Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who is running for U.S. Senate in California, is calling for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race, he said in an exclusive statement Wednesday to The Times.
Schiff, who is heavily favored to win his Senate race, cited “serious concerns” that Biden can beat former President Trump in November.
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Vaguely related, here’s Biden speaking in front of the NAACP yesterday:
Report
He’s been doing the “anyway” thing a lot more. I remember that W used to be unable to brag because his mom had drilled it into his head. Biden seems to be doing the same thing more – breaking in with “it’s nobody’s fault but mine”, or “I don’t want to say I was the only one” or the like. He also has been cutting himself off while saying his staff doesn’t want him to say something, or I shouldn’t disclose that information, et cetera. I’ve noticed him cutting himself off in the past 5 years, but this “anyway” seems new to me. I could be mistaken though.Report
He also did his shouting “more children are killed by bullets” angry outburst at the NAACP event. I believe that he cares about the issue, but it’s just bizarre how he goes full screaming fury for one sentence then resets.Report
In a different part of the speech, he said that he was going to cap rent increases by $55 (rather than by 5%, which was the position of his administration to that point). He’s seen squinting at the teleprompter and McMegan pointed out that that looked like an example of him screwing up because he can’t see the teleprompter. Putting on spectacles would make him look too old, the theory goes.
I suppose I can see that.
But I remember an old segment from WCW a million years ago when the WWF was finally winning the Monday Night Wars and Bischoff wanted to yell at the camera. He pulled out a letter and, before he read it, pulled out a pair of reading glasses and explained to the people at home that he needed his glasses because he was “gettin’ old”. It got a laugh from the audience.
Biden shouldn’t be afraid to put on spectacles and make a joke about “gettin’ old”. It’s okay. It puts a lampshade on it.Report
Well, yeah, any time he or Trump cite a number, you’d be better off rolling a d20.Report
Ooop, it’s currently being theorized that Schiff is doing this because his fundraising numbers are bad. He’s spending $55 million but only has $40 million and so that’s why he’s doing this.
It’s theorized.Report
Schiff can do this because he runs from a safely blue state that is going Democratic either way. I’m disappointed by him.
Biden has said he is not going to drop out. He has the delegates to secure the nomination. The post-debate polls have been remarkably consistent and within the margin of error. They are very sticky and make it anyone’s game. Biden has still done better against Trump than other potential replacements.
I have yet to hear a plan that replaces Biden without creating a glum and moral busted Democratic base. Maybe great for pundits, not so good for the Democratic Party. Actually, there is one plan:
Biden resigns, Harris becomes the President, everyone and their third cousin backs Harris to the tilt.
But it is revealing that a lot of Biden must go types do not consent to this obvious solution and seem to go for “blitz primary” aka open convention/boar on the floor and think it will be a good result or at least not morale damaging.Report
That seems to me the only reasonable alternative play was well. Anything else would be a mess.Report
I have yet to hear a plan that replaces Biden without creating a glum and moral busted Democratic base.
Part of the problem is that the status quo seems to be doing a good job of reaching that same outcome.
There are different people calling for different things.
Some of them want an open primary at the convention and then to have Biden/Harris ride out the rest of the term and, assuming a win, they’ll be replaced by Smith/Jones in January.
Some of them want Biden to step down RIGHT FREAKING NOW and put Harris in office and then have a convention where everybody supports Harris/Smith and then, come January, Harris/Smith get prepared for 8 more years.
And people who support the one plan (that they are sure will work) think that the other plan is doomed, doomed, doomed to fail.
Only an idiot would argue that it’d work. Maybe someone from the opposition would want them to do that. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Only someone from the opposition.
I don’t know what plan might result in a re-energized Democratic Party that is going fresh-faced into November. I know that I, personally, suspect that a Pritzker ticket with… what the hell, Stacey Abrams! Pritzker/Abrams would get every single journalist back on board. Every Single Freaking One.
And everybody could cheerfully agree that they all shared the same goal: Defeat Trump and they just had different plans on how to get there and no hard feelings for thinking that a different plan would do better.Report
Min-maxers want to beat the convention scenario, and purists are focused on applying the people’s voice to the problem. They’re on the open primary / convention side. I think partisans are all about ridin’ with Biden. I think the voices for Harris are coming from outside the party.Report
The argument, as I understand it, is that if the party dumps Biden/Harris (as opposed to just dumping Biden), they will be, effectively, placing a knife square in the back of the Black Female Supporters they depended on to win in 2020.
“We’ve gotta keep Harris!” is a way to avoid stabbing African-American women in the back.
I understand that. And, yeah, running Pritzker/Franken would probably piss a lot of people off who would then ask “what’s the big deal? Isn’t the most important thing beating Trump?”, with wide-eyed innocence.
Opinions differ on how popular Harris is. Some point to her showing in the primaries, others point to how well she does in 538’s models. Who can say?
Well, as a Harris skeptic, I think it’s obvious that she was picked to appeal to a very particular moment in history and Stacey Abrams stabbed Biden in the back early in the primary and Harris was the only other Black Woman with name recognition by the time the election rolled around and so there you go.
I don’t know exactly how much damage would be done by dumping Harris but it ain’t zero. that said, I suspect that 99.99% of it can be smoothed over by making Abrams the VP of whomever gets nominated.Report
The political argument for Harris is (1) that the campaign would be able to access the war chest if she’s the nominee and probably wouldn’t be able to if she isn’t; (2) Harris is running within range of everyone else in current polling; (3) a campaign could make a narrative about her continuing humble Joe’s legacy; and (4) it would spare the Democrats the burden of Biden at the top of the ticket. The executive argument for Harris is that we don’t have an able president. The executive argument carries the weight for me, and probably makes me more sympathetic to the political one. To be honest, I’m becoming sickened by the people who only care about the election impact.Report
I’ve heard the war chest argument multiple times but it strikes me as easily surmountable with light shenanigans. “It’s not Biden’s money, it’s not Harris’s money, it’s THE PEOPLE’S money!” or some bs like that.
They have lawyers on the team. Lawyer something up.
2 strikes me as a good reason to run Harris, as good as any. I’d double and triple-check the “enthusiasm” numbers… but, without seeing the internals, I can’t argue against it.
3? Sure.
4? Absolutely.
Another thing: Switching to Harris is (relatively) frictionless.
If we make it to the convention to fight it out, people will fight it out and hair will be mussed and some of the people who say “Smith is great, Jones sucks!” will have “Jones sucks!” thrown back in their faces for the foreseeable.
