We'll Start the War From Right Here*

Thursday was Bad. It's a New Day, a New Week, a New Month

Let this be our foundational principle.

Anyone who tells you Thursday night’s Presidential Debate wasn’t that bad is smoking something or selling something. It was rough. President Biden came in tired and ill-prepared and it cost him. Donald Trump came in prepared, which is to say, he lied about everything (and once again got away with it.)

I’ll not be joining the ranks of those moaning and wailing about what President Biden MUST do. There are exactly two people on this planet who can make that decision and, although I’d be flattered, I doubt either of them are reading these words. This isn’t to say I don’t have concerns about the president’s ability to wage a campaign, but that’s not new, and it’s far more than just his individual performance.

Replacing a nominee is difficult at this point on the calendar. Telling Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold national office, that she’s not moving up a spot seems unrealistic and at odds with the Democratic Party’s stated and core beliefs.

For me, Thursday reinforced my dedication to ensuring that Donald Trump is never again President of the United States. That’s my job. That’s the job of NeverTrump Republicans and pro-democracy forces for the next four months. The urgency and immediacy of our task hasn’t changed. The campaign was always going to be hard. It’s harder now.

However, when it comes to President Biden’s top advisors and his campaign, the worry I felt before Thursday’s debate has magnified and intensified. They’re running the 2016 campaign all over again. After nearly a decade of Trump, too much of the Democrats’ senior leadership doesn’t understand the nature or scope of the fight they’re in.

You will not beat Trump on policy. You will not beat Trump if your first concern is not getting your hands dirty. This man and his movement will do anything, anything, to win, and you still don’t get it! We’ve told you repeatedly what you need to do.

Let’s start with the debate. First, they asked for an early faceoff. It was a risk. A Hail Mary. Unfortunately, the ball was intercepted and run back 107 yards for a touchdown.

President Biden huddled with his senior team at Camp David for prep over several days. Why? Based on what we saw, they wore him out and filled his head with data from briefing books circa 1992.

The president didn’t need any of that. There wasn’t one question moderators Dana Bash or Jake Tapper could ask that Biden couldn’t have answered off the top of his head. A top litigator I know noted how he could tell the prep had worn him down. Though not in politics, he’s keenly aware of how to prepare someone for the stage, and he diagnosed the problems on the spot.

Next, the Biden campaign, the DNC, and their main super PAC, Future Forward have been preparing for a campaign that doesn’t exist anymore: One that runs from the Democratic Convention to Election Day and relies on television as it primary method of message delivery.

What century millennium are we in?

Their efforts focus far too much on data-driven messages that, even if they reach a voter, have far too little impact on them. Again, remember what happened in 2016 when Democratic organizers in swing states were begging for money, bodies, and the candidate, and were told by the wizards at HQ that it was all taken care of?

Biden’s top advisors appointed the people that run these organizations. I say this to those in the White House and in political offices: No one appointed or anointed you to decide on how the battle for democracy will be waged.

Your strategy and tactics are putting horses up against tanks.

There are still too many base voters who aren’t hearing what they need to hear. We don’t have the luxury of large margins to account for folks sitting on their couches. Whatever the plans to bring die-hard Democrats home, they aren’t working.

After Trump’s conviction last month, we saw a dip in his numbers, the first in months. Donald and Co. were back on their heels. There was an opening to pound sharp messages into soft Democrats and Independents and push Trump further outside the bounds of acceptability.

Instead, crickets. “No, no,” they say, “We don’t spend early money. We don’t believe in it.”

Too bad. After Thursday, any committee sitting on piles of cash must fire the cannons until the barrels melt telling the American people why Trump is unfit for office, even more so that he was four years ago. Lowering Trump’s electoral ceiling now is the first essential component to allowing Biden to get back into the race and win in November.

If you don’t want to do it, there are plenty of worthy organizations who would put a fraction of your vast resources to good, effective, and efficient use. The arrogance with which the president’s operation (not an original sin) is in this instance, unconscionable.

The fight before us isn’t about whether you’re given a plum job at a major corporation, or a coveted spot at the Harvard Institute of Politics. It’s about 330 million Americans who face living under the first proto-fascist regime in American history. You owe it to all of us to get your heads out of the sand and start fighting back against Donald Trump and MAGA.

Not for nothing, it appears the people that have the least to lose if Trump wins again are taking the threat of his return the least seriously. Some of us have put everything on the line and will continue to do so between now and November 5th.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I’m not going anywhere in this fight, and I know who my opponents are. I hope that our friends in the Democratic campaign machine understand that and get to work. To do otherwise is nothing less than a betrayal.

*Brigadier General Teddy Roosevelt Jr’s words to his mis-landed troops at Utah Beach, June 6th, 1944. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.