What in the fuck "organized process" was supposed to happen in a candidate deciding whether to run?
The "organized process" for deciding the nominee is the primary (ended this month, Biden won). Fucking Peter David out here like "well ackshually no one wrote a pros/cons list"
It is incredibly inconvenient for so many narratives that there was an open primary, no serious challengers entered, and Biden won it handily, with 2012 Obama rates of uncommitted on 75% more raw turnout.
And so basically everyone just pretends that didn't happen and doesn't count.
"The person who won the election to land their first term gets to decide whether they want to run again and, if they do so, are pretty much guaranteed to win the primary for obvious reasons" is a hard thing for a lot of folks to grasp.
"Fuck those party elites, they can't override the will of the voters, unless I think the voters fucked up in which case there should be a way for party elites to override the will of the voters".
Both of these comments are disingenuous. They ignore that running against Biden would be political suicide because of the influence of party elites and donors. Democratic voters were dissatisfied and were given no organized alternatives.
the lived experience with age in elections, for better or worse, is that it actually does not matter to voters.
John Ashcroft famously lost a senate campaign to a guy who who had been dead for three weeks!
The funniest part is that the common thought seems to be “well but that’s only among people who voted, people who didn’t vote aren’t being represented” which… like… yeah that’s what we’ve been telling you.
Also if biden had passed the torch to Harris early last year, she might have a really good chance right now. But in as much as she would have the best chance of any democratic candidate if they picked a new one right now. I don't think she would have a good enough shot to make it worth the risk.
