Good for him, I’m glad he realized it would be dumb to spend a bunch of money confirming that nobody likes him (unlike Trump).
I heard him say that on at least two networks this morning, but after yesterday’s comment about switching back to Democrat after turning independent, and his continued calls for a miniprimary (however that would work!) I think he still has mischief afoot.
What I think should be learned from the Trump era is the importance of generating headlines and being the story of the moment.
Trump was in a court, with news every day running through all the scumbags that he associates with, all the decrepitude of his daily behavior, etc. and he went up in the polls because the story of the moment was “Trump”. People supporting Biden had to go sit in front of the court, just to try and get Biden’s name in the news a few times.
The idea that a chaotic selection process would be bad for the Democrats is probably not true. The millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars that a campaign can raise simply pails in comparison to the might of the media, of social platforms, and of gossip and horse calling.
The more the story is about the Democrats, and their adventures to create a dream-team candidacy, the more that they’re going to be getting billions of dollars worth of coverage.
The focus shouldn’t be on a smooth, drama-free change-over. If you can run the whole thing like Survivor, that’s going to get you the win on election day.
I think it’s possible that he had mischief afoot, noticed the reaction to feelers about it, and decided that said mischief ain’t going anywhere other than embarrassing Manchin and that therefore he’s not going to try committing it.
Pelosi formally endorsed Harris. Is there a thread that keeps track of endorsements/delegate counts?
This would probably be the one.
Latest cash numbers I see are $49.6 million for Harris campaign and $67 million for ActBlue in less than 24 hours.
Is there anyone besides Harris that might throw their hat into the ring at this point? I think most of the people various pundits have speculated about (Newsome, Whitmer, Buttigieg, etc) as having presidential ambitions have already issued statements endorsing Harris.
Woo crackpot and perennial candidate Marianne Williamson has declared that she plans to seek the nomination, so there’s that.
Okay, let me rephrase. Is there anyone besides Harris who actually has a hat that might throw their hat into the ring at this point?
Mike Bloomberg is making noises about how the Party “doesn’t need to rush into” selecting a candidate. Fuck that guy.
I highly doubt it. Any non-fringe candidate would have said something by now, and any non-loon who looks at how the Democratic Party has unified in support of Harris in the past 24 hours would understand that have no chance.
You mean tinfoil hats don’t count??? 
I agree with kenobi_65. Given how quickly the endorsements and delegates have been flowing to Harris, the chances of a credible challenger emerging at this point are very small. I suppose you could imagine someone who wants to position themselves for 2028 making a go at it for name recognition purposes, but that person would have to know that the party would be really pissed about it, and such a move might be counterproductive in the long run.
Or even a chance of getting enough signatures to earn the hat to throw.
I’m mildly nervous that Bernie Sanders hasn’t endorsed Harris yet. AFAICT he’s the only guy who hasn’t who might be able to make a real run. I certainly hope he doesn’t.
Please clear up: you hope Sanders doesn’t endorse Harris or you hope Sanders doesn’t throw his hat once again into the ring?
FWIW, none of the four Independent US Senators, including Sanders, have endorsed Harris yet. Maybe these four are leaving it strictly to the Democratic Party proper for the time being?
Harris is up to 232 endorsements among US Congresspersons, US Senators, and state governors.
The latter. I love Bernie but under the circumstances of Biden’s departure nobody is going to want to hear about another octogenarian candidate.
I’d bet this is the case. And Obama’s likely waiting for then as well (unless he’s already endorsed her and I missed it).
The what now? Biden has been a terrific president.
Hid off-topic hot button issue that will not be debated in this thread. {WE?}
I mean, he fumbled the war in Gaza, but politcally that was a no-win situation for him, and he’s a politician.
He’s done a lot better in a lot of ways than I expected. The ONLY problem with Biden is his age and the related decline in his physical and mental health. And Harris is under 60 and looks pretty healthy.
I agree with all this.
We all get old, if we don’t die first. I think he is exiting with some grace, and I expect the party will say lots of nice things about him and his legacy at the convention, and about how Harris, his protege, will continue his work.