Quick. Who ran against Bill Clinton for the nomination in '96? Or Obama in '12, Dubya in '04, Papa Bush in '92, or Reagan in '84?
Quick, how is that a response to what I said?
If the incumbent is owed a second term then let’s just not bother with an election, just make it 8 year terms.
Well, someone’s getting a second term. Who’s more deserving than Biden? Trump? Because there are exactly two people in this country who have a possibility of being president come January 2025.
He is owed by the party to back him. The country has a choice and can vote differently. Having a party fight against the incumbent is telling the voters the party made a mistake four years ago. An election cycle without an incumbent is a much different thing than a wide open race.
No, that’s not a given at all.
Yes the two former presidents are the clear frontrunners at this time, but even if Biden and Trump were both at 100% in their party’s polls, neither is owed anything.
No he isn’t. This is getting bizarre. If Biden isn’t the best candidate to win the election, then sorry, bye bye, it’s a democracy.
I don’t want to be in Jan 2025 watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, why did we hamstring ourselves with a unwritten norm? Why didn’t we have a genuine contest to see who was the toughest fighter?”
I have a feeling explaining isn’t going to do any good.
This is about the nomination not the election. The primary is about party not the general voting public.
Biden earned the nomination by winning and being president. He earned the backing and loyalty of the party by being the head of the party. If the party wants to win they have to support their leader.
Who ever wants to run against Biden has to earn that with the Republican Party. By losing Trump has to earn it all over again.
Nobody has earned the presidency until the votes have been counted next year.
And who would that be? There’s a reason the list of names running against Biden is full of people named Phillips and Williamson and not people named Newsom, Pritzker, or Orcasio-Cortez. In a functional party, one does. NOT. Primary. An. Incumbent. President.
I share that feeling because what followed was not a good argument.
For biden’s great work, he’s earned all the plaudits in the world. I joined in celebrating his achievements upthread, unprompted. Let’s make a frickin golden Biden statue.
But no, nobody has an entitlement here. If Biden looks like a losing candidate this time, then the party needs to man up. Worrying about hurting Joe’s feelings is the dumbest possible excuse for permitting a despot to take the white house.
“If.”
The party needs to “man up” and do what exactly?
“And vote for a junior congressman from Minnesota with no name recognition because “BIDEN OLD”” seems to be the unspoken part.
America will not be “weeping”.
Yipes, when I mentioned John Conyers before (twice), I meant Jim Clyburn.
In my defense, I’ve been to neither Michigan nor South Carolina.
What it looks like is Biden is the one who beat Trump. No entitlement just facts. Not one person talked about hurting Biden’s feelings. I don’t know where you got that from. Right now the Republicans are the fractured party. A primary fight is going to take away that advantage. There are way too many parallels with Carter to want to go down that road. If you don’t want Trump support Biden. There is no one else who can do anything except ruin his chances.
And I don’t want to be watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, maybe we shouldn’t have punched Joe Biden in the stomach right before he got in the ring to fight Trump.”
We want Biden to be as strong as possible when he goes against Trump or whoever the Republican candidate is in the general election. Attacking Biden in the primaries does the opposite of that.
Here’s something I didn’t know; Dean Phillips is the grandson of Pauline Phillips, the original Dear Abby.
Maybe he should learn how to take advice.
Have an actual primary.
Has Trump been weakened by the primary contest? Really, I think the fact that everyone here tacitly acknowledges that a primary contest would be damaging to Biden says all that needs to be said here.
Are there any actual candidates?
Exactly.