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
It is literally one bad debate performance. Biden has had other public appearances in which he was fine.
The fact that people were already concerned about his frailty and he seemed frail helps explain the lack of a big polling shift, not this overreaction.
“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”
He literally does. He takes questions from reporters, he did an hour with Howard Stern just last month, he’ll be on with George Strephanoupolos on Sunday etc etc.
People just don’t want to believe it and don’t care what he says if it’s not feeding so “senility” narrative
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.
The whole country is going to suffer because old people are shut away or separate themselves, so others have little to know experience with what a healthy old person looks like. so when they see an old person, they think how they look or sound is an indicator of cognitive capacity. It’s BS.
The gerontocracy point has merit, though not where Biden is concerned, considering that his presidency has been the most successful in young progressives, interest, and priorities of probably any president. This is a textbook case of ageism, one of the few remaining socially acceptable prejudices.
the problem is not age
they want to make it about age so they dont have to address what's on the ground
of course age was a very real concern back before biden got the nom in 2020 for some reason and then suddenly it wasnt
Also, the “concerns” over years are really, just a long-term agitprop campaign, perpetrated by the political horseshoe of right wing and left-wing people. People had their expectations fulfilled, but the debate doesn’t support any of the wild claims being made. Your grievance doesn’t address that.
No, the problem of gerontocracy is separable from whether Biden has or does not have cognitive capacity. Are you doing the generational agitprop thing and rather than seeing the textbook prejudice in people who have no knowledge of Biden’s cognitive condition opining as if they are experts.
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.
Cool, now gon"uhm, actually that's a logical fallacy" to tens of millions of undecided voters in an attempt to get them to vote against their instincts. You think they'll listen to those instincts or an internet rando?
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.
