Two multi-million-dollar Democratic donors (including a name) have now gone on the record opposing Biden’s continued candidacy. If Biden were to be unwillingly “forced out” … I wonder if this is what the beginning looks like?
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, who co-founded The Walt Disney Co., told CNBC on Thursday that she plans to withhold donations to the party she has funded for years until Biden drops out.
…
Gideon Stein, president of the Moriah Fund, said he’s decided to pause planned donations of $3.5 million, earmarked for nonprofits and political organizations tied to the race for the White House.
“Joe Biden has been a very effective president, but unless he steps aside my family and I are pausing on more than $3 million in planned donations to nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race, with the exception of some down ballot work,” Stein said. “Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump.”
…
Karla Jurvetson, a philanthropist and major Democratic donor, hinted as recently as Tuesday in a private donor call that she agrees with the sentiment on pausing donations until Biden steps down and could end up making such move, according to a person familiar with her remarks.
I may think he’s been a B-, you may think he’s been a B+, but that’s not the grade voters overall have been giving him. He’s been getting Cs to Ds by the voters overall most of his term. They may be grading unfairly and not recognizing the quality of his work, but he’s gotten low approval ratings and entered into the race period rated lower than the convicted felon.
He needed to begin to coming up from behind phase because you don’t get a second term with a C. And he then completely failed it.
It is a serious decision and making it rashly would be a mistake. He deserves a chance to prove that he can prove his vibrancy, hell his mental competency, to the American public that is now widely convinced he is not up for the task for another four years. Taking a week, maybe two, is appropriate. I prefer a week of dithering to deciding too quickly.
I think it is unlikely he can make that case but give him a week to prove that to himself.
I am unsure which side you mean is being tone deaf by talking about “needing a bedtime”. My assumption is you mean Biden’s side, but the statement can be read two ways because the linked CNN article never mentions the word “bedtime” – which is something the anti-Biden side would be apt to helpfully fill in.
Maybe I’m being charitable, but “to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m.” is a significantly (if not wildly) different thing than “positively needing an 8 p.m. bedtime” or whatever the harsher interpretations have been.
Though they are not talking about a bedtime: they are saying no night-time events. It’s splitting hairs, I know.
My dad is Biden’s age. He could manage the presidency, but only part-time. I’m guessing Biden is approaching that, as well. I also think it’s cruel of us to give him what he wants: he’s done a great job, but I don’t want him to kill himself doing four more years.
Oddly, no one has suggested Jimmy Carter: he’s another eligible incumbent.
The man who’s going to be 100 years old in three months, and has been in hospice care for over a year? Unless I’m being whooshed, how is he relevant to this conversation?
Except they are. So he can get more sleep. Justifying it by pointing out that “President (George W.) Bush went to bed at 9 …”
“He needs his sleep” is actually a reasonable thing. I need mine. But it is not the message that reassures right now.
It is a very tough demanding job, at least for any executive who takes the job seriously.
I cannot deny that he has aged a lot over the last four years. And my experience with people I’ve known and loved is that the highest functioning people function great up to the point they do not, and then it is a rapid drop off. Seeing what I saw, what we all saw, he is in that drop off. I’d love to be proven wrong this week and hope I will be. But his being the same level of function he was a couple of years back is not the default belief anymore. He has to prove it and fast.
I agree with this. It was not “one bad night.” It has been “one good night” (the State of the Union) and about a year of really poor speaking and acting in public. Remember Jon Stewart’s first show back? He looks like a prophet now. This is not how Biden has always been, and it is not his “stuttering” problem.
I’ll support Biden with all I’ve got if he’s in the race. I’d prefer, however, that he drop out. It’s going to be a long and frustrating few months otherwise. With Harris at the top of the ticket, we’ll have unprecedented excitement and a lot of failed attacks by the right. It should be fun.
It was a joke, son: Biden is old, but not Carter-old.
I thought this story did a good job of expressing why Biden might be approaching too old now, where he wasn’t six months ago. The takeaway is that he’s basically fine now, but he’s increasingly having moments that make it apparent that “fine” isn’t going to last. Also that these moments began comparatively recently.
The idea is that Biden’s coalition was/is marginally larger than the coalitions supporting Harris and the other “name” candidates. Granted, this idea was firmer 9 days ago than it is today.
Regarding Harris specifically … some Biden supporters wonder what she’s going to bring now that she couldn’t bring in 2020. Her 2020 presidential run looms large in their minds.
If you’re going to replace Biden now you need a PERSONALITY. Someone very charismatic. That ain’t Kamala Harris, or Pete Buttigieg.
Things will look really, really bad if Biden drops out. A major personality would be needed to attract positive attention. Trump is winning. So… who’s the biggest personality the Democrats could come up with? I am not sure. (I’m not familiar with Gavin Newsome.)
An interesting side issue here is RFK Jr., whom I despise, but he is consistently polling around ten percent, an excellent figure for a third party candidate. I’m not sure how he affects things.
If Biden’s replacement isn’t the VP that was both chosen by Biden and chosen by the voters, we’re basically admitting that the entire Biden presidency and campaign was a fraud and a mistake, as well as throwing out a Black woman for the party that relies most strongly on Black and women voters. And in addition, Harris is the only candidate who could legally use his campaign structure and money.
The choices are Biden or Harris. It’s clear that’s what the party bigwigs are discussing right now.
I don’t think 1 matters much. Whoever becomes the candidate will get the name recognition. I think most Democrats mentioned would qualify for 3 and 4. So mostly you just need someone who will run a good campaign. Could be Harris if she has learned from prior mistakes and takes advantage of better resources. Could be any number of others who have won tough campaigns.
I do think we overestimate Trump here. He is not a great candidate. He has had mediocre results and his party has lost a ton of winnable elections under him. He is not popular. The problem was Biden was even more unpopular and his age is such a big story had no one is paying attention to Trump right now… I think a generic Democrat who puts the focus back on Trump will do fine.
