2028 Presidential Election

Oh, Biden Didn’t “Get Shit Done?” Let’s Talk About That Bridge on I-95 in Philadelphia for a Minute.

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Josh Shapiro is running for President. Look, that’s no secret, and it is literally why Kamala Harris came out firing at him in her book. It’s also why he’s now releasing a book, and firing back. This is going to be a very different process for Shapiro though than anything he’s faced before- because people are going to say bad things about him now. Basically after he won his first State House race, he has been the darling of the Democratic left, the “rising star” that ran for Montgomery County Commissioner and Attorney General, and then the unchallenged candidate for Governor in 2022. In 2024, he took his first arrows from opponents when he was mentioned for Vice-President, and well, we now know how he handled it. According to him, he removed himself from consideration. The heat was too much.

Not everyone is Joe Biden. A guy who took the heat, was chosen as VP, and then won twice in the role, before being elected President. Ultimately, Biden finally took a permanent political fall in 2024, but he is definitely one of the most significant political figures of the 21st century, so far (I’d argue third or fourth, but still significant). He will probably be remembered as one of the two or three most impactful governing leaders of this time period. From his work passing the COPS Bill and larger 1994 Crime Bill and the legislation authorizing the use of force in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, to his re-write of bankruptcy law (probably the thing I disliked most on his record), to his decades of playing pivotal roles in the confirmations of nearly every Supreme Court Justice, to his roles in the Obama Administration passing his 2009 recovery act, helping administer TARP, and pushing through the votes on Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, to his own Administration passing the Covid Recovery Act in 2021, passing his landmark infrastructure bill, and passing the Inflation Recovery Act, not to mention his numerous executive orders and appointments to the bench. Joe Biden was probably better at actually governing than anyone in this time period, objectively speaking, with the exception of Bush and Cheney (who screwed up the whole world). One thing he was good at was making the government do the things he wanted. That might have been part of the problem he had politically on several major issues.

Back to Josh Shapiro though and running for President. I mean, he’s doing it unless he somehow loses to his crackpot opponent in 2026, which God willing, he won’t. Josh is carving out his pathway to national contention, which is understandable, and he’s doing it by creating separation between himself of the Biden-Harris Administration. I don’t blame him there. I loved Joe Biden, but he left office deeply unpopular, and Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are likely to be opponents of his. We have seen other Democrats, namely Gavin Newsom, carve out some separation on actual policy and his political ability to engage the opposition, which you can like or not, but seems like a fair place to carve out your differences when you were a very loyal and supportive Governor for the former President. Josh Shapiro seems to be taking a different route- he’s saying the former President was ineffective, unlike himself. He’s also carving out a retroactive difference with himself and Kamala Harris by saying he told President Biden to drop out earlier, but I’m going to leave that alone because it’s literally impossible to verify how either actually felt on the matter. His argument on effectiveness is fascinating though, he’s citing that absolutely no one in Pennsylvania actually received any of the rural broadband promised in the 2022 Infrastructure Bill. It is, at best, a reach of an argument, and at worst entirely cynical. You see, that bill was passed into law in November of 2021, going into effect in Fiscal Year 2022. It was meant to run from 2022 to 2026. Highway projects were always going to be the fastest (more on this in a minute). Broadband and mass transit projects were going to take several years to happen. They often require studies and approval processes meant to make sure that the most worthy projects got through. For instance, AMTRAK service from New York City into Northeast Pennsylvania was one of the first projects that got pushed through, and it won’t be finished for years. It’s not uncommon for federal government projects that require state partnership to take years, Obamacare was passed in 2010 and didn’t become operational until 2014 for the public. Dodd-Frank was passed early in the Obama Administration and many of the new agencies (such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) weren’t created until 2011 and later. Government moves slow sometimes, so we can avoid waste and fraud. There’s also that other matter of Donald Trump taking office with two years left in the implementation of the Infrastructure Bill, and immediately freezing some projects and seeking clawbacks. Of course Josh Shapiro knows that’s how the Federal Government works, he’s a smart guy. The Broadband component of the bill that he talks about ran out of money at the end of 2024, but was expected to take longer to actually complete from the start. Now we have a President who doesn’t even want to do a lot of it. That’s a bigger reason why Governor Shapiro’s state hasn’t seen broadband yet than some sort of problem with Joe Biden.

Governor Shapiro wants to show himself as the symbol of impactful governance. He chose to lead off his re-election campaign with an ad about the I-95 bridge collapse and subsequent repair that all got done in a few short weeks. It was incredibly impressive, and he deserves credit for it. But… yeah, he didn’t do that alone. You see, when that bridge collapsed there was this guy, Pete Buttigieg, who was Secretary of Transportation, and that was an interstate highway, and so… yeah, he kind of showed up with big checks. Who did Pete Buttigieg work for? That would be President Joseph R. Biden, the guy who was apparently ineffective and asleep at the wheel. Or at least that’s the line now. Secretary Pete’s money was *the* reason everything could move so fast, and that bridge repair was done in 12 days. Without that money, it really would have taken months to re-open. The Biden-Harris Administration got that done. Now it’s literally being used as a contrast to them.

