Never, ever gonna happen, but: either Adam Kinzinger or Jeff Flake should switch parties and present themselves as very moderate choices who just want to return to fundamental values we all share.
Hah hah hah. Pigs’ll fly long before something like that could happen.
Do you think either one of them would have a chance against Trump?
Better than Biden, right now.
Jimmy Carter was another little-known native son candidate. Swing/uncertain general election voters do not like big name recognition candidates.
Of course, my point was not that my own native son (me being a most-of-my-life Pennsylvanian) is the best, but only that some older aspects of the nomination process can reasonably be brought back in this emergency.
P.S. I’ve posted that Biden was in trouble for the last eighteen months or so. So it’s not exactly an emergency to me, but, rather, an ongoing problem. The emergency is just that it is now being recognized.
One lackluster debate performance is not an “emergency”, and the first post-debate poll we have shows that support for Biden is up since the debate;
With all due respect, if I tried to say Biden was doing poorly on the basis of one or two polls, that post would right face heavy criticism here.
Since last year, Biden has been continuously heading towards a loss in November and his poor debate performance is an opportunity for him to drop out with a reasonable justification.
Moderating:
Both, take this discussion elsewhere. It is a complete hijack to what the OP asked and the answers he is seeking.
@PhillyGuy, this is an ongoing issue with you. Warnings coming if you can’t stop yourself.
I don’t think we should panic because of a single bad night.
But if Biden needs to be replaced it’s Kamala or bust. Josh Marshall:
The one thing that seems clear to me is that there’s only one Plan B and that’s Kamala Harris. I do not know any universe in which a party whose bedrocks are women and African-Americans does not split into open revolt if the Black woman vice president is passed over for someone else if the President is not up to the job. Wanting something else doesn’t matter. I don’t know any other Plan B that doesn’t involve magical thinking.
In fact I agree with Marshall in full, though that could be due to my lack of imagination.
A critical thing to keep in mind is that there are, I think, maybe a half dozen people who have real input on this. Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Pelosi, Jeffries, Schumer, Obama. I’ve seen a few commentators say they owe us a conversation about whether Biden’s up to the rigors of a campaign. I disagree. They owe us a decision. We’re in the landing craft going in for D-Day. Only this time we don’t know how D-Day ends up. If there’s a “probably” with the strategy or the general, we need those folks to make a decision. They have more information and the simple fact is that you and I can’t make the decision. Whatever psychic relief one gets from saying, “He should step aside!” doesn’t actually change anything. That doesn’t mean, “Oh they’re our betters; they’re the establishment. We’ll do what they say” or any other pseudo-antipopulist bullshit. It’s simply a recognition of the reality of the situation. They’re at the controls. We’re not. We need a decision and then we plow onto the beaches.
Czarcasm: My answer to the OP is a) Kamala Harris, because b) there really isn’t any other plausible candidate at this point in time. Six months ago would have been different. There are many qualified and electable Democrats. But other than Harris, there is no obvious preeminent Dem who could be chosen without busing the coalition apart. But if the OP wants to entertain hypotheticals as of, say, Dec 2023 that’s ok too.
Nah-I think I’ll follow the K.I.S.S. rule for this one.
Another Harris response.
And another vote that Biden has done her and his election chances a major disservice by not consistently elevating her status as VP the way Obama had his.
That said she would wipe the floor with Trump’s newly tussled less orange combover.
Reality is that there would be a very … interesting … convention. I’d give fifty fifty odds to raising enthusiasm and interest vs fracturing the party.
One thing not mentioned is that Kamala has been fund raising like mad. no idea how successfully, but the power brokers obviously do.
kamala was also tethered to washington to cast a record number of tie breakers.
Josh has made some good points about Kamala and the need for a decision from the people who are in a position to know the most, including Biden himself & Jill.
My guess is that Biden stays in the race. If so, we have to get the spotlight back on Trump. If the election is about Trump, Biden will win. If the election is not about Trump, but about Biden, then I think he’ll lose.
I agree with this (mostly). Ffs, Trump is a pants-on-fire pants-shitting convicted felon rapist. And yet, he’s polling shockingly well. I’d have thought a pants-on-fire pants-shitting convicted felon rapist running for president would poll in the single digits, spotlight or no spotlight, yet here we are.
Fully agree with Marshall’s analysis. There’s no realistic scenario of Biden stepping aside and the nomination not going to Harris. Probably the biggest reason is that Harris is the only other politician who can access the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Biden/Harris campaign account. You can’t just slide that money over to some new candidate under FEC rules.
I think it has to be Harris for the simple reason that Biden appears to need to step down from the presidency itself, not just the campaign.
If he is unfit to be the candidate he is unfit to be president at this very consequential time.
After seeing him in the January 6th committee hearings, I’ve often thought he might be the one person who could begin to heal the rift between the parties.
I think he could win. If you look at the actual positions he’s supported, he’s conservative enough to appeal to a lot of Republicans, but not so conservative as to scare away a lot of Democrats. If he focussed his campaign on the issues that have cross-party support, he’d likely do well, even in a normal election. And his anti-Trump credentials are impeccable.
Never going to happen, but if it did, the US could do far worse.
Head to head Newsome would be the best chance to beat Trump in a normal election cycle. But it won’t be him since this isn’t normal.
I’d say Harris as well. If the intent is to carry on with Biden’s agenda, she’s the one most set up to do so. I think it would be difficult to compete candidates to build a consensus at this point.
I also agree disregarding a Black woman who is largely in place and ready to go in order to see who emerges from a competition this late would draw a lot of liberal flack. The logical time to do that would have been the beginning of this election cycle. Now it’s too easy to take a a slight against her.
Agreed. It has long been my complaint that the Dems have made a major strategic failure with Harris since the election. They should have been finding ways to demonstrate Harris’s competent leadership in executing Biden’s agenda, to put her in the most favorable position to pick up whenever Bidrn is done.
Instead she’s been largely invisible from a performance standpoint. Hell, we heard more from Cheney in his “undisclosed location” than Harris.
That’s been my main objection to her as well. VP can be as prominent or pointless a job as the president wants it to be. Harris is the “border czar” but I can’t remember one thing she has done or said about the border. The opportunity is there for her to show her leadership but there seems to be very little effort to put her in the forefront.
I see news on Harris every day. You can only watch or read what your news sources cover.