President Joe Biden is harming his legacy by his stubborn refusal to accept that it is time to retire, and digging in to ignore entreaties that it is time for a new generation to lead the Democratic Party.
Biden comes across as delusional, in the face of public opinion polls that show him trailing badly behind Donald Trump, and behind Democratic state races of incumbent US Senators.
His comment that if Trump won, he would still feel he had given it his best effort, indicates he does not understand the great harm he will have brought about, and the fact that his legacy will be destroyed by Donald Trump by plan and revenge!
Biden’s ranking in history will decline as a result, and his image will have been permanently damaged by what would be seen as his selfishness and self centeredness, and refusal to see reality.
And his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, would have her reputation and legacy also permanently harmed by her refusal to recognize that her husband needs to have private time, away from the burdens of the Presidency, and ability to write his memoirs and plan his Presidential Library while he is alive and functioning.
Most new polling coming out shows Biden slipping against Trump. With all the talk about Harris, she is rising in match-ups against Trump.
Several more House Democrats say Biden should step aside.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/07/politics/house-democrats-biden-out/index.html
In French elections, leftists beat the far-right.
For his events, President Biden’s staffers prepare a short document with large print and photos that include his precise path to a podium, according to an event template the White House sends to staffers.
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/07/biden-staff-events-prepare
Mark Warner’s meeting with Senate Democrats on Monday has been scrapped.
Congressional Black Caucus members reject calls for Biden to step aside.
I’ve noticed that with some black commentators on the news as well. They’re rather angered by all of this talk about ditching Biden.
After much consideration on the matter, I am siding with Southern Liberal. The people making arguments against replacing Biden have very compelling points.
Biden has a NATO press conference coming up Thursday. It’s another chance to see how he performs.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia, but isn’t facing the same media scrutiny as Biden. That’s one of the things that makes me upset about what’s going on.
Agreed. Biden may appear frail but he’s rational. Trump is unhinged and is becoming even more so. Trump is a threat to America if he’s reelected. The media should be reporting on that.
You are right to be upset that the news is dominated by Biden’s debate troubles and not on the danger of Trump. But, sadly, Biden’s withdrawal from the race may be the only way to move the focus back to where it belongs.
I’m in agreement about the media as well. It’s been 1 1/2 weeks since the disastrous Trump vs. Biden, and the media’s still focused obsessively on President Biden’s shaky performance, but NOT on the fact that Trump lied constantly and expressed extreme, bizarre views on pretty much every issue. That should tell you everything you need to know about the media – not that they’re covering the Biden angle of this, since that’s MOST DEFINITELY a significant news story, but that they aren’t even making a pretense of being balanced, let alone fair. Instead, it’s a feeding frenzy against Biden, with barely a mention of Trump’s dangerous Project 2025 and the possibility that our very democracy could come to an end in a few months.
Now, having said all that, there ARE serious questions about how best to defeat Trump: a) stick with Biden and do everything we can to make sure he wins, including emphasizing the dangers of Trump PLUS the tremendous accomplishments of the Biden administration, and taking the emphasis OFF of Biden’s weaknesses, intra-Democratic divisions, etc.; b) urging Biden to drop out of the race, in favor of VP Kamala Harris, and taking our chances with a new ticket for the fall; c) other options?
Unlike the fall-in-line, top-down, authoritarian Republican Party, of course, Democrats are a messy “big tent” with lots of different ideas and no real way to “herd” the various “cats” in that “big tent.” Which can be a good thing AND a bad thing, simultaneously. So what we’re seeing now is a messy situation, in which numerous Democratic elected officials, donors, etc. are being quoted – often anonymously, sometimes on the record – as having doubts about Biden’s abilities to win the election.
This morning, there is news that Biden sent a letter to Democrats on Capitol Hill. He also called in to Morning Joe to have an interview, arguing that he’s beaten Trump before and will do so again, making the case that “it’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party,” etc. Personally, I don’t find constant repetition of the mantra that he has beaten Trump previously, has a list of major accomplishments in his administration, and simply had a “bad night” in the debate, to address the main cause of concern among many Democrats (myself included), which is maximizing our chances of beating (preferably CRUSHING) Trump in November. At this point, really, that’s the entire “ballgame” – because if Trump wins, it’s “game over” for our democracy, the American experiment, etc.
News is that Kari Lake and pro-Trump groups launch ads seizing on Biden’s debate performance. I had a feeling those creeps would start doing that.