Harris just slides in without any of that friction.
The only reason you’d not want to do it that way is if you suspected that Harris will also lose and the point of switching away from Biden is to *NOT LOSE*.Report
Sure, last-minute novel legal strategies to bypass election law aren’t illegal or anything.
** See CommunityNotesReport
I’ve heard the war chest argument multiple times but it strikes me as easily surmountable with light shenanigans.
The FEC rules are apparently quite clear on this. More important than the cash is that the campaign organization has leases on space in many states, phone lines, data arrangements, contracts for advertising slots, etc. None of that is transferable to another campaign organization.
The “we’ll replace Biden/Harris with Smith/Jones at the convention” crowd seems to think that Smith and Jones, with no organization, no space, no advertising arrangements, can jump in six weeks before early voting starts (including, if I recall the dates correctly, every registered voter in California receiving their ballot) and have a winning campaign.Report
Can’t they just say “this is the same organization, the soul is the same, just transmigrated”?
I don’t mean “100% according to the rules” as much as “there is no controlling legal authority sufficient to prevent it”?Report
No. This is election law, not the Catholic ChurchReport
Wrong hemisphere.Report
I don’t know-
If enough powers that be force Biden out and nominate Harris at the convention, I can see the Democratic base becoming wildly enthused by her as the opposition to Trump, and I can imagine the indecisive low info voter getting excited by her as well.
But a lot of this depends on how Biden acts, how the powers that be act.
Either way I think what is driving the Dem voters to the polls in 2022 and 2024 isn’t a charismatic leader or issue, but the fury and fear of a Trump II.
And he and Vance are making that easier to sustain.Report
“I can imagine the indecisive low info voter getting excited by her as well.”
I don’t know which United States you’re living in, but I’m pretty sure low information voters in the one I’m currently residing in don’t usually get too excited by very confident black women.Report
Maybe so, but considering that according to some polls, Michelle Obama would take it in a walk is worth considering.
Also, I recall that when a young man named Barack Hussein Obama started his campaign, Peggy Noonan was beside herself with smug joy that America would never do such a crazy thing as let this man become President.Report
The Replace Biden faction also has no plans or even expectations for Republican chicanery despite them openly vowing this.Report
Personally I don’t think Biden has done enough to dispel the doubts that his horrible performance at the debate raised which gives me a not inconsiderable fear that he is unable to do what is needed to dispel those doubts. For the record I’d be 110% fine with Harris taking Bidens’ place- I have no particular illusions about her capability as a candidate but I am entirely confident that, with her background, she could mount a fierce effort and not get run over by Trump in the next debate the way Biden was. Further, in this runup point to the nomination I think that Biden-step-downers have a right and obligation to make their case though I agree that any of those people who aren’t also 110% pro-Harris are unserious.
Once Biden has the nomination 100% sewn up instead of the 99% sewn up he has now I’ll, of course, be entirely in the tank for Biden.Report
I don’t understand all the push back on people speaking their minds nor the need for it to become so personal. It is clear to me that Biden is not in a good place as a candidate, and quite possibly not as a president in terms of fitness. Live long enough and age will come for us all.
None of that means I won’t vote for him, and if he is the candidate I will. But this is painful to watch and the decision on what to do needs to be purely pragmatic.Report
That’s something that I think I get:
1. If we wobble, we definitely lose.
2. STOP WOBBLING
And it doesn’t matter if you say something like “guys? I think we’re on a path to lose right now?” because that gives ammo to “the other side” and why would you want to give ammo to the other side?
Besides, we already said that anyone who disagreed with the party line yesterday was trolling. If I agree with the guy that I said was trolling yesterday, I might lose some temporary advantage and he might gain some.
So stop wobbling.Report
After the convention? Sure. But in July? When there’s still time for a course change?* I don’t get that.
*I think the only plausible course change is Kamala Harris but under the circumstances that’s a conversation worth having.Report
The whole post-debate Biden fitness debate is a self-inflicted death by a thousand cuts. It’s been 3 weeks and Schiff is only coming out now? It’s almost like the Dems want to lose.Report
If you believe the rumors, the ditch-Biden Dems had prepared a battery of announcements for last weekend, but obviously weren’t going to be able to generate the momentum they were hoping for after the shooting. They apparently have asked the DNC to move back its voice-vote conference call a few weeks though.Report
It’s a damnably unique situation and the parties are, due to generations of path dependence, set up to strongly prefer to renominate a successful president. It’s not an easy thing to coordinate and, of course, there’s no simple organizational structure that can do it (nor should there likely be).Report
The problem is that it looks like the Democrats are not s unified front and it makes us look confused, weal, and like a circular firing squad. Anonymous Democrats complaining that they are resigned to a second Trump term is also a very bad look. It looks more like the iron law of institutions.
There were pundits like Ezra Klein and Eric Levitz complaining that Biden was too old before the debate that set hair on fire. These pundits never mentioned Kamala Harris as the obvious replacement and went straight to the perpetual pundit fantasy of a brokered convention. This always felt like a tell to me that concerns about Biden’s age had a strong undercurrent of “Gasp if something happened to Biden, the black lady will be in charge.”
The fact that no Democratic politician is mentioning Harris except as one of many replacements (if they mention her at all) is also a tell in my opinion.
Biden is a bit down but he has been treading water and TRUMP IS ALSO VERY DISLIKED. The polling I have seen did not have potential replacements doing better than Biden in swing states.
Also it is July. In July 1988, Dukakis was crushing Bush I by 17 points.
So people calling for Democrats to ditch Biden are working a lot on vibes in my opinion without released evidence for their cause.Report
I hear the argument for keeping him in, despite all of the issues and have tried to think about it in a clear eyed way. I also agree that Trump’s ceiling is really low, but I think one can draw different conclusions from that. My suspicion is that Biden would be technically ‘in it’ all the way to the end in significant part due to Trump’s own massive, seemingly insurmountable negatives.
The question is whether to roll the dice on Biden eking it out just above the margin for error or take a chance on the possibility that Kamala Harris, as a minimally coherent human, will be able to decisively get ahead where Biden probably never will.
Anyway Yglesias had a piece today making the case for her:
https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-vp-is-clearly-the-stronger-candidateReport
On the eking it out thing… I get it; but I think that’s a very ‘insiderish’ view.
Political Junkie: All Biden has to do is hold on till Nov. 5, then we can reset the clock and deal with it.
