Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV), blasts both political parties. He will not seek reelection. That’s a near-guaranteed Republican Senate pickup in 2024. 
Both parties have come under the domination of the extremes. “I want to find a better way,” says Senator Joe Manchin in WSJ Op-Ed: Why I Won’t Be Seeking Re-Election to the Senate
I have always been a responsible pro-life advocate, but polls and elections like this week’s ballot initiative in Ohio show that most Americans want the balance found for the past 50 years in Roe v. Wade.
So last year I pushed for a bill that would have codified the 1973 ruling into law. At the time, Democrats controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress. We should have had the votes to pass the bill.
But the Senate Democratic leadership and the majority of the caucus refused to allow a vote on the floor because they wanted to expand abortion rights beyond Roe v. Wade. They put politics over the will of the people.
Later that year, the same thing happened on the other side of the aisle with a bill to reform energy permitting. America’s energy security is and will continue to be threatened without such a law, and passing one has long been a Republican priority. This time the Republican Senate leadership and the majority of their caucus killed the bill because they were angry that I had helped pass an energy-security bill they didn’t like. Again, they put politics over the will of the people.
Like the Democrats on abortion, Republicans refused to take yes for an answer. Both events demonstrated the kind of self-defeating political tribalism that has become all too common in Washington.
A genuine commitment to legislating would put America on firmer footing for the next 20 years. But the Democratic and Republican machines have no interest in solutions. Instead, they stoke outrage because doing so brings them fame and funding. Today, the business of politics is about monetizing anger and getting paid for it. And business has never been better.
After months of deliberation and long conversations with family, I believe I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia. I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I won’t run for re-election to the Senate. I will finish my term while traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is interest in building a movement to mobilize the middle, find common ground and bring Americans together.
I Said Abortion Is a Losing Issue for Republicans, Elections Prove Me Right
Consider my post yesterday: I Said Abortion Is a Losing Issue for Republicans, Elections Prove Me Right
Republicans keep trying hard to lose elections, and they are doing it, even in deep Republican states.
Voters Send a Message
In red Ohio and Kentucky, and purple Virginia and Pennsylvania, Tuesday’s results show abortion is a major issue, especially among college-educated women.
Out of Touch With Reality
One of my readers commented to another post “You want to tell me the residents of Kentucky decided to reelect the Democrat governor? You’re braindead.”
It’s my reader who is braindead. All of these states issues were decided on abortion.
Republican governors and Republicans in general are braindead as well. The voters sent a message, don’t expect male Republicans to hear it.
This issues nearly cost Republicans the House in the last midterms.
State by State
- Virginia: In campaigning for Republican legislative candidates, Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin had called for a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, rather than the state’s current limit after 26 weeks—an idea that is off the table now that Democrats will control both legislative chambers.
- Pennsylvania: Democrat Daniel McCaffery won a state Supreme Court seat, after running ads promising to defend abortion rights and voting rights.
- Kentucky: In Kentucky, a state that former President Donald Trump won twice by more than 25 percentage points, voters re-elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and rejected Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who supports the state’s near-total ban on abortion. Beshear had run one of the sharpest abortion-related ads of the year, featuring a young woman who says she was raped by her stepfather at age 12.
- Ohio: Voters passed a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion to 26 weeks. Close to 60% of voters in Delaware County, just outside Columbus, backed the constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights—substantially more than the 53% who backed Trump in 2020.
Please note, Biden’s Democratic Coalition is Splintering Over Israel and the Economy
Also, please see Five Alarm Bell – Biden Trails Trump in Five of Six Battleground States
The Unmistakable Message
People do not believe Bidenomics is working. Inflation is moderating, but prices are still going up.
On November 7, I commented “If Biden goes down in flames over this, at least we will have gotten something for our money.“
On Twitter, I commented “Both sides are trying to lose the election. One of them will succeed.“
With that, Manchin had had enough. Republicans are nearly certain to pick up a Senate Seat after that drop out.
