EW: POTATUS Doing Some Voter Outreach, Fancy Fundraising With Obama, Queen Latifah and…Wait – Lizzo?

I realize everyone on the Biden campaign is scared Schlitz-less that their old grifter is fast losing his luster with even their last resort “Anybody But Trump” crowd. 

I get it that the shine has worn off the thinning POTATUS pate for even his long-suffering puppet-master, who is now sweating bullets that the Big Guy is gonna blow the lay-up because he can barely stand up.

Obama, Fearing Biden Loss to Trump, Is on the Phone to Strategize

The former president and the current one are now on the same page about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s political future. It was not always that way.

As the election approaches, President Biden is making regular calls to former President Barack Obama to catch up on the race or to talk about family. But Mr. Obama is making calls of his own to Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House chief of staff, and to top aides at the Biden campaign to strategize and relay advice.

This level of engagement illustrates Mr. Obama’s support for Mr. Biden, but also what one of his senior aides characterized as Mr. Obama’s grave concern that Mr. Biden could lose to former President Donald J. Trump. The aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Mr. Obama has “always” been worried about a Biden loss. And so, the aide added, he is prepared to “eke it out” alongside his former vice president in an election that could come down to slim margins in a handful of states.

The cool dude with immaculate creases is yanking every imaginable string – and then some – to keep Joe Biden in the Oval Office in spite of Joe Biden.

The Joe Biden, whose #Bidenomics and open borders are losing propositions not only with Republican stalwarts and MAGA loyalists but with those centrist, middle-of-the-road Americans who felt like they had a choice last election. That they could comfortably vote their feelings and reject the brash, abrasive, polarizing incumbent for the fellow sold to them as “The Adult” in the room, were he to be elected president 

They conveniently overlooked the fact he never came out of his basement, but self-delusion is still a right. If they studiously ignored all the glaring signs of approaching senility and bumbling incompetence coupled with Biden’s well-established reputation for mendacious bombast and irascible explosions, sure – they could check the box next to his name and sleep at night, qualm-free that the country would be in dire jeopardy because of their choice of half-wit over mean tweets. And they did.

Almost four years later, those rosy assumptions have vaporized, and even the hardest-core Democratic constituencies are coming unglued at the thought of four more years – or however many he could conceivably and realistically last – of Joe Biden. The majority of the country is done with him and has been from raise-his-right-hand and cancel Keystone day.

But there have been no more surprising defections than the wave of black voters stepping off the Biden bus. It’s looking like a rush for the exit. There’s a good chunk telling pollsters they’re not planning on voting at all.

…Now, as Biden has a firm grip on the Democrat party as he heads into a rematch against former President Donald Trump, that cohort of black voters may not show up. 

A poll released Monday from In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda with PerryUndem found that just 59 percent of black voters are ‘almost certain’ to vote this fall and 12 percent ‘will probably’ vote. 

The results indicate that around 40 percent of black voters are not certain they will cast votes in the 2024 elections.

That’s in addition to the stunning number of black Democratic ship-jumpers headed to the Trump camp, which had to be a major concern already. Trump has tripled his 2020 support among black voters already, and we’re how many months out?

So Dems need to re-convince Dems that Biden isn’t as old as an Ent – with a fraction of the intellect, none of the integrity, and twice as woodenly decrepit – that he really was born a black Puerto Rican Jew from working-class Scranton, and that all his friends are the coolest cats in town. 

“JOE is cool” is gonna take a helluva sales job.

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO?

In the best Democratic tradition, they’re going to throw a big, glittery, “celebrity” packed, self-congratulatory party for themselves, theoretically appealing to all those parameters and raking in buttloads of cashola on top of it.

Oh, gosh. Sounds thrilling. Who doesn’t wish they could go?

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to raise $25 million with Biden amid concerns about his age

The current president, at 81, is the oldest of the trio. His campaign says the fundraising number is a record.

…On Thursday, both former presidents — now 77 and 62 years old, respectively — will suspend their active retirements to try to provide a political jolt to the campaign of their successor Joe Biden, 81, with a rare joint appearance for a campaign fundraiser in New York.

The rare and highly anticipated gathering of three Democratic presidents will raise over $25 million, according to a release by the Biden campaign, which is characterizing it as the most successful political fundraiser in American history.

But it also may serve to highlight Biden’s main vulnerability this year, one that his campaign has increasingly taken steps to overcome.