Ordinary Folks: We’re voting for the *next* 4 years… Biden ain’t gonna make it.Report
Hey give me a little more credit than that!
I’m thinking about this all in terms of the swing voters in the upper mid west. If the campaigns numbers suggest Biden, even in his corpse like state, still narrowly holds PA, MI, WI based on vague, residual memories of ol’ Joe from Scranton, moderate middle class guy, or whatever other reason, whereas Kamala Harris, pants suit corporate Democrat of the coastal striving class is alienating, you probably keep Joe. IIRC it came out in the 2016 autopsy that one of the reasons Clinton didn’t race to fight for MI when Trump did in the final days was that her campaign had determined that more exposure to working class midwestern voters was actually hurting her standing with them. The last thing you want to do is go from Biden clinging by his fingernails, no matter why that is, to a candidate whose persona actively makes things worse with the exact people you need to win.
The alternative scenario is where you believe Harris’ theoretical ability to throw punches Biden will never be able to and/or just not being on death’s door is enough to turn coin flips into more favorable odds.
Now, whether the campaign is actually thinking about things that way is anyone’s guess, but that’s how I look at it. In our system some ordinary folks matter much more than others.Report
I appreciate MY for this but in honesty he has about as much say in what will happen as we do.Report
My issue is with the Democratic Politicians calling on Biden to step aside because it feels like they are immolating themselves and possibly the party in the worst possible way.
Harris was nominated and elected to be the VP in 2020. She is the contingency if a black hole were to swallow up Biden tomorrow. There is no question that Harris would be El Jefe if Biden was swallowed up by a black hole.
But all the Democratic politicians calling for Biden to stand aside are giving a big tell when they don’t say “Biden should step aside and Let’s go Harris to continue the Biden legacy and get the job done.”Report
No real debate from me. I think what you suggest would be the superior play to what we are seeing so far.Report
I dunno about this… every normie liberal I see says basically this: It would be best for the party if Biden were to step down; Harris is the path of least resistance and would be better than Biden; if Biden does step down, are we sure we just want to take the path of least resistance; maybe yes, maybe no.
I mean, I could imagine a similar sort of handwringing if HW had suffered rapid mental decline in the run-up to the election (heh, he was *only* 68 in 1992) and people were insisting that Dan Quayle was the only possible option given the timing and FEC bylaws.Report
Both the Democrats who want Biden to stay in and those who want him to drop out need to take a longer view and simultaneously calm down and at the same time, look soberly at the situation America is in.
A few facts:
1. No matter which way the election goes, it will be a narrow victory, the third such narrow victory in a row.
2. Trumpism is no longer a fringe or aberration; it isn’t a fever that will break or a detour from the path of Republicanism. Trumpism and everything that comes with it (Project 2025) IS Republicanism and will be for the foreseeable future.
3. Trumpists control a narrow majority of statehouses some by trifectas and the SCOTUS which will indulge whater laws they happen to conjure up.
4. A narrow defeat of Trump/Vance will NOT demoralize the base; a narrow defeat will be read as that they simply need to try harder, game the system a bit more.
5. A narrow victory by Trump/Vance will not change the fact that about half of the voters wanted Biden/Harris, and that a clear majority of them don’t like the Trump/Vance policies.
These are just facts that everyone needs to face. No matter who wins, these facts aren’t changing anytime soon.
The conclusion is we are in a long battle for democracy and the rule of law. The freakout is premised on this one election being somehow a climactic battle as if in the aftermath, America will be a very different place.
It won’t. Like all elections, it is an inflection point, the way 2000 was, the way 2008 was, the way 2016 was.
We have to accept this, and act accordingly.Report
This is exactly where I’m at. Staging the debate at 9:00 p.m. DC time was not going to go well for a man in his early 80s. Trump is pretty famous for not sleeping, and no one expects anything coherent anyway.
There are very few people the Democratic Party could run that would make me not vote for their nominee. And I don’t think there are any credible 3rd party candidates that I know of.Report
You and me both.Report
Perhaps but pundits like Klein and Levitz were beating the Biden is too Old/Biden Must Go drum long before the first debate. I think Biden has done a lot but minds were bake and now all the evidence only proves the priors.
My issue is that a lot of people seem to be unserious as you note and are not mentioning Harris and seem to think she can be ditched to without causing a fracture or demoralizingReport
Well I agree with you that any conversation about not going with BIden that doesn’t conclude “and therefore it’s Harris” is just silly.Report
I would say destructive and demoralizing with the strong possibility of creating a schism that takes 10-20 years to heal but that is just me. But a lot of people seem to want that including Democratic politicians.
Yesterday, Politico published a piece about an internal DNC memo which showed Harris polling better than Biden but non-Harris Democrats polling better. People like Shapiro, Whitmer, or Wes Moore.
My worry is that we end up with a bruising convention like 1924.Report
It is a concern but the logistics are virtually impossible to argue against. A Harris nomination means everything Biden has, money, infrastructure, personnel, transitions more or less seamlessly over to Harriss. Anyone other than Harris? Nightmare clusterfish, lawsuits fly, chaos.
The only people wishing for that are media dips who want spectacle, people who’re lying to themselves about the practical considerations or right wingers.Report
I’m also partially convinced that this is a “No Labels” esque revolt in disguise because Biden has been talking about making the rich pay their fair share (i.e. raise taxes), so now Democratic donors who can give 8 figure checks to PACs are having a hissy fit and using the debate as cover.Report
Mmmm sounds too eleventh dimensional chess to me. Also it elides that Biden both
A: did an objectively terrible job at that debate
B: has done only a slow jog of engagements since with middling to mediocre performance in them.
And I say this as a person who has always liked Joe and was utterly transported when he wiped the board on super Tuesday in 2020. Heck, I’d go so far as to say that Bidens’ first term pencils out almost better than Obamas’ first term (though the ACA is a huge argument on the other side of that ledger I’d posit Obama shares credit for that with Reid and Pelosi who truly got it over the finish line). I have never had a problem with Joe Biden and I would love love love for him to get another term- but I desperately want to win regardless of which name is on top of the ticket. I also desperately would love for Biden to pull it out so I’m extremely gettable but his teams behavior and his own middling performance and peevish reaction has not filled me with confidence. And what the ever loving fish is Hunter fishing failson Biden doing skulking around his inner circles???
All that said, if it ends up being Biden as the nominee I’m still 100% ridin with Biden. I just fear that our odds are better with Harris.Report
What the hell is going on??
