Today The Lever held an online show titled "Why is Joe Biden Running for Re-Election?" On it, David Sirota says: "I think when you have a contested primary it shows that that the party knows how to run a campaign." The reason the Democrats, and particularly Bernie Sanders, do not want a contested primary is because they know that Biden does not know how to run a campaign this time around. They, Bernie included, are all perfectly happy with a Republican in the White House in 2025. Sirota also said, "I'm not saying Biden can't win." We should say that.

As for the actual contest, here is what the actual polling looks like:

And Krystal Ball waxes eloquent in comparing the Bernie Sanders who used to be with the one we are left with now. One is reminded by nothing more than Cornelius Castoriadis' assertion about the "complete atrophy of political imagination" which characterizes our era.

As for the other legislators, here's what we've got.

Meanwhile, Paul Krugman is trying to polish up the Biden "economy" with an op-ed in the NYT: Joe Biden and the Not-So-Bad Economy. Here's what Krugman said:

The basic story of the Biden economy is that America has experienced a remarkably fast and essentially complete job market recovery. This recovery was initially accompanied by distressingly high inflation; but inflation, while still high by the standards of the past few decades, has subsided substantially. The overall situation is, well, not so bad.

Krugman continues:

About jobs: Unless you’ve been getting your news from Tucker Carlson or Truth Social, you’re probably aware that the unemployment rate is hovering near historic lows. However, I keep hearing assertions that this number is misleading, because millions of Americans have dropped out of the labor force — which was true a year ago. But it’s not true anymore.

That's not the important fact about the "job market recovery," however. What's important about said "recovery" is that the jobs being offered pay poverty wages and that the jobs situation was exacerbated by the recent bout of inflation, in which wages did not keep pace with prices. Meanwhile, anyone who has to work any of the low-paying jobs which are so plentiful today is living paycheck-to-paycheck thanks to accumulated decades of inflation in education, health care, and mortgage/ rent expenses.

Meanwhile, as Chris Wright points out in a piece in Counterpunch eminently worth reading, blowback from US foreign policy looks to be more powerful than the policy itself:

Given that “the dollar’s dominant position in the global financial system [is] the very foundation of [the U.S.’s] global leadership,” as two experts note, Washington can hardly be viewing all these developments with equanimity. Loss of the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency would have severe consequences for the American economy. But this outcome is exactly the end-goal of Washington’s bellicose policies toward its perceived rivals!

Thanks Joe. Thanks Bernie.

A side-note on those Constitution-loving CPAC groupies: This is from Jeffrey St. Clair: "Last week, Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly trans legislator in Montana, spoke out on floor of the House about the dangers of the state’s anti-trans bill, warning lawmakers they’d have “blood on their hands” if it was passed. In response, the leaders of the House refused to let her speak for three days. Two days later, they voted to censure her and barred her from speaking for the remainder of the session."