What's really disturbing about the debate fiasco is there's no way to be confident that Biden has it in him to pull off the near-flawless execution he'll need to win at this point.
At a minimum, the Bidens owe us a real conversation about that.
My take:
newrepublic.com/article/1832...
CNN let down the country with their awful debate format. The no-fact-checking ended up making Trump's endless lies sound plausible.
Two things can be true: This was a total disaster from a journalistic point of view, and Biden blew a big opportunity.
newrepublic.com/article/1832...
Unlike many others On Here, I don't think there's a way for Biden to bow out without it leading to extreme risks of a very different kind. We need more of an acknowledgment from the replace-Biden camp that this is not a remotely easy dilemma.
newrepublic.com/article/1832...
Deeply stupid to pretend an imaginary candidate can parachute in to lead the party better the actual leader of the party, who besides Israel policy has seen virtually no dissension within his caucus for 4 years
His approval rating is below 40 percent.
He’s behind in every key swing state poll.
The #1 concern about his leadership is his age.
He just glaringly reinforced this concern in the single greatest opportunity he had to change the trajectory of the race.
Ergo, he can’t win.
By contrast, another candidate could confront Trump’s lies, lawlessness, and authoritarianism directly and coherently. There’s only one way to do this with a bully.
An organized, open process in the coming weeks would create a new media environment to change the trajectory of the race.
The "presidential debates" are shitshow. The media are to blame as they keep coming up with this crap year in and year out for the sole purpose of making money. The candidates are to blame because they accept it. The audience is to blame because by watching, it starts the cycle all over again.
Very well put about what the Bidens owe everyone now. The risks of a messy convention/nomination outweigh those of Biden staying on, which to ALL of my never-Trump Republican neighbors in Indiana will be a de facto Harris presidency anyway. There are risks, but the current ticket is a certain loss.
Biden would have fared better if, early on, he'd said "Tonight, since CNN refuses to do any real-time fact-checking, I will not continue to respond to moderators' questions. I will spend all of my remaining time fact-checking his relentless lies." For a dithering old guy...
...instead of a Raskin or a Buttigieg, policy conversations are obliterated by the firehose of psychopathy and lies. The opponent, format and likely ill-suited prep would have defeated most any of us, but especially Joe.
And I say that as a sympathetic, fellow dithering old guy.
Biden is the candidate we have. There is no scenario where some magic 3rd candidate beats Trump. None. All these think pieces about how Biden is doomed, that Journo World has had packed away for months, doesn’t change that.
I think people would be more than happy to rally around a candidate who was reasonably charismatic, and accomplished, had a firm grasp of policy, opposes Trump, and does not look like they might be having a stroke several times per hour.
Can you please explain why you find having a stroke humorous? I’m sure in your head you thought “Heh, got ‘em” but you just look sorta childish, and a bit embarrassing.
It’s delusional to think holding them to the same standard is important. There’s two constituencies here and one of them doesn’t care if their candidate lies. A thousand headlines calling him a lying fascist isn’t going to impact his odds. Biden faces entirely different expectations.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Team Biden would agree to a debate format without fact checking. Did they think Joe was going to be sharp enough to debunk every Trump lie on the fly?
The problem is the fact that much of the journalism around the election is Biden-focused on weakness. I don't recall articles like this after Trump became a convicted felon. You might talk about it in length, but the premise and title is What Biden Must Do. Generally, you're excellent. This is not.
And yet, the headline is all about what Biden owes the electorate. A better headline: "Trump lies his way through debate while Biden stumbles" - now I have a more accurate headline for a story about the debate.
I don't understand why you frame this as needing an honest real conversation when what you mean is that you want the Biden to say he's too old to be President.
Like, you arent going to accept it is an honest and real conversation if you don't here that are you? Like if he says he's fine once again, you arent going to say, Thank you Mr President for having this honest and real conversation.
Fck off with this drivel. If Trump is reinstalled in the WH, the American experiment is well and truly over and everyone on the planet knows it. To primly wring your hands at Biden's debate performance in the face of these dire consequences should be embarrassing to you, but sadly I suspect not.
Perhaps you should ask yourself why you're incapable of accepting the notion that people might have principled disagreements about the best way to beat Trump, instead of reflexively lashing out in childish, dim-witted fury.