This is a clown show.
if this is going to work, and it’s not guaranteed it will, but if it’s going to work, everybody has to be on the same gol-danged page!!!Report
Schiff is the nominee for the Senate seat in California. He’s not going to run the decisions he makes for that campaign past Pelosi.Report
But a glass of water would have won that seat if it had a (D) by its name.
This makes me more likely to believe the fundraising thing because the only reason he doesn’t call Pelosi first is the donors.
(Or, I suppose, Pelosi is stretching the truth which… doesn’t make sense…)Report
Pelosi news from CNN’s MJ Lee:
Report
I don’t know if there is a plan by leading Democrats and party influencers to push out Biden, but they’re leaking in a way that’s consistent with it, and permitting articles to indicate that it’s happening. Both Pelosi and Schiff are connected insiders and pragmatists who have acted publicly in a way to encourage a feeling of anti-Joe-mentum. I’d find it surprising if they’d never chatted about it.Report
Breaking: Biden tests positive for covid-19, and is returning to Delaware for isolation and recovery.Report
I thought you were kidding.
Report
Nope. No jokes. Jokes require expected parameters, and we left those a while ago.
The question is whether Biden knew he was covid positive when he said in an interview (which I think was earlier today) that he’d be willing to reevaluate his running if there was a medical problem.Report
“Well, Plan A failed.”
“Plan B, then?”
“Make it look like covid. If we can create another masking debate, maybe it’ll push the needle.”Report
Biden tweets out “I’m sick“.
In the next tweet he tweets out “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.”
But he’s got a single tweet saying “I’m sick”.
It’s right there.
What the hell kind of clown show is this?Report
Newsweek, Trump’s chances of winning the election are declining: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-polling-data-five-thirty-eight-1926226Report
A million years ago, I read a really good article that I’m 90% sure was either on Slate or on Salon where they went to 5 different polling companies and gave them some numbers.
It was like:
800 respondents and 40ish were red and 40ish were blue and some teenish were undecided and here’s the numbers for registrations in the state and here’s the last 3 elections and give us your read of these numbers.
And each of the five polling places took those numbers and put them through their machines and came out and, at the end, four of the places said blue and one of the places said red and they all explained why they reached the conclusion they did based on the weights that they put on the raw (made up) data that they received.
Even with each of the pollsters keeping their own math secrets secret, they made somewhat broad statements about what they weighted and why and how they came out at the end with what they did. And there was a *LOT* of math anyway.
It was a really good essay. I wish I could find it.
Anyway, despite there being a ton of polls done by 538 and Newsweek and Forbes and Emerson and Quinnipiac and all that, campaigns still do their own internal polling. Why? Well, because of the whole weighting thing.
The point of polls, internally, is *NOT* to feel better about the numbers.
It’s to know if you’re weak and, if possible, to know *HOW* you’re weak.
Oh, the American People are talking a lot about inflation? I should talk about how inflation is over.
Oh, the American People are talking a lot about unemployment? I should talk about jobs.
Oh, the American People are talking a lot about Israel/Palestine? I should talk about
Anyway, the point of some polls out there are to make people feel better. Look at these Newsweek polls! Trump’s weak! Look at these RCP polls! Trump’s within the margin of error on 5 of the 7 states he needs to win!
But *INTERNALS*? Those aren’t for feeling better. Those are for diagnosing what’s going on. Those aren’t for hope. They’re for change. They’re for taking to the donors and saying “given these facts on the ground, we need $X to spend more time telling the American People that gas prices are going down” or whatever.
Because some of the donors have pollsters that they trust too. And if we’re talking about $X, they’re actually wanting a politician to win, not spend money on staffers who do a very good job of finding which remaining polls show both candidates being within the margin of error.Report
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/20/upshot/the-error-the-polling-world-rarely-talks-about.html
?Report
HOLY CRAPOLA THAT’S THE ARTICLEReport
just typed “five polling companies run the same data” into Google search – sometimes just a fresh set of eyesReport
The takeaway from polling isn’t any one or two or even five results, but to see which way the trends are moving.
In a race where the electorate is closely divided, we would would fully expect that five polls would show different results, narrowly grouped around a median.
Right now, and for a long time now, all the polls have shown that the race is within the margin of error and could tilt either way.
In that sense they are perfectly accurate even if they show the incorrect result.Report
That’s not what the article is about… it’s the exact same data.
“The pollsters made different decisions in adjusting the sample and identifying likely voters. The result was four different electorates, and four different results.”
This is the current ‘discussion’ around 538… they are weighting ‘fundamentals’ such that they offset the actual polls. So, you’re getting raw polling data, but your model offsets the data with other assumptions.
Fine… but if your model is doing an ‘all things being normal’ set of assumptions, your model might need updating with new known unknowns.Report
I understand, and that’s the point. There is no such thing as a perfectly accurate poll because by necessity they all need to be adjusted and weighted in different ways.
And in a climate where the two sides are very closely divided, we would expect that different weighting models will show different results.
It isn’t that they are wrong, and in fact they are all telling us pretty much the same story, i.e., that it is a dead heat and can go either way.Report
Fine to say that polling is tricky… but what I’m reading is that the *internal* Democratic polling is not showing a dead heat.Report
Maybe.
But I am always a bit hesitant to take rumors of internal polling at face value.
I mean, how are internal pollsters any more accurate than conventional ones?
Do they have different models for weighting, different datasets, different track records for accuracy?
I don’t know, does anyone here?Report
They’re polling for their lives, not their supper?Report
Cool theory but do you know the answers to my questions?
Does anyone here?
And why don’t they release their super dooper accurate internal polling along with the methodology and what not?
Especially if it shows you’re gonna win?
Aren’t you just a bit skeptical?Report
From a quick google:
But this is written by 538 people so of course they’d be biased on behalf of polling.Report
That’s all interesting, but you and I already knew this. It’s almost verbatim what you said above.
And it doesn’t answer any of my questions.
I mean, it could very well be that they are more accurate but without any evidence, we just have to take them at face value.
Again, in any other context, wouldn’t you be skeptical of “I have super accurate information showing I am winning, but I can’t show it to you because reasons.”?Report
And why don’t they release their super dooper accurate internal polling along with the methodology and what not?
Report
OK.
So you did answer my question after all, and the answer is “I don’t know”.
