# President Joe Biden and the runup to the 2024 election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 15, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384 "2021-11-15T14:54:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/672 "2024-02-09T19:50:04Z")
I think they meant low-information voters who then tune into the debates instead of just remaining low-information. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/673 "2024-02-09T19:57:07Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > I’d argue the number of low-info voters is much higher (though I suspect you were going for effect). > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I think they meant low-information voters who then tune into the debates instead of just remaining low-information. Yes, I meant that there aren’t many who would be undecided and low-info but still willing to watch, and even fewer who would be swayed by the debate. And fewer still who live in states where it matters. But by golly, let’s get 'em on board! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/674 "2024-02-09T20:58:11Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Trump is … well … there is no caricature that aptly captures Trump. Trump would _be_ that caricature for any other aging man with an undeniable lifelong record of narcissism, sociopathy, and carnage. > > And Biden values and relies on the Adults in the Room. Trump abuses them, fires them for ‘disloyalty,’ and then spends years trying to ruin their reputations and careers. True, but do note Biden has always been prone to gaffes all his career. > [@Jas09](#): > > Trump and Biden have both refused to debate their primary challengers, so I wouldn’t be shocked if one or both refuse in the general. Biden has no serious challengers. > [@Jas09](#): > > The most likely path forward, since IMO neither candidate really wants to debate, is that the GOP holds firm on leaving the CPD and the Democrats say they will only debate under the CPD rules. And trump didnt follow the rules anyway. And he wont. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > You do realize that NO incumbent President since Ford has ever debated their primary challengers, right? Right. > [@Jas09](#): > > My point is simply that both campaigns have an interest in their not being debates. I think that if trump was made to follow the rules, Biden would debate him. The moderator would have to have a cut-off switch and use it often. > [@Horatius](#): > > Well, take a look at what just happened in Congress, with the bill that combined funding for Ukraine and Israel, with funding for border security. The Democrats called the Republicans on their demands for border security, and it turns out they were bluffing. They had no intention of ever agreeing to a deal. Some info on that- > **[Unraveling Misinformation About Bipartisan Immigration Bill - FactCheck.org](https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/unraveling-misinformation-about-bipartisan-immigration-bill/)** > > Even before a bipartisan group of senators unveiled the text of a foreign aid and immigration overhaul bill on Feb. 4, it faced significant opposition from former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders. We'll explain what was in the... Before [the bill](https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/emergency_national_security_supplemental_bill_text.pdf) h_ad been released, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz [described](https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1754953008155078796) it as “a steaming pile of crap.” After seeing it, Cruz said, “it turned out my assessment was far too kind.”_ _On Feb. 7, the bill [failed](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/02/07/congress/senate-supplemental-ukraine-border-aid-00140187) in the Senate after it was opposed by all but four Republicans and a few Democrats. Some of the criticism leveled by Republicans opposing the bill was based on a distortion of what it would and would not do._ _Trump and other Republicans have also said the bill would have permitted up to 5,000 illegal entries per day, but that’s not accurate either._ > [@Horatius](#): > > Agree to whatever stupid rules they trot out, and I’d bet good money that Trump is bluffing. He’ll find some other excuse to refuse the debate. No. he just wont follow the rules. He didnt follow the rules in court giving testimony, he wont follow debate rules. > [@Akaj](#): > > I agree with this. Any undecided voters who believe both candidates are old men in cognitive decline would see a vast difference between Biden (maybe a couple of hiccups) and Trump (utterly unhinged). Yep. > [@Atamasama](#): > > I can’t think of the last time they have been useful. Certainly not for a decade at least. JFK vs Nixon- it likely changed the election. Also Obama did very well. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/675 "2024-02-09T21:09:43Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > If this is just the opinion of a lawyer… It isn’t even that. He doesn’t directly say that Biden is a forgetful old man, he says that jurors might see him as a forgetful old man and so be unlikely to convict him of purposely taking the documents. But of course this subtlety is lost in the rush to prove Biden’s senility. I wonder if the reason he did this was to protect himself from being targeted by MAGA. If he comes out simply saying he is declining to prosecute Biden then he will instantly open himself to death threats as a shill for the Deep State. By throwing in this obviously partisan line he might be given a reprieve. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/676 "2024-02-09T21:30:31Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > This could be the same. Agree to whatever stupid rules they trot out, and I’d bet good money that Trump is bluffing. He’ll find some other excuse to refuse the debate. OK we require that the Debate be moderated by Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, with the audience selected from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, who will be provided with pieces of Rotten fruit that they are allowed to throw at the candidates. Still want to debate Mr. Biden? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/677 "2024-02-09T21:37:00Z")
I’ll have the entire FBI surrounding the place, ready to arrest them all for assaulting the President as they leave, so, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/678 "2024-02-10T01:32:12Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > You do realize that NO incumbent President since Ford has ever debated their primary challengers, right? Not even Ford did it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/679 "2024-02-10T04:01:09Z")
