Paul Crider: To hell with the New York Times, but I don't think these concerns are manufactured. Progressive spaces like TNR and Zeteo expressed immediate concern about Biden after the debate. But so did Never-Trump allies. The move to seriously grapple with stepping down is broad and organic.

the media, led by the Times, has done to Biden what they did to Claudine Gay at Harvard there is no way to convince the public, because the people who he needs to convince to do that (the media) are never going to tell the public that he’s fine I think dropping out is a when, not if at this point

"President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job after a disastrous debate performance last week."

Biden Told Ally That He Is Weighing Whether to Continue in the Racewww.nytimes.com The president’s conversation is the first indication that he is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday.

To hell with the New York Times, but I don't think these concerns are manufactured. Progressive spaces like TNR and Zeteo expressed immediate concern about Biden after the debate. But so did Never-Trump allies. The move to seriously grapple with stepping down is broad and organic.

The concern isn't manufactured. The fact that they can't move on to the much more serious threats from the right and the Trump immunity ruling shows what their priorities are.

Ensuring that we have a candidate capable of beating Trump IS worrying about Trump. Do you really have horse blinders on fixating on what Trump is doing to the point that you can’t see how this fits together?

I'd believe this if their coverage of the immunity decision wasn't weak and both-sided. They have barely articulated the stakes of Trump's reelection, so I can't believe they are that concerned about it. Otherwise, we'd be seeing many more columns about those stakes.

The concerns are not manufactured but the vicious coverage is absolutely ridiculous, especially compared to the coverage of other, much more important topics

They're 100% manufactured, because it doesn't even matter. It's not like if Biden dies or becomes incapacitated in office the country falls apart. He's just a man. We'll be fine either way.

Everybody pretending like the president maybe not being able to complete his term is some existential crisis is feeding into it. It truly does not matter! We elect a ticket for this reason!

There's a window where the Presidency increasingly becomes listless as staffers don't want to give up power while the principal slowly gets worse. That's the problem with degenerative conditions - there's no bright line, and everyone involved is incentivized to wait it out.

Yeah - I think it's absolutely true people are concerned about his debate performance and question if he has the ability to go forward. But then it's a matter of whether or not anyone would trust anything else that happens.

What happens when he stays in office but drops from the race (to preserve the tie breaking vote in the senate)? Does the coverage get better when we reward this? Does it get better when Kamala Harris goes from a VP to a black woman seeking the highest office in the country?

Yeah, off the charts misogynoir is on the horizon. Coverage will shift. But while the New York Times and WaPo will spread poison, progressive and Never-Trump outlets will go into strong support mode.

So the people who possibly, but very reluctantly, supported for Biden and have largely criticized him for either not fulfilling their entire progressive agenda or for pursuing normal Democratic policies are expressing concern? Whatever. Let me know when actual Democrats speak up in mass.

This almost sounds like an insider laying the groundwork.

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