Biden’s Got to Go
Like George Clooney, I love me some Joe Biden. With decades of experience in the Senate, then as Obama’s VP, and then as President who pulled us back from the TFG and Covid abyss in 2020, Biden has been in the right place at the right time for years. I supported him strongly in 2016 when Hillary boxed him out and handed the White House to TFG the first time. I backed Biden in 2020 because he was the only Dem candidate running who had a chance of unseating TFG. He succeeded magnificently and has done a great job shoveling out the manure that TFG piled into the White House the previous 4 years. However, the Biden of 2024 is clearly not the Biden of 2008, 2016, or 2020. Like many others whose opinions count for a lot more than mine, I agree that Biden cannot beat TFG, period. Clooney says that, three weeks ago when he was with Biden in NY for a huge fundraiser, Biden was the same Biden we all saw on national television who totally and completely fumbled THE debate. The orchestra is playing, and it’s time to gracefully exit the stage.
I know this is not a popular opinion among many of the party faithful and a lot of customers of the Salon, but the numbers support my opinion. Though Biden is statistically tied with TFG in national polls, he’s LOSING EVERY SINGLE SWING STATE by an average of over 5 points. At this point in the cycle, that almost guarantees, barring a miracle, a Biden loss. To believe Biden can win the electoral college in 2024 requires complete suspension of disbelief and blindness to facts. In a word, if Biden doesn’t drop out, and I mean RIGHT NOW, we’re all fucked in 2024, because we’ll not only lose the White House, but likely the House and Senate. That means, especially with a packed and corrupted SCOTUS, that there will be no guard rails to stop the goons who will be running the entire federal government and most of the states. That, my dear readers, is unacceptable risk.
Like LBJ, Biden must graciously withdraw and then actively support a plan to replace him as a candidate. Carville published a great plan a couple of days ago that outlined a short, transparent primary process moderated by 42 and 44 to select a new candidate. This opinion will also piss off some of our customers, but I disagree that Biden should just endow Harris with the nomination. Her numbers are almost as bad as his and won’t garner the support of undecideds like an open process. This needs to be thrown open to other very strong candidates like Witmer, Newsom, Buttigieg, Moore, AND Harris in a process that is public, transparent, and fair.
I don’t want to hear the bullshit argument that the “primary voters have already spoken”. That’s nonsense. There was no real primary process; no debates, no real alternatives (including Dean Philips), and no active process, so the voters have NOT spoken. There must be another alternative and that needs to happen NOW.
Americans should have one goal, and one goal only for 2024: soundly thrashing TFG at the polls. We have to kill the cancer of MAGA and the cult of personality and that needs to happen now. The DOJ has failed us; the federal and state courts have failed us; the SCOTUS has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the majority is profoundly corrupt and ruling for their actual constituents (the billionaires and extremists) and not for the rule of law. None of our guardrails are working. To save the US and our almost 250 year old form of government, we have to save ourselves. And we, as voters, need someone to coalesce around, and that ain’t Joe Biden.
So there.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
1(Of course I couldn’t, English not being my first language :-))
I GUESS you want TRUMP as our next president?
2Not me, MAGA has done a great job of getting you to buy there BS. BACK our president 100%
caren@2 – The numbers don’t lie. Magical thinking doesn’t work. I back my president 100%, but for his initial goal – transition from old to new. He’s the one who went back on his original goal and he has put us in this position. He’s lost the confidence of the base, AND he lost most of the middle. Stop being emotional, blaming the wrong people, and face facts
3Carville: “I want to see the Democratic Party hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.”
I can’t see either of these men facilitating something like this. Especially Obama, unless he had Joe’s blessing on it. And it’s not a “short, transparent primary process” if the voters at large don’t have a say in it, only the convention delegates. Too bad Hubert Humphrey isn’t around to put in his two cents on how this all worked out for him.
4Kamala Harris can debate, deal with town halls, and tell it like it is. If she is pushed aside we lose the black vote, especially women, who will stay home.
5TTPT@4 – First, none of this happens unless Biden yields. And that is Pelosi’s and Clyburn’s job, not ours. Second, we have two choices: Stay the course and most certainly lose the electoral vote, or do something, and have a chance. The decision is not hard. Tough on Biden, but an easy decision for the country. We gave Biden time; he couldn’t cut it. Cold, but true.