I find the early jockeying between both Shapiro and Harris to be off-putting. We all know that political campaigns are full of hypocrisy, and I certainly don’t blame the Governor for trying to carve out his own lane. With all of that said, let’s try and be just a little bit honest when we do this? Like maybe 1%? I would never make the argument that the Biden Administration was 100% responsible for getting that bridge back up, let’s be honest, the state is more impactful at spending money, and they were here. But if we’re going to go with the “Biden sucked” argument to prop up quixotic 2028 ambitions for everyone, let’s at least be somewhat in reality.

Only Three More Years of This Shit

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Yesterday marked one year of Donald Trump’s second Presidency. To say the least, it has been consequential and insane. The Federal Work Force has been gutted by DOGE. USAID and the Department of Education is gone. DEI is virtually illegal inside of the Federal government. ICE is running raids across the United States and rounding up basically whoever they want, then deporting them, sometimes incorrectly or without due process. Major projects like the transit tunnel between New York and New Jersey are being stopped or canceled. We are no longer helping Ukraine fight Russia. We removed a dictator in Venezuela. We are threatening to take Greenland and the Panama Canal. The President is trying to arrest some of his political enemies. The President called his Vice-President incompetent to his face in a cabinet meeting. He wants to push the Federal Reserve Chairman out of his job because he won’t cut rates.

This was all one year.

The Congress is completely derelict in it’s duties and is barely even capable of appropriating funds. The Supreme Court is so stuck in their obsession with creating a powerful executive branch that they are allowing the President to ignore courts, agencies, laws, and the constitution to achieve his agenda. Now the truth is that the other two branches of the government have been broken and deteriorating for a long time now, and this is just the logical end point. Conservatives beliefs in “states rights” are being shown as bullshit, just a slogan to justify them doing bad shit to people they don’t like. Our foreign policy is increasingly in line with Putin, Netanyahu, MBS, and Xi, and less in line with the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The President is abusing tariff powers that were expressly given to the Congress under the constitution, to hurt our traditional allies much less, and the courts are basically punting on the issue. Our government is broken.

Our society is basically broken too. Seemingly normal people literally decide which celebrities and sports teams to like, what singers to listen to, based on their perceived view of Donald Trump. Siblings argue on social media and eventually don’t talk over politics. People justify behavior that they themselves won’t do, based on the political leanings of the protestors and insurrectionists doing it. People will justify anti-Black racism and outright anti-semitism based on their political leanings. The level of division in our society over politics is at an outright tipping point. All in one year.

Assuming good health (which I sadly must wish him, as it is only right), Donald Trump will not leave office until three days from yesterday at high noon. The Congress won’t even pretend to be a separate branch of the government for at least a year. The court will only be as useful as Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Comey Barrett allow it to be. This isn’t going to end by some other miracle anytime soon, and even if it did, J.D. Vance would arguably be a much worse President in power. As George W. Bush once famously said, elections have consequences. We are living them now. You skipped voting over Gaza? Netanyahu now is basically free to do as he wishes. You wanted to crack down on immigration? This is the ICE you get. Joe Biden was too old? Your “new” President falls asleep in cabinet meetings and confuses Iceland and Greenland. Americans picked this. We are not “better than this,” or any other favored slogans of the “resistance.” This is who we are.

Here’s the really dark part for folks who are either left-leaning or just hate Trump- I don’t think the election would play out differently today. As much as voters are unhappy with Trump, conservative views generally defeat liberal ones in polling. Republicans still lead on their old faithfuls, immigration, crime, taxes and the economy, and usually on foreign policy. Democrats will almost certainly win the 2026 midterms, because that is the nature of midterms. Once they take back the House, they will inevitably face the task of governing with Trump, which is hard. The Presidential race will begin, and inevitably left-wing candidates will take far left positions popular in the primary, but unelectable in the general election, and we will see how they deal with that. I guess what I’m getting at here is simple- this isn’t going away easy. No one is rescuing us. God speed.

The Governor’s Endorsement of Crooksy is all About 2028 Politics

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment
Josh Shapiro endorsed Bob “Crooksy” Brooks for Congress yesterday. The comments on the article’s Facebook page were brutal. I announced this a while back, I guess the Governor just wanted to put it out there at a time of year when less people were paying attention. I wonder why, why, why, why, why, and why he would want to do that?