This Trump voter says the DNC is setting Manchin up to replace Biden on the D ticket. I think he has a good chance of beating Trump. I think his abortion position of an unexpanded Roe V wade is the correct one. Trump has been wavering on the issue recently. Manchin will never run as a third party candidate. The R’s will keep Biden’s influence peddling in the news but will not impeach him. They’d rather let him self destruct after he pardons his son and brother.
UNI-PARTY is why
RINO’s to right, Wokie’s to Left of me
no were but middle of Uni-Party for me
Manchin is basically a “rotating villain” DONORcrat. He gives the other DONORcrats cover so that DONORcrat Party governments can continue to coddle giant corporations, the same way the Republicans do.
manchin is a USDA grade prime asshole. a great reflection of all amerikans. democracy works. has been for past 2500 years. see ancient greeks for clarification in flowery language if you are too dumb to understand my amerikan idiocracy ebonics.
What is really sad is all of the incubators that are destroyed in war when Hospitals are bombed, and premature babies are just left on the cold floor to die.
Biggest thing I got out of his speech is that abortion is a dead issue for the Dems at the federal level because they can’t agree at all on what it should be.
So I doubt they will have a cohesive policy ready for 2024 election so it will remain where it belongs at the state level.
Good Lord Please think – or just look at the 4 elections we just had.
Abortion decided all of them and they nearly cost Republicans the House in the midterms.
Be happy to place a friendly wager on this for the 2024 election.
So if an issue is fundamental and difficult we should just look the other way to get elected.We can slaughter babies up to and including birth but one week later it’s genocide if we chop their heads off.
Stop this killing babies BS. And it is genocide only in your religiously twisted mind. I am tired of it.
If a pregnant woman is assaulted and loses her unborn baby as a result, the perpetuator can be charged with murder. So, the legal system (at least under certain circumstances) effectively recognizes that the fetus is a person and harming it is murder.
The taking of an innocent life is murder. Where that life exists is irrelevant.
Ref: Wikipedia : Number of abortions: India = 100,000,000. China = 336,000,000, United States = 62,000,000.
What is your definition of genocide?
Quite possible the Dems use abortion to win elections instead of rights. The “outrage” vote keeps women voting Democratic even though their lifestyle is whittled away. The GOP actually wants to change the laws, and they pay for it in the ballotbox
Colorado has a Democrat legislature, and (I think?) a Democrat governor. The slime balls tried to pass “Proposition HH” that pundits on both sides of the political aisle described as “a very deceptive tax increase.” Basically, the politicians and bureacrats tried to repeal the Tax Payer Bill of Rights which limited their ability to raise taxes at will… except they tried to claim it was a tax cut, and no one believed the lie!
Colorado voters, who lean Democrat, voted 60% AGAINST. See all the human feces and needles and meth addicts in California? How many Coloradoans want to cover CO in poo? Why would high taxes/bloated government in CO work differently from high taxes/bloated government in CA? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
The common theme from US voters is we are sick of a bloated corrupt government demanding more and more resources to fail worse and worse.
Its not just abortion or healthcare or foreign policy or pointless wars or failed trade policies or crumbling infrastructure or unprotected borders or failed education system or never ending debt masquerading as “growth” or corrupt bureaucrats. Its all the above.
Its a gerontocracy that takes bribes from foreign and domestic oligarchs.
Only a fool believes more taxes and more government power is going to have a different effect than it has for the last 50+ years. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
Manchin is right. Whatever we do to try to “fix” the USA… its not going to happen via corrupt federal bureaucrats supposedly controlled by a gerontocracy.
All sorts of empty federal office space in Maryland, Virginia and in DC. All sorts of behind-on-payments commercial real estate in cities all over. Quite a few commercial buildings are officially in default / turned over to creditors.
So naturally, the FBI is going to construct new HQ in Maryland on a new campus… instead of using the federal government’s existing empty buildings, or converting CRE.
does anyone like you know about stock DEA. govt propery REIT
Well, to be fair, the current building has been falling down for at least two decades. And is a close second to the African American Museum as the ugliest building on the Mall in DC. At least the AAM is a PC-based architectural joke, FBI HQ was meant to be taken seriously. So, there is that.
