emptywheel: New Yorker wants Joe Biden, whose admin has had historical success, to resign bc he's not doing well at running for re-election. This is not, in fact, what the 25th Amendment was made for.

New Yorker wants Joe Biden, whose admin has had historical success, to resign bc he's not doing well at running for re-election. This is not, in fact, what the 25th Amendment was made for.

This Is What the Twenty-fifth Amendment Was Designed Forwww.newyorker.com If Joe Biden doesn’t willingly resign, there’s another solution, which would allow Democrats to unite around a new incumbent.

It's fairly insane that MOST political journalists exhibit no understanding that being President and running for President are not the same thing, and often a President who is effective at making policy may not titillate their beltway gossip machine, which reflects on THEIR competence, not his.

It's fairly insane that MOST political journalists are not applying the same standards of cognitive decline to both candidates. Biden seems positively lucid compared to the other guy. AND he's been managing an inordinately complex 9 months about as well as it can be managed.

Except that the author of this atrocity isn’t a political journalist, she’s a law professor. At Harvard. So what’s her excuse?

"Law professor at Harvard" explains a whole lot, actually.

The fact that Harvard and the other ivies were modeled on the British system of inbreeding in ‘public’ schools and the varsity which never produced anything of merit outside the hard sciences. A true inclusive democracy threatens their privilege.

But there is a LOT of competence here , where the wise Kim Atkins lives: bsky.app/profile/jenb...

Kim Atkins is such a clear and sane writer. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/01/o...

Biden dropping out is a fantasy. Democrats can win — if they fight. - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com Presidential campaigns are not fantasy sports leagues, with easy levers to pull to maneuver into a more ideal position, including swapping out players. They are long games that benefit from steadiness...

Because the job of a political journalist, as with tall things under capitalism, isnt to report the news Its to make money No job is actually designed to give us anything, theyre designed to make money What we get is a byproduct, journalists are a great example of this problem

True, they're different skills... but the job requires excellence in both. Without the latter, you don't get to display the former.

Also, no understanding of what the 25 Amendment does. It's not hard to read!

Useful idiots, oligarch funded POSes wanting Orbanism (they're going to get Putinism if lucky, Xi's fun if Bannon wins)

It's freaking wild that THAT'S the headline when it's so obviously a one hundred percent false statement, and when we JUST litigated this very question when we had a lawless president. The answer is really simple and it's not a mystery!

Basically, you have a president who's comatose? Totally incapacitated a la Woodrow Wilson? Everybody can get together and do 25th Amendment. Fine. If you've got a president you have concerns about but who isn't interested in quitting? Nope. You can try to impeach them if you want!

And of course we've recently seen that impeachment itself is a dead letter; it's impossible to get sixty votes to remove a president no matter WHAT they've done. Well, removal through the 25th is HARDER than that, so...

This headline imagines a fantasy world where there is a broad consensus across the political spectrum that Joe Biden is utterly enfeebled and everybody knows it but him. If this consensus or anything like it existed, the last week on the internet would have been A LOT LESS SHOUTY, shall we say.

WTAF.

The media is really pissing me off

Marcy he is openly saying he refuses to prove he's not sundowning, instead saying he will just never do events after 8pm. It's untenable. He will have more episodes like that one because he is actually unwell, it's not a trick or a ratfuck, it's just what happens when people are over 80 years old.

Thank you for making my point about people who confuse candidating with presidenting.

Both jobs require the skill of being alert at night. Come on, this is grief talking.

One job requires the skill of running 18 hour days for 6 months at a time. The other requires the ability to be alert at night. There. Corrected your error. You'll keep trying, and you will keep making errors.

"You should be fired from your first job because you're having some trouble also holding down a second job."

Several of the analyses calling for Biden to drop don't even notice they're doing it. Like NYT, one of their chief complaints (in the op-ed, not the 10,000 other opinion pieces sometimes posing as journalism) was that he didn't call out Trump's lies. Which is, of course, their job.

That's an unfair characterization. Both these jobs require one skill: alertness at night. I get that this is very scary but we cannot possibly win with a candidate who says he needs more sleep so he can't do events after 8. I will try to think of how to explain how that sounds to normies.

