* Bottom, rally-’round line for Dems and for America: Democracy is on the ballot. How tough a choice is that?
* Money matters: The Biden-Harris campaign closed out 2023 with a strong $97 million, 4th-quarter haul.
* “As I told you four years ago, we know Joe. But more importantly, Joe knows us.”–South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, in his introduction of President Biden at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where Biden addressed, among other things, “the poison of white supremacy.” Clyburn is Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign co-chairman.
* Labor market resilience: U.S. employers added 216,000 jobs in December. In November, it added 173,000. The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent.
* “We need to fix the border. There’s virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that.”–Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
* Nobody has a more formidable portfolio than Antony Blinken. Secretaries of State usually do—but his includes the murderously Muddled East and the sieve-like border with Mexico. Plus there’s the Russian-Ukraine war and all its ripple effects—from North Korea to NATO to partisan American politics.
* We’ve been living with presidential impeachment subplots—from Nixon and Clinton to Trump and Biden. Now House Republicans are maneuvering to impeach a cabinet member: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayoras. GOPsters contend that his management of the border amounts to a dereliction of his duties.
* Black small business ownership is growing at its fastest pace in 30 years.
* If GOPsters cherry-pick the Biden domestic record without context, then it’s fair to note that Donald Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when they came in.
* Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff recently represented the U.S. in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. His priorities also included highlighting the Administration’s commitment to countering the global rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia as well as promoting gender equity. That kind of high-profile portfolio is something you don’t typically see of a vice presidential spouse. Certainly not with Emhoff’s predecessor, Karen “Mother” Pence.