I guess I should be thanking my lucky stars that my parents, both pushing 80, are staunch democrats. However, I wish I could say the same of my in-laws…
My dad got sucked into the void that was Limbaugh. That Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom completely negates the medal of any value whatsoever.
I almost got sucked into Glenn Becks vacuum. But he started out sort of normal before he went over the crazy cliff.
It’s quite amazing how Trump still remains the outsider and underdog, despite being in politics…sort of…since 2016.
An example of a single election from 2000: Tarja Halonen. It was not a change of party, so not really a bold change. But Halonen definitely got the people on the left motivated, as she was criticized as being unable to perform the job of president while a single mother. She became the people’s president in the mind of the left. The numbers do not reflect this well, as the multiparty system always gives these close numbers between the final match pair. The previous election the winner was at 54%. 2000 Finnish presidential election - Wikipedia
Since Kennedy was running as a Democrat, he will logically take votes away from Biden. So I put the above link here as something making Trump more viable. But I could be convinced otherwise.
Kennedy is running as a whackadoodle nut job. Both parties have some whackadoodle nut job voters but I’d guess each will stay put. I’d suspect his less than 1% will come less from either of them and more from those who otherwise weren’t going to vote as even Trump isn’t crazy enough for them.
Withdrawn as now separate Kennedy thread.
Unless Joe Biden stands aside, the world must prepare for President Trump 2.0
Maybe Biden will stand aside. Maybe a felony conviction will dim Trump’s prospects. But Trump is viable today.
Trump is right. He could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose any votes. There is nothing, nothing that will keep his idiot supporters from voting for him. A felony conviction will just drive these nut cases to the polls.
If he where to die, they would write his name in.
I know it’s been said that we should not belittle Trump supporters. We should try to reason with them. 
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he never was reasoned into.
Can’t be done.
People have a VERY hard time admitting that they where conned. In this case the con man is a moron. They fell for it hook, line and sinker. They will never admit to being conned by an idiot.
From the report of that poll (following the link) -
If there be voters hesitant to vote for Biden based on his age then there also be as many hesitant to vote for Trump based on his corruption.
Let’s go to the Venn diagram. The intersection is the interesting group, and it may be a very sizable intersection group. If you are concerned about both Biden’s age and about Trump being corrupt how will you vote? I’m one of those and it is not in doubt. Are you one those too? What is your take?
“I think Biden is too old to be an effective president, and I’d prefer a younger candidate” may seem to form an equation with “If Biden is the offered candidate against Trump (or whoever), I will not vote for him.” But it does not.
I can recall countless variations of “I’d vote for a potted plant before I’d vote for Trump.” A majority of Democrats preferring a younger candidate does NOT mean Biden won’t get their votes.
No.
While corruption and honesty would be a tie breaker under other circumstances, I look first to issues, and a bit more to foreign policy than domestic. Age? As a voter, I don’t care. If Biden’s age leads him to delegate more in his second term — or even doze a bit during cabinet meetings — I see no predictable effect on the country. And if Trump is elected, age should be a big plus — he will probably be too tired to fully consolidate authoritarian power.
Putting me aside, checking up on U.S. voters who post here will not help in explaining why Trump is viable. Neither will pointing to his base. It’s the weak and wavering supporters beyond his base — people who say they don’t like his boorishness but nonetheless find it acceptable — that would push him over top were the general election held today.
I’d prefer a younger candidate but he has my vote.
I think that’s going to be the case for nearly everyone who answered the poll that way.
“Boorishness” is a novel word substitution for the words of the poll. Stick with “corrupt”.
And yes there are some who don’t like his corruption but nonetheless find it acceptable. And some who are concerned about Biden’s age but nonetheless find it acceptable.
The important bit are those whose votes are actually impacted by one or the other belief. Or even likelihood to vote is impacted by.
My WAG is that more are motivated by voting against than voting for, and that a belief of corruption more strongly motivates that vote against than concern about being too old does.
A majority of Democrats would prefer a different candidate. I am Canadian and have nothing against Joe, who is experienced, sane, traditional and currently competent. But this should not be a close race. While it is true that Trump’s strongest supporters are immune to alternatives, there are plenty of people who would like a better leader able to address their problems, but are going to weigh many factors. Are they unhappy enough with Trump to consider another party? Do they see or understand a threat to democracy? Can they overcome peer pressure or “sunk cost” investments?
It is not a positive so many Democrats have expressed concerns about their candidate. Democrats need to better highlight the real dangers, be more aggressive, advertise better and get experienced campaign staff moving, not get mired in identity politics, trumpet individual autonomy issues and try to appeal to emotions as much as logic to better reach more voters.
Polling in the abstract isn’t really helpful. Polls that ask Democrats who they think has a better chance than Biden to beat Trump would be more interesting.
Yup. Biden is the worst possible Democratic candidate to run for president this cycle. Except for all the possible others. 
Biden the human has some drawbacks, as others have said. Biden the incumbent owns an awesome advantage nobody else can possibly have.
Frittering on about other D candidates or alternate realities is simply sterile. Net of the rather long shot that Joe blows a gasket and dies before being re-elected.
Sure, but the fact is that although no Democrat wants to see Trump re-elected, the party is having some difficulties uniting behind a candidate (expressing concern despite the lack of alternatives), uniting the party (traditional moderate vs. progressive, including getting supporters to vote), running an effective campaign (filling positions, fundraising, not emphasizing main issues yet too much appeal to logic and Trump’s legal troubles). Polls are indeed limited but Biden needs to be best.
So same as ever?
Hell even Obama had Democrats a bit disenheartened before reelection. Dems are a tough, critical, fault finding crowd.
Biden is the same strength candidate he was last time without the group bitching about Sanders. He was never the most exciting candidate. He was liked not loved and both then and now and was and is the choice because he is not very objectionable to many and can win.
Any Democratic governor would cream Trump for the normal reason governors are strong in the general election – they tend to be moderate and don’t have a record of having voted for unpopular legislation. Normally, governors, for those reasons, are bad at winning presidential primaries. But if Biden drops out, I think primary voters will get the message that Democrats must focus on electability – and swing state governors have the best story there.
When primary voters learn that Kamala Harris polls worse than Biden, that may destroy her candidacy. But I don’t think voters have made up their minds regarding her as firmly as they have about Biden. So she might gain popularity and beat Trump.
If Biden drops out, I take back my many posts, in this thread, saying why Trump is on track for another term.