Michael Tae Sweeney: they've already teased that they'll just extend the biden story into grilling harris on "what did you know about biden's senility and when did you know it"

bad luck for biden to run in an electoral cycle where "are you old" is the most important issue instead of in one of the cycles where email security procedures or accuracy of vietnam war medal citations was the most important issue in the country.

They're hanging a news cycle today on Adam Schiff being like "it's up to Biden I guess" as being a call to drop out bsky.app/profile/josh...

It’s not a media narrative, it’s party insiders being genuinely alarmed by a media narrative, you see

I'm not resigned about Trump winning but I'm definitely resigned about Biden or Harris getting anything like a fair shake from the New York Times politics desk! bsky.app/profile/mayo...

at this point most of my “idk maybe we should try Harris” is that while I don’t know if the coverage she’ll get from the media is any better it is really clear Biden’s won’t if they run this on her too, welp

But what do you run on Harris? Like they could go with DEI replacement but its not 1992 anymore and i think that pisses the base off rather than concerns them.

they've already teased that they'll just extend the biden story into grilling harris on "what did you know about biden's senility and when did you know it"

the optimistic case is that this is less damaging than “Biden literally cannot do the job” which is what we’re getting right now but as always, none of the options are good anymore

Media bad faith is what it is, but we cannot dismiss swing voter concerns about age. Many have witnessed elderly relatives' decline between 80-85, making the age based attack particularly potent.

Like, these are people who can't decide or make up their minds on extremely thin reasoning. The age thing is going to do it for a lot of them is what I afraid of. Especially since for all his faults they did live through Trump once.

For what it's worth... dallas-taylor.com/2024/07/05/s...

So You’re Worried About Joe Biden Running For President After That Debate Performancedallas-taylor.com It's not unreasonable. He did poorly. Really poorly. He looked like the tired old man we've all been told he is. It's entirely reasonable to entertain doubts as to his fitness to run and, by extension...

Harris-Whitmer actually gives me a little hope. But I think you're spot on, unfortunately.

Today is a bad brain day - I’ve been seriously wondering if some Democrats in charge are doing a bad job campaigning because they secretly want The Former Guy to win.

Isn’t the lesson from Obama and Bill Clinton that it’s less about whether they launch insane attacks at you (they will) than the candidate’s ability to overcome it with charisma? We forget but all the focus on Rev. Wright stuff at the time seemed *really* bad but Obama did a big speech & moved on.

Between the two of them, Harris seems better equipped to do an inspiring stagecraft speech - but also there’s nothing stopping the campaign from having her give those speeches NOW as the VP candidate. And the press will eat it up like jingling keys in front of a baby.

Hes not senile, he's passing the torch. So now do you want to talk about something people care about. I think the bigger thing fueling this is the sheer amount of panicking activists, staffers, and donors deciding to treat reporters as there defacto therapists. Theoretically that would stop.

I don’t think the panic stops until Trump is dead & I don’t trust any of these people to treat the Dem nominee in any normal fashion

Theres no way that this would be framed as "passing the torch". It'd be "Biden Concedes to Trump."

"Biden stepped down so late. Does that indicate a lack of confidence in your ability to lead, or even win this election?" And, anytime they run out of questions, it'll be: "Do you think Biden should have stepped down sooner?"

I’m def on the camp of “the media effects matter the most, and they’ll treat her as bad/worse.” Most compelling case (tho not sure still personally) is that Harris would be much more adept in pushing back. slightly dubious given some of her press events but compared to Biden I get the argument.

I doubt that would be especially effective. Lots of folks know an older person who was "sharp as a tack" and at some point hit a wall and declined very quickly.

Post