Parkinson’s specialist met with Biden’s physician at the White House earlier this year, records show.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/08/politics/parkinsons-specialist-white-house/index.html
Democratic convention delegates say they’re loyal to Biden and balk at other options.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/08/politics/dnc-delegates-biden-loyalty/index.html
I’ve changed my mind as well. I don’t agree with the replacing Biden.
Every time Trump so much as farts, his entire party lines up behind him 100%. Dems, by contrast, are like wolves going after our presidents the moment their poll numbers go down or they stumble.
Get a backbone, people. Joe has a hell of a lot to run on and if, God forbid, anything happened to him during a second term, he has a highly experienced VP ready to take over. Stay the course and quit wetting your damn beds.
At least Biden’s White House is willing to share medical information. Trump’s White House never did so.
Democrats aren’t in as much disarray as the media would like you to believe.
https://www.alternet.org/commentary/biden-democrat-divisions/
Members of the progressive “Squad,” who have at times shunned Biden for his support of Israel, expressed their support on Monday for Biden continuing as the nominee.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is standing by Biden.
During a campaign event on Sunday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Biden said, “Dark Brandon is coming back.”
The “Brandon” name, which was originally used by Trump’s supporters to insult the president, was coopted by Biden’s fans to represent his feistier side.
The Hill has more on Biden’s joke here: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4758816-biden-dark-brandon-coming-back-campaign-pennsylvania/
This nails it! The Morning Joe interview got Biden back on track!
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/biden-democrats-beat-trump-rcna160727
CNN’s lunchtime panel says that probably the ones supporting Biden are probably not in swing states or swing districts.
We’re seeing a repeat of the way our national news media helped Trump into the White House in 2016.
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/yellow-journalism-exposed-the-unfair-targeting-of-biden-s-flaws-vs-trump-s-crimes/
Pollsters largely said that LePen was going to win in France and she just got blown out. Polls don’t vote.
Dan Rather’s slam against the media has made me change my mind as well.
https://www.rawstory.com/joe-biden-gaffes/
This opinion piece makes a good point: https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/amid-allegations-of-bidens-decline-no-one-can-point-to-one-mistake/
Both camps have credible arguments, making it hard for me to decide.
Keeping Biden – top 10 reasons:
1. If you want to defeat Trump, it makes sense to nominate someone with experience defeating Trump.
2. Biden has an impressive record of success that warrants a second term.
3. Biden’s ideas, goals and priorities enjoy broad public support, which seems like a relevant detail in a national campaign.
4. Post-debate polling has been discouraging, but his support hasn’t completely collapsed, and his current deficit is hardly overwhelming.
5. Biden easily won nearly all of his party’s presidential primaries and caucuses, and it would be undemocratic (and arguably un-Democratic) to discard those results.
6. There are legal and procedural measures in place that make it extremely difficult to replace Biden on the ticket.
7. Removing an incumbent president, four months before Election Day, would signal to the public that Democrats are in a state of chaos and disarray.
8. The intra-party fight over replacing Biden would be divisive and tumultuous at a time when Democrats want and need to be focusing their political fire at the GOP ticket.
9. Plenty of experienced observers and political professionals are convinced that voters simply won’t re-elect Biden given the circumstances, but their assessments have been wrong before — remember when the “Access Hollywood” tape was supposed to doom Trump’s candidacy? — and the whole idea of political “deal-breakers” is probably overdue for a reassessment.
10. It’s simply too late in the process for a new candidate to vet and choose a new running mate, while launching a national organization.
Switching to someone else – top 10 reasons:
1. The incumbent president was struggling in the 2024 race before his debate failure, and now things are worse. What’s more, Biden is the first Democratic candidate in the 21st century to be trailing at this stage in the race.
2. Public opinion research has been consistent for quite a while: Most voters believe Biden, who’ll turn 82 in the fall, is too old. In fact, a New York Times/Siena poll conducted after the debate found that 74% of the country sees the Democrat as “too old to be an effective president.” In campaigns, some problems are relatively easy to fix. The fact that Biden, if re-elected, would turn 86 in his second term isn’t easily cast aside, and denying the problem won’t make it go away.
3. Polling averages suggest Biden’s approval rating is down to nearly 37%. When was the last time an incumbent president won a second term with an approval rating this low at this stage in the process? Never. Since the dawn of modern American polling, it’s simply never happened.
