October (Mild) Surprise

Per Axios, Joe Biden "will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession and will call on governors to pardon simple state possession offenses." He's also going to "also ask Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to begin a review of how marijuana is scheduled as a drug under federal law."

These are 1) nice things, 2) a good start, and 3) things he'd been more or less promising since 2019.

I was beginning to assume all that was just more of his bullshit, and was mildly surprised that it happened ... until I said "wait a minute, duh, he's exactly the kind of politician who keeps easy, simple deliverables in his pocket until he thinks they'll most positively impact him or his party in an upcoming election."

Will it positively impact Democrats in next month's midterms?

I suspect any effect will be negligible.

The pardons are probably too late for any actual convicts to get registered to vote by state deadlines.

Most people who 1) favor marijuana legalization and 2) vote probably already vote Democrat if they don't vote Libertarian or Green, and not many of the latter two parties' voters are likely to switch parties.

Maybe a minor bump to turnout in some areas, especially if the Democratic candidates openly favor legalization ... like, say, John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Raphael Warnock in Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, Mark Kelly in Arizona, Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Tim Ryan in Ohio ...  say, do those names ring any bells?

I'm not sure any GOTV bump will be enough to make the difference, but if that's what it took to get Biden off the dime, well, I'm glad something got him of the dime.