In the world where Biden bowed out in June 2023, and VP Harris won a contested primary, how's the party doing rn?
Better? Worse? I tend to think better. Rs still running against the admin but the principal is able to do lots of public events/interviews and defend the record/attack Trump.
One factoid about the LBJ precedent - his approval rating surged after he bailed out of the 1968 race. Dipped again over the chaotic summer but we'll never know what the dynamic would have been if Biden was going out as a one-term elder statesman.
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/d...
Could make people feel better the country as a while which could obviously help the elder statesmen's successor. Also yeah it's an interesting bit of trivia.
I honest-to-god think Biden is a better abortion messenger than liberals admit. The Groups abandoning "safe, legal, and rare" messaging in 2016 was a mistake.
The road to Dobbs was paved with passionate purist intensity.
Canceling "safe, legal and rare"? Mistake. Declaring religion and personhood arguments out-of-bounds? Mistake. Drumming "pro-life" voices out of Democratic camps? Mistake.
[Blocking me for saying such horrible things? Mistake.]
hard disagree, the only thing that's come out of his mouth is Restore Roe which wouldn't even be a plan out of Harris but is far less of one out of him. I don't blame him for his gender or religious contradictions about it (I'm also Catholic) but both are a hindrance
sacrificing the incumbent advantage is insane, sorry. low-info voters would have no idea what happened, Kamala can't credibly claim Biden's many policy wins, and the left would instantly remember everything they attacked her for in 19 while the NYT screams Dems in Disarray like they didn't start it
She has the chops of an attorney general to go after Trump in a much more prosecutorial way. Trump will refuse to face her in the 2nd debate.
On the other hand she is not more popular than Biden, and all the attacks will switch from age to race/sex.
One thing we would see is that the right would lean hard into calling Kamala a "DEI hire". Ride that wave of resentment and paint her as unqualified. I imagine that would be one of the defining framings around the race. No idea if it that would hurt or help her though.
Much better because Buttigieg is already in the VP slot and the two of them are just running circles around Trump on every media platform that will give them 45 seconds of time. Every dark whisper campaign that she's black and he's gay just reinforces that he's a product of the old days.
The only reason that either one of them isn't getting completely destroyed on the age thing is that they are both doddering old fools that are half there mentally. If either side had a 50 year old, it's an automatic win.
In my retconned history, Democratic Senators convicted the House-impeached Bill Clinton and President Gore won his 2000 election on the strength of being the incumbent. I would not object to a similar scenario this year.
Stacey Abrams couldn't beat Kemp in Georgia partly because of some voters' misogyny and others' racism.
Biden for President, Harris for VP. He can lean on her when needed and step down when it gets to be too much, knowing he's leaving the country in capable hands.
She’d face an onslaught of racism and misogyny, and while that might energize some, it would also be exhausting and demoralizing to see how many would go along with it. And I’d imagine there’d be Dem/pundit voices second-guessing Bidens decision, etc
back in 2020 this was my dream scenario. Biden saying "I'm here to finish the work I started" while Harris made the forceful case for his record and her ability to continue it
The funny thing is, after all this drama, Kamala looks amazing by comparison.
Considering she’s also under 78, she’s going to look like a youthful breath of fresh air.
It's weird, but my conspiracy theory even after 2020 had been that Biden stepped aside after a midterm election (either 2022 or 2026) to give Harris the possibility of 2 full terms in her own right.
