision was not final.
The development comes as Kyiv struggles to obtain approval for aid packages from the U.S. and EU and as its troops continue to face heavy fighting amid a bitterly cold winter.
Elsewhere, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing, where the two discussed bilateral trade and praised their continued relations.
Russia-Ukraine live updates: Zelenskyy says Ukraine army has asked for up to 500,000 more people to be mobilized; foreign aid wobbles
Kyiv is struggling to obtain approval for aid packages from the U.S. and EU as its troops continue to face heavy fighting in harsh winter conditions.
"(We) know where the Russian army is hiding , they hide from artillery and tanks, but certainly cannot escape FPV #Ukraine"
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Republicans just continue to spout crap to stay in the headlines and keep DJT appeased.
Really disgusting.
Speaking of ‘headlines’, interesting journalistic decision at Washington Post:
"It's over" - comments investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg after noticing that The Washington Post quietly deleted a prominent tab from its Masthead.
What was a long featured "War in Ukraine" tab, which had been there from the start of the war going back to Feb. 2022 has disappeared...
I blame us Libs for that one. We could have taken that seat, but pissed it away.
Orange Jesus is putting out the word that he'll go after anyone who approves aid to Ukraine. Ukraine must be punished for defying him.