Its OK.I don’t either and I really don’t think anyone here does.Report
Perhaps not, but the pollsters say stuff like “they don’t make them public because they don’t want to give advantages to their opponents” and that strikes me as a reasonable reason, especially since the answer doesn’t come from someone working for an internal polling operation but a public polling operation.
But it is an answer and it’s an answer from someone who is, presumably, an expert.Report
So when the media say that government officials have access to secret information which shows this or that, we should believe them because, well, its secret isn’t it and surely they wouldn’t mislead us would they?
What were you saying just yesterday about the Iraq war?Report
The response “I have no reason to believe what that woman says” is a better response than “you didn’t provide an answer”.
And that’s fine.
But if you’re not willing to believe what pollsters say, I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to provide you an expert-provided answer for why pollsters do what they do.Report
I never said any such thing.
I only said we should take anonymous claims of secret information with a grain of salt.
Aren’t you usually the one demanding we question “experts”?Report
It’s not anonymous. It’s from Leah Askarinam.
As for “experts”, it’s one thing to defer to experts on areas within their expertise and another to defer to experts on areas entirely outside of their expertise.
A million years ago, there was a cold medicine commercial that opened with “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”.
I am opposed to trusting that guy’s expertise.
When it comes to why a campaign might keep their internal polls secret, I am willing to ask a pollster from 538 and look at her answer of “to have information that our opponents don’t have” as being a coherent answer.
If you want to take the position that you have no reason to believe it, that’s fine.
But it also communicates to me that I will probably be unable to find *ANY* answer to the question that will be able to overcome your skepticism.Report
I’ll dig this comment out the next time we discuss the experts at the FDA.Report
The ones that I think that have been captured?
Sure. I’ll ask you why you are willing to trust them more than Leah Askarinam on the subject of why internal polls are kept secret.
Now you know you have plenty of time to come up with an answer.Report
Marchmaine said that he read somewhere that the internal polls are not showing a dead heat.
Since no one here has seen any such poll, we have only the word of the person who reported that story, and the word of the source.
Should we take them at face value, or are you open to the possibility that either the source or the reporter may be either compromised or just plain mistaken?
Even if the secret internal poll is somehow accurate, are the sources reliable?
Can you imagine reasons why they may be stretching the truth a bit?
I sure can.Report
I can think of many reasons that Pelosi, Schiff, and journalists everywhere are calling for Biden to step down.
“You’re dragging down the ticket” strikes me as being the one most in line with the information we have.
I’d love to hear reasons that they’re probably lying though.Report
Actually I agree and said as much elsewhere.
Pelosi and Schiff are good solid Dems, not prone to panic or bad motives so I have a lot of trust in them.
But notice, its my trust in THEIR veracity based on their proven track records, not anonymous sources or secret information.
And even then, I’m still open to the idea that they themselves may be getting poor information.Report
They might be. Hell, *ALL* of the polls might be bad!
We may not know anything at all and not know how to measure it.
But, for a moment, let’s assume that polling is possible. Like, it’s possible to get an idea, within a margin of error, of where we are based on asking 800 people some questions.
Like, not *PERFECT KNOWLEDGE*, but an ability to turn data into information.
Assuming that that’s possible seems to align with the ability to make a map of the territory.
“THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY!”, you may wish to point out and, indeed, you will be correct.
But you can look at the map from where you are.Report
That’s kind of what I was saying above, that even if they vary in the particulars, all the polls right now are telling us the same story, that it is very close, too close to call.Report
I’d flip your weird skepticism thus:
If the Internal Polling numbers were good, you could trust Pelosi and Schiff, good solid dems not prone to panic or bad motives, NOT to call for Biden to step down.Report
Agreed.
But notice how much this is like barstool Sovietology, deducing things obliquely rather than via hard data.
Its entirely possible that internal polls show a very different race than Gallup or the others.
But that just brings me back to my original question.Report
There’s astrology and there’s celestial navigation.
Don’t confuse them. Their similarities are superficial.Report
Heh no, despite your nostalgia for all things soviet, I don’t really think US reporters reporting from US sources on obvious topics that are obvious with public utterances from politicians about the matter is much akin to Sovietology.Report
Regarding 538 which is the source for the Newsweek article, Nate Silver published his take on the current 538 models.
https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-i-dont-buy-538s-new-election
He reminds people that 538 is a new thing with new models… he owns the ‘old 538’ models and is using them for his Silver Bullet projections.Report
A couple of weeks ago, Silver said that he gave Biden about a 15% chance, because his models had him at a 29% chance and his eyes told him Biden had a 0% chance, and he averaged them out.
That said, I don’t believe Biden couldn’t win, just that there aren’t any things I can see which are likely to help him improve.Report
One of the analysts pointed out that, at this point in 2020, Biden had been ahead of Trump every single day of the race.
And that this race is different because, apparently, it’s more neck-and-neck.
Thank goodness for Newsweek. Thank goodness for 538.Report
I’m a bit disappointed with Schiff for this one but not as disappointed/angry as I am with other Democrats with the knives out.
The polls have not changed that much and the polls that I have seen on 538 have Biden much closer to the margin of error against Trump than other potential replacement Democrats.
My anger is that the Democrats who seem that we can replace Biden with someone not named Harris and not have it be a bruising and demoralizing convention that ends up as a big game of Boar on the Floor which will delight political reporters and Republicans and no one else.
Biden retains support of at least 35-40 percent of Democrats. This is not a majority but it is not exactly a minority either. Many of his supporters come from the corest of core Democratic constituencies, black women especially middle-aged black women. Rejecting Harris for someone else is a brutal mistake and a horrifically cynical play to assume that they will show up anyway.Report
So make sure that the VP is Abrams.Report
I agree with you that if you replace Biden it pretty much has to be Harris.Report
FWIW, Biden has been coming hard against Crypto and perhaps Schiff wants that crypto money: https://www.standwithcrypto.org/politicians/person/adam—schiffReport
Axios is now reporting: Several top Democrats privately tell us the rising pressure of party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race, as soon as this weekend.
I’ve heard it argued that while this might be true, Axios isn’t the first place that it’d be reported if it were true.
Others are taking it as an opportunity to explain that Biden should resign right before Trump takes the stage at the RNC and the news could bigfoot his speech! Yet others argue “no, that’s dumb”.Report
From the Washington Post: Obama tells allies Biden’s path to winning reelection has greatly diminished.
