Will Biden drop out? Who replaces him?

[thebeave]

It'd be hard to make the case that she is a senile, frail old man. Both candidates ambled on stage in a manner that made it look as though a walker would be adviseable for stability, just in case. I feel like Kamala would manage the mount with nary a wobble. Will play well in the second debate.

Some might say it's hard for a woman to walk with their heels so high in the air.

Naw, Karmila likes her Chuck Taylors, if you remember. Unless she wears them to a photo shoot to be on the front cover of a magazine, then she hates them.

 

[laughing dog]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind. Of course, Trump’s appeal and viable candidacy is an example of that as well.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Open convention, like the good old days. It would bring more publicity and suspense to the thing than we've seen in half a century. Drawback: the idiot legislature in my state would be able to keep the nominee off our ballot. But Ohio is Trump-friendly anyway.
Will this happen? Nothing I daydream ever seems to happen.

 

[Ford]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind. Of course, Trump’s appeal and viable candidacy is an example of that as well.

Exactly. The media - especially the "mainstream" outlets - have latched onto this with the ferocity of a rabid animal and (IMO) are blowing it wildly out of proportion in pursuit of clicks. He was fine before, fine the next day, has done an interview where he seemed fine, has another one on deck, and met with a bunch of Democratic governors who all seemed to think he was up for the job.

It is also worth noting that all the while he's been busy doing one of the most demanding jobs in the world. He had a bad night. That's not in dispute. Yet if you tune into the chattering class you'd think he's been brain dead for the last 3 years and no one noticed until a week ago.

Meanwhile, allegations have surfaced (again?) that Trump and Epstein teamed up to sexually assault a 13 year old girl. No one seems to be interested in that story.

 

[Bomb#20]

Stop clutching your pearls and figure out how to help Biden win.
For all his failings, he is still the best chance we have to stop the worst man ever to be in the White house.

Sorry, could you clarify: Is Trump the worst man ever to be in the Whitehouse; Or the just worst man ever (who was also in the Whitehouse)?


ETA: Or both?

Does this answer your question?

 

[bilby]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind.

Hey, you can leave the 95% of the species who don't live in the USA out of this. We already knew that Americans had lost their collective mind when Trump was first put forward as a serious candidate for the Presidency.

 

[abaddon]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind. Of course, Trump’s appeal and viable candidacy is an example of that as well.

Yes. It's an effort to regain a sense of control of anything, to pretend they can discuss choices and affect what's happening to their lives.

 

[abaddon]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind. Of course, Trump’s appeal and viable candidacy is an example of that as well.

Exactly. The media - especially the "mainstream" outlets - have latched onto this with the ferocity of a rabid animal and (IMO) are blowing it wildly out of proportion in pursuit of clicks. He was fine before, fine the next day, has done an interview where he seemed fine, has another one on deck, and met with a bunch of Democratic governors who all seemed to think he was up for the job.

It is also worth noting that all the while he's been busy doing one of the most demanding jobs in the world. He had a bad night. That's not in dispute. Yet if you tune into the chattering class you'd think he's been brain dead for the last 3 years and no one noticed until a week ago.

Meanwhile, allegations have surfaced (again?) that Trump and Epstein teamed up to sexually assault a 13 year old girl. No one seems to be interested in that story.

I've even seen a couple anchors on MSNBC and CNN actually rolling their eyes at guests who say they don't think Biden should step aside. These cynical fucks want drama too, and it has a negative effect on voters and politics. After an eyeball roll, one of them said "we all saw what we saw", which is a confusion of 1) what's seen and 2) the interpretation of what's seen (the amateur diagnosis).

My own amateur diagnosis is Biden was exhausted by travel, a cold medicine (which can knock an already exhausted person deep into la-la land), and preparing to rattle off some talking-points in the debate instead of preparing for a toe-to-toe battle. His coaches didn't need to be politicos, they needed to be an acting coach, a speech therapist and a comedian. The talking-points didn't need to be "I did this, I did that, and I promise you more". They needed to be a stream of well-honed clever zingers at the lies Trump was inevitably going to say. And maybe more than anything, the man needed a LONG nap before getting in front of cameras.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Exactly. The media - especially the "mainstream" outlets - have latched onto this with the ferocity of a rabid animal and (IMO) are blowing it wildly out of proportion in pursuit of clicks.

