Today is Wednesday, December 27, 2023.    As we soon bid a not-too-fond adieu to a turbulent year, a Democratic strategist has optimistic news for all of us who are so depressed over the possibility of there being a second coming of Trump in 2024.  This strategist, Simon Rosenberg, was interviewed for an online article for The Hill by Miranda Nazzaro entitled “Dem strategist:    Biden underestimated, Trump will cost GOP election.”

Rosenberg argued that Biden’s strength has been underestimated by all of us, while former president Chump’s “baggage” will cost the GOP the election.    It’s music to our ears, I dare say!

In an op-ed for MSNBC, Rosenberg said he was “optimistic 2024 is going to be a good year for Democrats” and touted a series of positive changes seen under the Biden administration.  

Rosenberg points to Biden’s handling of the COVID crisis in 2020, stating that he successfully led the nation to the other side of the coronavirus.  Under Chump’s lack of guidance, thousands of deaths attributed to COVID occurred on his negligent watch, a fact that many Americans seem to have forgotten. 

The Democratic strategist further pointed to the country’s uninsured rate reaching its lowest point in U.S. history and the Dow Jones hitting an all-time high, along with falling gas prices and crime rates and softening rent prices.

Simon’s argument here appears to dismiss a flurry of forecasts from other political analysts, who warn Biden’s low approval ratings spell bad news for his reelection campaign.  

Incredibly, national polling shows now Biden and Dump in either a dead heat in a hypothetical rematch between the two august figures or with Chump holding a very narrow lead over the better choice. 

Fueling this optimism, Rosenberg indicates the strength of the Democratic Party that has won more votes than the GOP in seven of the past presidential elections.  He also pointed to Democrats’ statewide margins in several battleground states across the country in the 2022 and the 2023 elections that helped minimize the Republican majority in the U.S. House and maintain the Democratic majority in the Senate.

Rosenberg points out the blue wave that washed across the United States in 2023 and that this strong performance should fill Biden’s supporters with confidence, he says. 

As for the MAGA maggot called Chump, Simon says that his “baggage and MAGA’s repeated electoral failures” need to be further discussed in forecasts for 2024, arguing the former president is “an even more degraded and dangerous version of MAGA than he was in 2020.”

Trump’s ongoing legal battles, Simon says, will add to his trouble and his incapability of garnering independent and undecided votes in the crucial 2024 race. 

Simon alarmingly states, “Trump represents an unprecedented threat to the country, is even more extreme than 2020, and has, in political parlance, the highest ‘negatives’ of any candidate perhaps in our history.”  Negatives is an understatement, in my opinion. 

Even though it’s apparent that both Biden and Chump are on a course for a 2024 rematch, it’s a situation that few Americans would like to see.  Biden has faced repeated criticism over his age and ability to do the job for another four years, along with record-low approval ratings in the past year. 

Biden, 81, would be 86 at the end of his second term. 

Meanwhile, Dump has remained at the center of controversy amid his various legal battles and provocative remarks, where he is channeling long-dead dictators, with even some from his cult party pushing for a change in GOP leadership. 

So for those of us who feel crestfallen over this rematch between these two men, especially with the entrance of someone who attempted a violent coup of the U.S. government, Rosenberg’s predictions here for 2204 are more optimistic than most.  I’d like to cast my vote here with Rosenberg’s rosier picture of the 2024 presidential election.  

It’s getting late here. 

I just want to say that Elliot and I had a delicious dinner at our friends “Seth” and “Jerry”‘s house in Astoria.    Because of the anticipated rain, we decided to take the subway instead of taking the car.  The trip consisted of boarding three trains:  the E, the 7, and, eventually, the N train to 30th Avenue.   I think we got to the subway around 4:20 or so and we got to our friends’ apartment building around 5:09.    We were scheduled to get there by 5.

For our gustatory delight, Jerry prepared a great salad, lasagna, baked mushrooms, and garlic bread.  For dessert, we had two peach tarts and two Napoleans that we got from Martha’s Country Bakery right here in Forest Hills.   Not that we ate all of them.   We left many of these sweet confections with Seth and Jerry.  I sure didn’t want to take any home with us.

We stayed about four hours and then Seth got a call from his ex-wife and it was time to leave.  

Tomorrow Elliot and I are meeting my Manhattan relatives “Rivka” and “Dillon” at a restaurant on the Upper East Side at 7, so I don’t think I will post my blog tomorrow evening because of this commitment. 

If I do miss tomorrow’s entry, have a good Thursday.   Oops, I just remembered:  Elliot and I have tickets to this one-woman show Friday evening, also at 7.   It’s called Rachel Bloom:   Death, Let Me Do My Show.     I never heard of this show, actually. But several weeks ago, Elliot and I passed the theater where her show was playing and we saw this long line waiting to get inside.  So when tickets appeared on TDF, I promptly purchased two tickets.    It’s playing at the Orpheum Theatre, at 126 Second Avenue and 8th Street.    I hope to read a review of this musical comedy before then.  

What I’m trying to say here is that I might be absent from here a total of two days, not just one.  But let’s see what time I get home from both events. 

Stay safe and be well.