If Bob Brooks is the nominee of the Democratic Party in PA-7, Republicans will swamp him with negative ads defining him as a deadbeat who took money from his mother-in-law and expresses racist beliefs on social media. In any normal time, I’d say that’s disqualifying, but there are a lot of people who would vote for O.J. Simpson if he ran on their party’s ticket right now. Even so, Crooksy is really the only candidate with a strong general election negative to run against, and Republicans are open that they feel most confident they can beat him. They’ll use his personal baggage, his endorsement from Bernie Sanders and other radical left wingers, and even negatives from his career that they have waiting to use. Democrats can’t afford that. Ryan Crosswell is completely unacceptable, but probably can win a general election, if you’re willing to vote for a Republican. There are three Democrats actually from the Lehigh Valley who are Democrats running in this race. We never needed the DCCC to mess this race up with this guy, but sure enough, it happened.

There’s absolutely no evidence that Crooksy brings anything to the table as a candidate, but that’s not what this is about. He raised $300k last quarter? So did like everyone across the river in NJ-7. Any candidate that gets nominated will raise plenty in the general election, and have PACs you’ve never heard of spending on their behalf. All that any of these folks endorsing him cares about is, he is the President of the IAFF’s Pennsylvania organization and the IAFF is really damn good at politics. When the IAFF backs a candidate for President, that candidate usually wins the Democratic nomination, at a minimum. The Governor wants the IAFF to support him in future campaigns, such as for Governor in 2026 and for President in 2028, and let’s be honest, one is more critical right now than the other. It’s very clear this is why this endorsement is happening, and anyone saying otherwise is a liar. Let’s be honest here, otherwise there’s no other reason to step into a competitive primary. Months ago, everyone claimed they would stay out. Plenty of people have appealed to the Governor directly and his insiders, pleading with them to not endorse this guy. None of that mattered, because this isn’t about this race. It’s about 2028.

I know this is an inconvenient truth to publish, but it’s a truth nonetheless. If I was worried about backlash for saying it, I wouldn’t have started in on Crooksy. I knew this from the start and made the decision on my own to write it. I’ve brought the receipts since day one. Frankly, I haven’t wrote the worst stuff, and probably won’t. Unions and elected officials are being pressured from the good ole’ boys club in Harrisburg to fall in line, to crush a primary here. I’m not invested enough in anyone’s success to play that game.

Temper, Temper…

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Look, we all know that both Josh Shapiro and Kamala Harris have their eyes on the 2028 Presidential race. I don’t expect them to be friends, and far from me to sit here and tell people to be nice in a political race. So I’m kinda good with them going at it a bit. A bit is the key here. Sounds like she really pissed off the Governor.

During an interview with The Atlantic author, Shapiro’s demeanor clearly shifted when Alberta said that Harris had “taken some shots at him” in her book.

The writer shared with Shapiro that Harris had “accused him, in essence, of measuring the drapes, even inquiring about featuring Pennsylvania artists in the vice-presidential residence; of insisting ‘that he would want to be in the room for every decision’ Harris might make; and, more generally, of hijacking the conversation when she interviewed him for the job, to the point where she reminded him that he would not be co-president.”

His guard down, Shapiro blurted out about the art, “She wrote that in her book? That’s complete and utter bullshit.”

“I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies.”

He defended his actions during the interview with the former California attorney general who he had known for more than 20 years.

“I did ask a bunch of questions,” he told Alberta. “Wouldn’t you ask questions if someone was talking to you about forming a partnership and working together?”

Shapiro has a well-known reputation as ambitious. But Harris seemed to portray him in other ways – “selfish, petty, and monomaniacally ambitious.”

Asked if he felt betrayed by Harris, Shapiro dropped the gloves.

“I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her ass,” said to Alberta.

According to the author, there was a long pause.

“I shouldn’t say ‘cover her ass.’ I think that’s not appropriate,” Shapiro said. His tone was suddenly collected. “She’s trying to sell books. Period.”

Gosh damn, bro. I kind of appreciate the honesty, Shapiro was being honest when he said “cover her ass”- he thinks she didn’t run a great campaign, and I’m sure one of her bad decisions was picking Walz over him, in his eyes. Hey, he’s entitled to feel that, and maybe, just maybe, there’s some truth to that. He’s probably better off though having not been on the ticket, since they probably would have lost anyway. On the other hand, I mean he is hyper ambitious. I’m not saying that as though it makes him somehow worse than her, Walz, or anyone else at that level of politics. He’s always been ambitious and eyeing the next step though, since he reached the State House. Maybe nobody is lying here. “Utter bullshit” and “blatant lies” is pretty strong language from a guy who usually acts like he’s totally unbothered.

I don’t see how the Governor can get nominated, in no small part because I don’t see where he wins an early primary, whether we stay with South Carolina first or come to our senses and keep it in the opening four, but not first. He’s not winning South Carolina or Iowa, seriously. The question is though, is she? There’s a lot of goodwill towards her in the party, but do we really think things will be different in 2028? Is dumping on the people you didn’t pick for VP helping that?

Y’all know I like a good fight though.