It was a cold and windy February day in south Carolina. Pundits doing live shots in the parking lot of the bar were wearing blankets over the lower third of their bodies, just out of frame. A Democratic presidential primary was going on, and if there was a general consensus, it was that Joe Biden's campaign at least had to cloud a mirror held under its nose to account for what had been to that point a doomed and futile ride into forced retirement.
He'd stumbled badly in Iowa, fallen flat on his face in New Hampshire, and finished far up the track in second in Nevada. This was Biden's third try at the presidential nomination, and he had yet to win a single primary in any of them. A former vice president to a still-popular two-term president, Biden needed to do something in South Carolina or he was headed for the remainder bin.
Almost a year later, after a lot of fuss and bother (and one armed insurrection), Biden was sworn in as the forty-sixth president of these United States.
He'd crushed the field in South Carolina, in no small part due to the endorsement and political acumen of Representative James Clyburn, Democratic whip in the House of Representatives and a force in the state's Black community. (Exit polls indicated that the majority of Democratic primary voters in South Carolina were Black.) Once Biden got rolling, there was no stopping him. Various temporary top rivals-Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar-dropped out and signed on. Biden won ten primaries on Super Tuesday and picked up more than six hundred delegates, which pretty much cleared out the rest of the field.
And although El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago and his parade of brain-wormed sycophants continue to dominate headlines, Biden has doggedly persevered in his governance as he did in his campaign. The result is a tally of accomplishments as ambitious as they are historic.
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Denne historien er fra Winter 2023-utgaven av Esquire US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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This Guy Stood Up to Trump - Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, rebuffed Donald Trump's demand to find” votes for him in 2020—and received death threats. Now Trump is back on the ballot, and the pressure is mounting from all sides. Can he once again deliver a fair election?
Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, rebuffed Donald Trump's demand to find” votes for him in 2020—and received death threats. Now Trump is back on the ballot, and the pressure is mounting from all sides. Can he once again deliver a fair election?Brad Raffensperger is rattling off statistics while we wait. It's just after 4:00 P.M. on Tuesday, May 21, and the Georgia secretary of state is standing outside a small conference room in an underground bunker on the east side of Atlanta, where he and his staff gather on election days. A couple dozen workers are spread around an open seating area, quietly fielding phone calls and staring at their computer monitors. With its fluorescent lights and gray carpet, the place has the muted feel of a regional sales office. The secretary, though, is energized. As the official in charge of overseeing elections in his state, Raffensperger is always ready to dive into the details.
The (Shocking! Twisted! Brilliant!) Mind of Zoë Kravitz - Zoë Kravitz directorial debut Blink Twice
Kubrick. Tarantino. Peele... Kravitz? With the thirty-five-year-old's directorial debut the deeply unsettling psychological thriller Blink Twice she is redefining herself as a creative force. Over two days in New York, she lets us into her world.
Vote or Die - I'm a Black man in Arizona participating in the most consequential election of my lifetime whether certain white men want me to or not.
You knew some vote-or-die, do-it-to-honor the-sacrifices-of-the-ancestors, you-can't-complain-if-youdon't-participate Black folks. But you also knew scores who didn't trouble themselves with participating at all. Into your 30s you felt somewhere between those philosophical poles, among those who, each election cycle, needed convincing that their vote mattered a good gotdamn.
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The world is filled with fake throwbacks and questionable graphics. But real-deal, old-school sailing gear never disappoints.
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You've heard of rawdogging” a flight? How about an entire trip to Italy? I believe in it with the zeal of the convert.