Subhed: The former president, hugely influential in the party, has told associates that Biden’s path to victory has significantly shrunk.Report
Well, private bravery is a kind of bravery, I suppose. And leaking acts of private bravery is almost like public bravery, right?Report
It’s not courageous either which way- Obama is not, and never will again, be a candidate. His personal fortunes (outside the crazy far tail end risk of being targeted by a deranged right-wing admin) do not depend on how the election goes or how he’s seen by anyone. So, if Obama shot his mouth off or spoke quietly it wouldn’t be brave either way- he is risking nothing.
I do think it speaks well of Obama that he’s remained publicly mum, as has Bill Clinton, but it’s not brave- it’s just restrained.Report
It could be as simple as the House Progressives represent constituencies where Biden’s core support remains very strong. I think a lot of people do not understand how much the black community really likes Biden and always has but they especially like him because he was an older white dude willing to be a loyal aide-de-camp to a younger black man for eight years and never sought to outshine or undermine himReport
It’s funny to me that as far a political figures go, it seems the more progressive politicians (Sanders, AOC, Barbara Lee, Omar, Pressley) are backing Biden, while more establishment Democrats (Schumer, Pelosi, Schiff, Warner) are advocating for Biden to step aside. Yet among online comments, it seems switched. The more progressive types seem to mostly want Biden to step down and more moderate voters seem to be backing Biden.Report
This is strange and others have noted it but there have been progressive journalists drum beating that Biden was too old/doomed long before the infamous June debate which started three weeks of hair on fire coverage and writing.
There is no clear action on what is and what is not the correct path here.Report
I’m a moderate myself and lean in the direction that Biden should step down. Be that as it may I do see the pattern you’re describing and I’m at a loss to explain it. Maybe the former crowd are more ideological and thus their thinking goes “Biden has been a good President in left wing terms- far better than any of us expected him to be, so we owe him our support” whereas the establishmentarians are going “All our data and gut feelings say Biden is a definite drag on the ticket that Harris likely wouldn’t be- so we have to dump Biden for maximal odds of winning.” It’s principle vs pragmatism maybe?Report
The more progressive officeholders are in safer seats.Report
Who is most likely to see this election as the most important election in our lifetimes?
Among politicians, those who might lose a moderate seat.
Among commenters, those who believe their own narratives.Report
AOC took to Instagram Live last night and reinforced some of my fears, namely many of the folks that want Biden gone also want Harris gone, and there’s no real plan and nobody has really thought much about next steps (at least nobody has shared anything with AOC).
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1814151594012754255.htmlReport
That’s a good thread. AOC is pretty good at this.
AOC says that if the political class was concerned about Biden’s age and capability, they should have had this discussion a year ago – instead of supporting Biden back then.
I seem to remember the implication that Biden was definitely a one-termer way back in 2020. His implied plan was to beat Trump and then slide aside.
Does anybody else remember that?Report
I do.Report
Implied by lots of people other than Biden. We’ve been over this- he never promised or even suggested he’d be a one term president.Report
An important thing to put out there is that everyone is unpopular. 60 percent of people want Trump to step down too. Congress is not popular, The Supreme Court is not popular, etcReport
And as I keep pointing out, nothing has moved the polling needle much one way or the other, for eight solid years.
Since 2016, the support for each side has hovered within the margin of error. Through protests, riots, impeachments, pandemics, an attempted insurrection, an attempted assassination, nothing has really swayed the infamous “Undecideds” much at all.
Which is cause for concern but also cause for optimism.Report
There is an argument that replacement helps Democrats because there is suddenly a not Biden or Trump candidate. It is risky but could work. Unfortunately, it could also be a not Harris argument because she doesn’t poll that great either even though legally and logistically, she is still the most likely candidate.Report
You could immediately start yelling about how Donald Trump is senile, he messes up sentences, you can’t understand his thought processes, and he’s missing a step.
America deserves a spry president!Report
I actually think this is a real advantage of going to Harris (well, technically going with anyone but Biden, but same thing really).
On top of his criminality, stupidity, narcissism and propensity to hang around with fascists, it’s worth remembering that Trump is also really really old. He was the oldest person to be elected President in 2016, and he’s 8 years older than that now. Hell, he’s basically the same age Biden was in 2020, so if you think that Biden was too old, then Trump is too old.
Trump’s age is a major weakness that practically any candidate other than Biden could hammer hard. Harris, who at 59 is a perfectly respectable age for a world leader, would be a really strong contrast with Trump.Report
The dynamics are really weird. I remember Marchmaine saying something like “Horses for Courses”.
It’s not that this pony is better than that pony.
It’s that this pony is better than that pony on a straight track.
This pony is better than that pony if it’s a rainy day.
This pony is better than that pony if it’s a steeplechase.
Clinton would probably have beaten Jeb! in 2016. But she went up against Trump.
I don’t know that Warren would have beaten Trump in 2020 but Biden sure was able to beat him.
Trump’s better than Biden in 2024 (note: this has not yet been determined).
It’s helpful to note the lay of the land. We might not, in fact, be running an oval track on a sunny day.Report
An essay from Ezra Klein:
Where things stand:
1. Top Dems who believed even a week ago Biden would stay now believe he’ll go.
2. House and Senate Dems have lost faith in his ability to win and there’s no way to win them back. His calls and interviews have hurt him badly. Confirmed debate wasn’t a one-off.
3. Donors are also gone. Biden may well not have the money to run a real campaign against Trump if he stays in. Money will go downballot.
4. Biden is thinking things over in a way he wasn’t before and the view is he needs time to process and consider.
5. If Biden digs in after the weekend, public pressure from Dems will increase. Ugly in a way no one wants. But a lot of grim determination. Also a growing sense that if Biden stays in, this will come to be seen as the kind of political catastrophe you don’t want to later be seen as silent in.
6. The moment Biden bows out, he will be treated as a hero among Democrats — a statesman who made the kind of country and party-first decision that Trump never would. People get that this is hard. He’s being asked to do something very few leaders do.
7. Uniting around Kamala Harris feels a lot likelier than an open convention, much as I’ve supported the latter. This is grueling enough. Few Democrats have the stomach for another hard thing. And time is very short now.
8. Many thought RNC would help Biden by changing the subject. Instead, seeing a united Republican Party has focused Dems. They’ve realized they can’t rely on Trump just to lose this.