I don’t know how anyone can live with killing a baby. Liberalism is just disgusting.
Killing a baby sums it up. I remember reading about a hospital ward where there was a woman trying to carry a difficult pregnancy at 25 weeks and the doctors referred to the baby. In the next bed was another woman choosing to have an abortion at 25 weeks and those same doctors were calling it a termination of a foetus.
So both were 25 weeks but one was a baby and the other just a foetus.
As for abortion at 26 weeks it frequently leaves a live baby born that is left to die. With medical care there are now many premmy babies born at 26 weeks that with advanced neonatal care not only live but have few or no long term health issues. There are also cases of babies at 24 weeks that make it. Further advances in neonatal care might get that to less than 23 weeks and even that might not be the limit.
So legalising infanticide is OK to many. Wrong on so many levels
https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12427-uab-hospital-delivers-record-breaking-premature-baby#:~:text=Guinness%20World%20Records%20–%20The%20most,making%20him%20132%20days%20premature.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/patient-stories/684-youngest-surviving-premature-twins-born-at-cleveland-clinic-make-strides-after-138-days-in-nicu#:~:text=At%2022%20weeks%2C%20Kimyah%20and,at%20Cleveland%20Clinic%20Hillcrest%20Hospital.
looks like the. It off should be around 20 weeks to me.
20 weeks is a reasonable position. 6 isn’t
any law that reaches into a vagina or a rectum or penis is a law too far. ffs worry about your own body. the idiots in world want to control everybody and everything. they want a pig in my bedroom bathroom cabinet and doc’s office……….fuck off.
ASK BIBI AND THE USA MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. the greatest baby killers on planet……..
The solution is for the Federal government to get its nose out of everyone’s business and to start to live under the constraints set upon it by the Constitution.
Compromise increases spending and increases the deficit.
Fetus rights vs. Woman rights – what a discussion. The extremes are simple. Nobody seriously suggests aborting in the 8th months – let’s say. Similarly, nobody would sweat about aborting a lethally genetic-defective zygote in the first month due to insect. Right?
All is left for us humans is to draw a boundary line(s).
I would accept that any woman going for abortion would need to get training about (1) implications to the fetus, and (2) contraceptives.
No, the government has no part in a personal decision.
Government is the people and the people have every right to be concerned about the slaughter of babies. A society that tolerates the killing of fully formed human life is a society incapable of judging right and wrong.
The Republican politics on abortion are failing because the advocates are failing to inform and persuade the people what it is that needs to be stopped and prevented. Alas, if the people want to practice infanticide they will and society will reap the whirlwind.
I agree Floyd, and that boundary line could be very simple. Take all the “Talking Points” away, and all the attempts at painting the question way more than it actually is, and there is your boundary.
Questions (Boundaries):
1. When does the Fetus reach the point of “Viability” (A Baby, The state of being viable; capability of living; specifically, capability in the fetus of continued existence after removal from the womb)?
2. At this time (Viability), when the Baby is now a “Living Human Being” if you were to abort it, is that an act of taking the Baby’s (Viability) Life?
3. Was the Fetus a creation between two people? If both people are responsible for the Fetus, then should both parties have a say in the topic of Aborting the Fetus (ending its (Viable) Life?
4. Who is “Legally Responsible” financially for the Baby if it is Born and now needs to be taken care of?
1A – If your answer is: At any time before the actual birth, then ask yourself what that implies…
2A – Once the fetus becomes a Baby (it is now viable) ask yourself the ramifications of your decision making now that it is a living creature.
3A – If both parties played an equal role in the creation of the fetus, then shouldn’t both parties also have an equal role in the decision making of the fetus, once it becomes a Baby (Viable)?
4A – Shouldn’t only the parties with a say (on life) have the responsibility of whether or not the Baby is aborted, and the financial ramifications of that decision. If somebody with no say, no decision, and only has ramifications of someone else’s decision, then is that actually fair? Shouldn’t either party be able to choose to take care of the child on their own, if the other chooses not too?
