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**JULY 12, 2022**

Kuttner on TAP

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**** The Speech Biden Needs
to Give

All the conjecture about 2024 is diverting urgent attention from 2022.

There is now a stampede of reporting and political commentary concluding
that Joe Biden should not be the Democratic nominee in 2024. This kind
of story feeds on itself, given the media's herd instincts, and
quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the

**Times**, Michelle Goldberg tried to make the case as kindly and gently
as
possible--Biden is a good man, he's just too old-which is almost
worse since it suggests pity. A recent Siena Poll

showed that an astounding 64 percent of Democrats want a different
nominee in 2024.

We are in the unprecedented situation of a sitting president being
increasingly treated as a lame duck, fully two and a half years before
his term expires-this at a time when the future of democracy is on the
line. If this is bad for Biden, it's worse for Democrats.

I recently published a book, Going Big
,
reviewing all the headwinds that Biden faces, praising him for moving
the Democrats away from the disastrous neoliberal policies of the past
three Democratic presidencies, and discussing the narrow path to
Democrats holding Congress in 2022. With the revelations of the January
6th Committee and the hugely unpopular recent decisions of the Supreme
Court, that path just got a little wider-if Biden is not in the role
of albatross.

My

**Prospect** colleagues and I keep writing about initiatives Biden could
take to make himself a more effective leader. I hope he is paying
attention.

In the meantime, Biden can help himself, his party, and his country by
giving this kind of speech:

My friends, like anyone who follows the media, I'm well aware that a
lot of Americans and even many Democrats think I will be too old to run
again in 2024. That issue will sort itself out in due course.

For now, we have a more immediate and urgent election to think about. We
should not be distracting ourselves with conjectures about a decision
that my party will make in democratic fashion more than two years from
now.

As recent Supreme Court rulings show, underscored by new revelations by
the January 6th Committee and reports of widespread voter suppression,
one of our two major parties has stopped believing in democracy. Most
Republicans in Congress defended President Trump's clumsy efforts to
cling to power as a dictator. Most cheered the Court ruling denying
women basic reproductive rights and exposing our schoolchildren to
gruesome murder by military-style automatic weapons.

Right now, nothing is more important than electing good Democrats this
fall and keeping Republicans from controlling Congress. I am not on the
ballot in November. To the extent that attention focuses on me and
speculation about 2024, especially on the part of Democrats, we divert
vital energy from this year's more urgent business.

Whatever my own political future, I will be fine. It's far more
important that America be fine.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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Google Tries to Bargain Its Way out of Antitrust Trouble

But its proposal to take its adtech business into a separate business
line is a weak substitute for real reform. BY DAVID DAYEN

How Hospitals Undermine Reproductive Rights

Fears of controversy and squeamishness about the procedure lead many
hospitals in blue states to ban abortions. Biden has the power to change
this. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

New York Gov. Hochul's Husband Works for Corporate Giant Accused of
Union-Busting

William Hochul is general counsel of Delaware North, which fired union
organizers at Yellowstone National Park. BY MIKE ELK & RACHEL PHUA

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