Will Biden drop out? Who replaces him?

[Shadowy Man]

If some Democrats think Biden is not qualified to be President and should step down in the race why aren’t they saying he should step down as President now? If he is so bad that he can’t be President again why is it ok for him to meet with world leaders like Netanyahu about the Gaza war?

 

[The AntiChris]

If some Democrats think Biden is not qualified to be President and should step down in the race why aren’t they saying he should step down as President now? If he is so bad that he can’t be President again why is it ok for him to meet with world leaders like Netanyahu about the Gaza war?

I think there's an important distinction to be made between saying Biden is an incompetent President and saying he doesn't represent the Dem's best chance to defeat Trump.

 

[Copernicus]

If some Democrats think Biden is not qualified to be President and should step down in the race why aren’t they saying he should step down as President now? If he is so bad that he can’t be President again why is it ok for him to meet with world leaders like Netanyahu about the Gaza war?

I think there's an important distinction to be made between saying Biden is an incompetent President and saying he doesn't represent the Dem's best chance to defeat Trump.

IMO, the issue is less about Biden's competence than his electability. That's what has Democrats in a panic. The worst thing that could happen now is for Trump not to be the Republican candidate in November, but some younger, more lucid and energetic Republican facing Joe Biden. The public clearly opposes the candidacy of both Trump and Biden. They would jump at the chance to elect just about any younger politician, regardless of their politics.

Obviously, I'm going to prefer Biden over Trump no matter how poorly Biden does in his public appearances. Running a huge, complex government like the United States requires not just experience and good connections, but also the ability to command attention and respect in public appearances. Neither Trump nor Biden has that ability when addressing the public, and everyone knows it. When Biden gives a passably good speech, Democrats are overjoyed. That's because such a performance from him is not always expected and it runs counter to the perception that he is too old and senile to run the office. His performance during the poorly-named "debate" was the Democrats' nightmare that was waiting to happen.

So I will back Joe Biden in the November election, regardless of whether he runs against Trump or any conceivable Republican. I don't want Republican policies to run the country for the next four years, and I don't particularly care which Democrat holds executive power. I would prefer Biden to get over his ego-inspired dream of a second term and step aside for a younger candidate. The most likely prospect is Kamala Harris, no matter what others would prefer, because the choice will not be up to the people. It will be up to the delegates to the Democratic Convention, most of whom will be Biden delegates. They will most likely choose Harris over other potential Democratic candidates. The idea of her remaining as the VP choice to some other leading candidate is utterly stupid, IMO, if Democrats want an electable ticket. Harris has time to build up support before November, and Democrats will certainly rally behind her, even if not enthusiastically. As an alternative to Trump, I think she would have a very good chance of winning decisively in the electoral college count.

 

[TV and credit cards]

If some Democrats think Biden is not qualified to be President and should step down in the race why aren’t they saying he should step down as President now? If he is so bad that he can’t be President again why is it ok for him to meet with world leaders like Netanyahu about the Gaza war?

In times of high stress such as this it is important to maintain their commitment to one another and the party. Maintaining cohesiveness is the best face to put before the voters. Divisiveness, regardless of Biden's decision to stay or go serves no one's interest.
It's enough that the public is reading about big money putting a pause on contributions. It is not just Biden's job but the Dem party's job to have their shit in one sock going forward.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Image is everything. Reality nothing. Trump has already mastered this, which is why he has the advantage on Biden despite being woefully unqualified.

 

[SLD]

Disney heiress, wealthy Democratic donors say they won’t finance the party until Biden drops out

The president has said he has no plans to withdraw from the race, despite calls for him to do so.

www.nbcnews.com

Well maybe he did have an off night. But I think he killed himself with that off night. The rethugs will argue that you can’t have any off days while President. It’s a 365 days 24 hours on call job for four years. Age is a serious issue that can’t just be swept under the rug.

Nor is this the only example of his having an off day. Fox News has been pushing this narrative for years and they will use every gaffe they can find to continue to push this narrative to the front. And it will happen again as well. Biden will struggle to find the right word and lose his train of thought at some point over the next few months and it will be caught on camera and they will blow it up on the news all over again.

