Sticking with Biden or running Harris would be *far* less risky than dedicating two of the next four months to Democrat infighting, followed by an unprecedented delegate voting process and dubious chances of even getting on the ballot. Knowing this shit is supposed to be these people's job
If you're so concerned about the stakes of this election you could just... spend the next four months writing about the stakes of this election. A constant drip of articles calling the Democratic nominee unfit is also not a great strategy for winning!
"They can't even pick a nominee who doesn't have dementia! His VP pick was so bad they skipped her and had en entire second primary. And we're supposed to trust these people to run the country?"
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I actually think people are getting a bit over their skis on freaking out over Biden! We're talking about one terrible debate performance, something that can be turned around with a few good TV appearances. And bowing out could hurt Dem polling more than it helps.
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Giving up the incumbent advantage because a bunch of disingenuous and/or nihilistic journos have condemned Biden like he's an old building seems the dumbest thing imaginable. Biden wasn't my choice in the 2020 primaries, but he's the president now, and just being the president is a big advantage.
I tend to agree with this, but I also wonder whether the incompetent advantages just a species of low N. These things happen so infrequently I’m not sure you can derive any implications from “data”
this "one terrible debate performance" was the realization of concerns that had been around for years over something which typically does not get better with time
“We’ve been waiting for him to look out of sorts and semi-hoarse in public - even though he speaks in public literally multiple times per week while looking fine - and GUESS WHAT MOTHERFUCKERS”
This ageism thing is ridiculous when it's the people who are the supposed victims who have an iron grip on pretty much every lever of power in the country, truly their plight is most mournful. The Constitution specifically bars anyone too young from running.
Outside of letting Kamala take the reins, I don’t see an option beside keeping Biden in. Running a cut rate primary right now would be a disaster. And I’m saying this as someone who reeeeaaaally doesn’t want to vote for Biden but probably will because *gestures at everything*.
It does not matter one bit if Biden is capable of doing the job. It doesn't matter one bit if the voter base of the DNC still supports Biden. SWING VOTERS WILL DETERMINE THIS ELECTION . As will young people who voted in 2020 but may not be hot to vote in 2024.
If these groups are not confident enough to vote for Biden, Trump WINS. Biden needs to step aside as the nominee if the polls indicate that voters who will determine the election are not likely to vote for Biden. But if the DNC does not have plan B IN PLACE before Biden steps down as nominee, Trump
i think what the debate did was validate what we all knew, biden is not well, and now there's no putting that toothpaste back in the tube. before a flub was just a flub, but now any flub will be met with unending questions about mental capacity and acuity.
don't you see how that's a self-fulfilling prophesy? trump flubs and lies on a daily basis but because everyone expects the news to not raise a stink about it, no one raises a stink about it.
And it's still pretty fresh in people's minds that the Dems were telling everyone that Feinstein was physically fine and up to the job when we could all see that her face was falling off.
Feinstein was actively unwell and obviously so, and despite his stammer and debate performance, Biden hasn't been. Ginsburg wasn't unfit for duty; requests for her to step down were about strategic timing, where *now* the timing would be dismal. These are not 3 identical situations.
This is where I definitely disagree with you. Biden has been a problem for a while and that was starting to spread into the northeast. The problem isn’t (just) that the debate performance was really bad; it’s that it was MEANT to be reassuring and instead made things worse.
I was pretty sure he was going to lose BEFORE the performance bc Biden (and other Dems in leadership) seemed determined to not just ignore the left, but shit in their cheerios on climate and Israel for MONTHS in the most condescending way possible. Dude CAN’T WIN MICHIGAN w/o Arabs, and, well…
But now, he has scared the normies, too. We watched chew up Dems with mostly intact minds (including Biden) while they struggled to say “this is a lying madman”. Everyone has a pretty good idea of what happens when you try the same with a dude who can’t complete thoughts.
The Friday after the debate, I would’ve agreed with you.
What concerns me is that we haven’t *had* those TV appearances yet.
A competent campaign would’ve had two live interviews scheduled over the weekend, and done a town hall this week, and another interview Friday
The fact that Biden hasn’t done that, and has only called Congressional Democratic leaders *yesterday* and *today*, and won’t do a single TV event until 8 days after the debate is deeply troubling.
It’s either a fundamental lack of competence in the campaign, or a worry about Biden’s ability
So, based not on the debate, but the *silence* from the campaign, and the failure for Biden to be out there taking questions for more than *A WEEK* has moved me from “just one catastrophic debate performance” to “something is deeply wrong”
The New York Times spent months priming people for this freakout, and now are pushing the narrative that they themselves created, all because they are mad he's not giving them the access they feel they deserve. And people are buying right into it.
I guess what I'm grappling with is, yes, the debate went poorly and everyone online who is well informed has an opinion. Meanwhile, no one I know actually watched it, they're low information voters, and their attention spans are about two seconds long. I know my personal experience is not reflective
