Pun Salad

Curious about the headline? Here you go:

That's more cheery! I think.

But if you're more in the Munch mood, Charles C. W. Cooke has a prediction: the Loser of This Election Will Be Forever Stained

That's a "gifted" link, so feel free to check it out.

As for our regular Sunday look at the betting odds:

Executive summary: no doubt due to his shouty, non-drooly, State of the Union speech, Biden improved his odds a bit. The big loser is… well, as Democrat stalwart Renée Graham says in her Boston Globe column: Michelle Obama is not coming to save us.

But, perhaps as a result of Michelle's drop, RFKJr popped back above our 2% threshold. Perhaps buoyed by the recent news, as reported at Axios: RFK Jr. nears major ballot wins in 3 battleground states.

And, as usual, there's still a significant fraction for "Other". Wagering, I assume, on that always-possible "actuarial event".

Also of note:

• We are used to deranged people talking about this. But David Friedman is not deranged, so attention should be paid: Trump’s Threat to Democracy.

  Suppose that, despite any legal tactics of the opposition, Trump ends up in the White House, in control of both the federal legal apparatus and, through his supporters, those of multiple states. After the repeated use of lawfare against him by his opponents it is hard to imagine Trump refraining from responding in kind or his supporters expecting him to.

  At which point we are getting close to the situation in a variety of nominally democratic states, most obviously Putin’s Russia, where the ruling party stays in power by weaponizing the legal system against its opponents, relying on its control of law enforcement to deal with any hostile response.

  The scholars also warned that serious political instability and violence could ensue. That possibility was on Raskin’s mind, too. He conceded that the threat of violence could influence what Democrats do if Trump wins. But, Raskin added, it wouldn’t necessarily stop them from trying to disqualify him. “We might just decide that’s something we need to prepare for.” ("How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t," Russel Berman in The Atlantic.)

  Trump may end up responsible for the destruction of democracy in the US — through things he scared his enemies into doing.

  An all-too-credible scenario.

  In other depressing news: Trump praises ‘fantastic’ Viktor Orbán while hosting Hungarian autocrat at Mar-a-Lago for meeting and concert.

• Worse than Obama? About the SOTU yell-in, Philip Klein notes Biden Delivers The Most Anti-Israel Presidential Speech In History.

  In the early days of the war, Biden claimed that Hamas needed to be destroyed, but tonight that got downgraded to saying that Israel has the right to “go after” Hamas.

  Yet each day, Biden undermines Israel’s ability to go after Hamas. He has warned Israel not to go into Rafah, the part of southern Gaza where the last remnants of Hamas are hiding, and each day he demands a cease-fire deal. But his constant attacks on Israel are actually making Hamas dig in. As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier, “Egyptian officials said [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar believes Hamas currently has the upper hand in negotiations, citing internal political divisions within Israel, including cracks in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government and mounting U.S. pressure on Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.”

  The overarching message was clear: The October 7 attacks were bad, but Israel’s response has been worse. Palestinians deserve our support, but Israel does not.

• What could go wrong? The architect of the Afghanistan debacle unveiled another plan in his SOTU shoutfest. Luther Ray Abel takes a hard look: Biden's Pier in Gaza Portends Disaster.

  President Biden, during his State of the Union address, announced an effort to create an aid corridor to Gaza that will include a U.S.–constructed pier for shipments of food and other supplies to reach Palestinians. This “temporary” construction would be a significant expansion of the Biden administration’s aid measures and no longer done at arm’s length, whatever promises of “no American boots on the ground” the president might make. As with all else, there are only tradeoffs. In this case, it’s almost all bad. The president’s design will create a locus of aid transfer that endangers American servicemen while failing to ensure the aid cannot be appropriated by Hamas.

  The most recent efforts, air-dropping aid in collaboration with the Jordanian air force, resulted in a reported five Palestinian deaths (per Hamas-compromised Gaza Health Ministry) after a parachute failed to deploy correctly on one parcel. The pallet in question was not a U.S.-dropped aid parcel, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). The White House’s proposed pier solution would endanger American lives, almost certainly experience mission creep that turns temporary into tem-permanent, and, because of Biden’s promise of “no boots” would require a third party to handle dissemination of supplies — Qatar has volunteered to bankroll much of it.

  As Abel goes on to note, Qatar has long been Hamas-friendly.

• Where have you gone, Joe Lieberman? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Hey, is it at all possible that I could have someone to vote for in November? Perhaps! Matt Welch catches up with… No Labels, With No Candidate, Says Yes to a 2024 Presidential Campaign.

  No Labels says it's about to jump into the 2024 presidential race.

  A day prior to a secret delegate meeting that's not a convention, the centrist nonprofit that isn't a political party indicated Thursday that the members whom it won't name are almost certainly going to agree with the backers it refuses to disclose that a non-existent unity ticket to be chosen via undetermined process should nonetheless be green-lit to enter a presidential contest that No Labels swears it can plausibly win and definitely not tip to Donald Trump.

  "We expect our delegates to encourage the process to continue," No Labels Chief Strategist Ryan Clancy told The Wall Street Journal.

  The Joe Lieberman–chaired organization remains convinced, all contrary evidence notwithstanding, that what disgruntled voters most crave as an alternative to Beltway politics as usual is a centrist coalition of establishment office-holders who can out-hawk both major parties on foreign policy.

  I'm kind of a hawk myself, so … maybe!