Presidential briefs, March 22

Instead of boasting about winning the Pennsylvania Green Party primary, shouldn't Jill Stein rather be concerned that she left 25 percent of the vote, and 20 percent of the delegates, on the floor against a craptacular field? Ditto on other recent GP state primaries. Related? Between that and other things, Texas Greens better have somebody damned good for at least one statewide office, or they'll miss the 2 percent mark for ballot access again, with 2026 the last election to hit it.

Don't win by too big of margins, anyway. It will hurt your fundraising, in all likelihood, and since SCOTUS officially said no on 2016, you'll need more funds.

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"Shock me" that self-alleged Marxist Adolph Reed, who has a long history of sheepdogging for the left hand of the duopoly, is doing it again, and also, "shock me" that The Nation is giving him the space for it. Reed's first move to justify his decision is, "shock me," to attack non-duopoly leftists for leaning into electoral politics too hard. This:

A serious left movement would be driven by concerted strategic action aimed at eventually changing the terms of debate to produce electoral majorities capable of securing popular interventions—for example, eliminating our obscene, profit-driven healthcare system.

Really? Perhaps the action hasn't been concerted or strategic, but this has been a major talking point of third parties of the left for decades. 

Then, Gaza? Reed goes straight to the "lesser evilism" argument. 

In between, he says he won't discuss his previous voting history, though, reading between the lines and what I know elsewhere, I'm pretty sure it's all sheepdog, all the way down.

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Speaking of? Biden is reportedly pissed off about his tumbling poll numbers in places like Michigan, but then has his Irish Alzheimer's kick and says he won't change on Gaza, even though that has nothing to do with US national security, contra his lies. Meanwhile, beyond his staff cocooning him over flub worries, he, they and surrogates are still failing to get out the Trump oppo research information that Trump is providing.

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Mike Pence says he won't endorse Trump. I'm sure that Momma's Boy won't go as far as Lincoln Project people and come out for Biden, but even the public non-endorsement is a bit of a hit. He says abortion is part of the issue, but remains a "grab em by the pussy" hypocrite.

"Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years, and that's why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign."

Really? Where? When? And this?

During his presidential campaign last year, Pence suggested during an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that Trump is “walking away” from conservative principles, including "a clear commitment to the right to life," and accused Trump of holding a position on the national debt that “is identical to Joe Biden’s.”

Dude, that was exactly the case in your term together. You're a hypocrite indeed.

That said, is it as serious as deal as Dan Pfeiffer says? Uhh, no.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a piece last week noting that Mike Rowe, as well as Aaron Rodgers and Jesse "the body" Ventura are on his Veep short list, promises an announcement March 26, although after those first names came out, it was leaked that Nicole Shanahan already has the nod. See my Twitter thread. Meanwhile, he's paused his petition signature drive. Stupid to do so, IMO, right now, right when the Veep hunt is ginning up interest, even with the allowance for needing to have a listed Veep in many cases. Focus on the states where that's not needed.

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Tim Scott is reportedly on Trump's shortlist? Will the GOP accept a minority Veep who's also presumed by many to be a closeted gay?

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At Columbia Journalism Review, Jon Allsop says Geriatric Joe risks further pissing off younger voters if he stands by the idea of a forced sale of TikTok. Don't forget that Trumpist Steve Mnuchin waved his hands to buy TikTok even as House wingnuts were passing their forced sale bill.