# Stop Panicking! **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [June 28, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447 "2024-06-28T15:26:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 41
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/801 "2024-07-11T20:59:05Z")
Also Trump is a big loud reality show. If you want to compete with the Trump reality show circus by using substance, you need to be able to communicate effectively. Otherwise many folks will be drawn back to the flash and spectacle. ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/802 "2024-07-11T21:03:44Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > I’m telling you the reason this saddens me the most is because I am sure had Biden been the nominee in 2016 there would have been no Trumpism taking hold. > > Trump would have lost the election in a big margin because Vice President Biden carrying on from President Obama maintains the 2008-2012 coalition and prevents the exodus of white working class from the party. Yes. Hillary would have been a great president, but if Biden ran in 2016, he probably would have won. There would have been no Trumpism. Imagine what a continuation of the Obama years would have been like. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/803 "2024-07-11T21:51:41Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > think you don’t have to worry about the outcome of the game whether your pitcher beans him or not because you’ve just stopped playing baseball. > > I mean, it’s not like the Ump is going to call the batter out on a technicality of unfair interference or unnecessary violence or whatever. That’s the situation we find ourselves in, though. The Republicans have set fire to our dugout and have snipers trained on the third baseman, and we’re clutching a copy of the rulebook and shouting “This is an egregious violation of the spirit of the game!” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/804 "2024-07-11T22:21:14Z")
As gaffes go calling Zelenskyy Putin is a pretty bad one. Doing it now with all of the scrutiny is even worse. > **[Biden stumbles over Zelenskyy introduction, calls him 'President Putin'](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/07/11/biden-stumbles-over-zelenskyy-introduction-calls-him-president-putin.html)** > > The latest verbal gaffe by President Joe Biden comes as he faces increasing calls by Democrats to quit the 2024 election contest against Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/805 "2024-07-11T23:09:23Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > > > But if Biden is the President while Harris is the candidate, she’s going to be repeatedly asked how Biden could lack the skill set to campaign, but not that needed to govern. > > Remaining term (~6.5 months) vs. another (four-year) term. I probably am not explaining the Biden-still-president, after dropping out, problem properly. Here’s what [Trump said this week:](https://www.yahoo.com/news/deranged-critics-react-trumps-fat-114320758.html) > [@](#): > > “The other day, I got very angry,” Trump continued. “Some man called Chris Christie fat. And I said, ‘Sir.’ And then he said he was a pig. I said, ‘Sir! Chris Christie is not a fat pig!’ Please remember he is not a fat pig. Please take it back.” Most Trump voters, at least where I live, would tell you that don’t like that. But it works for our chief demagogue anyway because display of strength has subconscious appeal. If Harris is President, she’ll also display strength, although not that way. She could say she just ordered massive hurricane relief (or new sanctions against Putin). If she says Joe Biden just ordered it, that’s weaker – especially when the whole premise of her running would be that she’s a strong (but sane and decent) leader. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/806 "2024-07-11T23:14:26Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > if Biden is the President while Harris is the candidate, she’s going to be repeatedly asked how Biden could lack the skill set to campaign, but not that needed to govern. Good and fair potential question, I think. Actually, I think that one’s answerable. ‘He’s definitely up to governing. But combining campaigning and governing has made him realize that, while he still has the energy to deal with both his ordinary work and unexpected emergencies, it’s more work than it used to be to do so; and he’s concerned that in two or three years he may no longer be able to do so.’ > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > I would have thought that doing the world leader job is harder than running for office. Of course it is. But doing both at once has got to be harder than doing either one on its own. > [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > > > What they do NOT do is attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected US government. > > Unique in our nation in living memory. Or out of living memory, either. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/807 "2024-07-11T23:59:32Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Or out of living memory, either. There was this thing called “The Civil war”? then the Whiskey rebellion? It has happened before- just quite some times ago. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/808 "2024-07-11T23:59:48Z")
So in a matter of a couple hours, Biden referred to Zelanskyy as President Putin and referred to Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump while defending his decision to pick her as a running mate. I get he’s gaffe-prone, but none of this is calming any nerves about his ability to run a successful campaign against the Orangeanus. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/809 "2024-07-12T01:56:30Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > One thing worrying me — Biden seems to be under enormous, if mostly polite, pressure to drop out, but none to resign. Maybe Pelosi and company are thinking — one step at a time, But if Biden is the President while Harris is the candidate, she’s going to be repeatedly asked how Biden could lack the skill set to campaign, but not that needed to govern. She will be asked about his mental capability in that regard, but the answer acceptable for any but the Fox numbnuts and MAGAs is that he’s not incapable, but the country wants younger leadership and new voices. > [@](#): > > And I think Harris needs a new president honeymoon to really break out of her own less than stellar polling vs. Trump. I think it’s doubtful she would get any kind of New President honeymoon during the election cycle. And I think it would be a hard challenge to take over the presidential reins at the same time as taking on the top of the ticket. How she could overcome her particular polling challenges is something that needs a strategy, but not doing two major transitions at once. I’d argue she would be better served having Joe to finish his term and let her work on her visibility and punching up excitement. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Biden said part of a summer, and Politifact said \* _While he has made this claim before, there is no evidence he was ever a truck driver."