‘Presidential Joe’s’ Temperature Test

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” – Auric Goldfinger

Yeah. It’s just coincidence that in four battleground states (Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin), Democratic strongholds had vote counts delayed until nearly all other counties had reported. That all saw huge overnight swings toward Joe Biden that wiped out seemingly insurmountable Donald Trump leads. And that all were associated with irregularities – denying access to Republican observers, extended voting deadlines, workers filling out ballots unsupervised and more.

One state. Surely. Two states? Maybe. Three, four states morphing into Florida 2000? Looks suspiciously like enemy action – a deliberate attempt to manufacture victory for one Joseph R. Biden.

Meanwhile, said beneficiary is being trotted out by handlers to “act presidential” and set the narrative: “Every vote must be counted.” Even potentially conjured-up ones.

And now that his scorched-earth campaign is within reach of ousting the Orange Man Bad, to call for America to “turn down the temperature.” 

Sayeth the man holding the acetylene torch and accelerants.

Who was it who, on the national debate stage, told the president of the United States to “shut up” and called him a “clown?” Who launched his campaign trashing his opponent as having “cloaked America in darkness” and as “a president who … cozies up to dictators, and fans the flames of hate and division?”

Who has called dissenters or questioners “chumps,” “ugly,” “dregs of society,” “damn liar,” “fat,” and “lying dog-face pony soldier,” and, in “deplorables” fashion, alleged that “probably anywhere from 10% to 15%” of Americans “are just not very good people?”

Who has personally accused the president of being “one of the most racist presidents we’ve ever had” and stood by as fellow candidates called him a “white supremacist?” While condescending to questioners of color that they must be on drugs or “not black?” And provocatively extending the charge to 60-plus% of Americans by adopting the “systemic racism” and “knee-on-the-neck” language of the Black Lives Matter movement while all but ignoring the violent extremism of its adherents and fellow travelers?

Who has spent the last half year outrageously hanging blame on Trump alone for every COVID-19 infection and death – not to mention the unemployment, lost insurance and business closures that resulted from the DEF-CON shutdowns lefty pols, public health officials and media types harangued him into and perpetuated?

Who has engaged in shameless class division while sweeping in record campaign cash from America’s wealthiest?

Who, according to contemporaneous notes, was apparently in the thick of the conspiracy to use the national security machinery to take down a legitimately elected president?

Who has castigated “the most corrupt president we’ve had in modern history” (notice a pattern here?) while under the protection of a “hear-no-see-no-speak-no-Biden-evil” media?

And whose cohort, to return whence we commenced, is systematically making a mockery of democratic (small “d”) norms by prestidigitating unprecedented, unlegislated and unconstitutional rules for casting, collecting, counting and apparently creating votes – under cloak of darkness, barriers and blocked windows?

“Presidential” Joe, if you really want to “turn down the temperature” you personally set to sweltering, the thermostat is in your hands.

Here’s a six-part test for just how interested you are in promoting peace and unity in your yet-potential presidency:

1. Will you acknowledge and apologize for your own red-hot rhetoric and unwarranted attacks on the president and his supporters?
2. Will you cool the fires of racial tension by calling on leftist demonstrators not to take to the streets, no matter the election outcome, directing your party members to stop accusing Republicans of discrimination, and denouncing the hateful philosophy of “systemic racism” that labels every white American as racist by birth?
3. Will you admit that the administration in fact went to extraordinary lengths to protect Americans from the coronavirus and support sufferers and responders, put the blame on China where it belongs, and promise to enact or support sanctions for Communist duplicity?
4. Will you desist from divisive class rhetoric and threats to punish hard-working entrepreneurs and investors for enjoying (and sharing) the fruits of their labors?
5. Will you pledge now, should you become president, to allow the ongoing Durham investigation of abuse of national security powers to continue unimpeded, and authorize a full Mueller-style inquiry into your family’s potential corruption? And while you’re at it, pardon or commute the sentences of those abused by the special counsel’s office?
6. Most important, will you earn America’s trust by having your legal team sit down with the president’s and various state election officials to work out terms ensuring full transparency and an end to unlegislated rules changes? Will you fully cooperate with recounts in Wisconsin and Michigan along with investigations of apparent irregularities in those states plus Pennsylvania and Georgia? In short, in “counting every vote” will you ensure that every vote counted is in fact legitimately cast?

“Presidential Joe,” you have stood up and stated, “To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.”

So prove it – by halting, assessing accountability for and atoning for your side’s apparent enemy action against the American people.

Bob Maistros, a messaging and communications strategist and crisis specialist, is of counsel with Strategic Action Public Affairs, and was chief writer for the Reagan-Bush ’84 campaign, three U.S. senators, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.