Robert Svilpa
5 min readJul 26, 2024

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wow, this is more like the venting of an outburst of hate than any logical reasoning. I can rebut each of those points pretty easily and it will make sense if you can put aside your preconceived notions and consider them:

#1- Covering up Biden's decline

- While I agree that trotting out a less functional leader in public only to have him embarass himself in stressful situations is absolutely wrong, take a moment to consider the repercussions of the staff and administration of one of the world's powers fostering doubt in the mental capacity and decision making of its Supreme Leader? A country that has a weak and befuddled leader is open to being exploited economically, ambassadorially through shitty foreign policy, and finally militarily. Remember Ronald Reagan - it was extraordinarily rare to see old Ronnie do pressers or State of the Union speeches to joint sessions of Congress in the last couple years of his second term - because he was already showing signs of mental decline by that point. His administration and Bush Sr were running the government and enforcing policy by that point, which truly most good to great presidents hire their staff with sufficient talent and abilities to do even when POTUS is fully engaged. The world didn't fall apart during that time either. VPOTUS is supposed to be 100% onboard with everything POTUS does, not to weaken POTUS in the eyes of the country or the world. Trump would absolutely not tolerate anyone in his administration suggesting he lacked the mental and intellectual capacity to run the country - in fact we'll get into that in point #3.

#2 - The USA doesn't own or set Israel's foreign policy. Nor does POTUS have any ownership of their prime minister or how a government is elected and built out of coalitions. Biden could demand Netanyahu stand on his head outside on the White House lawn and Netanyahu would tell him to go fuck himself. The fault for everything happening in Gaza from the end of 2023 to now is entirely in the hands of Bibi and his coalition of far right parties in the Knesset - Bibi is doing everything he can to stall being brought to justice for corruption, bribery and will extend the war as long as he can to do so. The Israeli people and the country as a whole, as well as the citizens of Gaza are unfairly being persecuted for one man's selfish purposes in Israel, and the actions of an Islamic caliphate in waiting in Hamas. There are ways to eradicate Hamas that would involve the Arab world taking it in their hands - allowing Israel to do this will just further isolate Israel and make peace in the middle east a far distant dream. Now, the southern border situation was a pure clusterfuck that was created over three prior administrations - the rush for free citizenships from Bush II, the failure to issue better controls over illegal immigration by Obama, and then the Gulag solution Trump implemented. Trump did nothing to solve neither the "invasion" nor the drug trade except to separate kids from parents and then lose the keys. Numbers increased because there was a humanitarian crisis on the Mexican side and something needed to be done to address that (Mexico hasn't been too cooperative about stopping the migrations to date). But if you note the numbers today, the totals per month are at multiyear lows in terms of humans crossing, and trending downwards.

#3 - staff turnover rate

- FFS - lets take a look at the Trump Administration and analyze what that turnover rate is? 92% of his A-team was replaced in the 4 year period he was in the White House. Additionally 9 of his 15 core cabinet people were replaced over that time, including his Chief of Staff which was IIRC at least three times. Compare that to prior presidents average turnover of 72% and you see that this was an administration that was in turmoil. Do you think this will change? Biden's turnover has been 71% and 13% of his core cabinet. Kamala has had numbers that have come close to and mirror Trump's 92% - but no one really brings that up, instead only focusing on Harris being a difficult person. But there's a difference between the two - Trump fired his staff because they didn't align with his vision of how much authority and the resulting actions he had available to him (a.k.a. to be a dictator) and Harris has the flaw of not choosing the people with the same degree of care that say Biden has, resulting in people leaving her staff because they either have better opportunities in the private sector due to their experience or misalignment in policy goals. That is more about political experience and networking than about "likeability". So dont try to equate Trump with Harris in this specific example.

4# - Campaign Skills - I think you can see that this has changed considerably, since given 8 years experience now at the Federal level and building networks as well as inheriting a savvy campaign engine from Joe means that you'll see a far more polished and put together campaign. Additionally, there will be little to no fear of attacking all of Trump's weaknesses in terms of his former actions, the Agenda 47/Schedule F/Project 2025 policy plans that will be implemented in the first 180 days if we allow him to be elected, and rip him a new asshole in debates if Trump doesn't cancel them out of fear. The GOP are afraid of Kamala and what she represents is the betrayed trust of women in the USA that believe government should be fighting to protect body autonomy and the right to be treated equally - Trump and the GOP have only shown themselves to represent a Gilead type dystopian future and have been actually vocal about eliminating offramps for women in abusive relationships or who have been raped and carrying the rapist's babies to term. Bringing these issues to the forefront while demonstrating practical competence with foreign policy and continuing Biden's job creation efforts will be a winning combination for most people in this country.

#5 - Approval Rating - this will turn around as the messaging about what she's been accomplishing in the administration gets communicated out. That said, I have to liken this to the adage of the two hikers who run into a Grizzly in the forest. As they turn and run away from the charging Grizzly, the first hiker says to the other "do you think we'll outrun this Grizzly?" to which the second says "I dont need to outrun the Grizzly, I just need to outrun you".

Kamala doesn't need to do anything more than to outrun the demented Trump and gain more trust in her competency and honesty than him. And 6 days into her focused campaign that is really already happening.

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Robert Svilpa
Robert Svilpa

Written by Robert Svilpa

High tech leader and career mentor, reluctant political activist, budding author, accomplished musician and luthier

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