4. Neither Biden nor his team have articulated a compelling strategy to help turn things around.
5. Biden excelled four years ago, not by barnstorming the country, unveiling an exciting new agenda, and being an inspirational voice, but by leveraging his relationships and years of experience. In 2024, however, with Trump’s lead growing, Biden’s skills are incompatible with what his party needs to prevail.
6. Republicans desperately want Biden to remain atop his party’s ticket, and given the stakes, it’s folly for Democrats to give the GOP what it wants.
7. The Democratic plan for 2024 was to turn the race into a referendum on Trump. As Biden struggles, it’s quickly become a choice between two unpopular candidates. Similarly, the more the president’s age becomes the centerpiece of the cycle, the less oxygen there is for everything else, including Trump’s and his party’s many vulnerabilities.
8. A Biden defeat wouldn’t just cost Democrats the White House: The party’s latest polls suggest the president’s difficulties are on track to create a drag on the party’s down-ballot candidates, making it nearly impossible for Democrats to take control of Congress.
9. The Democrats’ problem appears to be largely Biden-specific: In key states, the president is running behind his own party’s other statewide candidates. It suggests Democrats could still excel in this cycle with a new candidate that voters might get excited about.
10. There’s reason to believe things will get worse: Biden’s campaign has already invested millions of dollars in battleground state ads, in the hopes of moving the needle. It hasn’t worked. (Another part of the strategy was the early debate, and that didn’t work, either.) Trump, meanwhile, has narrowed the financial playing field, and will soon start competing in states where Biden has had the airwaves largely to himself.
I think everyone needs to take a step back, breathe, and think about the reality we’re in.
We’re all on the same side here. We all have the same goal. Yes, we may have different ideas for how to get there, but we all want the same thing.
Trumpism has to be defeated; Project 2025 can’t be allowed anywhere near the corridors of power.
We have to stop fighting amongst ourselves and keep our eyes on the prize.
If Biden stays in the race — as it appears he will — he can, and will beat Donald Trump again with our help.
If Biden decides to leave the race, Kamala Harris can, and will beat Donald Trump with our help.
The situation is politically complicated, but it’s also fundamentally very easy. Our job doesn’t change. Our goals don’t change.
We’re going to follow the UK. We’re going to follow France.
We’re going to defeat authoritarianism.
Actually, Democrats are divided into three camps:
1. Biden-Ride-or-Die
2. Pass-the-Torch-to-Kamala
3. Mini-Primary-Madness
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/07/09/how-kamala-can-win-without-mini-primary-madness/
I’m in the Pass-The-Torch camp.
Re: The reports in the media about the Parkinson’s doctor
There is no evidence that Biden has Parkinson’s..
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/9/2252720/-Shameless-media-insinuates-Biden-has-Parkinson-s?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web
House Democrats had a meeting today to discuss the feelings of the caucus to move forward. Based on sources on the call today, an overwhelming majority of House Democrats are backing Biden to head the ticket. Even some of the vocal critics have changed their tone.
Lawrence O’Donnell, Joy Reid, and some others on MSNBC are calling out the press for their ridiculous behavior.
It’s funny how all of a sudden the mainstream media can’t find enough reasons to praise Biden, even as they try to shove him off the stage. Maybe Biden’s polling numbers would be stronger if they had started giving him the credit he deserves months ago.
President Biden has delivered a passionate defense of the NATO alliance today and presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Secretary General of the Alliance. Watch at this link at the 45 minute time stamp:
And THAT folks, is a great POTUS and a great man! “He’s too old and feeble”, my a–
Still a bit anxious, but a little more reassured than before.
Top stories by a lot of the news media this morning was yet again about fears of Biden failing. NOTHING on Trump’s insane rally last night.
Some more info regarding polling.
Biden does best against Trump but all of the replacement candidates lose as well.
https://digbysblog.net/2024/07/09/polls-polls-polls-3/
Glad you brought over a link to Digby’s blog. It’s a place of reassurance.
Daily Kos is also another place of reassurance at the moment.
After going back and forth with various views, I’ve made up my mind. I want Biden replaced with Harris.
I want Harris to replace Biden as well.
Biden has a press conference coming up tomorrow and an NBC interview with Lester Holt scheduled for next week. I’ll probably let that be a third try or he’s out decision.