6Vote for the Biden administration
Tout not only what this administration has done for American lives, but what will be lost if Trump and Project 2025 are in power.
Our country and our lives are at stake. Print and distribute Project 25 plans door to door.
7And so it begins. Exactly what MAGA and Putin are hoping for; a split Democratic Party.
8Facing what I believe to be “facts” (I could be wrong of course) leads me to speculate a bit about the debate and recent events.
Fact#1 – Nobody that had thought about the reasons to vote for Biden before the debate is going to jump ship and vote for Trump’
Fact #2 – Nobody on the Trump train will vote for anyone but Trump regardless of who the Democrats nominate.
Fact #3 – Trump generally dominates news cycles, which continually gets his name in front of people that have no care or understanding of who they should vote for. The old adage “even bad publicity is good” has worked overtime for Trump.
Fact #4 – As a result of the debate Biden now dominates the news cycles and his name is constantly being put in front of people that have no care or understanding of who they should vote for.
Speculation: Could Biden’s performance have been a planned episode aimed at getting Trump’s name off the front pages and getting Biden’s name out there in place of Trump, with the idea that voters that don’t really think about it will begin, for the first time, to realize there is a well-known candidate named Joe Biden? If this is the plan, and if it works, somebody on Biden’s team deserves the Nobel peace prize for saving the USA from the dangers of a Trump presidency and MAGA agenda.
9Malarkey@7 – IMO there is actually a possibility that Putin (+ TFG) are hoping for the exact opposite: Democrats acting like lemmings. (After living under Soviet occupation for close to 30 years, I know a thing or two about how Russians think.)
10But I’ve been wrong before.
Yup, divide and conquer. The repugnanticans may also be divided but I’m afraid we’re more divided and now eating each other every hour.
11Waiting to see how Joe’s press conference goes where he’ll be the target in a room full of circling publicity seeking vultures out to eat his hide.
Sorry to be so pessimistic but reality is setting in.
@FrauFree #8
I defer to your wisdom in matters pertaining to Soviet occupation. By your tag, I’m guessing East Germany? Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch. Your command of English is far better than my command of German!
If a divided Democratic Party is exactly what Putin and MAGA *don’t* want, then that’s what my friends and I would call a double-reverse psych-out. That’s some complicated 3-D chess, there!
12You seem to have skipped right over all the legal issues. A candidate has to qualify in all 50 states and it’s too late to start over for someone one new. Then there is the money thing, even if Kamala Harris stepped in it is not clear she could access the campaign money chest and no new candidate could legally access that money. If Kamala Harris tried to use the Biden Harris money, you know damn well the republicans would take it to straight to the courts leaving us in a worse quagmire for the rest of the campaign.
The part you and people like you are missing is that politics is a team sport and we have a great team. It’s too late to change the line up. Vote for the team.
Get on board so we can move on to kicking The Donald’s ass.
13FrauFee- When I’m trying to go to sleep at night and the political bullshit keeps me awake (which is more and more often), I finally start saying silently to myself over and over- “ich habe keine gedanken”. After a while I fall asleep. Try it.
14Malarkey@10,
Ich auch spreche ein bisschen Deutsch :), but my first language is Estonian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_language
Moved to the U.S. when I was 50, after marrying a wonderful American man.
I agree that a complicated 3-D chess would be surprising from TFG. But definitely not from Putin, him being former top KGB guy.
15Too much ptsd from 2016 to share what I really think about this post. Maybe I’m just too.damn.emotional.
16Steve@14,
17I have no trouble falling asleep, no matter what BS is flying around, but I find your technique quite cool! 🙂
p.s. In those very rare cases, when the BS gets overwhelming, I’ve been using Scarlett O’Hara’s “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
What Caren said. It’s too late. If we had wanted a different candidate, we should have decided that at least a year ago. If we switch horses now, we’re going to lose. More than half the Democrats will be angry that we did, and the others will be angry that we didn’t. That’s no way to win an election.
We all need to get behind the candidate we have–who has done, in case anybody forgot, a spectacular job as president–and tout his accomplishments, loud and long. Yes, Biden is old, but so is Trump. At least Biden is sane. If Biden should need help, he has gathered a fine group of advisors around himself, to whom he listens. He won’t lack for assistance. If worse comes to worst, Kamala Harris is quite capable of taking over.
