Seven best reasons—not. Columnist Eric Zorn takes a hatchet to what he considers the strongest arguments for President Biden to stay in the race …
■ … including “If the Democrats replace Biden on the ticket, the party will be riven with internal strife.”
■ A Tribune editorial: Biden’s “killed off any possibility of a graceful exit.”
■ The Conversation: As with Richard Nixon 50 years ago, Biden’s biggest challenges come from within his own party.
■ The party’s No. 2 in the Senate Democratic leadership, Illinois’ Dick Durbin, says he has questions about Biden’s fitness to serve.
■ Columnist Ken Klippenstein: “For a politician whose most salient pitch to voters is not being Donald Trump, Biden is starting to act a lot like him … most perniciously, insisting that he alone can save America from calamity.”
■ Daily Show host Jon Stewart: “‘Get on board or shut the f*** up’ is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker” …
■ … and Stewart advances a radical notion: “Why don’t we try to get all the Democrats together in, say, six weeks’ time? Everyone can fly into a big Midwest town adjacent to important swing states—let’s call it Chicago. And they could spend four days there. … On Thursday, the party emerges energized, unified and sanctified.”
■ Praising Biden’s presidency, Stephen Colbert sounded a lot like someone encouraging his friend to step down: “He’s a good enough president to put the needs of the country ahead of the needs of his ego.”
■ Daily Beast chief content officer Joanna Coles: “I’ve seen Joe Biden up close. Nobody can deny his decline.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “The corporate media wants you panicked and demoralized. Don’t buy into it.”
‘Misogynistic and racist hatred.’ Wired: “The far right is already demonizing Kamala Harris.”
■ The AP: If Biden does step down, Harris is the favorite to replace him.
■ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet dives into Michigan Gov.—and potential presidential candidate—Gretchen Whitmer’s new book, where Whitmer confesses to throwing up on her principal after getting drunk in the high school parking lot.
■ Some of possible Trump running mate and dog-killing South Dakota Gov. Kristie Noem’s social media accounts disappeared yesterday.
■ The Bulwark says another possible Trump veep candidate, J.D. Vance, has a problem: His beard—because Trump hates facial hair … and a Trump adviser confides that “without the beard, Vance looks like he’s 12.”
‘A frightening, authoritarian missive … that aims to dismantle large swaths of the federal government and transform that which remains into a politicized right-wing machine.’ Law Dork Chris Geidner: How Republicans’ Project 2025* would transform the Justice Department.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance (no known relation to J.D.) has compiled an index to all she’s written about Project 2025.
■ Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow envisions how the Constitutional Convention of 1787 really went down: “We need to leave some room in there for a future court to restrict bodily autonomy, voting rights, and intrusive regulations on well-intentioned men of commerce. And gifts from grateful wealthy citizens should be totally legal.”
■ Trump niece Mary L. Trump: “Europe just showed us how it’s done. … Democracy is back from the brink.”
‘The alarming new power Trump will claim in a second term.’ If he retakes the White House, Popular Information’s Judd Legum says, Trump will assert authority to “effectively cancel any federal program—or even an entire agency—by refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress” …
■ … a power last claimed by Nixon …
■ … whose memory Mayor Johnson invoked yesterday as he called for federal help addressing Chicago’s plague of holiday weekend gun violence.
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “Federal authorities should look hard at these shootings. If they can prove they were connected to drugs, robberies or gang crimes, they should use the full weight of their office to prosecute.”
■ Among the dead: An 8-year-old killed on the Fourth of July when gunmen opened fire on his home.
■ Actor, comedian, Chicago native and Columbia College grad Jay Johnston faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to interfering with cops trying to protect the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
CTA + Metra + Pace? A plan to combine the Chicago region’s mass transit fiefdoms into a single agency was scheduled for its first public hearing this morning …
■ … with more to come in the next few months.
‘It is unconscionable.’ A Texas representative condemns a waste-riddled state program that, with abortion practically illegal there, sends millions of taxpayer dollars to “Alternatives to Abortion” organizations.
■ The American Prospect: A South Dakota abortion ballot measure would reverse a draconian ban on abortions—but also leave room for legislative meddling.
■ Columnist and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Three Republican women “stood up to the misogynistic abortion law that South Carolina tried to pass and they were rewarded for their courage by being booted from office.”
Boeing, guilty? The company’s tentatively agreed to cop to a fraud charge in connection with government approval of its fatally flawed 737 Max jets.
■ Y’know those claims that Google’s carbon-neutral? Fuggedaboutit.
■ What’s left of Hurricane Beryl is headed this way.
‘He’s more than qualified to do the work, but I’m not sure he’s qualified to run.’ Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square triggered a burst of response from readers including Rosemary Caruk: “It is because President Biden championed Justice Thomas and dismissed Anita Hill’s claims that Justice Thomas is on the Supreme Court. … Biden redeemed himself many times over since then … but this is an opportunity for him to put the fate of our democracy first and seriously consider stepping aside.”
■ Scott Watson: “I appreciated the piece from Robert Reich … and I don’t normally agree with him. … Thanks for putting balance in my media intake.”
■ Ed Sackley: “105 gunshot victims—including 19 deaths—were buried four sections down. Only a handful of those who died were named. … Are we so numbed to shootings not tied to cops that they’ve disappeared from conversation in the Chicago Public Square?”
■ And, while not a letter to Square, Chicago TV news veteran Jennifer Schulze takes issue with the most-tapped item in yesterday’s edition, stats guru Nate Silver’s rebuttal to her complaint that The New York Times has filed a “staggering” number of reports on Biden’s age.
‘America’s ballsiest MSM e-mail newsletter.’ That title was bestowed 15 years ago this week on Chicago Public Square’s predecessor, Tribune Daywatch—helmed at the time by your Square columnist.
■ And who keeps Square rolling? Those who pitch in some cash to cover the cost of producing this service—people such as Steve Ignots, Ila Lewis, Andrew Nord, Liz Meisterling, Janet Holden, William Wheelhouse, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, Donna Peel, Lawrence Weiland, Ann James, Stephen Brenner, Ronald Melody, Mike Cramer, MJ Garnier, Phil Grinstead, Diane Scott, Cynthia Farenga, Joseph Pesz, Kathy Wyman and Doug Waco, Helen Marshall, Kevin Iverson, Martin Berg, Brian Rohr, Zarine Weil, Neela Marnell, Al Hoyt, David Mendell, Gregg Runburg, Gail Frost, Christopher Comes, Dale Epton, Maureen Kennedy, Joseph Sjostrom, Melanie Minnix, Suzanne Vestuto, Jennifer McGuire, Kevin Tynan, Gil Arias, Stephanie Springsteen and Paul Noble.
■ Join their ranks for any amount—even just $1, once—and see your name in this space tomorrow.
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* One of whose architects, Russ Vought, believe it or not, shares a name with the evil, multinational corporation at the heart of the dystopian Prime drama The Boys.