Symone D. Sanders-Townsend, one of the co-hosts of The Weekend, on MSNBC says that Black voters are backing Biden, but much of the outrage over Harris potentially topping the ballot is misguided — at best.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/black-women-voters-harris-biden-rcna161178
A study by Northeastern University found that there was: ‘No change’: Biden debate performance has had ‘almost no impact’ on 2024 race.
https://www.alternet.org/biden-debate-performance-change/
Media Matters has repeatedly found that national news media harp on Biden’s age or mental acuity while largely failing to highlight former President Donald Trump’s – despite his similar age, frequent gaffes, and incoherent ramblings.
https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/top-newspapers-fixate-bidens-age
A new polls has come out. Most Democrats want Biden to drop out, but overall race is static, poll finds.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/11/poll-biden-drop-out-election/
Nancy Pelosi is hinting at something big coming, possibly next week.
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/pelosi-biden-2024/
At a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, last Friday, President Biden said, “Some folks … are trying to push me out of the race.”
To whom was Biden referring?
In the Morning Joe interview, Biden confirmed that it is the big-ticket donors who have been pushing him to withdraw. If they decide to stop funding the Biden campaign, Biden has no chance of winning.
https://www.alternet.org/push-biden-out-reich/
Reports are that they’ve started holding back their funding.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/politics/chicago-donors-fundraiser-convention/index.html
That definitely doesn’t sound good to me. Maybe he should drop out then. Make the announcement next week, after the NATO summit is over.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday “it wouldn’t hurt” for President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test, a move that could quell mounting concerns over his mental fitness following a poor debate performance in June.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/politics/gretchen-whitmer-biden-cognitive-test-cnntv/index.html
Carl Bernstein reveals reporting on Chuck Schumer wanting a frank discussion with Biden.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/politics/video/carl-bernstein-chuck-schumer-biden-ac360-digvid
He is losing a particularly influential corner of support: Hollywood.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/media/biden-hollywood-support-withdraw/index.html
Biden’s campaign is conducting a survey to see how voters might respond to Harris as the party’s presidential nominee, according to The New York Times.
Biden is slated to become the nominee through a virtual roll call of party delegates Aug. 5, two weeks before Democrats gather for their convention in Chicago on Aug. 19. If he quits before August 5, legal experts say replacing him on the ballot would be relatively straightforward. The process would become significantly more complex and legally murky, however, were he to drop out once he has been officially nominated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/10/democrats-replace-biden-ballot-deadlines/
All of our local news channels are showing it except for one owned by Sinclair.
He did ok at the press conference, but he’s not taking the bad polling seriously, still stubbornly determined to stay in the race.
News is that Obama and Pelosi have been meeting about possibly urging Biden to drop out.
I wouldn’t be so quick to push him out. A new NPR/PBS poll has Biden beating Trump.
Seconded. In my opinion, Biden delivered a strong, insightful performance at the press conference yesterday. He gave detailed answers to questions on various topics ranging from taxes and tariffs to inflation, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations, the Russia-Ukraine war and even Indo-Pacific trade policy. Any doubts I had that Biden can still do the job of president have been quashed by this press conference.
Wanting Biden to step out is no longer about concern over his health, it’s now anti-Democratic.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/11/2253427/-Wanting-Biden-to-step-out-is-no-longer-about-concern-over-his-health-it-s-now-anti-Democratic
Oh no!! Don’t look now but 538.com has Biden with a better than 50% chance of winning.
Biden wins 51 times out of 100
in our simulations of the 2024 presidential election.
Trump wins 48 times out of 100.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/?cid=rrpromo
My biggest problem with most of the people wanting to force Joe out seem to want a mini-primary. To me, that would be the dumbest thing in the history of politics.
The most loyal Dems are black women. We’d be giving them the finger and they’d probably stay home in droves and never trust the Party again.
Would they tell a white guy who was VP, “You haven’t earned it so we’re going to open it up to everyone”? I doubt it.
Not only that, only Kamala can get Joe’s money…..plus, the GQP would sue in many states over ballot access and only Kamala would probably have the best chance of winning those cases.
Their “plan” is just stupid.
Re: The NPR/PBS poll
I’m happy about this poll, too…and, if the polls continue churning out numbers like these, I’m going to calm down and cross my fingers that Biden has turned things around and we’re moving ahead. But first, we need to make sure this isn’t an outlier.
The one who should drop out is RFK, Jr., as well as Trump.
The poll numbers are amazing to me because I have never seen a politician more universally hammered by the press for weeks on end then President Biden has been. And its been more than just a feeding frenzy. The MSM is so determined to push Biden out they resort to false reporting and narratives more akin to the right wing false propaganda noise machine.
