The state of Michigan will be crucial to President Joe Biden’s chances if he hopes to spend a second term doddering around the White House. However, from photographic evidence of what was being served aboard Air Force One, it’s almost as if he wants to lose the Midwest state.
Biden’s visit to Michigan on Thursday was a bit of a mixed bag to begin with. The good part: He gave a speech to the United Auto Workers after receiving the union’s endorsement in the 2024 campaign, according to Axios.
“When labor does well, everybody does well,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript. “I asked the Treasury Department to do a study on the impact of unions on wealth and society. The single biggest reason why we have — unions are growing, the single biggest reason why the economy is growing, because you are the best workers in the world. That’s not hyperbole. No, you really are.”
Never mind that whenever the president says something is “not hyperbole,” it absolutely is, or that UAW president Shawn Fain acknowledged in a Fox TV interview that, while the union brass supports him, “A great majority of our members will not vote for President Biden.” He had a bigger problem on his hands in terms of protests from Arab-Americans, who are a significant voting bloc in Michigan and remain unhappy that he’s decided to back Israel in its war against Hamas.
“Some Palestinian American community leaders declined an invitation to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken today, saying they ‘cannot imagine’ what he could have to say after ‘nearly four unbearable months,” Axios reported. “Last week, some Arab American elected officials refused to meet with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in Michigan — calling it ‘dehumanizing’ to discuss electoral politics while the war is ongoing.”
The outlet also noted that the state is ground zero for an “Abandon Biden” plan to divert votes from the president to a third-party candidate to express their displeasure over how he’s handled the situation in Gaza.
And, according to ABC News, pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police outside the event Thursday in a tense standoff that lasted over a half- hour.
“Joe, hear our demand, you have blood on your hands,” the activists chanted during the skirmish.
So you have a union endorsement that may mean practically nothing and a major voting bloc in a swing state that is prepared to let it go to Trump over Biden’s policies in support of Israel’s right to fight a terrorist organization.
Does Biden face insurmountable trouble in 2024?
How do you top that all off?
Bad pizza, that’s how.
According to a picture from Bloomberg White House reporter Josh Wingrove, this was the “Detroit-style pizza” the administration served aboard Air Force One on the way back from the Michigan trip:
The Air Force One dinner tonight after the Michigan trip: Detroit-style pizza. pic.twitter.com/hfIutcUMp2
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) February 2, 2024
Yikes.
Now, all areas of the United States have unique dishes that you just don’t throw shade on, at least if you want to kiss up to voters. New York-style pizza, Taylor Ham in New Jersey, Skyline Chili in Ohio, In-N-Out burgers in California — these are regional haute cuisines that you don’t mess with if you want to cross state lines unscathed.
Next to the oddly named Coney Island hot dog — oddly named because Coney Island is in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and the Coney Island hot dog is from very-much-not-Brooklyn Detroit — Detroit-style pizza may be the most widely recognized delicacy from the Motor City. And if you confuse it with Chicago-style pizza, well, them’s fightin’ words.
“A Chicago-style slice is built upon a flaky, thin, deep crust similar to a traditional pie. On the other hand, Detroit-style pizza relies on a thick and fluffy crust reminiscent of focaccia,” Green Lantern Pizza, a Detroit-area chain, explains on its website.
“A Detroit-style crust stands out among other crusts thanks to its airier texture and cheesy, crispy underside. To achieve its famous combination of a crunchy outside and chewy center, Detroit-style pizza requires a wetter dough than other types of pizza. When Detroit-style pizza dough finds the perfect ratio of water to flour, the resulting crust will be able to maintain its soft inside while developing a crispy exterior.”
And yeah — that may have been a “crispy exterior” to that Air Force One “Detroit-style pizza,” all right, but not in a way that garnered much appreciation from social media users in relation to the presidential race:
Mom Joe Biden is trying to lose Michigan on purpose https://t.co/OLsWjviEGX
— umichvoter 🏳️🌈 (@umichvoter) February 2, 2024
This is going to cost Biden Michigan. https://t.co/xA9UQU8WAf
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) February 2, 2024
Biden gave the press burned bagels with a little tomato sauce and told them it’s “Detroit-style pizza” 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/bhYrqwYjnw
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 1, 2024
It’s charred pizza, folks.
Now, burnt kinda-pizza on Air Force One probably wouldn’t hurt if didn’t work as perfect symbolism for both the Michigan trip and the Biden administration as a whole.
In Michigan, the president touted an endorsement from the UAW that the UAW’s president concedes is meaningless, considering “a great majority” of his union’s members won’t be casting a ballot for Joe Biden. (Gee — I wonder who they might be supporting? Is there any current GOP front-running candidate with a wide base of blue-collar support I’m forgetting about?)
Meanwhile, Arab-American voters, who helped put Biden over the top in 2020, are infuriated that he’s not abandoning Israel and letting the terrorists overrun the Jewish state, or at least actively pushing for a “ceasefire” that would be little more than a regroup for the barbarians behind the Oct. 7 attacks.
Of course, should he do that, he’d lose even more votes from people with common sense and decency.
But what did Democrats expect when Biden got propped up and plopped down into the White House, in part with the help of the voters of Michigan? Again, perfect symbolism: They thought they were getting a decent (if aged) slice of Detroit-style pizza, and they got a slab of charred bread in its place.
The bromide goes that a picture says a thousand words. In this case, it could just say 15 electoral votes — and that’s even worse for the president.
