President Biden you have 99 problems but Manchin should not be one of them!

[Etherealoc1]

It's time to go to West Virginia and let the constituents know what's at stake.

Invite Manchin and the Governor to appear with you on the podium and tailor the infrastructure speech to
West Virginians.

Lay out the plan, personalize it and
right there and then let Manchin know you need his full support to help the
People of West Virginia.

No more hiding behind the scenes and creating roadblocks. He has no chance of winning as a Republican.

Next, Arizona is on the list.

[doc03]

1. From what I hear the Governor supports the infrastructure plan. I think the

only thing people in WV would support is more damn coal mines. Why would anyone
want their children or grandchildren working in a coal mine? I don't get WV they were
as Democrat as any state a few years ago. Senator Byrd brought billions in federal dollars to
WV. They used to say every slab of concrete had Senator Byrd's name on it. Somehow Republicans
used that as negative, the people in WV started talking about his spending (money they got?). Callers would
call into talk radio and talk about Byrd as Robert KKK Byrd that was a criticism? Now they embrace racism
and support Republicans? WV opposed slavery and seceded from Virginia to join the Union. Now 150 years later
Virginia is Blue and WV is the old Confederacy.

[BGBD]

2. Because

They pay abt 3x more than any other job there and you don't need an education to get it.

[doc03]

3. What has it got them? They are in a race with Mississippi to be the poorest state

in the union every year. There was a radio talk show host in Wheeling that used to say WV was number
one or two with everything bad and number 49 or 50 with everything good.

[BGBD]

5. Yes

But the guy working in the coal mine is driving a new Ford Raptor pulling a kawasaki....so he's pretty happy with his job.

The biggest employer in WV is Wal Mart. That's the problem. Most of these folks figure if they lose the mines they will be stocking shelves for min wage.

[Etherealoc1]

6. That may be true

but the choice in front of them is
Infrastructure jobs.

If they were on board with the Covid
Relief because they were hurting financially, then they could get on board with Infrastructure jobs.

[BGBD]

4. Yeah....

Attack the most vulnerable Democrat in an even Senate...who is going to end up voting for the bill anyway, instead of trying to pressure a single R to support it.

Why not take it to states he won or almost won with republican senators? NC, PA, ME, WI etc.

Jim Justice supports it because he's figured out a way to funnel it into companies his family has interest in. Same guy who took 26 million in PPP loans without having to keep all his employees. Same guy pushing an insanely regressive tax overhaul. Same guy gutting public education. Same guy stamping down unions....and this board slobber over him for some reason.

Obama warned about purity tests, some of you guys missed that memo.

[lagomorph777]

7. Gov Justice can be bribed; so can Manchin. Build the Manchin Wind Energy Megafarm or some such.

And funnel 1% of the profits to Manchin. I really don't care at this point. Do whatever it takes to force Manchin to do his fucking job. If bribery doesn't work, move on to extortion.

I am not being sarcastic.

[BGBD]

8. He is "doing his fucking job"

After 4 years of blind Republican support of Trump I would hope Democrats would see some value in independent thought in the Upper Chamber.

[lagomorph777]

9. His job being to represent large donors and be Trump's confidant?

I imagine his impoverished constituents might disagree.

[BGBD]

11. Is that what he's doing?

Considering he twice voted to remove Trump from office, that's not very likely.

[lagomorph777]

12. He says he's Trump's confidant.

He doesn't advertise the donor thing.

[Etherealoc1]

26. Independent

thought is one thing, but when you see
the otherside boasting that you’re their
roadblock to good, popular legislation,then may be it's time to reflect.

Instead of this BS excuse of seeking
Bipartisanship. It ain't happening.

[BGBD]

28. It's a good thing that

John McCain didn't agree.

[Etherealoc1]

32. John McCain

voted on the merits of the legislation,
not some blind faith in bipartisanship.

[BGBD]

33. Really?

His direct quote:

I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote. We should not make the mistakes of the past that has led to Obamacare’s collapse, including in my home state of Arizona where premiums are skyrocketing and health care providers are fleeing the marketplace. We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.