I just don’t see him recovering from this and his poll numbers are plummeting. The link above demonstrates another serious concern. His inability to fund raise will hamper his bid seriously.

I also think that the nominee must be able to engage in a round of rallies across the swing states that really get the base riled up. To do so requires huge reserves of stamina and abilities. You can’t have an off day.

I don’t think Biden has the stamina to do this. And Trump does.

 

[Politesse]

Well maybe he did have an off night. But I think he killed himself with that off night. The rethugs will argue that you can’t have any off days while President. It’s a 365 days 24 hours on call job for four years. Age is a serious issue that can’t just be swept under the rug.

And there's a strong note of truth to that, though I fail to see how that applies to Biden any more than it applies to his primary competitor, a man who as president barely bothered to come to work at all. Americans have got the memory of goldfish.

 

[SLD]

Well maybe he did have an off night. But I think he killed himself with that off night. The rethugs will argue that you can’t have any off days while President. It’s a 365 days 24 hours on call job for four years. Age is a serious issue that can’t just be swept under the rug.

And there's a strong note of truth to that, though I fail to see how that applies to Biden any more than it applies to his primary competitor, a man who as president barely bothered to come to work at all. Americans have got the memory of goldfish.

Yeah. He’s said a lot of gibberish but it hasn’t hurt him and he showed up in full force for the debate. Also I’m not sure he really loses his train of thought when he does that. That is it doesn’t appear that he is struggling to get his brain going the way Biden Does. He just spouts his shit like windmills cause cancer and kill whales because he believes that shit. And the base eats it up. Even when he fumbles his words he keeps going as if nothing happened.

Also I see that Carl Bernstein, of watergate fame, has talked to other White House insiders who claim that these gaffes are actually quite common on the part of Biden. They will use that comment as nauseum.

I’m sorry. Biden is toast. The sooner he pulls out the better.

 

[southernhybrid]

Biden is giving a speech right now in Wisconsin. The crowd is going wild for him. He's not even slurring any words, maybe one or two mild Joe gaffes, according to the pundits.. His voice is back. This is the Joe I wish we had seen during the debate, but he was either exhausted or Trump creeps people out so much that they sometimes can't function as usual. ( Actually that might be true )

I don't know why he wants to do this for four more years, but seriously, his speech was amazing. Anyway, I wish the fucking media would criticize the one who is crazy, unqualified and a danger to democracy and not the one who is just old and not as spry as he once was. There is no magical candidate that can replace Biden this late in the game. If he can keep this up, there is hope!

It doesn't look like he's going to back out of the race, so enough with the harsh criticism. Vote BLUE mother fuckers!

 

[SLD]

Biden is giving a speech right now in Wisconsin. The crowd is going wild for him. He's not even slurring any words, maybe one or two mild Joe gaffes, according to the pundits.. His voice is back. This is the Joe I wish we had seen during the debate, but he was either exhausted or Trump creeps people out so much that they sometimes can't function as usual. ( Actually that might be true )

I don't know why he wants to do this for four more years, but seriously, his speech was amazing. Anyway, I wish the fucking media would criticize the one who is crazy, unqualified and a danger to democracy and not the one who is just old and not as spry as he once was. There is no magical candidate that can replace Biden this late in the game. If he can keep this up, there is hope!

It doesn't look like he's going to back out of the race, so enough with the harsh criticism. Vote BLUE mother fuckers!

That’s great. I just want to see Trump beat. Biden was defiant today that he’s staying in. But the chorus of Dems urging him to quit gets louder. Senator Warner of Virginia is gathering more senators to ask Biden to quit. Governor Healy of Mass said he should carefully consider his options, and that after she met with him. With this kind of support from Dems, there’s no way. Top Dems are consolidating around Harris. Maybe Shapiro from PA as a running mate to help bring home their electoral votes.

Sad situation all along.