Just questions being thrown out there for conversation. No implications of anything, and don’t take offense, as these are only “Topics For Adult Conversation”
So Mish, now that abortion is in the Ohio constitution it’s off the table there, right? Can’t come into play in the 2024 presidential election there since it’s “enshrined”?
RINO’s have it the roughest. Have to fake being conservative and side with Democrats. Releasing the j6 tapes was a coffin sealer. Should have honored it. A lot going on in those videos they don’t want anyone knowing about. One FED officer just got busted for lying under oath. Going to be a lot more of that the next couple of years if those tapes get out. It was clearly a ruse.
Very few vacate a senate seat voluntarily.
Glad to see him go! What a farce he is. Was the vote to pass the “inflation reduction act”, He has lined his pockets and made his family wealthy. Mission accomplished!!
manchin is a phoney baloney huckster……….the worst of mankind. slick as hell too. amerikans suck. they love grifters. someday we’ll mature. i’d give us another 500 years to get the balls to guillotine the bastards……..if ever. bunch of baby seals begging to be clubbed.
Texas voters approved (by 65% margin, more than most politicians get, and a LOT more then the folks in DC) a state (not federal) initiative to improve Texas’ energy infrastructure. By energy, they mean electricity.
It effectively unwinds a lot of the federal “expert” stupidity. It calls for redundancy, backups, and on-demand “thermal power” (aka natural gas, an abundant resource in Texas).
It starts to unwind the electrical rate hikes of the Biden regime, for both businesses (aka jobs) and for consumers (aka voters).
I wonder if the voters in WV will order their next governor to ignore Washington bureaucrats and focus on improving the lives of… I donno… the people of WV?
As the 10th amendment makes clear, authority over energy use is not in the US Constitution and thus belongs to the states or the people. Not federal bureaucrats or some busy body oligarch in NYC!!!
I’m positive lesser regulations will be great for Texans. Nothing can go wrong.
I’m positive the extra regulations in California are working like a charm. Highest gas prices. Highest electricity, most of which is generated NIMBY. And now Comrade Newsome wants to charge for electricity based on income. From each according to their income, to each according to whether they voted ‘correctly’
It doesn’t matter. Leonardo diCaprio and Zuckerberg and Bill Gates will get into separate private jets, and meet up with the private jets of John Kerry and Mike Bloomberg at the next environmental conference overseas.
Rules for taxpayers, not for the oligarchs that make the rules.
It’s being held on Little Saint James island.
Rational voters do not share Republican superstitious hallucinations of fetal majority.
You nailed it again Mish. Far too many of your readers are braindead; thinking that their preferred party will solve America’s problems. And they want to turn their anger on you when you point out the obvious shortcomings of both parties.
Since there is no Ignore or Block button on this site, I am subjected to their frequent moronic posts as I attempt to peruse the comments, looking for the occasional bit of wisdom that will help me improve my personal situation.
Sadly, that means that I am reading fewer and fewer comments, and posting fewer comments as well.
Still a good blog; just need a Block button.
Bye for now.
THIS BLOG IS GOOD. SUCKS WITHOUT IGNORE FEATURE. PAPA DAVE IS THE BEST THIS SITE HAS. PS. MANCHIN IS AN ASSHOLE. FUCK HIM. GO HOME AND COUNT YOUR MONEY. JUST ANOTHER DOUCHE IN POCKETS OF MIC AND BANKERS AND PHARMA……….ENERGY…………LOBBY GRIFTERS.
Third party candidates is how SlowJoe is going to get re-elected next year with about 38% of the vote.
The government is too big and is sticking its meddling nose in too many issues that are none of its business. That’s the common theme behind Ukraine and Gaza and abortion and healthcare and terror and farm subsidies and energy policy and … pretty much everything in Washington.
Remember “That government which governs least, governs best”? (Thomas Jefferson)
Remember “The US will prosper if it stays out of foreign wars that have nothing to do with us” (George Washington, paraphrased from a longer quote)
The politicians want everyone to forget how much better the economy was doing when the government was less than 10% of GDP …. versus more than 38% of GDP now (fed + state + local + GSEs).