9. Democratic Party is acting like an…actual party? Quite a thing to watch.Report
The inside skinny from Mark Halperin:
BREAKING NEWS: Multiples sources outline the apparent state of play on Biden at this time:
* plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend, with Sunday most likely
* Jon Meacham polishing up remarks
* Biden with NOT resign the presidency
* Biden will NOT endorse Harris
* open convention with Harris and about 3 others
* super delegates will not be allowed to vote on 1st ballot
* Harris is vetting at least four possible running mates, including Andy Beshear and possibly Shapiro
More on this fluid situation at 6pm ET LIVE on YouTube
@2waytvappReport
Note: President Biden’s deputy assistant, Andrew Bates, says “This fan fiction is wrong“.
Earlier today, I had it pointed out to me that the rumor is that Justice Breyer retired when it was announced that he was retiring despite not having announced it himself. He realized that he’d rather retire than make a stink.
That was 2022… so it’s not like this team isn’t familiar with the particular play.Report
MJ Lee is reporting: Senior-most West Wing advisers to the president say they have had no discussions amongst themselves – or with President Biden – about the president dropping out of the race.
Yeah. They’re trying to Breyer him.Report
That open convention nonsense is pure Halperin wank fantasy. No way they’re going to try that. It’s Biden or it’s Harris.Report
But Jaybird and pundits have been fantasizing about it for numerous Presidential cycles now and they are closer than ever. They can feel it!!!Report
You misapprehend my fantasies.
I’ve actually been fantasizing about a Trump victory in November.Report
Interesting, you’d like Trump to win this year?Report
That’s not what I said.
But if it were, I can easily imagine digging in and holding onto Biden tighter than ever in response to me arguing that the Democrats are in a bad place and their best shot at winning in November is with NotBiden.Report
Just so we’re clear: NotBiden is Harris.
Otherwise, thanks for clarifying, I read you saying you fantasized about Trump winning and thought “hmmm that feels like a change in direction from Jay.”Report
From what I understand, if Biden drops out prior to the convention, his delegates, at that point, are released.
They do not automatically become Harris delegates.
From what I understand.Report
I’m not entirely sure anyone else would want the delegates under these circumstances. I mean… if you’re any other Democrat whose name gets thrown around do you really want to shoot your shot, right now, in this mess? I think not. You let Kamala jump on the grenade, maybe with Pete or someone else who doesn’t have a next obvious step, and if she wins hey that’s great, you try to be a Senator or something for awhile, and if she doesn’t, you’re ready for the 2028 primary.Report
This is it. This is your *ONE* *SHOT*. How many people get to be president? So far, it’s about 46 people. Do you think you could beat Kamala at the Convention?
Do you feel lucky?
Feel this thought in your head: “If Kamala couldn’t win a convention, she couldn’t win against Trump”.
Could *YOU* beat Trump?Report
It may be Pritzker’s one shot, if things break perfectly and he can use home field advantage. Newsom, Shapiro, a few of the others, are still young enough to gain more from not seeking the nomination than from seeking it.Report
Exactly. Want to start a campaign from scratch with no time and the GOP absolutely pelting you the whole time? Anyone who’d want that probably would be a lousy candidate to start with.Report
The GOP would be pelting but the media would explain that this candidate is the best candidate in the history of the democratic party, a modern FDR standing up against a modern Hitler.
He’s the best candidate the country has ever had. He helped Biden step down with grace, he defeated Biden’s exceptionally qualified VP, and he’s going to be taking on The Dragon on behalf of all Americans. Not just the white ones, either. The Black. The Asians. The Native Americans. The LatinX. The LGBTQQIIAA2S.
Get on board.
Or are you a Trump supporter?Report
Heh, hardly, they media would stroke their chins and muse about how both sides have objectionable things about them. Trump would have his various trumpisms but new candidate X gets too angry about them. What are they hiding?Report
I think the press is feeling a little embarrassed. They can’t believe they missed out on the Biden health story, even though they’re smart and so well-connected. So yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if they framed 2024 more neutrally than usual. Also, Trump can’t help but get attention, which translates into attention to the press. I wished that the Democrats had shut up about Trump for the last four years, and I didn’t talk about him much myself, just because he makes people want to watch what he does next. But here we are. That said, I think they’d love for Harris to make the race competitive, and it is statistically very close, so they’ll give her plenty of coverage.Report
I don’t see that. I see Trump getting ghosted by the media and NewGuy getting uplifted.
It’ll be Fox vs. Everybody just like the old days and the coverage will be like 2020 all over again.Report
Ghosting Trump is pretty helpful for Trump. When they paraphrase his stream of consciousness rambling into a couple of coherent points that’s pasteurizing him for the voters.Report
Jaybird wants Trump to win every year. He just can’t admit it openly.Report
“That’s why he’s arguing that Biden should be replaced! Because he agrees with me that Biden is the best chance to beat Trump!”Report
Tactically, Harris should be dangling a full pardon for Hunter in front of Joe. In light of the difficulty of caring for this most beloved former president, we wouldn’t want any undue burden on any of your family members, et cetera.Report
I don’t see how that would work in practice.
Before the election? She’d be shooting herself in the foot unnecessarily. After the election “if I win”? A Lame Duck Biden can do it after a losing election and there’s no guarantee a freshly elected Kamala will do it on Day 1.Report
I don’t think Biden can, though. He’s promised not to, although he didn’t say anything about commutation. Actually, commutation is the best way for Harris to handle it. Drop a bunch of them in January, win or lose, and mix in Hunter’s. She’s a prosecutor, and there were irregularities in his case, and this is not quid pro quo, this is the first she heard about it, but it smacks of political prosecution, and this is a time for national healing.Report
If Biden loses or end up dropping out I’d predict a pardon is his last act in office. That promise is all about him being the candidate.Report
Mark Halperin is trying to BS his way on a trending wave back into civil society, and we should leave his abusive self exiled to wherever he’s been and not let him back inReport
I’m curious now!
Did he go into business for himself?
Was he working with somebody? Who?Report
I just wanna say that Halperin’s story held up better than I thought it would.
The open convention was bunk, it looks like, but the other stuff was surprisingly good.
Like, I thought “man, this will be so easy to throw in his face!” after reading what Andrew Bates said but now?
Yeah, Halperin may have had access to the inside skinny.Report
In 2020, younger progressives were down on Biden because they thought he would be a moderate. Turns out he is pretty progressive. Now he is proposing even bolder progressive policies domestically and he is being rewarded by progressive writers stating these are pie in the sky proposals which will never happen: https://www.vox.com/politics/361389/biden-progressives-supreme-court-rent-cap-assault-weaponsReport
“Turns out he is pretty progressive.”
