Gillian Branstetter: I think what's being swatted down as "elite opinion" from NYT/Crooked types is actually the piercing of a bubble from below. Most voters haven't wanted Biden to run again for literally years.

I think what's being swatted down as "elite opinion" from NYT/Crooked types is actually the piercing of a bubble from below. Most voters haven't wanted Biden to run again for literally years.

The failure isn't naming the problem now--the failure is what took them so long

The failure is we are long past the point where a replacement is possible, and they should know that if they weren’t clownish buffoons without shame

And that their brokered convention scenario is an Aaron Sorkin-esque fantasy because most of them are unwilling to get behind Harris. (And since most of them are unwilling to get behind Harris *now*, they're signaling they can't be relied on to boost her if she is the nominee.)

Basically. If Biden is such a risk, he is president now and they could ask him to resign now rather than keep him in office for 6 mos.

Correct.

I think there’s a difference between the widespread longstanding belief that Biden’s too old and a sudden elite panic about how propping him up seems to have failed so now it’s time for smart people to pick a new winner in a brokered convention

Fair though CBS poll this morning says 45% of Dems want him off the ticket. That's not a constituency that can be disregarded as "bedwetters"

I think we’re talking about two different questions here—people who think Biden is shot and would be OK with an abrupt but logical switch to his elected VP vs. people who see it as a chance to jam through their pet theory of what would be popular while magically not tearing the party apart

The latter group seems to be the people who were in denial there was any problem till Thursday night, which is to say they’re lurching from one untenable fantasy to the opposite untenable fantasy

Oh I totally agree with that. The idea they're going to shoehorn a Whitmer or Newsom in is fantastical. It's either Harris or Biden

It is Biden.

one of the things keeping my reaction calm is that for years and years I knew we were screwed with no better option than crossing fingers

We absolutely demanded this octogenarian anti-busing stutterer be president, but now that we see direct evidence that he is an octogenarian stutterer (anti-busing still great) we need to find another candidate to put into position in defiance of all law and custom, maybe Joe Manchin...

why do I feel like these same people felt Hilary was an awesome candidate?

That might be similar to questions about do you want another (generic) Democrat to run. The main inciting piece here is Democratic House members, DNC delegates and donors going on background to reporters.

Right but is that because 1) they could no longer ignore what voters were seeing all along and 2) the debate made apparent how it could cost them their *own* seat? Has Biden been saved this whole time by the fact most down ballot Dems are polling ahead of him?

the panic has the weird feel of a group text that I'm not a part of

it’s literally what Kamala’s there for and if elites don’t like that they should have considered that in 2020

I just feel like the elite 180 can be both annoying and too late, and also a correct reflection of the situation that meets what voters have been feeling for years

Ideally voters would have liked to have a primary election

They had one, though. And the candidates weren’t great. If we are mad at anyone, shouldn’t it be the potential candidates who didn’t run out of deference to Biden? They are the ones who didn’t give the primary voters a real choice.

Meanwhile, the people who will actually decide the outcome of the election have no idea any of this is happening.

Finally, some salient post #debate numbers: l.smartnews.com/p-yj5Ei/bwDeZ9 #Biden #Trump

Poll: After debate, higher numbers of voters don't think Biden should be running (CBS Boston)l.smartnews.com For months before the first debate, the nation's voters repeatedly expressed doubts over whether President Biden had the cognitiv...

That difference is precisely the problem!

Most voters never wanted Biden to run. He got rejected repeatedly for good reason before the system finally shat him through

Big shock to the cocktail party set

I think there’s also some vicariousness(?) happening in the past few years. A lot of these elites are *also* very old and have also slowed down and are also defensive/insecure about retirement. I speculate that Joe faceplanting has their insecurity turned up to 11.

“Get off the stage, you’re making us look bad” is what I am getting at, I think.

Nailed it. Thats why the paid appendages are scolding SO hard in the wake of the alarm, over the weekend. Complete and utter thoughts-become-things crisis of faith (and irrefutable assignment in their craven sellout class lol) desperation.

If only there were a way for voters to register that. Like a primary election. Oh wait we had one and Biden crushed it. Also if most voters include Trump supporters that’s not a very useful metric.

he even promised to be a one term prez!

Did he?

yes, this was well documented at the time

He explicitly denied it at the time. "Some aides anonymously said he might do it" is not a promise. www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...

Biden denies speculation of a one-term pledgewww.nbcnews.com A campaign promise to serve just one term if elected is "not something VP Biden is thinking about," his campaign said Wednesday.

he definitely said it in a debate and elsewhere, convincingly enough for many people to believe it. he may not have meant it, but he said. so this all just proves my point that we can’t trust what he says. ✌🏻

saying it and walking it back is different from never saying it

This didn’t actually happen, though.

there are so many articles confirming this it took me a while to decide which one to post www.usnews.com/news/electio...

Read what Biden said in that article. He never promised not to run again. Did some aides muddy the water to make people feel better? Maybe! But Biden didn’t ever say he wouldn’t run again.

and yet, fours later he still says “he’s only running again because Trump is running again.” this was discussed at length in 2019/20 and he even repeated it in the debates. not sure what you’re trying to prove here.

lol really because most voters decided to have him as our candidate AGAIN

81 million Biden Harris voters disagree. According to the Federal Election Commission that’s just over 51% of the popular vote. He holds the record for most votes ever won by a U.S. presidential candidate.

Have you considered that most voters are deeply stupid?

“Trump is a mortal danger to democracy.” Also “voters are too stupid to vote for the obscure candidate I favor.”

A majority of voters trust Trump to protect democracy more so like I said, deeply stupid.

A small poll looked at a subset of voters in a few states

Also I think we're kind of on the same side here but voters are in fact deeply stupid 🤷‍♂️

Keep moving those goalposts!

Lmao ok

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