Two trillion spending deficits forever, pointless wars, ineffective (and often corrupt) bureaucracies…
PS — where do all the politicians and bureaucrats and generals (both parties) go after they finish their alleged “public service”?
Check the boards of directors of weapons manufacturers, pharmaceuticals, consulting companies, etc
Goldman Sachs might have a revolving door with the Fed…. but Raytheon has a revolving door with the Pentagon, while Pfizer has a revolving door with NIH/CDC/FDA.
I just hope a ton of 3rd party candidates make it on the ballot next year; perhaps he will as well. Every vote cast for them is a vote of “No Confidence” in the welfare/warfare uniparty….”And that’s a good thing!”
The abortion issue has been push back to the state, where it belongs. There is no authority in the Constitution to legislate either way on abortion. Of course that also applies to a large swath of the Administrative State. Candidates at the Federal level are just pissed that a good wedge issue has been removed from their quiver.
Manchin seems to confuse his personal preferences with the “will of the people”.
Until Citizens United is overturned, corporate interests will 100% own politics and politicians.
Jim Justice (Republican sitting Gov of WV running for the Senate) had a lead on him to begin with.
Yeah, Gov. Justice’s lead was already huge. Sen. Manchin saw the writing on the wall.
Agree. Manchin isn’t stepping aside because he suddenly saw the light. He realized he was gonna get clobbered by Justice and wisely jumped ship to save face. Smart move on his part.
I personally couldn’t care less who controls the Senate, House, etc. These politicians are extensions of us. They originate in the body politic and are elected by the body politic. So what does that say about the body politic?
I quit voting decades ago. Its pointless. Most would agree that having only one choice on election day would essentially be a dictatorship, but those same people perform some impressive mental gymnastics to justify that having two choices (Dem or Rep) is the difference between a dictatorship and a republic. At best its an oligarchy.
Lifetime NYC resident Michael Bloomberg has promised to spend “another” $500 million to end the coal industry in WV (on top of what he has already spent). Bloomberg was a lifetime democrat, then he switched to a temporary republican to ride on Rudy Guilianni’s coat tails, but once he was out of office Bloomberg reverted to a democrat again. Bloomberg also ran a failed presidential campaign in which he told rural voters that they shouldn’t have guns because guns are a problem back in NYC for reasons that have little to do with guns and everything to do with bad social policies.
Those from the NYC area might remember Mayor Bloomberg was at his Bermuda mansion (in a gated community in Bermuda to be more precise) when NYC was hit by “superstorm” Sandy. Same mayor who wanted to have NYC marathon runners jump over storm debris on Staten Island and Queens a year later. This should tell everyone how much billionaire Bloomberg cares about his fellow NYC’ers, forget about the coal miners in WV.
Well, now democrat Bloomberg wants to “help” the folks in WV by destroying one of the few industries remaining. And its not like Bloomberg’s anti WV policies differ from the DNC in Washington. All democrats are expected to toe the party line.
Will Bloomberg spend a penny on new jobs for WV? Or will the Bloomberg millions go toward bribing environmental consultants in Washington DC?
The coal miners know the answer.
mayor bloomberg literally epitomy of asshole. and easiest money i made was betting my idiot wall st pals……..when he ran for president. MAYOR BUTTINSKY was his name in my world.
Mayor Bloomberg is not merely a self-appointed expert on coal and the environment.
He also knows how much sugar should be in your soda, and he knows how many hours you need to spend on a city bike pedaling through the potholes and slush.
Why is he dispensing free candy and double caffeine sugared soda at his namesake company? Why are employees tracked with e-tags like heads of cattle and told not to waste time outside in the city air?
He is a world renowned expert on how to run your life.
His fellow NYC’ers didn’t call him “nanny bloomberg” by accident.
The democrat party used to represent blue collar workers… but now its controlled by people like Bloomberg (the republicans have their own set of corruption / issues)
i sell big gulps on my corner next to the heroin dealers………….gotta kick up some benjamins though. long live mayor buttinsky
This sounds like a guy who might end up as half of a No Labels ticket.
I think that is a given, hence his “tour”. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out, especially if Kenedy remains in the contest.