Still, Biden’s speech impediment IS NOT a symptom of cognitive decline. Neither is his age. Concentrate on Trump, for the love of democracy, and keep him–a man vastly less fit for office than Biden–out of the White House!
18Go back and watch Lawrence O’Donnell’s opening right after the debate. He proves, in the most practical campaign terms, why ditching Biden guarantees defeat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgjyHwQOUoo
19Pardon for being TOTALLY off topic, but to Malarkey@10:
20Estonian one of the hardest (and the most difficult Latin alphabet based) languages to learn for a native English speaker. Estonian language is spoken natively by about 1.1 million people.
https://estonianworld.com/culture/estonian-one-of-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-for-a-native-english-speaker/
In all fairness I wasn’t saying this exactly. My point was slightly different. In essence we have to make sure we don’t end up doing what people that will never support us want us to do. I want to win in November. I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee whoever it is.
Did we know Trump was going to lie? Of course we did. That’s all he does. I prepare for the opposite of reality and go from there.
21I do not consider myself a professional, even not semi-professional, or even quadro-professional, when it comes to political analysis. But I found O’Donnell’s opening misleading and disturbing on more than one level.
First, his “so many people (undecided voters) did not see the debate”. Well, those people likely got their fair share of aftermath (to base their opinion on) from media/social media. Which is as bad, if not even worse than watching the debate itself.
Second (and I know that I’m way too emotional here, politics is a jungle after all, kill or get killed, no room for ethics), he basically says “what you didn’t see doesn’t exist”. So it’s perfectly fine to have a presidential candidate with serious mental and physical decline, as long as it’s not shown in public? As long as it’s been kept secret from voters? In essence, he’s saying “you can’t vote for one liar, but you have to vote for another”.
22What’s your plan if Biden does withdraw, and the Republicans succeed in convincing the courts not to allow a replacement on the ballots?
23RepubAnon @ 23
These are not serious people. Serious people would be saying nothing about the debate but that trump displayed serious mental failures.
24How about this? Biden resigns now, Kamala becomes the president. She’s the incumbent going into the election. She will mop the floor with the rump.
This seems like the best bet to me. But what do I know?
25@FrauFree #20
Also TOTALLY off topic!
In the early 1990’s, I went to Scandinavia with friends. We met a coworker of one in Helsinki whose wife was from Estonia. Talk about the most difficult languages in the world! 😉
Glad to get to know you better!
26Virginia @25
Even if Biden handed the baton to Kamala right now it is unclear that she would be on the ballot in all 50 state and if she would have access to all the money Biden/Harris campaign have raised. Basically we would spend the next 4 months in court because you know the republicans would sue us everywhere for everything.
We have a team, Biden/Harris, vote for our team.
27If you feel that way, so be it. Just don’t stop working to elect Democrats,
28I agree strongly with El Jefe, except that I don’t think we have pre-convention time for the Carville plan. Plus, I’m guessing it would be a repeat of LBJ plain withdrawing, leaving things up to disagreeing Democrats, with the primary season and Chicago convention then a divisive mess, and Nixon resulting. Please, no repeat of that, especially when it’s Trump, not Nixon. So, right now, Biden owns the delegates he’s won, he’s commander-in-chief, and he’s the Democrat in the most important U.S. office. I thereby go with Admiral Chester Nimitz who said, “When you’re in command, command.” So I favor Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, James Clyburn, Bennie Thompson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Joaquin Castro getting together in a proverbial “smoke-filled room” albeit uncontaminated by cigars or cigarettes. They would assist Biden in what was known, in the PRI party in Mexico which won presidential elections for 70 consecutive years, as El Dedazo (“the tap of the finger”). Helping him, on just a one-time basis not to be repeated in the future, with both presidential and vice presidential nomination brainstorming, their strategy discussion being strictly according to the theme, “It’s the Electoral College, stupid.” Biden ends up scribbling pieces of paper to put in two envelopes, one for prez and one for veep, which are hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar. Everybody in the meeting is mum about the outcome, not even Michelle to Barack nor Bill to Hillary, and certainly no leaks. If the presidential nominee pick is not Kamala Harris, then she has to be all in, ultimately 100% publicly supportive of and enthusiastic about who is. James