I think this is an interesting observation. I’d suggest that his new progressive persona is not really what people voted for, and further I’d suggest that it reflects that his ‘administration’ is Progressive and that he personally isn’t driving the bus in a way he would have 10-yrs ago.
So, I kinda dig how the progressives have kept their knives sheathed in this episode, but I really do think that it’s a leitmotif on why the Biden Presidency is punching below its weight. A non-Bidenesque combination of a progressivism he doesn’t represent coupled with a subtle affirmation that he’s too old to manage his Team and is instead being managed by them. Not the Revolt of the Elites Lasch predicted, The Revolt of the Interns*.
*note, not actually interns.Report
Well, no, he’s a left-wing populist, which is the opposite of actual progressivism. His agenda is progressive only in the sense of the word that also describes his neurodegeneration.Report
Tester called for Biden to step down. There is polling that shows an unnamed “younger Democrat” would beat Trump in the battle ground states. Unfortunately I find polling for things like “younger Democrat” less than helpfulReport
AOC outlines her problems with the Dump Biden movement including that they want to dump Harris too: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9l41vgOAGj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_linkReport
Hoosegow brought that up above.Report
CNBC reports: Biden won’t drop out, campaign insists in a new memo.
My main thought is that Biden didn’t do so hot in June. The debate was very bad.
He’s not doing so hot in July. He’s doing “good enough” and not “great”. My previous example was something like “he needs to hit homers and, instead, he’s getting on base”.
I don’t think that August is going to be significantly better than July and the convention will be cantankerous. Not just the enthusiastic free speech enjoyers who oppose genocide but the floor itself. If Biden holds the line, he’ll keep the nomination.
September will continue to have Biden do “well enough”. He will continue to get on base instead of getting homers.
October will have Biden continuing to do poorly but not so awful that it’ll result in a 25th Amendment situation.
And then November will be November. Looks like election day is the 5th.
The sinking feeling that most people will have is some variant of “I wish we had replaced him sooner”.
Like, AOC mentions how if we were going to replace Biden, we should have done that last year.
If we were going to replace Biden, we should have done it before the Primaries.
If we were going to replace Biden, we should have done it before the convention.
If we were going to replace Biden, we should have done it *AT* the convention.
Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now.
Culminating in “well, I knew that we needed to replace him but there was never a good time”.Report
On the bright side, I’m confident that no matter what, the Dem Candidate should get at least 72-75M votes. Maybe that’ll be enough…Report
I expect those who report to Biden to publicly issue statements like that.Report
Biden and his team will be saying “we’re in it all the way” until 2 minutes before he steps back or all the way to the election.Report
Exactly. A flip flop like that is meaningless once a person is no longer a candidate.
That said the longer this process(?) or whatever we are experiencing goes on the more nervous I am becoming.Report
I think he is still fighting and this isn’t for show. Apparently the Clintons are making calls in his defenseReport
He’s entitled to of course. As for the Clintons… ehhh…Report
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”
108 days until election day.
If Biden drops out *RIGHT FREAKING NOW*, the candidates will have 107.5 days to figure out a plan.
Tomorrow there will be 107 days until election day.
Come Monday, there will be 105.Report
I’m well aware, but I still think “Candidates” is silly talk. It’s either Biden or it’s Harris. There’s no mechanism to transfer the Biden/Harris campaign infrastructure and money to anyone but Biden/Harris.Report
CHEAT! Break the law! Seriously, no one will stop the person who does this!
My God! We’re talking about an organization that blows up space shuttles for funsies and now we’re pretending that they can’t move some cash around for a LEGITIMATE CAMPAIGN?Report
The GOP would have their pet judge Matthew Kacsmaryk injunction the first slim dime before it could even be spent. To say nothing about how the media would clutch their pearls. “So much for the Dems being more honest, sure Trump is a multi-case convict of fraud, theft and assorted bad behavior but Democratic candidate X just tried to spend money that was donated to a different campaign!”Report
We’ll see explainers talking about the *INTENTION* of the legislation having been for the Presidential Candidate and the Vice-Presidential Candidate and this isn’t *FRAUD*. It’s being spent on the Presidential Candidate and the Vice-Presidential Candidate just like the framers of the law intended.
Biden’s name is just what the blank space had in it. Easily swapped out for a different name. Biden couldn’t use it to buy a house or buy bitcoin. NewGuy is buying the exact same stuff that Biden would have bought: Commercials, phones for the phone bank, coffee. No fraud at all.Report
Yeah well the money will all be tied up in court until long after the election and I’d bet all of it that the media would both sides it to the nines. It’s going to be Biden or Harris.Report
Early voting starts September 20th in some areas.
Today is 63 days away.Report
Biden is going back on the campaign trail this week. He could still step aside but I think he is in it until the end and the mechanisms to get him out are not really there.
I know it is different conventions but there is a reason law doesn’t place much stock in anonymous statements and journalism might be better off relying on it less as well.Report
I have to say I was expecting a much more aggressive weekend on the part of the Dump Biden Democrats. (Then again, I haven’t watched the news today.) If they lose this weekend, they may have completely lost momentum.Report
An unusual scenario for an 81-year-old: a stronger stream could have convinced him to go to the doctor, but the weak dribble made him think he was ok.Report
The Mark Halperin piece was as aggressive as it gets.Report
I’m thinking like whole state delegations of Congressmen calling for him to step down.
Also, I could be wrong on this but I think Biden needs a little more stick than carrot. People are trying to sugarcoat it, that he’s been a fine president, really one of the all-time greats, and he’s accomplished more than anyone else really since the beginning of time up until 2021, but maybe he needs to preserve that sterling legacy by stepping down. Articles and statements saying that he’s always been selfish, that his whole legacy is failing upward once, those could make him realize that his reputation is on the line.Report
ETA: Article nearly a year old. My badReport
It looks like the ratf***ing is strong: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2816e71906e8eadc67f0231f2af0250670aa5d86e8d03531b3d69c426c0c216.pngReport
Biden is dropping out. Let’s go HarrisReport
An energetic, youthful Harris versus a slobbering incoherent old Fox News Grampa?
Best news I’ve heard in a while.Report
Well, there was no way of foreseeing this.Report
OK, I still think Gina Raimondo is a decent pick for Harris, but I have to admit that Whitmer would probably face off better against Vance.Report
“Sure, baby. Let’s go grocery shopping. Nothing interesting is going to happen on a Sunday.”Report
Biden endorsed Harris for the Democratic nominationReport