 

[Copernicus]

Biden is giving a speech right now in Wisconsin. The crowd is going wild for him. He's not even slurring any words, maybe one or two mild Joe gaffes, according to the pundits.. His voice is back. This is the Joe I wish we had seen during the debate, but he was either exhausted or Trump creeps people out so much that they sometimes can't function as usual. ( Actually that might be true )

I don't know why he wants to do this for four more years, but seriously, his speech was amazing. Anyway, I wish the fucking media would criticize the one who is crazy, unqualified and a danger to democracy and not the one who is just old and not as spry as he once was. There is no magical candidate that can replace Biden this late in the game. If he can keep this up, there is hope!

It doesn't look like he's going to back out of the race, so enough with the harsh criticism. Vote BLUE mother fuckers!

I was on vacation during the debate and had no opportunity to watch it, but I did see enough commentary on it to conclude that Biden's performance was a disaster. Now that we are home, my wife and I had a chance to watch the full debate today, painful as that was. Biden's performance was even worse than I expected. However, I really did get the impression that he was tanked up on drugs to suppress flu symptoms. His voice was gravelly throughout the debate, and he appeared to have some trouble catching his breath. Most of the time, he looked like his breath was labored, and he looked slack-jawed, not making much eye contact with the camera. He had obviously done a lot of prep for the debate, because he was trying very hard to remember canned stump speech material that included statistics. Given the time limit and his usual tendency to accelerate his speaking cadence to make up for stuttering, he kept stepping on his rehearsed lines, often mixing up his facts. He would frequently stop in mid-sentence to repeat a phrase or forget his train of thought and move on to some other memorized line. He became repetitive and unable to complete full sentences without tripping over his memorized lines. It was really painful to watch.

By way of contrast, Trump was a master of the  Gish gallop debating tactic:

The Gish gallop (/ˈɡɪʃ ˈɡæləp/) is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by abandoning formal debating principles, providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments and that are impossible to address adequately in the time alloted to the opponent. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper's arguments at the expense of their quality

So he easily came off as the winner of the debate, even though he had a few of his own cognitive meltdowns during the exchanges. After many of his one-minute tirades, Biden could simply have just pointed out that he had failed to answer the question and stay on topic. Trump would repeatedly comment on the content of what Biden had just said rather than address the question put to him, but Biden seldom commented on the gobbledygook coming out of Trump's mouth.

The Wikipedia article on Gish galloping does offer good advice on how to deal with the tactic, none of which Biden tried:

British journalist Mehdi Hasan suggests using three steps to beat the Gish gallop:[5]

1. Because there are too many falsehoods to address, it is wise to choose one as an example. Choose the weakest, dumbest, most ludicrous argument that the galloper has presented and tear that argument to shreds ("the weak point rebuttal").
2. Do not budge from the issue or move on until having decisively destroyed the nonsense and clearly made the counter point.
3. Call out the strategy by name, saying: "This is a strategy called the 'Gish Gallop' — do not be fooled by the flood of nonsense you have just heard."

I'll be interested to see the Stephanapoulos interview today, but I really think Biden needs to withdraw and endorse Harris. She would likely be able to handle Gish Gallop Donald better in a debate than Biden can. I don't think that Biden is very capable of besting Trump in a debate even when he is on his game. Harris, at least, knows how to laugh at Trump's antics and deliver a coherent response.

 

[Ford]

Biden is giving a speech right now in Wisconsin. The crowd is going wild for him. He's not even slurring any words, maybe one or two mild Joe gaffes, according to the pundits.. His voice is back. This is the Joe I wish we had seen during the debate, but he was either exhausted or Trump creeps people out so much that they sometimes can't function as usual. ( Actually that might be true )

I don't know why he wants to do this for four more years, but seriously, his speech was amazing. Anyway, I wish the fucking media would criticize the one who is crazy, unqualified and a danger to democracy and not the one who is just old and not as spry as he once was. There is no magical candidate that can replace Biden this late in the game. If he can keep this up, there is hope!

It doesn't look like he's going to back out of the race, so enough with the harsh criticism. Vote BLUE mother fuckers!