Clyburn and Bennie Thompson have to be likewise. All this creates heightened public curiosity as to what will happen at the convention. The pundits can make their best guesses. The Democrats dominate the news cycles. Whereupon, ultimately at the convention, Biden explains, and releases his delegates while strongly imploring that that they go with who he is recommending. The delegates still will decide, a few days later, democratically and Democratically, but…they’re implored. In the meantime, Biden, having explained to the delegates, hands over the two envelopes to Harris. He dons his aviator glasses he’s kept in his pocket, and departs the stage, having saved face, having shown grace, and having done his best at attempting command. Whereupon Harris as emcee introduces and brings in, for Oscar-like envelope openings, the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, and the current U.S. ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. This should get good TV ratings. Legions of Americans in the ensuing months don’t want Trump, and it’s been obvious they want somebody new besides Trump or Biden. So let Biden let them have that, if the delegates agree to let him. He’s done his best over his term as president to improve the economy and to engineer a 21st century revival of the New Deal, somewhat like La La Land and the Hollywood musical. Another president can carry that on, but Biden for a while is still here with us, such that he gets to see both the 2021-2025 mountaintop of his presidency, and some of the 2025+ promised land of his successor.
This can be FUN, not somber. The example is the Chilean plebiscite of 1988. The opponents of Pinochet got rid of him by making their side of the plebiscite fun, exciting, the in thing. It’s can be a vintage Biden aviator glasses solution.
29After Joe introduced President Zelensky as President Putin at the NATO conference today (he realized it and came back to the podium to correct himself), I couldn’t bare to watch the press conference. I know he’s under immense pressure.
30Unfortunately, he also called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
31Two brain farts this evening. Can’t sugar coat that. I hope he made it through the press conference without more.
32I just watched the almost hour long news conference with Joe.
33I am AMAZED how well he did. One quick recovery for a mis named vice president. BUT he told not a single LIE. Has Rump ever said a complete sentence without lying?
Chinton@27 – Wrong. Nominees for the presidency are put on the state ballots by the parties after the convention, not by the candidates. You’re confusing primary rules with general election rules. Technically the parties can nominate anyone they want as president according to the rules established by those parties. After the conventions, the PARTIES put the candidates on the ballots. You’re repeating Republican propaganda about blocking new candidates.
34Glad he held his own after his vice president gaffe. Let’s see what the press communicates in their oh so non partisan way.
35Jefe, in response to 24 @ Pollyanna , without going back and watching I’m fairly certain that’s right.
But I guaranfuckingty that in none of those debates the Gish Gallop was allowed.
Everything we’re talking about is based on Joe’s debate performance.
36GOOGLE THE GISH GALLOP.
Nobody who’s ACTUALLY trying to debate based on truth and facts can counter it if following rules the galloper shits on.
And that’s the basis for a lotta shit.
And I shouldn’t have to point out that the rules of the debate that everybody agreed to guaranteed fucking trump would do it.
37But just like always who could’ve predicted how far his lies would go.
After birth abortion?
WTF
These comments just illustrate what a mess this is. I watched a bit of the press conference, and Joe did well with policy talk, and that is so illustrative of how the two candidates compare. The convicted felon running against Joe couldn’t run a bagel shop without all his Heritage/Fox/high and lower courts/congressional moron buddies. The Orange Maroon is a mean, vindictive, lying conman who is also a sexual predator and lazy bum, an uneducated, moneygrubbing, cheating golfer, a guy with not a sensitive, interested, energetic, courteous, gracious, empathetic bone in his flabby smelly body. I would vote for a rotten tomato before ever looking at that stinkpot as a future or past president. Ugh. What a godawful mess.
38Sooooooooooooo many DINOs taking Trumps side – getting a commission .
39PP@36 & 37 – I’m not focused on the debate. I’m focused on one thing – can Biden beat TFG in this race? The numbers say no. Is TFG a shitbag? Is he a lying gasbag? Of course he is, but that’s not the actual problem. The actual problem is that Biden 2024 is not Biden 2020 or before. I’ve watched him disassemble several opponents with his quick wit and fast tongue. Those skills are now much diminished. Is it fair? Hell, now it’s not fair, but it’s life. We need someone who can punch TFG in the nose over and over, AND win low information voters.
