I’m not entirely convinced of this. Yes, it’d be humiliating, and the Democrats would have to answer some tough questions about who’s really been running the country for the last four years. But if the they replaced Biden with a genuinely strong candidate, someone who’s obviously intelligent, comes across well on camera, has charisma to burn, and who can speak as eloquently on matters of policy as Obama, then undecided voters might be willing to overlook the circumstances of his nomination. It’d be a Hail Mary, but I think if the Democrats replaced Biden with Pete Buttigieg they’d still have a chance of winning. As it stands, after last night I’d put Biden’s chances somewhere below the odds of his winning the Boston marathon.
Today we’re a bunch of hornets after somebody threw a rock into our nest.
It’s just terrifying (not hyperbole) to think what will happen if Trump wins. Biden performed about as bad as was possible in that debate.
No one will be happier than me if this turns out to be much ado about nothing.
I am actually scared right now.
Totally agree. Well stated.
All this talk about replacing Biden at this point only guarantees 2nd guessing after Election Day 2024 - there will be a lot of “what-ifs” if Biden loses (“what if we replaced him?”), or if his replacement loses (“what if we didn’t replace him?”). I think the party needs to shoot this down and not give any one an ember of hope that someone else will come along to save the day - double down on Biden and do everything possible to assure he has the best chance of winning, again.
If that candidate existed they would have run in 2020 and won.
Nonsense.
Unless you want to suppose that an 81 year old man is the best possible candidate in the world.
Factoring in his experience, incumbency, his track record, the ability to gain necessary funding… Yeah, in this specific circumstance that seems to be the case, for better or worse.
Why are people treating things as if 2024 were the same as 2020?
Biden was the best candidate in 2020, because he was the only one who could and did win. He has exceeded my expectations, and I’m very happy with his presidency.
But we’re not talking about four years ago or even last year. We’re talking about next year, and about 2027. Things have changed. Biden should absolutely be in the loop and at the core, and he should also be stepping aside and supporting the consensus candidate. But people have pride (“I don’t need to step aside”), and beliefs that they treat as factual (“incumbency advantage”; “the only one who can defeat Trump”), and here we are.
Biden has my vote, but it’s not 2020, and he isn’t as strong a candidate against Trump now as he was then. Hopefully still strong enough, but we won’t know that for another few months.
You have to remember just how well Buttigieg did in 2020. He went from being the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana to winning the Iowa Caucus and becoming a major player in the Democratic Party in only a few months, all while battling an extremely crowded field stuffed full of candidates with a thousand times as much money, connections, and name recognition. It really was a remarkable achievement, and he was able to do it because he’s a hugely capable candidate. With the full machinery of the Democratic Party behind him I think he’d stand a good chance of beating Trump even at this late stage. Trump’s a weak debater. Buttigieg would eviscerate him. As for Biden, I don’t think he has a dog in Hell’s chance after last night. Your conviction that ditching him would guarantee a Trump victory is matched only by my conviction that keeping him would do the same.
There is three fucking years difference between Biden and Trump. If logic had anything to do with this election – which it obviously doesn’t – age wouldn’t be an issue.
If there’s a candidate who can do better on four months notice, then name them and explain why they didn’t run in the primaries if they’re such a better candidate than Biden.
Biden IS the consensus candidate.
With the full machinery of the Democratic party behind him, Buttigieg would still be a completely unacceptable candidate to tens of millions of voters because he is gay and married to a man.
In 2020 a lot of people were saying Biden was too old to be POTUS. Here’s a 2019 article where his age was a concern.
Trump today is older than Biden was then. Yet Trump’s age rarely gets brought up. Because it’s a red herring. It’s a right wing excuse to not vote for a Democrat.
I think that is a bit simplistic.
Choosing to run a presidential campaign is no small thing and it has less to do with good ideas than getting people to back you. Especially when up against an incumbent.
It might have been better if Biden said he did his four years, saved the economy, time to retire. Then you might have seen a robust competition for the next dem candidate.
I remember people saying similar things about Obama because he’s black. Ultimately, his intelligence, rhetorical skill, and charisma, coupled with the fact he was up against a weak candidate, overcame his race and relative lack of name recognition. Buttigieg possesses the same skill set. If those qualities were enough to make Obama the first black President, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be enough to make Buttigieg the first gay one. Besides, I strongly suspect that most of the people who wouldn’t vote for Buttigieg on account of his sexuality are the sort of people who’d never vote Democrat anyway.
True but it is a fight for that very small middle where it is won or lost.
It also doesn’t help that his prior experience consists of being mayor of a small city and Secretary of Transportation which is usually considered one of the departments of lesser importance. His perceived delay in addressing the East Palestine derailment is neither a plus for him.
I think you’d be wrong on that assumption. Take Proposition 8 in California, which aimed to ban same-sex marriage (it passed, but was later struck down in the courts).
The National Election Pool poll showed that support for Proposition 8 was strong amongst African American voters, interviewed in the exit poll with 70% in favor, more than any other racial group.[199] Their support was considered crucial to the proposition’s passing, since African Americans made up an unusually larger percentage of voters that year, due to the presence of Barack Obama on the ballot.
Asian and Latino groups also came out to vote for Prop 8. Sadly, there is still a strong prejudice against gay people in this country, and it does not nicely split along liberal/conservative lines all the time. A Buttigieg candidacy, unfortunately, would ultimately be a loser candidacy, fair or not.
There’s some other names in this thread, but as for why they didn’t run—tradition and courtesy require deference to an incumbent presidential candidate. Based on what they saw, there was no reason and no advantage to running a contested primary.
As for “four months’ notice,” do you seriously think that Buttegieg, Harris, etc., aren’t already in warm-up mode for 2028? They’d have to speed up their timeline, for certain, but I think anyone who could manage to be president could probably manage to rise to this particular challenge, especially if the Biden campaign and its war chest cooperated.
It doesn’t really matter what I think, though: it’s not going to happen. Biden is not going to step aside, so all I can do is hope that he is up for the challenge and hope that somehow America grows up and votes substance over whatever they see in Trump in the next couple of months.
Unless you can actually name one or two people that fit your description, my only response has to be “Well, duh”.