Can Biden beat Trump?

[septimus]

I liked ALL the candidates on the Democratic stage but I was enthusiastic about only ONE: Elizabeth Warren. And I’m afraid that each of the candidates had severe electability problems. Biden was mediocre in his prime, and now is just plain too old. I settled on Biden because each of the others seemed even less electable than him.

I wish that D opinion-makers had gotten behind one of the middle-aged moderates, perhaps Inslee. (But Inslee didn’t make it easy for us, obsessed as he was with a single issue.)

In 2016 I was begging the DNC to replace Hillary (with Biden :p) and Dopers were suggesting I go back to 7th grade and take Civics again. But I’m doing the same thing now, 4 years later! :

If we had a good champion waiting in the bullpen, Biden should stand aside. The problem is: We don’t have a champion. (The R’s are lacking also; the only one on the 2016 stage who seemed Presidential was the right-winger Kasich. What the Hell has happened to America? There isn’t a single Senator on either side with the integrity and charisma of John McCain — and that’s not an over-high bar to hurdle.)
I saw this in a thread about Biden’s VP choice:

@Lamoral

… Two, and more importantly: he failed to take into account the fact that the tide of current events in the months leading up to the election could potentially shape a stellar VP choice who would then be locked out because it might be a man. Let’s say that in the next few months, one of the state governors does an absolutely amazing job of rising to the occasion, truly distinguishing that state’s mitigation efforts above all the others. Let’s say just hypothetically that Jay Inslee, for instance, in the course of governorship during this pandemic, comes up with some kind of amazingly creative and effective plan that leads to a situation when, after the initial dust has settled in a few months, the whole country is looking at Washington State and saying, “wow, they did something right - their response to the virus was head and shoulders above the rest of the country.”

Imagine this is a poker game. It’s Hold 'em. Biden has his cards. The coronavirus is the flop. The mitigation efforts are the turn. The resolution is the river. But wait, none of that matters because Biden folded as soon as he got his cards.

Time is running out, but if a real champion does emerge (Inslee or whoever), do NOT make him the VP candidate. Biden should stand aside and let the Champion run for the Big Job.

[septimus]

@septimus

… Time is running out, but if a real champion does emerge (Inslee or whoever), do NOT make him the VP candidate. Biden should stand aside and let the Champion run for the Big Job.

Standing aside will be trivial to execute: “My doctor informs me my health is only 95% of what it once was.” I think he’ll be believed.

[ISiddiqui]

Any Governor dealing with COVID 19 is in no way to going to run for Vice President. Because all indications indicate states are going to be dealing with this through the summer, if not later. A Governor taking time off to campaign would be a TERRIBLE look.

Also, do you want African-Americans to be completely pissed off by the Democratic party? Because replacing the candidate they came out to vote for in droves in the primary is exactly the way to do that.

[DrDeth]

This is trumps only path to victory:

Kentucky just made it harder to vote during a pandemic

*Kentucky’s heavily Republican legislature voted Tuesday to require voters to show a government-issued photo ID, overriding Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto in the process.

Meanwhile, if a Kentucky voter heads to the state’s webpage hoping to learn how to obtain such an ID, they will encounter a message telling them ID-issuing offices are closed.
Strict voter ID laws are increasingly common in Republican-controlled states, and left-leaning groups like students, low-income voters, and voters of color are especially less likely to have the ID that these laws require. Although voter ID’s policy proponents often argue that the measure is necessary to combat voter fraud at the polls, such fraud is so rare that it is virtually nonexistent.*

[Boycott]

Biden said he “would consider announcing some cabinet members before the election,” but clarified that he hasn’t “made that commitment” yet. Still, he signaled that he has a good idea of who would fill the positions.

“If the Lord Almighty said ‘Joe, I tell you what. You have to decide in three hours what your cabinet is or you’re going to be bounced out of the race,’ I could write down who could be in the cabinet,” He said. “There are at least two or three people qualified for every one of those positions.”

“I have had literally several hundred serious, serious players who have held positions in every department in the federal government who have said, including some Republicans, who have said if you win, I want to come back. I’m ready to serve,” he said.

Biden says he’s already choosing a presidential transition team

I like the sound of that. Rebuilding a strong and qualified administrative state is the first thing he should do. Trump has decimated that with vacancies left unfilled, a revolving door of “acting secretaries” and his closest advisor seems to be his son in law.