https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-world-braces-possibility-president-steps-rcna162494
As Trump is about to accept his third consecutive GOP nomination for president, Biden is off the campaign trail with Covid.
Most people really don't like Harris though. Keeping Biden is the better option at this point... The Dems have just royally fucked everyone by playing this "emperor's new clothes" game with Bidens dementia.
Yeah, she's far from perfect. But, it's better than a big, chaotic, unprecedented free-for-all. Everyone was expecting 4 more years of this administration anyway.
Closed conventions weren't the worst. I'm honestly fine if the DNC were to just pick someone at the convention after backroom conversations. Def too late for there to be any sort of election. I'm personally hoping Gretchen Whitmer somehow gets the nomination
Yeah, I don't want them to do it that way normally, and I think a mini-primary could generate hype, but this is a unique situation and I can tolerate them doing it not-right to try to respond to a disaster. My expectations for a replacement are very low.
Tbh, I think that Harris is a big ol nothingburger of a candidate. Fox news got conservatives to hate her easy enough for the crime of being a [black, woman] Democrat, but that doesn't mean anything to independents. Harris is disappointing to more libertarian minded and further left folks (like me) because she was kind of a stupidly aggressive DA, but I don't think that really bothers independents either. Harris herself had a middling debate performance in 2020, but still managed to beat the pants off Biden, who appeared DOA on the 2020 primary stage. She's never espoused any especially strong policy positions that I know of, either, besides being another authoritarian centrist.
All of this kind of wraps up into a very boring, plain vanilla candidate, which could well work to the democrats' advantage in this election cycle. Here's my opinion: Harris has several key advantages over Biden.
People are tired of feeling like we're on a cursed timeline, a normal candidate without obvious sundowner's or a serious case of fascism would likely be welcomed. Harris is about as average as they come, imo.
She can actually talk. Let's face it, the Biden of 2020 and 2012 is mostly gone, he can't communicate like he used to, and pretending otherwise isn't helping. Harris was a DA in her past life. Lawyers, and especially DAs, have to be able to communicate effectively. My guess is that if you put a little polish on her, an absolute bull of a speaker/debater will shine through. It's just that the democrats haven't really given her a chance to shine. That or the possibility that same as they've been hiding Biden's condition, they're hiding that Harris is a truly wretched communicator who has wound up here through a comedy of errors, but I'm relying on Occam's Razor here.
The one time she stood out at all in the primary debates was when she put Biden on absolute blast for his record with regard to the black community. It wasn't smooth, it was obviously rehearsed, but it still landed a haymaker. It's not a stretch to think she could do the same to Trump.
Being a nothing candidate could actually be advantageous because, I mean, how do you attack that? She has almost no real baggage compared to Biden or Trump, and it wouldn't be hard for her to just set up a smorgasbord of different policy choices without sounding like a hypocrite or flip flop.
I really wish the democrats had had the foresight to prepare for this moment by picking a much better VP, or having an open and honest primary, but we're here now and there's nothing we can do about the past. Imo, Harris is the best chance we've got of keeping the fascists out for the next four years.
Yeah, I wouldn't vote for Harris in a primary, but there's nothing egregiously wrong with her. My biggest complaints in the primary were her prosecutor-history and her unreliable policy positions. I don't even think she's a centrist, I think she doesn't really have much in the way of policy at all. A blank slate willing to tack to the center if the progressive lane is full, or tack to the left if that's where the energy is. And the law and order history is basically no worse than Biden and kind of useful when one of Trump's big issues is all his court cases.
I wish we had a primary, I wish Biden hadn't effectively chosen the next nominee, and I wish that, if that was the intention, he would have put some effort into building her up rather than dumping shit jobs on her, but if we need to do an emergency replacement, she's fine.
Play up her former DA status. This year the election is between Law and Lawlessness.
Harris: "I would be happy to prosecute the case against the felon in the next debate, let's just see if he shows up for his court date or if he's too busy taking bribes from his rich tech bro friends."
If Biden could prove the debate was a one off he would have done so. His continued lack luster perform after the debate shows what the road to November looks like with him. Dems lose. Because most people who would vote blue will do so anyway. It's the 1 in 100 on the margins that will decide this thing. If Biden nominee = Trump 2nd presidency = all of the terror that comes with it, then who gives a flying fuck if Kamala right now polls even with Biden.
Most people don't like Biden. More than don't like Harris. There was some early idea that Harris was uniquely disliked that people keep propagating for some reason. She's not a superstar, she lost the primary for a reason, but she's not some especially toxic politician. At least not for anyone who would say "keeping Biden is better".
She's a former prosecutor, she's not the best communicator, she isn't particularly charismatic, and she doesn't have a history of generating good legislation.
I’ll take it, she will still have that incumbent power and name recognition.
There are still a lot of people who might vote for Biden, but wouldn’t vote for a woman, especially a non white one.
If we get a chance, big if there, we will only get one.
Eh, we need to stop pretending like the only gettable votes are closet Republican racists. There are a lot more Democrats than Republicans, and Trump has turned off even more. Obama won twice and Clinton still beat Trump by millions of votes, and Clinton had a whole host of other issues more relevant than her gender. Non-white and women candidates are viable. Yeah, every vote is valuable, but Biden's been losing basic Democratic groups that Harris (or really any replacement) can reconnect with and juice turnout.
Yep, the Democratic problem is not persuading cultists on the other side, it's energizing the base.
Her voice is annoying. That sounds super stupid and superficial, but that's enough to ruin the gut feeling of the average voter.
Yes, I'm sure you think you're a great proxy for the average American voter. Too shrill maybe? Maybe too much vocal fry? Or maybe some other vocal feature that only applies to women?
Trump's got the stupidest fucking voice there is and dumb vocal mannerisms to boot. Biden whispers half his press briefings. Her voice is fine. It's a normal woman's voice.
And stuff like this is why we'll lose.
Someone gave a specific thing they didn't like and it was immediately dismissed as misogyny and the person was told "her voice is fine" like that's going to change anyones mind.
LOL, fuck off. The specific thing was "her voice was annoying" which both isn't a real complaint and is a common complaint of women in general. And it's being applied to a woman who has a really normal voice. Dude deserves to be dressed down and Democrats lose when they duck and cover to try to accommodate vague fears about how everyone but them is actually unshakably sexist/racist/homophobic, so just run a straight white dude again.
I've counted and I can guarantee there are at least two dozen Americans that aren't Harris or Biden.
We can shore Biden up with a good Neuralink for the short term. Offload more and more functions to ChatGPT, but trained on someone articulate like Snoop Dogg.
With Biden’s political experience and Snoop’s ability to complete a sentence, we could keep this administration going. Let him google stuff too, in real time. Then he’s got an excuse for zoning out.
I could see a video getting leaked of Jill Biden slapping Joe around saying he ruined her life cause of the debate