i don’t necessarily agree that harris needs to become the nominee now (and don’t necessarily disagree, either), but the thing that spooks the absolute fucking bejesus out of me is that i do not trust the nation’s columnists to have the political instincts necessary to win a general election.
this is where a lot of my "Kamala should be the nominee now" instinct comes from
the institutional freakout might be ridiculous but it's clearly real, and it's coming from everywhere including people I respect
I don't think Biden can campaign without tamping down the freakout level - and can he?
not the ones i like, not the ones i hate, not the ones i respect and not the ones i don’t. *this entire freakout* is taking place in a less than two week span that ignores literally *everything* else about the campaign and assumes trump will sail smoothly without issue through the next four months
Has anyone done a fact-based analysis on what the legal landscape looks like re: Biden stepping aside? Whether it’s a Harris/Someone ticket or a Someone/Somebody ticket, what happens with ballot access and already donated funds in the Biden/Harris coffers?
There are multiple states with 90-day cutoffs for being on the ballot, & the convention is after the cutoff.
OH is one of these & will need only the slightest excuse to refuse to change the candidates, especially after they came close to denying Biden's access.
Ballot access is a major concern.
the Ohio issue was resolved statutorily IIRC and it remains that the convention is when the nominee is submitted. Who won votes during party primaries is 100% irrelevant to that. If the party nominates someone eligible in August, that person goes on the ballot lines in all 50 states
I am losing a certain amount of respect for everyone even tolerating this entire idiocy. >_>
Like, I like Harris and hope she becomes Prez someday but I'm staring at the idea that just subbing her in will *help* and going.... "wat".
if someone can seriously argue that not only having biden step aside from the race but then step down from the presidency is the least risky option, i am here to hear it, but i haven't heard that
Seems like the freakout is also ignoring certain dare I say "facts". I mean Women overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020 and I am not seeing persuasive (or often coherent) arguments that this is changing. But turnout, one might argue. Ok, but then the argument there is. . .
"Biden is old/whatever , and that could hurt turnout" versus "Trump is a rampaging cosmic horror Kaiju and there is massive incentive to vote his ass back beyond the walls of our reality".
and that's the fucking problem.
I want to yell at media more. I already told WaPo off with my cancelation. Where else should I go? I want to go full Karen.
start a NYT sub for free and then immediately cancel it, though, like, let’s get real, the customer service people aren’t the problem and don’t deserve to be yelled at
Well to be fair I didn't actually yell. I wrote what I thought. I'll tailor it better next time. But I didn't get, like, abusive. Just, I'm canceling and this is why and this is how you should be doing better.
I may have also invoked the fate of Khashoggi. like, y'all aren't being serious here.
One question I have is if NYT's Biden coverage is at all motivated by wanting the Trump revenue bump... Why would that change if Harris (or literally anyone else) steps in?
harris is probably damned close, i’m not that worried about that, but i’m worried that legit oppo doesn’t matter, groupthink fearmongering is winning the day
If there was any Oppo, the Biden campaign would have found it in 2020. There’s no way in hell that the first female, POC, VP is anything but squeaky clean.
All they’re after at this point is the collective orgasm achieved by forcing an incumbent president out of the race via a panic they started. There is absolutely no concern for what comes after that, and if pressed on that, to a man they will say “sounds like a you problem”
They're all perfectly fine with the Hunger Games. They're sure they'd be the ones in the Capital District doing fancy things and gossiping about how the people they used to work with pissed off President Snow and now nobody's seen them for two months. 🙃
This.
The media has rediscovered a favorite toy, and Biden withdrawing from the race isn't going to stop them from playing with it.
The only possible solution is to ignore them until they get bored.
on the road right now but check my TL he also made a pretty fucking major omission in the first version of the piece by forgetting that the house has to confirm a VP first that totally and substantively changes the argument
Have you seen anything along these lines yet? Everything I'm seeing is wants/hopes but nothing concrete about what options are actually possible under election laws.
I can’t even remember what day we’re on with this and I’ve yet to see a definitive explanation of what changes are even possible and what the limitations are by an elections expert. We’re deep in the should/shouldn’t and seems we skipped the can/can’t portion of the program.
I've burn notice-ed him at this point. Just posting unedited and incorrect raw brainstorm sessions that will add to the media led perception that "EVERYONE agrees Biden is Too Old and must step down!"? Unfollow, block, damnatio memoriae.
Exactly how Im feeling about all this-both the too-online and the journalist class have been dead wrong about Biden and what he should do. Their batting average is trash but we're supposed to believe this time is different
And if theyre wrong (and at this point its highly likely they are) and the Biden camp listens to them and he drops out, it'll be a disaster and we WILL lose
I'll add another thing that's annoying me about this: We had a primary election, and like it or not, Joe Biden won handily the absolute overwhelming majority of delegates.
Doesn't it hurt the argument that we're fighting for democracy if he's just removed? Like talk about a mixed message.
20 years ago so a lot of posters here missed it, but I lost any trust I had in the nation's columnists and politicians and political strategists during the run-up to, conduct, and aftermath of the Iraq war, and it never came back
it was a hard lesson, but a useful and ever-green one
the question - and it's a hard and complicated one - is whether political professionals and campaign managers are in agreement with the 'nation's columnists.' that's just really hard to know since they are (rightly) people whose job is partly to not mouth off in public or to the press.
This whole thing feels like when an NBA team underperforms somewhat a couple years so they just fire the coach even though he won a championship like three years ago and they hope that fixes things and it never actually does
I think the problem I'm having with this is that the longer you wait, the worse the change is.
But by changing lanes we could be hurting our chances.
It's an impossible choice and I don't think there's any expert advice because this has never happened before in a race this consequential.
The thing is, Kamala is always there. She’s ready to step in at a moments notice. That could be reassuring that leadership is in place.
There is no need to have all this drama. It’s just not productive. Yes, he’s old. She’s awesome & capable.
