Biden considering dropping out (Update: Biden drops out)

Yes. I think Biden’s been a fantastic president for the years 2021-2025, but I have no particular attachment to him. As long as we have a person who can win the election and then go on to be an effective and ethical president, I’m good with it. IOW, Biden is replaceable to us, or ought to be, whereas Trump is definitely not to his fascist cult.

Yes, despite his predictive success thus far, he’s being wrong in the same delusional way that some in this thread are being. Biden’s speech and apparent condition recently are just unacceptable.

You know how Trump has said literally thousands of things that would sink the political career of anyone else, but his followers give every single fucking thing a pass? Being OK with Biden’s debate and subsequent fuckups is the same kind of thinking. We are not immune to it. We did it with Bill Clinton as well, back in the day (though I was not a Liberal at the time and despised the man. Actually, Clinton is probably the main reason that I didn’t become a Liberal until the year 2000…).

Hakeem Jeffries today - doubling down on Biden remaining the nominee?

Same here, with someone like Mitch Daniels. A true conservative like that wouldn’t be able to move the country forward, but at least it would be competence and normalcy for four years.

Moderating:

This is a personal attack. It’s past time for you to dial it back. You can disagree without becoming so disagreeable. More of this will earn you a warning.

Oh what the bloody hell.

I went to double-check that Jeffries said that today, and that it wasn’t something from a few weeks ago. But no, it was today.

“The ticket that exists right now is a ticket that we can win on,” Jeffries told [WNYC’s Brian Lehrer]. “There, of course, is work to be done — and that, in fact, is the case because we are an evenly divided country.”

Although: If you parse Jeffries’ words very carefully, they can also be interpreted to mean “fervent support for either a Biden or a Harris candidacy”.

Coons and AOC issued similar statements today (late last night) in full support of Biden.

But AOC had been supporting him before and there had been no reports to the contrary. The Squad as a whole has said nothing against him.

I imagine there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we don’t know, but probably will someday.

That’s expected from Chris Coons, who even as an incumbent Senator is also a co-chair in Biden’s campaign. He’s essentially a Biden staffer.

I saw AOC’s Biden-support comments a few days ago, but hadn’t realized she reiterated them. In fact, after Trump’s convention speech last night, she added a little detail regarding VP Harris to her Biden take (might be a slight hijack, but she kind of ties together lack of support for Biden and lack of support for Harris):

“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They’re not going to be fully honest, but I’m going to be honest for them.”

“I’m in these rooms. I see what they say in conversations,” she continued. “I’m here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and a huge amount of these elites and a huge amount of these folks in these rooms that I see that are pushing for President Biden to not be the nominee also are not interested in seeing Vice President being the nominee.”

The 37% who chose before or during the GOP convention can now take their consolation prizes and exit stage left.

I personally was in the just after camp. Not yet wrong …

Anyone wanting to revisit their votes?

  • He will persevere.
  • He will drop within two weeks.
  • He will drop after two weeks.
  • Other.
0 voters

Note that this answer may differ from what you think should happen.

The crucial thing is that Democrats have outnumbered Republicans for a very long time - in fact, IIRC, by over 20 million voters. Every election of recent, in a certain sense, has always come down to Democratic turnout and enthusiasm. If the Ds get enthused enough to show up to vote, they are - in theory - unbeatable. Sure, there’s the Electoral College and all that, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to the sheer numbers of the Ds.

The problem is that the Ds are a hard bunch to get enthused. That’s why the candidate at the top matters so much.

Eight more Democratic US Representatives publicly call for Biden to step aside, including the first defection from the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX).

The number of Biden defectors on Capitol Hill now stands at 30, or more than 10% of the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate.

The only person I’ve seen any real enthusiasm for has absolutely no interest in taking the job. Obviously, I’m talking about Michelle Obama. I can’t help but think she would decimate him.

Silver just dropped another blog post; this one is paywalled so I can’t link to it, but the gist is that betting markets are moving sharply against Biden (and Silver thinks that in situations like this where events are moving too fast for polls to accurately capture, betting markets have decent predictive value).

Does it seem like the party is schisming worse than the Bernie Bro revolt in '16?

No. (And that is taking the position there really wasn’t much of a Bernie Bro schism.)

A very few exceptions noted, like one poster here, there is great unanimity among Ds on voting for the D presidential candidate, whether it be Biden, Harris, or other.

And a broad understanding I think that whatever comes out of the convention is our hand and we have to play it the best we can.

Amen! I’m hereby willing to vote for a potted philodendron and a stuffed armadillo if it’ll keep Trump away from the White House.

Seconded. I will of course be voting for Biden if he’s the nominee, or any other Dem.

(my emphases)

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates – just doing his job? A strangely insistent response (my emphasis below). But I guess if Bates is instead wrong, there will be no blowback against him personally. From your link:

White House spokesman Andrew Bates denied that any such exit discussions are happening among the family.

“That is not happening, period,” he said. “The individuals making those claims are not speaking for his family or his team — and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith.”