Weekly Takes - Monday, July 15 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, July 15 Edition

1. Whether it is just Wes Clark or more to come, the Maple Leafs need to determine who in their front office wants to leave for Kyle Dubas and Pittsburgh.

It has been over a year now. Let's move on. You either want to be a Maple Leaf or you don't.

2. My thoughts on Canada's semifinal loss to Argentina on Tuesday...

• It is so, so impressive that Canada was competitive against Argentina twice in this tournament. My biggest hope for the program has always been "Be the kings of CONCACAF, qualify for World Cups regularly, and maybe in your best tournament or two, make it all the way to the Round of 16, only to get slaughtered by the world's elites." They showed they can hang with the world elites.

• Coming into Copa, the main focus point, for me, was to have Canada exposed to the world elites ahead of hosting the World Cup in 2026. This game was the best example of that. The players have a living example of what can happen when they have a moment of slip-up against a world power. A watershed moment for the program.

• The lack of scoring is truly the only disappointment, however. Jonathan David and Cyle Larin have to be better. It would not hurt to give Tani Oluwaseyi a look in the third-place game on Saturday. The future is now.

3. My thoughts on Canada's third-place loss to Uruguay on Saturday...

• A dominant performance against a near-world-class opponent is a fitting way to end the tournament for Canada. Winning would have been nice, but seeing the likes of Ismael Kone and Luc De Fougerolles perform as well as they did outweighed any result.

• Kone is as important as any Canadian player in the years ahead. The future of the midfield. A true game-changer.

4. Keith Pelley's first move as President of MLSE should have been to fire Brendan Shanahan, as it would have sent a message to everyone within the company that losing will not be tolerated.

But the easiest move he will ever make as President came on Thursday when he exiled Bill Manning from the company. Long, long overdue.

It should be interesting to see what he does now. Does he hand the keys over to John Herdman to run the entire program? Or does he find someone with MLSE experience to oversee Toronto FC?

I would do the latter, but there is no wrong way to go. It is only up from here for TFC.

5. Since the debate, what has most blown my mind is how bad of a job Joe Biden supporters have done at defending him.

“The American people voted him as their nominee.” Wrong, it was an uncontested primary. No true Democrat would have had any party support if they ran against Biden. It’s insulting to hear the elites say “Anyone could have run against him.” Let’s be real.

“Why doesn’t Donald Trump step down?” Probably because he’s winning in the polls and has the backing from a vast majority of Republicans and their base? The urging from the left for Biden to step down isn’t being done for moral reasons. It’s an issue of not wanting to lose, which will happen if Biden stays in the race.

“This isn’t an episode of West Wing.” It is truly as simple as having Biden step down and having him pledge his support for his Vice President, who is leading Trump in a majority of polls. Nothing extreme is needed by the Democrats here.

“The debate was just one bad performance.” Even on his best night (his Thursday press conference, whether we like it or not, was his best night in a long time), he referred to the President of Ukraine as “Vladimir Putin” and called Kamala Harris “Donald Trump.” He is mentally not well. Good luck winning an election by telling people that what they are seeing and hearing is not real. Just don’t blame certain groups once Trump wins in November.

5. The most intriguing part in all of this is what happens next.

If Biden steps down, the media will go back on the offensive at Trump. But if he stays in, do they keep hammering Biden, or do they pivot back to hammering Trump?

It is tough to see how the media can possibly return back to Biden’s side, after all the bashing they have done the last two weeks. But if Biden is truly staying in the race and they keep hammering him? The election in November will be a bloodbath.

6. Almost everything that I wrote above about the election is irrelevant after the attempted assassination of Trump.

I have no idea where things go next.

Does Trump play the card of "See, the left is so intolerant and wants anarchy" or does he flip the switch and -- alongside Biden -- do his part to turn the rhetoric way down?

For the sake of America, I would hope it is the latter, as this should be a wake-up call to everyone that anything, to anyone, can happen at any time, no matter how much protection one supposedly has.

But politically, he is a generational fear-monger and can use this as a political tool to fear-monger for one final time. He is already leading in the polls and may try to use this to put him over the top.

Let's see where he goes.

7. To me, he is best to play the card of the latter. Morally, it is not even a question that he should help turn the rhetoric down, but even politically, I think it is the play as well.

He is already leading Biden in the polls. Why not flip the switch and try to become a "Uniter in Chief." Biden supporters will still vote for Biden and Trump supporters will still vote for Trump, but there are millions of Americans who have no interest in voting for either right now. If Trump uses this moment to calm down the rhetoric, I think he will bring in a lot of voters who do not like him because they think he is divisive.

8. Let's be clear about one thing too: The picture of him bleeding out of his ear with his fist in the air and the American flag in the background is badass. Your average, Gen-Z American does not care about politics, but they care about being edgy and cool. Trump has the potential to unlock an entire demographic of young voters. He can play the "look at Biden and then look at me" card better than ever before.

Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong for Biden in this election.

9. Lastly, I cannot even fathom how this happened. Why was this area not protected? I have always been of the understanding that if an area is within shooting range of a potential target, the Secret Service has it under total lockdown.

This is unimaginable.