And I am seeing more evidence of that right now. I have been watching multiple channels this morning and they are covering all the polls that show Trump leading Biden but of course not a word about the NPR poll.
This is sickening.
In a sane country, Trump meeting with Hungarian Dictator Viktor Orban yesterday at Mar-a-Lago would be the end of Trump’s campaign.
Biden’s correct to be skeptical of the polling. Cross tabs are showing weird stuff that doesn’t make sense like Trump only being ahead in single digits among white people while garnering huge numbers among African Americans. We’re not getting a real look at the state of the race from public polling.
https://digbysblog.net/2024/07/12/polls-polls-polls-4/
These polls not a victory make. There are other polls that show Biden trailing Trump, esp. in swing states. But what this tells us is that the electorate is not as clueless and fickle as we think and other things besides age and the debate debacle matter. It also suggests that we have work to do; if we stay on message with Biden’s record, his policies in the past and the future, if we focus on character and if we shine the light every day on Project 2025 and the heinous policies of the Republican party, we can increase these margins — not just for Biden but for Congressional and State races too.
Let’s stay strong and united. Let’s GOTV.
And if Biden and his team decide to find a replacement, let’s accept it with grace and not let our confidence, energy or commitment levels diminish.
Saw this on CNN last night:
Michigan voters react to President Biden’s press conference: He’s a strong guy. I think what came across is who he is. Joe Biden is very caring, knowledgeable, and experienced. He’s not just in it for himself. I think he did an excellent job.
https://x.com/BidenHQ/status/1811576085722681442
Biden spoke to a VERY enthusiastic crowd in Detroit, MI for about half and hour until about 8:00 PM EDT.
The President was by turns defiant, confident, and occasionally injected some humor in his remarks, as he recapped highlights of his record — jobs created, lower inflation, lower prescription drug costs, forgiving student loan debt, the best economy in the world — “the world’s strongest,” among others.
He repeated that he’s staying in the race, and that no one — “Not the press, the pundits, or the donors” — are pushing him out: “I work for *you*!”
He repeatedly stressed the importance of union jobs, and reminded everyone there of how he’s the first (only!) president to walk a picket line. The President also told the crowd that, if he’s re-elected, he will be sure that the wealthy and large corporations “pay their fair share,” noting that it’s not the wealthy who make the country great, but rather the working and middle classes that do.
Biden went on the attack against Trump, bringing focus to some of the more alarming aspects of Project 2025: Internment/detention camps for immigrants (side note: astute observers of history know that these kind of things rarely stop there); the end of not only abortion, but birth control and IVF; the end of any progress on addressing the climate emergency; the end of our experiment as a democratic republic, among other catastrophes.
He also called the Orange Dictator a “loser,” and reminded everyone of Trump’s six bankruptcies; felony conviction for campaign fraud; that Trump’s an adjudicated rapist, as well as a failed “businessman.”
President Biden also reminded people that his predecessor engaged in election interference, and failing that, attempted to overthrow the government.
He was frequently interrupted with shouts of “We love you, Joe!” and similar shout-outs, as well as an extended “Four More Years!” from those assembled.
Biden laid out his agenda for his second term, should he be re-elected (side note: Let’s make it so!), including making “Roe the law of the land,” doing his part to create more well-paying jobs, increase the minimum wage, address the climate crisis, among other issues.
He closed with a call to the faithful to GOTV, and with his trademarked “We are the United States of America, and as long as we work together, there’s nothing we can’t do!” as well as his hope for Divine blessing on American troops.
I gotta tell ya: it was just the medicine I needed this week.
F— the media, the rich donors, and milquetoast Democrats! I’m backing Joe!
One thing I’ve noticed is that the calls for Biden to step down are largely from folks who don’t represent the Democratic base and/or have little or nothing to lose if Trump is reelected. Black voters – particularly Black women – are historically the most reliable Dem voters and they’re still on board for Biden.
After the Michigan rally, I turned on CNN and Tim Ryan and another representative whose name I missed, were talking about how Biden cannot be the nominee, they were glum. I have to wonder if something is going on at CNN. This is not the first time I’ve seen this. I then put on MSNBC. The joy was incredible. They are behind Biden. They thought he did absolutely wonderful.
I think that CNN has some new management. They seem to be leaning right, trying to be Fox lite.
My faith is restored!
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has come out forcefully for President Joe Biden to be the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, and he’s urging Democrats in Congress to unite around the president in order to address the threat posed by former President Donald Trump’s candidacy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/opinion/joe-biden-president.html