_ That is different than “we have shown that Biden never, ever drove a truck”. Note also that a bus driver has to have a commercial drivers’ license. In fact, my dad was a truck driver way back in the dark ages because my grandfather was one and he learned on the road. He drove a semi back in the 1950s and was a school bus driver in the 60s. But he actually only had a chauffeur’s license, not a truck driver’s license. So what would Politifact make of that? > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > If Harris is President, she’ll also display strength, although not that way. She could say she just ordered massive hurricane relief (or new sanctions against Putin). If she says Joe Biden just ordered it, that’s weaker – especially when the whole premise of her running would be that she’s a strong (but sane and decent) leader. I’ll grant you the Dems have squandered that last three years in establishing Harris as a leader. I don’t think having her jump in as President just so she can do things in her own name for a couple months is going to make much headway there. Better to have her on the campaign trail, in rallies and press conferences and debate than expect three months of Presidenting to get peope’s favorable attention. She could be strong against Trump by highlighting how he treats women (as evidenced not just by his rape civil judgement, but the article by the former “The Apprentice” exec producer, his cheating on his pregnant wife with a porn star and carrying on an affair with the other lady, etc), and then stating that Trump obviously doesn’t trust women with their own bodies. She could bust him on foreign affairs by showing him palling around with Erdogan, smiling with Kim Jung Il, and praising Putin for being strong. And they could absolutely blow up the age angle, and meme the hell out of Trump’s memory blunders. Sore Show “Sleepy Don” napping during his own trial. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/810 "2024-07-12T02:00:29Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > She could bust him on foreign affairs by showing him… smiling with Kim Jung Il That’ll be especially damning seeing as Kim Jong-Il died in 2011. Who wants a president that digs up corpses and smiles for photo ops with them? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/811 "2024-07-12T03:33:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There was this thing called “The Civil war”? then the Whiskey rebellion? It has happened before- just quite some times ago. Neither of those involved the POTUS taking part in the rebellion. However, going back to the post I was answering I see it just says “politicians”; and while it does mention Trump it doesn’t limit the behavior to politicians who are or are running for POTUS. So I was answering the wrong thing, and your objection is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/812 "2024-07-12T06:09:30Z")
magats. That’s who. Just kidding … but seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/813 "2024-07-12T14:02:31Z")
Dammit, whose the current guy? Help, I’m having a Biden moment, and I can’t get up. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/814 "2024-07-12T14:27:42Z")
And yet this (via NPR): > **[After Biden's debate performance, the presidential race is unchanged](https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/nx-s1-5036518/biden-trump-poll)** > > The poll also found that, at this point, no other mainstream Democrat who has been mentioned as a replacement for the president on the ticket does better than President Biden. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/815 "2024-07-12T15:17:15Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > And yet this (via NPR): > > [After Biden's debate performance, the presidential race is unchanged : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/nx-s1-5036518/biden-trump-poll) Just One PollTM … but their poll goes directly counter to the narrative that “_Polls show most Democratic voters want Biden to drop out!!!_” According to that page, 62% of Democrats believe Biden has the mental fitness to serve as President \*\*. Though it’s being couched in the article as four-in-ten Democrats thinking Biden _does not_, in fact, possess the requisite mental fitness. \*\* _I know … not_ exactly _the same proposition, but close enough IMO_. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/816 "2024-07-12T15:22:28Z")
He’s fine. Or he is not and Harris will become president if he had to resign one day(or god forbid, died). Biden. Harris. Better than Trump? Yes. My vote. Done. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/817 "2024-07-12T15:30:39Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Just One PollTM … but their poll goes directly counter to the narrative that “_Polls show most Democratic voters want Biden to drop out!!!_” I’m not so sure. I’d vote for Biden in a heartbeat, and would answer a poll the same way. But I want him to drop out. And I think he has done and would do, an excellent job as President. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/818 "2024-07-12T15:39:03Z")
38% of your own party thinking you don’t have the mental fitness to be president is still a huge and concerning number even if a little better than other polling. That number should be basically zero. The fact that NPR still showing him winning the poll to be is more a sign that Trump is a very beatable candidate than Biden is good one. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/819 "2024-07-12T15:43:20Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > … but their poll goes directly counter to the narrative that “_Polls show most Democratic voters want Biden to drop out!!!_” No it doesn’t. I like a majority of Democrats want Biden to drop out and I will still vote for him if he is the candidate. Not contradictory positions. We are just believing the models that say that before the debate he needed a comeback, that odds were roughly one in four of a win. A strong Biden could be reasonably hoped to shake it up in the stretch and shake off the pre existing fears of his age and competency. We don’t see Biden now as being able to do that after that debate. It didn’t significantly worsen his poor position but it added cement to it. That is bad. Very bad. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447/820 "2024-07-12T15:52:18Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > … but their poll goes directly counter to the narrative that “_Polls show most Democratic voters want Biden to drop out!!!_” > > No it doesn’t. > > I like a majority of Democrats want Biden to drop out and I will still vote for him if he is the candidate. Not contradictory positions. You responded to a proposition I had not intended to make. My point was unrelated to voting. The lack of clarity was my mistake. Let be more precise. **[According to the latest NPR/Marist poll](https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/nx-s1-5036518/biden-trump-poll), 62% of Democrats believe Biden has the mental fitness to serve as President** That specific poll result directly counters: **The narrative that “_Polls show most Democratic voters want Biden to drop out!!!_”** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447.md?page=40) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-panicking/1003447.md?page=42)