The leaks thus far have suggested that Biden can basically handle a 6 hour workday with no problems. That's enough to be president if he's absolutely ruthless with managing his time. That's not enough to run for president, let alone do both jobs at once.

The man is incredibly effective. This has way less to do with his shortcomings than it does with the hit pieces click rates. Seriously, an actual leader has a team who they trust. He is not flying the drones. And alert? He was mentally on point for every question, delivery was hampered by time.

When all you have is a hammer...

The 25th Amendment should have been invoked on Jan 6th. I think these New York magazines must hate the people of NYC for finding Trump guilty.

I cannot believe a Harvard Professor and Guggenheim Fellow wrote they fucking dreck. “Will he or won’t he?” Like it’s an episode of Moonlighting?

Has anyone mentioned Thomas Eagleton in this discussion? Him being forced off the ticket in 1972 is the closest thing to this situation and that episode was an absolute disaster. Based on what I saw then, my view is if Biden has a pulse, keeping him on the ticket is the better option.

I don't agree for two reasons. First, you really need someone with the stamina to run. Second, if he were to win, it would create a succession crisis, especially if the GOP retained one or both houses of Congress.

Eagleton was replaced weeks after the Convention because of medical history he hadn't disclosed as to things we'd hopefully view differently today. Whatever this is, for at least those two reasons it isn't *that*.

Unless he resigns or is incapacitated in his second term AND something happens to Kamala where is the crisis. Also, I do think he has the Stamina to run, and certainly to run the country. I don't know if any of us have the stamina to put up with this attack from the left.

Guy with 12 Followers chimes in: I brought up Tom last week, but now I think Carter is the more apt comparison. Why? Because the media began to describe things Carter did as "Too little, too late" and it Became a Thing. So much so, that after the failed hostage rescue... (1/?)

...I watched an NBC reporter go out and ask people "So what do you think? Too little too late?" It just snowballed. Now, the same thing is happening with Biden's mental decline. It'll only increase in volume. And for me, the kicker was Olivia Nuzzi's article. I respect her. (2/3)

We don't have good choices, but keeping Biden in the race guarantees 4 more years of Trump. Electing Harris will be difficult, but not impossible, and at least we won't have the feeding frenzy of the media to deal with.

I remember a situation where the 25th seemed like a good remedy. But I don’t remember anyone in the cabinet doing anything on Jan 7 or after. Oh and for the loss of mental acuity argument, I present, 1985-1988.

I hope he does not resign. Biden & his staff have given the democrats a wonderful 4 years & done amazing things. I hope he will not heed what feels to be a russian chinese psi op that uses "alternative facts".

What makes you think they want that orange POS to win?

I cannot say how disappointed I am in the New Yorker.

Half the WH press is pretending that Biden has dementia because they want to sell more books. Disgusting isn’t close to the word for it.

Everyone saw him unable to hold onto thoughts long enough to speak them. Trying to gaslight the public is what will lose this for us. Just embrace our wonderful Kamala, who is so smart and charismatic and who was chosen by voters as the replacement for Biden if this were ever to happen.

I don’t get it. If Biden can do the job of President but his stutter still makes him shit at debates, how is that more of a case for the 25th than Reagan, W, and Trump who were all congenially worse at the job than Biden?

Too early now. BUT if Biden stubbornly stays in, it should be wielded as a political tool to remove him from office and the race. No, not exactly what the amendment was designed for — but at the same time, it is slightly demented if he his ego remains consumed by this “me vs the world” narrative.

Affluent stay at home mom wants Joe Bide, whose admin is facilitating ethnic cleaning and genocide across the glob, to resign bc he's giving weapons to the architects of 9/11 and their arch-enemies while not using his office to purge the coke dealers from congress.

New Yorker publishing this really undermined my opinion of them. Like the NYT, they have lost their ethical reputation.

I just realized that Joe Biden has made the government sensible and helpful for everyone, thus making it more boring - that's why the newspapers are so set against him.

Don't listen to Eeyore.

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