I think there might be a few things going on. (1) we might constantly live in the moment as we are inundated by media, tv, radio, internet, podcasts, constant noise much of it related to technology, but some to greed and clicks. (2) The Russianpublicans have been promoting a narrative of Biden's senility for years and his performance was very compatible with playing into that while his poll numbers are not great...even if he was coherent later. (3) The D's are a lot more honest and frankly brainy and so a bad performance makes D's become introspective, even leading towards analysis paralysis. Many winners had poor performances in the past, Obama for example, or W got trounced in one debate. The Republicans don't really care if their guy loses a debate. Debates are for intellectual types. They want to drink a beer with their guy and listen to locker room banter about grabbing pussies. But D's take this seriously in this moment.

The truth is for most of us younger than ﹰBiden, we could easily get hung up on a word or thought in a debate at 9pm with a poor sleep schedule and on cold medicine. But because of the nature of what is going on ﹰBiden will need a stellar performance from now on. I do hope that will make it blow over.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The problem with Harris is that if you replace Biden with someone else but keep Harris as vp candidate you are admitting you don't think Harris is qualified to be president. Either keep both of them or ditch her and Biden.

Given how even the Dems have been mostly keeping Harris out of the conversation lately, I don't think an explicit admission is necessary.

How do you have a vice president you don't think is qualified to be president?

Can't keep Harris as vp with some other white dude sitting up front. It's a bad look.
Can't dump Harris altogether without some color, and again will he be sitting in the back seat?
Even if Harris publicly states she doesn't want to replace Biden, the question still remains, then what are you doing in the vp slot now?

I think Booker has what it takes except the panache. Personally I'd like to see Booker/Buttigieg. I just think it would be an interesting experiment to have two smart people heading up the Executive. Who knows what might happen.

 

[ZiprHead]

Exactly. The media - especially the "mainstream" outlets - have latched onto this with the ferocity of a rabid animal and (IMO) are blowing it wildly out of proportion in pursuit of clicks.

I think there might be a few things going on. (1) we might constantly live in the moment as we are inundated by media, tv, radio, internet, podcasts, constant noise much of it related to technology, but some to greed and clicks. (2) The Russianpublicans have been promoting a narrative of Biden's senility for years and his performance was very compatible with playing into that while his poll numbers are not great...even if he was coherent later. (3) The D's are a lot more honest and frankly brainy and so a bad performance makes D's become introspective, even leading towards analysis paralysis. Many winners had poor performances in the past, Obama for example, or W got trounced in one debate. The Republicans don't really care if their guy loses a debate. Debates are for intellectual types. They want to drink a beer with their guy and listen to locker room banter about grabbing pussies. But D's take this seriously in this moment.

The truth is for most of us younger than ﹰBiden, we could easily get hung up on a word or thought in a debate at 9pm with a poor sleep schedule and on cold medicine. But because of the nature of what is going on ﹰBiden will need a stellar performance from now on. I do hope that will make it blow over.

The righties have been slamming the "Biden has dementia" hammer for quite a while now. It's extremely obvious the righties don't want Biden to be the candidate against Trump.

Or maybe they just have the best interests of the American people at heart.

 

[bilby]

I've even seen a couple anchors on MSNBC and CNN actually rolling their eyes at guests who say they don't think Biden should step aside. These cynical fucks want drama too...

The news media has increasingly become not just reporters of, but the cause of, drama, violence, disruption and chaos.

The entire structure of modern "news" reporting is a positive feedback loop, in which media outlets must attract viewers, and viewers want to be outraged; The "news" becomes a litany of violent and/or scandalous snippets with zero attempt at depth or nuance (which viewers find boring). This "news" leads the public to be outraged and angry (an emotional state which a sizable segment of the public appears to be addicted to); And angry people then act out in ways that give the media further scandal and/or violence on which to "report".

Biden, like any genuinely effective politician whose objective is the improvement of his constituents' lives, is boring. And nothing could be worse, in the eyes of the media machine.

"May you live in interesting times" might be a curse upon the average citizen, but it is a hugely profitable prospect for any media outlet.

Trump is a godsend to the media. They want a President who gets people's attention; They don't care one whit if he does this by bringing disaster and misery upon his nation; Indeed, that's a significant positive from their perspective. Conflict is their profession. Happy, prosperous and comfortable people don't make money for organizations whose sales depend on outrage.

