Presidential Debate Thread

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

You say that like you think the delegates are going to cook up a rock-star candidate, theyā€™re not. 90ā€™s era Bill Clinton is not walking through that door, you can go with the VP or you can explain to the voters why Buttigieg is being flown in out of nowhere.

2 Likes

My father is 89 and super super sharp - in structured, routine, familiar circumstances. Get up in the morning, have breakfast with him and talk about news or whatever, heā€™s no less cogent than anybody here. Then take him out to a food hall for lunch and you better stick with him because heā€™ll get discombobulated pretty easily.

So to me, Biden being great at a speech/event and then terrible when required to improvise makes all the sense in the world. It also gives an excuse for his handlers - theyā€™re used to seeing routine Biden, theyā€™re the ones managing the routine - and heā€™s usually on point.

2 Likes

https://x.com/semaforben/status/1808367956776067375?t=NiRvJxTFF-7HDuUIVmueog&s=19

This explanation is just not that complicated. ā€œBiden stepped down because heā€™s too old, and no one thought Harris was the best nominee.ā€

5 Likes

I donā€™t remember being asked whether I wanted another term of Joe Biden, who would be 86 by the time he finished that term. We need to get what we should have gotten in the first place, even if its way late, and abbreviated. Biden really should have known that being a one term guy should have been the plan from day one. That way Dems could have had a primary race without making it seem like everyone was ganging up on the current President. Such a mess.

2 Likes

They why the heck did Biden pick her for the backup spot?

If the backroom delegates are going to cook up a dramatically better candidate than Harris, fine LET THEM COOK, but I just donā€™t see a 21st-centruty Abe Lincoln showing up.

1 Like

From the Internet: ā€œWe could have had Bernie. Instead, we got Weekend at Bernieā€™s.ā€

15 Likes

Who the fuck is running their socials???

Like. Sign the bill. Donā€™t post about it.

1 Like

I donā€™t really think this is that mysterious, Presidential noms have been choosing VPs for reasons other than ā€œwould be the best President as a replacementā€ forever. VPs are always framed as being some kind of complementary name to appease some complementary voter base for the Presidential nominee. Even in the real world, itā€™s super common for CEOs to pick a Chief of Staff or COO or CFO specifically for their ability to be great Number 2s, not because they are the best person to step in for the CEO.

Hereā€™s an article from Vox in the 2016 cycle that goes into this in more detail.

2 Likes

She was chosen as VP largely because she is a black woman and it may be true that most swing voters wonā€™t vote for her as President largely because she is a black woman. Ah well, nevertheless.

2 Likes

We should at least be open to the notion that Biden picked Harris specifically because she did so disastrously in the primaries. He is one guy who could have seen this coming in advance

2 Likes

yes. it can all go to the DNC and they can basically spend it on anything.

2 Likes

Thenā€¦ explain it? Voters donā€™t care about this stuff at all imo. We literally elected a deranged game show host with no relevant experience as president. Like at worst a low info voter is gonna raise their eyebrow for one second and then move onto learning about the actual candidate. I highly doubt people who like the new candidate will be so confused by the process that they stay home or vote Trump. People donā€™t care about process.

That all said, I absolutely agree that DNC delegates will use your line of thinking as an excuse to not act boldly and pick a better candidate. Democrats are masters at self imposing limitations that donā€™t actually exist.

1 Like

nobody picks a VP primarily to set that person up for the next campaign, they do it to shore up their current campaign.

1 Like

4 Likes

I think Biden is now DOA. The question of him being senile for so many days means even people who know nothing and didnā€™t watch the debate will assume the answer must be somewhere in the middle, which means Bidenā€™s decline is partially true for them. I donā€™t see how he can win if the public perception is that heā€™s only partially competent.

4 Likes

https://x.com/nytimes/status/1808515725998317925

2 Likes

Denied.

1 Like

Fwiw the WH denied this and said the nyt article is full of lies. Not that this changes anything.