funeralxempire wrote:
He really could have accomplished this without the big announcement about how it was the intention beforehand. The performative stuff distracts from the result and makes it harder to invalidate certain lines of criticism out of hand, regardless of how unfair they might be.
Indeed, people might have wondered had his nominee been impeccably qualified but also of this particular demographic, but by announcing out front that the demographics were in fact the primary qualification, he's just poisoned his own nominee, forever putting whoever she is under suspicion of being a mere "diversity hire" rather than an outstanding jurist in her own right.
This is the kind of political malpractice that has continually shocked me coming from the Biden White House, I knew I was going to have policy disagreements with the man, I knew I wasn't going to like many of his appointees or executive orders, but I thought that after all those years in congress, he's have a better idea of how to play the game at least. I don't want to pile on to the often unfair "senile old man" attacks on Biden, but missteps like this really do make we wonder who is in charge at the White House.
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“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
-- Robert Anton Wilson