 

[southernhybrid]

In my view, the overreaction to Biden’s performance is just another example of our species losing its collective mind. Of course, Trump’s appeal and viable candidacy is an example of that as well.

Plus, the Trump campaign is jumping for joy over the chaos the media and Dems have caused after Biden's bad night. We have two older men, one who is a psychopath with obvious symptoms of cognitive decline, one who is a decent man who may simply have some mild cognitive impairment that often comes with old age but doesn't signify dementia. One is so crazy that he supports anything that will give him more attention due to his malignant narcissism and one who is simply trying to keep the country intact. Sure, let's keep helping the Trump campaign by acting chaotic and ditching the person who's done a rather good job as president. I wish the media would stop! I wish people would calm the fuck down and vote for the better of the two old men, or if he decides to step down, then everyone must support the alternative, and that new person better be outstanding, one that can appeal to moderate conservatives, not just progressives, since they aren't the majority in this country, regardless of what we think.

It's as if the media gets to choose who is going to run as president. WTF! It's entertaining, but it's not helping keep the country from going under.

 

[Elixir]

One is so crazy that he supports anything that will give him more attention

That used to be the case. Now he supports anything that might keep his sorry criminal ass out of jail.

 

[southernhybrid]

One is so crazy that he supports anything that will give him more attention

That used to be the case. Now he supports anything that might keep his sorry criminal ass out of jail.

That too, but don't deny that he loves attention. Why else would he say the crazy things he does that his cult members love? Do you think he honestly supports White Christian Nationalism or do you think he says he supports it because his crazy Christian cult loves it? Now that he owns SCOTUS and now that his sentencing has been put off until September, I doubt he worries too much about his ass going to prison. He'll probably be dead by the time any of the other cases come to the courts, assuming they ever do..

 

[Elixir]

That too, but don't deny that he loves attention.

He thinks, probably correctly, that more attention hevgets, the better his chance of getting the get out of jail free card that is his primary driver.
Most people who know, say he is petrified of prison. (They might cut his hair?)

 

[Ford]

One is so crazy that he supports anything that will give him more attention

That used to be the case. Now he supports anything that might keep his sorry criminal ass out of jail.

And according to SCOTUS, he might already have that. Read Sotomayor and Jackson's dissents. The majority certainly narrowed the scope of his criminal cases, and may have made them moot. They've made it difficult if not impossible for the NY and Florida cases to proceed. Even if he loses the election, he will be off the hook for some or even most of his crimes, depending on what they define as within the scope of his duties. It is exceedingly broad.

 

[Elixir]

And according to SCOTUS, he might already have that. Read Sotomayor and Jackson's dissents.

I’m sure that will get him out of most of it but not all of it. Only winning the election will do that.

 

[southernhybrid]

That too, but don't deny that he loves attention.

He thinks, probably correctly, that more attention hevgets, the better his chance of getting the get out of jail free card that is his primary driver.

You may be right, but I'm not sure he's capable of thinking that much. I think he really believes that he hasn't done anything wrong. I think he's that nuts. People with dementia and other brain diseases usually can't see their own faults. He reminds me of one of my former patients who had both severe schizoaffective disorder with bipolar disorder and was in the early stages of dementia. She believed she was a 35 year old wealthy queen, when in fact, she was a poverty stricken, 78 year old woman living in an assisted living facility. Trump is sort of like that. He thinks he's a billionaire who can be a dictator. Remember a few years ago, when he said, "When I look in the mirror I see the face of a 35 year old man"? I remember it because it made me think of the "queen".

Let me add that the queen got really angry at us if we didn't address her as the queen. She wan't that bad when she first entered the facility but as the years went by and her cognition worsened, she got a lot worse, had hallucinations. She used to tell me I was her best friend but one day I must have said something that she didn't like and she screamed at me, "I hate you. I hate you". I was able to calm her down, probably by telling her she was the queen. Trump really is starting to remind me of her. But, at least she was harmless, despite her fantasies.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

One thing people forget or don't think of is that Trump's debate handlers have close personal experience of Biden, and they know he is not demented. They would have been afraid of having Trump attempting to debate Biden, so they had a simple, brilliant strategy they coached Trump with, as they know he wouldn't remember any talking points that they told him. Do not answer questions and take every opportunity to repeat the old lies he has told scores of times, as they are ingrained in his mind and don't require much memory.

They had a stroke of luck that Biden had an off night.