I disagree. I think if your point is Biden is too old, you need to name names for alternatives and not just imagine another candidate unnamed would be crushing Trump.
The polling, FWIW, that I have seen still has Biden largely doing better than others against Trump. Biden is down but down within the margin of error.
And I don't think it wins a majority probably, I think it wins because of countermajoritarian veto points in our government like the electoral college, Senate, and Courts
I think you are also, perhaps inadvertently, absolving American voters of their agency by making it appear that there is an actual tough choice between mental depravity and corruption and potential physical affirmity.
One of the things that has been most telling to me in the whole Biden is too old debate (and a tell that will produce howls from known commentators here) is how many people in the Biden is too old category seem to ignore the existence of Kamala Harris? Why is that? If Biden were to fall into a blackhole tomorrow, Harris would become President and also probably the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in 2024. Others have pointed out that she is the only one with legal access to the Biden-Harris campaign war chest and infrastructure.
But before and after the debate, people like Klein who drum beat on Biden is too old, would never write "And the best thing for Biden to do is resign and pass the torch to Harris and then have every Democratic politician line up behind her." They would never mention replacement candidates at all. Instead, they would just write replace Biden with an unnamed Johnny or Janey Unbeatable who would immediately curb stomp Trump into a 40 point defeat and then all Republicans would revert back to being just like Jacob Javitz or William Weld.
For reasons Chip points out, there is no Johnny or Jane Unbeatable that can curb stomp Trump except in fantasy but people will refuse to admit otherwise because they don't want to deal with the implications of such a thing being true.
Additionally, when you point out that perhaps behind Biden being too old is people being afraid of "if something happens to Biden, the black lady is in charge", they will howl and deny.
There’s so much revealing in this tweet. But the most telling is the belief that Trumpism simply doesn’t exist, merely an outgrowth of Democrats poor candidate selection and general ineptitude. Makes every decision obvious and easy, as long as you don’t actually control anything.-Josh Marshall on Grimm
Grim is wrong and doesn't want to acknowledge that there is a strong plurality of Americans that support fascism and neither do you because it means supporting Democrats and that is just icky,
And you bait and switch is revealing and not in good ways,
Hey JB, is it being a moral scold to point out that a Turning Point USA employee/ambassador is tweeting out Holocaust Denial or is Mr. Kilgore just a poor innocent lamb just asking questions?
Even if he is not partisan in the pro-Republican way. He is partisan in an anti-anti-Trump and also anti-Wine Mom way. He is OT's example of the nihilistic Trump voter. Not necessarily a reactionary but someone who loves the chaos Trump brings because they have inchoate views on the corruption of it all.
Again, the reason I think of you as basically operating in bad faith is because everything seems like a game or a joke to you and the basic aspect of your personality is middle-school class clown with a substitute teacher.
There isn't anything. I would also add that a lot of people who are stating Biden must go were generally down on him before the debate. Ezra Klein and Eric Levitz have been down on Biden for months. Sulzy doesn't like him, Kahn doesn't like him. The media is in a meth-binge frenzy over this. Luckily most Democrats seem to not be falling for it.
What is interesting and revealing is who is falling for it. Lots of NeverTrumpers and also lots of concern trolls.
At this point Biden has basically told everyone he is staying in the race and they can try at a convention to take the nomination away from him. Reader, anyone who tries is almost certain to fail. The race is Biden v. Trump. This is it.
I mentioned before that Biden had a rally in Wisconsin on Friday and spoke at several events in Pennsylvania on Sunday. The events in Philadelphia were at a lot of African-American churches. The Times and other media sources, in their frenzy, are at least also reporting that Biden does have strong bases of support among the Democratic base and the delegates to the convention who were selected to nominate him.
What seems to be happening is that the media especially the Times went on a "but her emails" esque frenzy with a meth binge thrown in and failed. The media and pundit and big donor class or white dudes who comment on political blogs wants Biden to step down but the base has decided that it is largely pro-Biden.
The media has taken its shot, it missed. Biden is apparently still raking it in with smaller donors.
Biden spoke at a Black Church in Philadelphia today and the NY Times reported this: "Stacia Parker, 57, a longtime member of the Mount Airy congregation, said she thanked Biden after his speech for forgiving $117,000 worth of student loans and found him cogent and compelling. “We don’t kick you when you’re down,” she said, showing off the selfie Biden snapped on her phone with her seven-year-old granddaughter."
Stacia Parker is the real base of the Democratic Party. Not the terminally online, not people here, even me, etc.
The Pundit class is campaigning hard for a Republican victory: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit
"Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggested we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the ninety-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine.
The main argument against Biden is not that he can’t govern – that would be hard to make given that he seems to have done so for the past years – but that he can’t win the election. But candidates do not win elections by themselves. Elections are won, to state the obvious, by how the electorate turns out and votes. The electorate votes based on how they understand the situation and evaluate the candidates. That is, of course, in large part shaped by the media, as Hannah-Jones points out, and the media is right now campaigning hard for a Democratic party loss. The other term for that is a Republican victory. Few things have terrified and horrified me the way this does."
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “The Arrow of Time, Lodged Deep in Our Political Posterior”
I disagree. I think if your point is Biden is too old, you need to name names for alternatives and not just imagine another candidate unnamed would be crushing Trump.
The polling, FWIW, that I have seen still has Biden largely doing better than others against Trump. Biden is down but down within the margin of error.
"
And I don't think it wins a majority probably, I think it wins because of countermajoritarian veto points in our government like the electoral college, Senate, and Courts
"
I don't think they are wrong per se though. These things could help neutralize the right or moderate it.
"
I think you are also, perhaps inadvertently, absolving American voters of their agency by making it appear that there is an actual tough choice between mental depravity and corruption and potential physical affirmity.