I was talking about debating Trump. Of course he isn’t going to debate his primary challengers. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/680 "2024-02-10T05:20:05Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > It’s overwhelmingly likely to be another Least Worst binary choice … This post really nails it. Well said. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > And has often during his career, not just recently. As a young man, Biden had a big stuttering problem. He worked to overcome it and has kept it in check pretty well since about College age on. I learned this years ago from some PBS show about him. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/681 "2024-02-10T05:59:42Z")
It can be a real disability to stutter. Trump should shut his tiny pie hole making fun of Biden stumbling over a few words. It’s amazing the man can do any public speaking. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/682 "2024-02-10T07:31:01Z")
I saw one of the legal people on MSNBC make a good point. When you file a report like this to the DOJ, you generally include the facts as well as your opinion on why or why not you should bring a case. That includes reporting on which witnesses, defendants etc could be problematic and which the jury would be likely to believe or sympathize with. It would be an appropriate part of this report to note that even if Biden were charged, a jury would be likely to empathize with him. What is not appropriate is for Garland to make that part of the report public. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/683 "2024-02-10T08:13:40Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I was talking about debating Trump. trump wont follow the rules. The GOp has already said so, but trump didnt follow the rules before, he didnt even follow the rules in court. Why play games with a cheater? “ **Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw** ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/684 "2024-02-10T13:41:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “ **Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty and the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw** This sums up the situation Biden faces. Trump is unpopular, so a good candidate can beat him by starting out ahead and mostly sitting on their lead. It arguably worked well for Biden last time because he started out ahead. Sitting on a not-quite-tie, and pig wrestling, seem the unattractive 2024 alternatives. A game where Trump sets unreasonable debate conditions and then tries to paint Biden as the coward seems inevitable. If Biden refuses to play, it will cost him. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/685 "2024-02-10T14:09:56Z")
I feel like every voter has already made up their mind anyway. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/686 "2024-02-10T14:16:36Z")
Not every voter has decided whether they will vote at all. That’s the key. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/687 "2024-02-10T15:55:45Z")
Yeah, that’s the system: every single election has tens of millions voters who can’t be bothered but whose votes would change the outcome, and tens of millions who do vote, but aren’t in swing states so could probably stay home with no effect. Democracy! Mostly, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/688 "2024-02-10T23:01:37Z")
And a lot can happen between now and November. Just think about February 2020 and how much happened between then and the election. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/689 "2024-02-11T03:21:20Z")
FWIW, from the New York Times (gift link) > **[Why the Age Issue Is Hurting Biden So Much More Than Trump](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/biden-trump-aging.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.0i31.6DCulo0bo1Zn&smid=url-share)** > > Both Donald J. Trump and President Biden are over 75. But voters are much less likely to worry that Mr. Trump is too old to serve. Re recent public gaffes by both Biden and trump- > … > Some of it comes down to basic physical differences. > > Mr. Biden’s voice has grown softer and raspier, his hair thinner and whiter. He is tall and trim but moves more tentatively than he did as a candidate in 2019 and 2020, often holding his upper body stiff, adding to an impression of frailty. And he has had spills in the public eye: falling off a bicycle, tripping over a sandbag. > > Mr. Trump, by contrast, does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in such visible ways. Mr. Trump often dyes his hair and appears unnaturally tan. He is heavyset and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds. When he takes the stage at rallies, he basks in adulation for several minutes, dancing to an opening song, and then holds forth in speeches replete with macho rhetoric and bombast that typically last well over an hour, a display of stamina. > > “It is the perception of how you communicate,” said Carol Kinsey Goman, a speaker and coach on leadership presence. “When Trump makes those kinds of faux pas, he just brushes it off, and people don’t say, ‘Oh, he’s aging.’ He makes at least as many mistakes as Joe Biden, but because he does it with this bravado, it doesn’t seem like senility. It seems like passion.” > > With Mr. Biden, Ms. Goman said, “it looks like weakness.” > … ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/690 "2024-02-11T14:05:50Z")
To amplify a famous Trump quote, I genuinely believe that he could pull out an AR-15 modified (for ‘full auto’ operation) with a bump stock, and just massacre the first three rows at one of his rallies. Y’know: for poops and grins. And though it would _take_ several minutes, the survivors would quickly refer to their fallen comrades as “filthy RINOs” and “traitors” and spit on their graves. It isn’t my sense (he said, tongue firmly in cheek) that Joe Biden has followers with anywhere near that level of obsequity and slavish devotion. What inures to the benefit of our nation in every single way _hurts_ Biden in polling and electoral politics. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384/691 "2024-02-11T14:21:44Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > To amplify a famous Trump quote, I genuinely believe that he could pull out an AR-15 modified (for ‘full auto’ operation) with a bump stock, and just massacre the first three rows at one of his rallies. How would people at his rallies react if he told them to get a vaccine? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-joe-biden-and-the-runup-to-the-2024-election/954384.md?page=35)