That’s great. I just want to see Trump beat. Biden was defiant today that he’s staying in. But the chorus of Dems urging him to quit gets louder. Senator Warner of Virginia is gathering more senators to ask Biden to quit. Governor Healy of Mass said he should carefully consider his options, and that after she met with him. With this kind of support from Dems, there’s no way. Top Dems are consolidating around Harris. Maybe Shapiro from PA as a running mate to help bring home their electoral votes.

Sad situation all along.

If this weren't a race against a convicted criminal who expresses his love for dictators and his desire to be one, I'd be watching this with a sense of bemusement over the fact that the Democrats are doing what they've always done...be an unruly house full of cats refusing to be herded and fighting over who gets to chase the laser light on the floor.

Unfortunately, that's not what this is, and the Republicans are doing what they've always done...close ranks no matter how bad their candidate is shitting the bed. There are "supercuts" on YouTube of Trump veering of script, mumbling nonsense at rallies, and saying crazy shit that would be disqualifying to any "normal" candidate, but the GOP is like "nope, he's fine. He's our guy until the bitter end." They're saying "yeah, he might be a dictator in waiting, but that's...kinda what we're waiting for." Trump could have a stroke on stage at a rally after ranting about electric lawnmowers and his followers (and party) would simply say that it happened because he's just that star-spangled passionate and he'll come back even stronger!

Democrats? "Dammit where's my catnip? OOH! Shiny object!" It really doesn't help that they're lining up to punch themselves in the face, but that's the Democrats for ya...

Which would be okay if we weren't teetering on the edge...

 

[abaddon]

... Democrats are doing what they've always done...be an unruly house full of cats refusing to be herded and fighting over who gets to chase the laser light on the floor....

Democrats [are] lining up to punch themselves in the face, but that's the Democrats for ya...

Which would be okay if we weren't teetering on the edge...

Yep. 100% agreement. And this is the worst thing about the debate. Not that he didn't perform as hoped for, but it got the softheaded democrats punching their own faces to the delight of the fascists.

 

[laughing dog]

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.

Sorry, but the likes of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Victor Orban, Marianne Le Pen, Bebe Netanahyu, Hamas, Putin, and a host of others suggest our species had lost our collective minds. Except maybe the denizens of !

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

What the Biden campaign can do to offset the perception that Biden is tired, is to continuously show footage of sleepy Don at his NY trial. I imagine they are holding off on this for now for two reasons, both strategic. To let Biden's debate performance fade from the news, and as Americans have such bad memories to do it closer to actual election to highlight it.

Another thing to remember is that in 2020, Biden had 7 million votes more than Trump, so even if he lost 10 million votes because of the debate (unlikely) Trump will also lose at least 10 million votes because of all the crap he has pulled since November 2020 (much more likely).

EDIT: At least 500,000 of those supporters that Trump will lose are those that died of Covid due to his responses to it. Many of them will have family members who will be less inclined to vote for Trump because of that also.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Thursday...6 days away...Trump at last gets sentenced on the 34 felonies, some of which put Michael Cohen behind bars. I want the MAGA nutcases to go absolutely crazy on Thursday.

 

[Ford]

Thursday...6 days away...Trump at last gets sentenced on the 34 felonies, some of which put Michael Cohen behind bars. I want the MAGA nutcases to go absolutely crazy on Thursday.

Nope. The judge has pushed the sentencing back to September.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

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.

Disagree. They would attack any viable Democrat candidate, it's not specifically about him.

 

[Shadowy Man]

What the Biden campaign can do to offset the perception that Biden is tired, is to continuously show footage of sleepy Don at his NY trial. I imagine they are holding off on this for now for two reasons, both strategic.

what footage? There were no cameras in that courtroom. They could keep showing the artists’ drawings of sleepy Don but not footage.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Thursday...6 days away...Trump at last gets sentenced on the 34 felonies, some of which put Michael Cohen behind bars. I want the MAGA nutcases to go absolutely crazy on Thursday.

Nope. The judge has pushed the sentencing back to September.

Holy frig. That's what I get for boycotting the news starting on debate night last week.