One of the things that has been most telling to me in the whole Biden is too old debate (and a tell that will produce howls from known commentators here) is how many people in the Biden is too old category seem to ignore the existence of Kamala Harris? Why is that? If Biden were to fall into a blackhole tomorrow, Harris would become President and also probably the presumptive Democratic nominee for President in 2024. Others have pointed out that she is the only one with legal access to the Biden-Harris campaign war chest and infrastructure.
But before and after the debate, people like Klein who drum beat on Biden is too old, would never write "And the best thing for Biden to do is resign and pass the torch to Harris and then have every Democratic politician line up behind her." They would never mention replacement candidates at all. Instead, they would just write replace Biden with an unnamed Johnny or Janey Unbeatable who would immediately curb stomp Trump into a 40 point defeat and then all Republicans would revert back to being just like Jacob Javitz or William Weld.
For reasons Chip points out, there is no Johnny or Jane Unbeatable that can curb stomp Trump except in fantasy but people will refuse to admit otherwise because they don't want to deal with the implications of such a thing being true.
Additionally, when you point out that perhaps behind Biden being too old is people being afraid of "if something happens to Biden, the black lady is in charge", they will howl and deny.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/8/2024”
It was a yes or no question Jaybird. Provide a yes or no answer.
"
There’s so much revealing in this tweet. But the most telling is the belief that Trumpism simply doesn’t exist, merely an outgrowth of Democrats poor candidate selection and general ineptitude. Makes every decision obvious and easy, as long as you don’t actually control anything.-Josh Marshall on Grimm
"
Grim is wrong and doesn't want to acknowledge that there is a strong plurality of Americans that support fascism and neither do you because it means supporting Democrats and that is just icky,
And you bait and switch is revealing and not in good ways,
"
Hey JB, is it being a moral scold to point out that a Turning Point USA employee/ambassador is tweeting out Holocaust Denial or is Mr. Kilgore just a poor innocent lamb just asking questions?
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/07/grims-fairytales
"
It is the liberty to follow "God's will"
On “It’s Time For Biden To Be A Statesman”
I would have also accepted:
Moral Scolds: People who wonder whether there is sexism in video games
Not Moral Scolds: The producers of Questionably Consensual Tentacle Orgy 27
"
Who made you the final decider on who is and who is not a moral scold?
"
Even if he is not partisan in the pro-Republican way. He is partisan in an anti-anti-Trump and also anti-Wine Mom way. He is OT's example of the nihilistic Trump voter. Not necessarily a reactionary but someone who loves the chaos Trump brings because they have inchoate views on the corruption of it all.
But I agree he will never admit it.
"
Again, the reason I think of you as basically operating in bad faith is because everything seems like a game or a joke to you and the basic aspect of your personality is middle-school class clown with a substitute teacher.
"
It is literally impossible for you to do anything in good faith
"
There isn't anything. I would also add that a lot of people who are stating Biden must go were generally down on him before the debate. Ezra Klein and Eric Levitz have been down on Biden for months. Sulzy doesn't like him, Kahn doesn't like him. The media is in a meth-binge frenzy over this. Luckily most Democrats seem to not be falling for it.
What is interesting and revealing is who is falling for it. Lots of NeverTrumpers and also lots of concern trolls.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/8/2024”
At this point Biden has basically told everyone he is staying in the race and they can try at a convention to take the nomination away from him. Reader, anyone who tries is almost certain to fail. The race is Biden v. Trump. This is it.
I mentioned before that Biden had a rally in Wisconsin on Friday and spoke at several events in Pennsylvania on Sunday. The events in Philadelphia were at a lot of African-American churches. The Times and other media sources, in their frenzy, are at least also reporting that Biden does have strong bases of support among the Democratic base and the delegates to the convention who were selected to nominate him.
What seems to be happening is that the media especially the Times went on a "but her emails" esque frenzy with a meth binge thrown in and failed. The media and pundit and big donor class or white dudes who comment on political blogs wants Biden to step down but the base has decided that it is largely pro-Biden.
The media has taken its shot, it missed. Biden is apparently still raking it in with smaller donors.
On “It’s Time For Biden To Be A Statesman”
Biden spoke at a Black Church in Philadelphia today and the NY Times reported this: "Stacia Parker, 57, a longtime member of the Mount Airy congregation, said she thanked Biden after his speech for forgiving $117,000 worth of student loans and found him cogent and compelling. “We don’t kick you when you’re down,” she said, showing off the selfie Biden snapped on her phone with her seven-year-old granddaughter."
Stacia Parker is the real base of the Democratic Party. Not the terminally online, not people here, even me, etc.
"
Biden refuses to cross the picket line: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/business/nea-staff-strike-convention-biden-speech.html
That's being a statesman
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This is basically inadmissible hearsay and if true, he should be forced to put the money in cash in escrow for it to be viable as an offer.
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That sounds trustworthy. Wait a minute, it doesn’t sound trustworthy at all
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Republicans want Biden to go and for that reason, he should remain
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The Ohio GOP folded on this I think but it always remains a possibility
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How dare we make JB care about something more than trolling!!!
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D minus.
"
The Pundit class is campaigning hard for a Republican victory: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit
"Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggested we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the ninety-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine.
The main argument against Biden is not that he can’t govern – that would be hard to make given that he seems to have done so for the past years – but that he can’t win the election. But candidates do not win elections by themselves. Elections are won, to state the obvious, by how the electorate turns out and votes. The electorate votes based on how they understand the situation and evaluate the candidates. That is, of course, in large part shaped by the media, as Hannah-Jones points out, and the media is right now campaigning hard for a Democratic party loss. The other term for that is a Republican victory. Few things have terrified and horrified me the way this does."
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.