Well, then if you use the full registration rolls, it is still no worse than the normal open primary. Whatever MAGA ratfuckery might go on, it’s the same ratfuckery that would happen anyway.
ETA: Ok, upon a few extra moments consideration, that’s probably not true. Someone in the other party would have to be willing to give up their own party vote in order to sabotage the other. But that wouldn’t happen here. Well, maybe not every state can participate in this process.
Jesus Christ. Of all the “solutions” I’ve heard to this situation, launching a primary (of any variety) at this point is the most fanciful. And that’s saying a lot.
I don’t think most voters would even notice.
Exactly.
I’m with you. Even if this snap primary could be pulled off, what would be the advantage? Would some previously little-known Dem suddenly emerge as the Trump-slayer?
Harris is perfectly positioned to slay Trump. It seems like a fairly straightforward process for Biden to quit the race, fully endorsing her and solving all the money issues. She wins the nomination on the first vote at the convention.
But how has he been since then? Are you aware he’s made 18 campaign appearances since the debate, while Trump (who has nothing better to do) has done none? And did you listen to him on Morning Joe a few days ago? It was enough to get Rob Reiner to consider jumping off the drop Biden bandwagon
If we see the Joe Biden that appeared on Morning Joe today every day until Nov.5, he’ll be able to shut up people like me who think he should step aside.
A five minute phone interview? That’s not going to convince anyone.
No one’s really convinceable, are they? No matter what Biden would do, there will always be “no true Scotsman” applied: “Only five minutes! Only once - let’s see it again! OK - let’s see it sustained!” Etc.
Like it or don’t but a big part of the problem is how he looks regardless of how much you like what is coming out of his mouth. He can hold a five minute conversation, great. He still looks like death warmed over.
But really, for a president is it too much to ask for it to be sustained past a five minute conversation?
For people still speculating on Biden’s mental health, his White House physician has just released, with permission from Biden and the WH Neurologist specialist that has been in the news as of yesterday, the following letter.
Statement in part:
This is likely the neurological exam that Biden mentions.
The question has also been presented on why a Parkinson’s specialist has visited the White House eight times in the past year.
In other words:
While he has a Parkinson’s fellowship, he is a widely respected neurologist who is a general neurologist with extensive experience as a generalist.
He is the senior neurologist at Walter Reed, where Presidents get their health care.
He has been involved with the White House in treating many service members who work there. In other words, the President isn’t the only possible patient at the White House.
The President has only been seen three times as part of his annual physicals. Those results have been shared.
So now we have some actual medical statements, not random speculation by the internet troll farm and Kremlin puppets.
Unless you are unwilling to trust official statements - and you may be unwilling - it looks like we have strong justification to move past the “Biden’s mind is going” claim.
There still may be reasons to be uncomfortable with an octagenarian President, but if the only real complaint that can be registered is “he’s too old” or “he’s not exciting enough”, then that’s just dissatisfaction with the candidate we have, not legitimate reason to replace him.
It wont help. They will still demand Obama’s OFFICIAL Birth Certificate.
What concerns me about the letter is “he was fine as of late February.” Yes; we saw his State of the Union. We’ve also seen many clips of him since February. Things can change, especially if you’re a man in his early 80s. Everything I have read that isn’t sensationalized suggests that there were no problems prior to about six months ago. Well, late February was over four months ago.
This isn’t “strong justification to move past the ‘Biden’s mind is going’ claim.” It is strong evidence that anyone seeing Dr. Cannard’s recent visit as a Sign is misinterpreting.
The letter also says that Biden has not seen a specialist since February. Maybe you find that reassuring; I do not.
This is great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Quite certain that if the exams were a month ago, we’d still have folks saying, “Yeah, but a lot can change in a month.”
This is what was needed—actual details and facts, not gut reactions made in a panic.
And he still is. Everyone is basing their opinion on one single debate. He had rallies , speeches and an interview afterwards and did fine in all.
No, he did not do fine.
He did the goodest he could do.
A neurological specialist evaluated him four months ago. Yes, things can change, but without traumatic injury, they don’t do so overnight. He found no signs of decline.
Usually something like this is going to start slowly and degrade over time. It might not be noticeable early, but a neurogenic exam would show something - early stages, need to reassess in a couple months, inconclusive - something.
You know what else started about 6 months ago? Maybe the election cycle getting off in earnest with primaries?
I don’t think even people with a diagnosed declining condition see someone that often.
If he went from zero to alzheimers in 4 months, his personal physicians would have noticed something. He does have doctors traveling with him everywhere.
That is simply not true. There have been a couple of articles (I posted a link to one from WaPo somewhere here: perhaps this one https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/03/biden-age-election-debate-trump/56f2a8a0-3998-11ef-93fe-36cbc6f6ab36_story.html) talking about other concerns people have expressed.
If your statement were correct, you would be right to diagnose the whole situation as overblown. You are objectively incorrect here, I’m afraid.
Those are good points, and probably true. I don’t think Alzheimer’s is the issue at hand, though: that’s a bit too specific, and nobody but right-wing / foreign media with an agenda are arguing for Alzheimer’s or full-blown dementia.
Agree with your last post.
The physician does not say anything about what challenges Biden faces, even though it is evident he has some sort of cognitive challenge he did not have in 2020. Nor should the doc do that! His job is to help Joe, not hurt him.
If Biden had a thorough cognitive workup (something like this), they probably would give him good news. Nothing serious, just mild cognitive impairment! Then they might give the patient some exercises and advice while warning against OTC medications. They would do that because they are on the patient’s side.
If they found nothing, I’d question the testing. (Also true with Trump.)
To be blunt, it doesn’t matter. As far as I can tell not one person here has said they are voting for Trump because Biden is too old. This is not the target audience. Those that may not vote at all or are so low information that they think they might as well vote for Trump are not going to care about some report. They are going to care about what their eyes see. And they see that he is frail and weak as fuck. To get them to change their minds he has to show that he’s not frail and weak as fuck. The debate was so bad that it’s going to take a lot to flush that away. And to be honest he looked pretty damn frail before the debate. “Not Alzheimers’s” is way too low a bar. He has to show more and show it every day. There is a lot to overcome.
Biden got the most votes in history in 2020. Trump got the second most votes in history in 2020. Biden is done if he bleeds votes.