Jennifer Van Goethem: Two things can be true. The media is being grossly irresponsible. The campaign is not meeting the moment.

Holy moly www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Sen. Mark Warner works to gather Senate Democrats to ask Biden to exit racewww.washingtonpost.com Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is attempting to assemble a group of Democratic senators to go to the White House on Monday and ask that Joe Biden exit the presidential race, according to two people with dir...

Jesus fucking Christ this is collective insanity

I'd like to believe that but honestly I think it seems like Biden is too risky now.

I think they’re falling for a gigantic rat fuck both of mass hysteria, personally.

Agreed.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Biden’s risky because everyone thinks he’s risky. We’re all in a Schelling tipping point game.

That I agree with. But it feels like Democrats aren't just freaking out because the media is freaked - they are legitimately questioning his ability to be reelected under these conditions.

Exactly. “Ability to be reelected” is directly linked to what everyone is saying about the risks of him staying in the race. Perception is creating reality.

But it's linked to the reality we all saw of him faltering at the debate. Beginning to feel like we have to choose between what they say or our lying eyes.

I mean, Trump is an insane felon rapist and a lot of people still voted for him. There’s no rule that says we have to honorably give a shit about if our candidate comes off as slightly addled, especially when we’ve got a perfectly good VP who can take over as soon as he makes it past the post.

Hey, I'll vote for a literal puppet on a stick if that's who the Democrats nominate. They can weekend at Bernie's him for all I care. But will everyone, is the question.

Yeah like Agree or disagree with him (I honestly don't know which camp I'm in yet!), I'm pretty sure that what's motivating Mark Warner of all people is genuine, honest panic that Biden isn't up to winning this election He's not someone who like, has axes to grind with Biden

I don’t think he has an ax to grind with Biden. I do think that jumpy Democrat politicians in the DC bubble aren’t exactly immune to mass hysteria.

Yes, for sure I mean for me it just comes down to What is the underlying truth of the matter??

This week SCOTUS killed Chevron deference, gave Trump total immunity, and Trump was credibly tied to Epstein, and it seems to me if your campaign somehow seriously can't find a way to then change the topic of conversation in the newspapers or stop your party panicking, what are we doing here exactly

Like, yes, ok, the media owns some of this. But also ... if you have a campaign, literally any of those are gigaquake events to change the tide and frame what you're going to do and take that message to the voters, and how exactly is it the campaign can't capitalize on it? That's the issue

Two things can be true. The media is being grossly irresponsible. The campaign is not meeting the moment.

Totally. The media is mean to Biden, and they are going to be mean to Harris. That's life. It sucks. Politics is dirty. But idk, part of campaigning is being able to help drive the news and get your message out to voters, not just be completely blindsided repeatedly by it.

This is, however, what I have heard from my Bronx friends and neighbors (all races): They're out to get him because he's been a good President. He's our President and that's who we need to back.

I know none of the Beltway people would ever travel north of 116th Street (if they even make it that far.) But it might be an eye-opener.

He's struggling to persuade his party leadership, never mind voters right now. They need to end this cycle one way or another, and that's up to him and his campaign, not something anyone on Bluesky is going to post into a conclusion

Bronx folks keep it real. ❤️

I think the general public can and should criticize the media to their heart's content, and there's plenty to complain about in all this. But I have very little patience for candidates blaming it all on the media when it's not going well. That's part of the job, that's on you.

Right and the post debate hole up at camp david was just malpractice.

And it plays into the worst of the narrative because, as they all note, Biden's whole thing his whole career was the gift of gab. He'd talk a reporter's ears off just because he was bored. He was super constantly available and never shut up. So when he's the exact opposite of that now...

20 years ago, the media had a lot more control of the narrative. These days, it's much easier for candidates to talk to the public directly, and it's on them if they don't do it.

Trump very famously did this himself. His message was horrible, but he did it and it was objectively very successful at circumventing the media

Yep.

A billion things wrong with his campaign, but boyhowdy he could drive a media cycle (very much to everyone's regret)

Agree but he had a lot of assistance from Fox, as well as MSNBC and CNN who broadcast pretty much every appearance, and in full.

Thank you for saying this, I feel like I'm going mad. Handling the media is a core part of the job. Sometimes that might mean crying foul when they're tough on you, as we'v seen w/ Trump, but if the strategy is to whip the base into a frenzy of hatred for the msm I have not seen any sign of it.

And if that's not the strategy, then there needs to be a different one and the campaign and candidate can fairly be judged on how effective it is.

You can’t get the momentum reversed if the media puts every little slip on full blast.

We’ve seen a lot the last week or so of the media elevating the “he’s old” story. I am sure campaign folks tip them to things like Epstein logs, and don’t papers have SCOTUS beats? Is Biden supposed to write the stories for them? Honest question.

Yeah.

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