[Etherealoc1]

36. As I said,

based on the merits of the legislation.

There was no blind faith in bipartisanship.

[BGBD]

37. OK then

You are free to completely ignore the quote of him wanting bipartisanship.

Carry on.

[Etherealoc1]

14. I wouldn't call it bribery,

but his wife seems to be benefitting
and Manchin hasn't budged.

This hands off approach is not working.

[lagomorph777]

15. Time to replace carrot with stick?

Kompromat? Little chats with major donors?

[Etherealoc1]

22. I hear you,

With a bill this popular i can see Donors adding some pressure.

[Etherealoc1]

10. That's the exact

line of thinking that he's depending on.

Put the bill up for a vote through reconciliation with a couple of amendments including a 25% corp. tax rate that he suggested. I dare him to
be the one to sink it. It'll be all over for
him and he knows it.

He's against everything else the House
has voted on or proposed.

What gives.

[StarfishSaver]

13. If he does

I wonder if the same people who blasted Kamala Harris for being so disrespectful to Manchin because she did a phone interview with a West Virginia news outlet would insist that Biden was out of line.

[lagomorph777]

16. Send Harris back in for a major speech, waving wads of cash to build a wind farm - but only IF

Manchin plays ball.

[Etherealoc1]

19. VP Harris did her part

President Biden has take it up a notch.
The infrastructure plan is popular.

[doc03]

30. A black women ain't gonna work in WV

[Etherealoc1]

17. He claimed

that Harris did not give him a heads up.
This time, he will be alongside President Biden and the Governor.

Now what?

[StarfishSaver]

23. Probably the first time in history a Senator has attacked a VP for not consulting with him before

doing a press interview in his state.

And, fyi, he DID get a "heads up." The White House Press Office releases the President's and Vice President's media schedule every day and that information is available to, among other people, every Senator's office - and it's each Senator's communications directors' job to stay on top of that and brief their bosses whenever key administration officials do press in their state.

If Manchin didn't have a "heads up," it's because his own staff didn't give him one - or if they did, he didn't pay attention to it. That's on them, not on Harris. But he blamed her anyway instead of taking responsibility for his or his own staff's failure.

Given that, why should we believe he won't find some reason to complain about Biden, no matter what he does?

That's what.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

18. I would assume every Dem knew that Manchin would be a problem.

How could you not know he was going to be problematic?

[lagomorph777]

20. That doesn't mean anybody really knows how to fix him; advance awareness wasn't much help.

All we can do is apply every possible kind of pressure, and plan on taking a real majority in 2022.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

24. There's no fixing that problem.

He's not going to budge. He's horrible.

[Etherealoc1]

21. So for every

problem there needs to be a solution.

This problem cannot continue to linger
on.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

25. Short of replacing him, there's no solution.

He's going to continue to vote how he always votes.

[lagomorph777]

27. Make him irrelevant. Get a couple more Senators in 2022.

Not easy, but we can do it.

Biggest problem is that Manchin can kill the very programs we need to win over more voters.

Carrot, stick, taser, whatever it takes, Manchin must be neutralized.

[BGBD]

29. "Get a couple more Senators"

Is that all we need to do? How come we never thought of this before?

[lagomorph777]

31. I know, right?

[BGBD]

34. My point is

that it's going to be really hard to do. We've not had much success in the Senate and constitutionally mandated advantage based on rural-majority states. 2020 was a prime opportunity to get 55ish seats and we lost almost everywhere outside of Arizona and Georgia. I suspect we'd have lost one or both in Georgia if it wasn't for Trump and Co. depressing their own turnout with all their crazy stop the steal stuff.

[lagomorph777]

35. I get it. And taking seats means winning over voters by passing legislation.

With the Manchin Candidate blocking everything, it will definitely not be easy.

[XanaDUer2]

38. I suggested this in another thread

and got a rude reply. I agree! Lay it out.

[Etherealoc1]

39. Yep, we can't keep

doing the same thing and expect a
different result. It's time to flip the script.