40IF, and that is stil to me a huge IF, Biden withdraws I am hoping that the party can come up with someone who had a really good record in the military after college and then transitted to a good experience in public service. It would be amazing if this individual would “debate” tRump with: “Just exactly why did you hate the uniform I wore for (X) years? Was it something that happened when you were in military school? Just exactly why do you disrespect the uniform worn by so many?” Then stand back while tRump tries to deal with this and his head explodes.
As for slips of the tongue, I have known much, much younger people over the years who have done the same and the universe did not derail.
41What Chinton sais.
42Jim@39 – I’m not taking Trump’s side. Like El Jefe said: OF COURSE Trump is a lying gasbag, we all knew it a long time ago already. Going over it again and again and AGAIN is simply not constructive. It’s just resultless venting. The thing we need to focus on, is WHO is the best man or woman to beat him.
That’s a sad fact that there are cracks in Joe’s surface. He is not the kind of candidate he was in 2020. Also, it’s inevitable that those cracks are getting deeper and wider as the day goes on. Sure, you and me and the whole Salon will go and vote for even VERY cracked Joe. But what about independents and undeciders?
Reminds me of my Soviet past, when we can’t even have a DISCUSSION (about is the particular candidate the best choice to meet our goal in present political climate) without being labelled DINOs.
43p.s. About Joe’s gaffes (“President Putin” instead of Zelenskyy, “Vice President Trump”, etc). We here in the Salon can tell to ourselves that it’s the substance of the message, what matters, not the presentation. But it DOES matter, when it comes to aforementioned independent and not-decided voters. Also, it matters a lot on the world arena. I bet Putin was in seventh heaven yesterday, and I don’t even want to know what Zelenskyy was thinking.
44You don’t elect the president; you elect the team. The appointees are the ones who carry out the administration’s intent, and Biden’s team is doing that now and would do it in the future. The Dems are simply weakening themselves with this sideshow. If Biden were as handicapped as astronomer and Nobel Prize winner Stephen Hawkings, he could still count on his people to do what he wanted.
Both W and Trump, although nice guys you’d want to have a beer with, were terrible because they had people they picked just for that reason.
Edith Galt ran the country after her husband Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke and the VP refused to step in. If FDR were running now, he’d be getting the same heat Biden is. It’s all optics, and we’re ignoring the greater of two evils.
45ElJefe@34
If parties could put anyone on the ballot then how could Ohio ever hope to keep Biden off the ballot?
Interesting you didn’t comment on the Biden/Harris campaign funds. Maybe Harris could legally use them, but we don’t know for sure and you know republicans would sue leaving us in court and not campaigning for the next 4 months.
It’s too late to change and we have a fabulous team.
46You are wrong.
In lots of ways. Sure, you make a plausible case but the big flaw is simply that there is nobody better. You postulate some magical Democrat that will magically show up, raise their tail and sunshine will burst forth. For your plan to work you need a unicorn. We is straight up and flat out of unicorn.
Name someone with the juice to make up for their lack of name recognition, the benefits of incumbency, and Biden’s record of accomplishment. None of the top dozen alternatives have what you need. Most fail to come up to Biden’s level.
You are also looking for a long-term solution to a very temporary problem. Biden;s problem isn’t age. It was dextromethorphan (DM). Older folks zone out and mumble, younger folks space out. They call it robo-tripping. Somebody dosed him with NyQuil. It does suppress a cough and promote sleep. Both good. But it can also reduce brain activity to little more than a dial-tone. Knowing the effects of DM I’m fairly impressed he did a well as he did. DM is also fairly short acting and it was clearly wearing off near the end.
It’s: Biden or bust. This is not the time to go wobbly.
47Chinton @ 46 – Thanks for continuing to repeat Republican talking points. Republican blathering about keeping a replacement off the ballot if Biden drops out is bullshit, plain and simple. Biden is not the nomineee until after the convention, even then there are mechanisms for replacing a candidate. Biden is not even on the ballot yet, so there is nothing to replace. The same is true of TFG. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/no-state-laws-haven-t-locked-biden-onto-the-ballot/ar-BB1pNJdl
48