Unlike Obama and Clinton before him, Biden is running against a candidate only a few years his junior. Still, Biden has already been adopting some of the tactics and even language that Dole and McCain used when they ran against much younger men.

 “Rare“! “Highly anticipated“! Oh, stroke it, NBC!

THE FIRST TWO BLACK PRESIDENTS, TOGETHER! ONE NIGHT ONLY!

No, really – it’s only THE BEST people (aka the usual suspects). Farmers from Flyover need not hit TicketMaster in hopes of an entree to an evening fancy-schmancy enough to purchase the missus a new shiny dress from Belk’s or Kohl’s. 

…There is not much precedent for the event Biden’s campaign is putting on Thursday. The high-profile evening, which will draw more than 3,000 people, is expected to sell out, the person familiar with the planning said. 

The event is designed to impress. 

Actor Mindy Kaling will host the program at Radio City Music Hall, which will open with remarks from first lady Jill Biden and feature musical guests Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele, according to a Biden campaign official.  

Some of the biggest donors will have the opportunity to have their pictures taken with the three Democratic presidents, shot by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. The cheapest tickets have sold for $250, with the largest contributions coming from people who gave $250,000 and $500,000.

Biden-Harris campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, finance chair Rufus Gifford and Biden Victory Fund finance chair Chris Korge have taken the lead on organizing the fundraiser, along with Condé Nast Editorial Director Anna Wintour.  

Thrilling line-up, as always.

In classic Democratic, oblivious, self-congratulatory fashion, they’re not real picky about who’s onstage with presidents and the like.

I mean, what is Lizzo doing there? The big girl has some serious and truly icky problems of her own roiling the waters right now, even though everyone is occupied talking about P-Diddy.

A Los Angeles judge is pressing pause on a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Lizzo by three of her former backup dancers, halting all proceedings while the star appeals a recent ruling that allowed the case to move forward.

…Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) was sued in August by dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, who claim she and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. created a hostile work environment through a wide range of legal wrongdoing, including sexual harassment and religious and racial discrimination.

In one particularly vivid allegation, Lizzo’s accusers claimed she pushed them to attend a live sex show at a venue in Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District called Bananenbar, and then pressured them to engage with the performers, including “eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” After Lizzo herself allegedly led a chant “goading” Davis to touch one performer’s breasts, the lawsuit says, Davis eventually did so.

Lizzo’s dancers aren’t the only ones describing brutal, twisted working conditions, either, and people are paying attention. Her latest release caught some sincere blowback even as legal entanglements and Lizzo’s efforts to quash them continued.

…In December, Lizzo filed her own motion to try to stop a lawsuit by Asha Daniels, a fashion designer who worked on her tour, from reaching court.

“I was witnessing myself, the dancers and the background vocalists and my local team in every city be harassed and bullied regularly,” Daniels told NBC News.

Daniels accused one manager of texting sexually explicit material to a group chat, and alleged members of Lizzo’s team openly discussed hiring sex workers, attending sex shows and buying hard drugs.

She also accused a wardrobe manager of making a “stereotypical sassy Black woman imitation” and using threatening and derogatory language.

Her lawyers argued the lawsuit should include Lizzo, whose given name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, because she was the leader of the tour “so the buck stops with her.”

It seems to me that if the Biden campaign – okay, the brain trust running it – wanted to spiff up the old grifter’s sleazy image, they could do a dang sight better than a tired, old Donk Party bash with the same scuzzy, glitzy kind of characters that sing or lecture us in videos pushing woke causes when they have time on their hands. That includes people whose personal lives are out of control – like Lizzo’s at the moment. 

Or how they feted P. Diddy until…now, they won’t.

For two decades, Diddy was the Democrats’ biggest black celebrity influencer. Democrats used Diddy’s charisma, star power and street cred in the black community, every single election. He was a political enforcer and in the back pocket of the powerful. That made him powerful,… pic.twitter.com/83IAL79uMt

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) March 28, 2024

DIDDY, WHO?

Again, I know it’s just me being cynical, but if an accused female #MeToo type was part of a line-up for a GOP fundraiser, holy cow.

I think we’d hear a lot more about it than the fundraiser itself.

Yeah, their class warfare and hypocritical schtick are so tired.

Go ahead and party like it’s the last time and the time before that, y’all. 

It’s all you’ve got.