Michael Tae Sweeney: Biden will retire very popular if he bows out (esp if someone other than Harris is the nominee) because right wing media, and those in centrist media who just reiterate RW stories, will immediately pivot away to attacking whoever the nominee is instead.

Biden will retire very popular if he bows out (esp if someone other than Harris is the nominee) because right wing media, and those in centrist media who just reiterate RW stories, will immediately pivot away to attacking whoever the nominee is instead.

One factoid about the LBJ precedent - his approval rating surged after he bailed out of the 1968 race. Dipped again over the chaotic summer but we'll never know what the dynamic would have been if Biden was going out as a one-term elder statesman. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/d...

Lyndon B. Johnson Public Approval | The American Presidency Projectwww.presidency.ucsb.edu

This is the exact same phenomenon whereby the second place candidate in Dem primaries becomes very popular. the RW media pumps them up because it causes problems for the actual nominee. This is how Hillary Clinton became "the most popular politician in the country" in 2009!

Yeah, that was exactly the example I was going to cite. Demonized in the most incredible ways for thirty days, absolutely transformed into a murderous oozing eldritch horror ... but not continuously that whole time. Also treated generically or even generously when it served The Narrative.

Arguably that's how she became a Senator: she combined Bill Clinton's popularity with Democrats with the lingering effects of the right wing media pausing their execration of her awhile for the impeachment and aftermath, to portray her as the innocent victim of her cheating husband's perfidy.

And again when Republicans thought they could use the "PUMA" faction to undermine Obama, so they spent the latter half of 2008 saying they liked Hillary and Obama was no Hillary, stole the nomination from her.

In Chicago we call this the "backup quarterback syndrome." He's automatically the most popular athlete in town. If Caleb Williams throws a couple of picks in his first game it'll happen again.

It’s the same phenomenon as the popularity if the backup QB.

Dammit. Beat me while I was typing.

You would have beat me if I’d slowed down and not made a damn typo.

It. Is. Too. Late.

The backup QB is the most loved player on your 6-6 NFL team when you’re two wins away from the playoffs.

I was going to say like the backup quarterback, but that seems to be the popular consensus.

I will say as a fan of an NFL team that spent the last two seasons starting multiple backup quarterbacks, their popularity wane very quickly.

bsky.app/profile/pbum... This poll falls into that category as well. Literally no one is talking about Harris. Not even the people trying to replace Biden.

A poll conducted post-debate shows: - no shift in the horse race since April - Harris faring better (though not significantly) than Biden against Trump www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

They would immediately pivot to “Harris/whoever misspeaks slightly, voters and Dem insiders yearn for Biden on the ticket”

It is legitimately maddening that people who should know better pretend they don’t understand this!

And pivot to attacking Democrats for forcing an incumbent President to retire because of ageism. Of course it will be laundered through “left-wing” talking heads.

Related: this frustrates me with "biden unpopular" since about 2009 the GOP media apparatus has gotten extremely good at directing their audience to use polling in a partisan way. when biden has 59% disapproval 50% that are just partisan republicans (some who hide as indies).

I was originally on the someone other than Harris should be the nominee train but looking at the polling Harris seems to have the best shot of winning thought the data does not include how JB Pritzker or Wes Moore would do against Trump www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/p...

CNN Poll: Most voters think Democrats have a better chance of keeping White House if Biden isn’t the nominee | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com Three-quarters of US voters say the Democratic Party would have a better shot at holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, according to a new...

JB Pritzger and Wes Moore have zero name recognition. They could come to your town, rob the bank in broad daylight not wearing a mask, and it would take weeks off examining the surveillance footage before anyone decided they might be suspects. Any success they get nationally is generic guy pulling.

Steel your resolve, folks.

“Harris is a million times worse than good ol’ reliable Joe Biden. You can’t trust her!”

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