Sneed on Sunday …
It would makes quite a political movie script. “A Clear and Present Danger” drama.
Sneed is told an aging President Joe Biden was actually warned a year and a half ago by a top top Dem pollster that his re-election was in the doghouse with young voters.
His age was going to be a killer. The handwriting was on the wall.
Stunning in-house Dem polling was raising alarms within the party hierarchy. “Joe” was old and in trouble with Gen Z; the Millennials; and ostensibly those approaching voting age.
The only American president produced during the “Silent Generation: 1941-1945,” (Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were born in 1946) Joe Biden was listening, but resisting this Clarion call.
And powerful Dem kingpins were praying he’d pull out in advance of the primaries to allow the selection of someone new to showcase, said a top Dem Sneed source.
Enter popular Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a major Biden backer well aware of Biden’s falling polling numbers, a powerful pol with megabucks who long harbored a desire to seek the presidency himself. And he was being urged by powerful supporters to run in a primary in case the elderly Biden pulled the plug.
Ka-ching: Pritzker knew he would have an advantage over most opponents because he had the $3.5 billion fortune to fund a major primary campaign in the blink of an eye.
President Joe Biden, right, greets Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, from left, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., at O’Hare International Airport in 2021.
Susan Walsh/AP Photos
But Biden did not pull out until it was this/close — and too late.
And when Biden finally pulled out of the 2024 presidential sweepstakes last Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly stoked such powerful political thunder it was akin to the wind of a Zephyr on the Dakota prairie.
Instrumental last year in snagging Chicago as the site of Democratic National Convention, Pritzker saw his POTUS podium gone with the wind.
Still a Dem powerhouse, Pritzker is now a member of the veep sweepstakes hoping to make the Harris cut.
If Harris, 59, loses her POTUS bid, Pritzker, 59. has four years to wait to run for president.
If Harris wins in November, Pritzker could have an eight-year wait to run for the nation’s top job.
Patience.
The Tangerine Man Cometh …
It’s no secret Donald “I’m not going to be nice” Trump has vowed to prosecute and/or persecute his “enemies” to the hilt if he wins back the White House.
So I pose this question.
Will Biden opt to dial back his “NO” response to a press query weeks ago about whether he would “pardon” his son, Hunter Biden, found guilty earlier this summer on felony gun charges … if Trump wins the presidency?
It’s no secret Trump pardoned pals and political allies when he had the chance.
Will Joe?
The Maw of the Claw …
Social media memes may be killing Trump’s veep pick JD Vance since he declared “childless cat ladies force their misery on the rest of the country … because they don’t have kids,” but cats do rule!
The Meow Pow! YouTube videos online starring felines have accounted for more than 26 million views and have been found to relieve stress and be morale boosters.
Hey! Hey!
This one tugs at the heart!
Miss “Addison Clark” Carroll, 8, who was named after the two streets on the perimeter of the Chicago Cubs ballpark at Wrigley Field — and who was born in 2016 when the Cubbies won the World Series — and whose dad, Ryan Carroll, is a huge Cubs fan (natch!) … just flew in from her home in Texas to attend her first Cubs game.
And “Addie” held up a huge sign at the Cubs vs Diamondbacks game last Saturday to let everyone know!
Check out the pix!
Sneedlings …
All in the family: Margaret Cullerton Hooper, daughter of former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and mother of two, is running for a seat on Chicago’s elected school board in November.
Saturday birthdays: singer Maureen McGovern, 75; actor Betty Thomas, 77; comedian Maya Rudolph, 52; actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 47 … Sunday birthdays: former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, 81; legendary Chicago TV newsman Walter Jacobson, 87 … actor Jon Michael Hill, 39; Rapper Soulja Boy, 34 … and an early birthday shoutout next week to blues legend Buddy Guy, who will be 88.