"But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.”
“In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.”
Exactly! If you say that Biden should drop out for the good of the country, a bunch of people nod their heads, but if you say trump should, everyone just laughs.
I’m for sure on team “Not Trump, and not a Republican.” I think the debate really may have weakened Biden’s chances, but I can’t think of anyone who I’m confident could do better in the election. And I really mean “in the election” - there are certainly some who I think could do better as president, but they either don’t have the name recognition or wouldn’t pull in the moderates.
I’d love to see a true progressive, but there are an awful lot of people who simply won’t vote for one. So I’m sticking with Biden and hoping for the best.
It’s because dropping out is 100% not in Trump’s character. He’s in the race for himself, everyone - even his supporters - knows that, and asking him to drop out is like asking a zebra to try all-black.
Biden, OTOH, is a public servant and presents himself as trying to do the best things possible for the country. He ran in 2020 to ‘save us from Trump,’ and he’s running again with that premise. You can disagree with Biden on what is best for the country, and maybe convince him that someone else might be better able to beat Trump in 2024. I’m not really all that engaged, so I have no idea who the next-best Democrat would be, but Biden stepping aside is at least within the realm of conceivable possibilities.
I completely agree, which was more or less my point.
I can’t think of a Democrat who has a better chance from this juncture, sadly.
You can’t? I can think of 20 of them who all have a better chance to win than Biden, who now has a zero chance to win.
I think you’re overreacting. He’s far from assured, but also far from out of the race.
There’s an awful lot of people who also simply won’t vote for someone in Biden’s physical condition. Don’t even need to replace him with someone progressive. Most of his voters are “blue no matter who” people who wouldn’t care if he was replaced.
I think the numbers of those two groups are significantly different. There are a number of moderate Republicans who will vote for Biden but wouldn’t vote for someone like Sanders or AOC.
Biden being replaced by a progressive like AOC or Sanders isn’t even remotely likely though, which is why I didn’t mention all of the people who won’t vote if they’re not motivated to who’d come out for someone like AOC/Sanders/Warren/etc. And replace him with a “moderate” who didn’t support Israel, and you’d get a lot more votes from people who are alienated by that issue.
Like who are you thinking?
There are no moderate Republicans. Anyone who calls themselves a Republican in 2024 is a fascist, whether intentionally or not makes no practical difference. They will never ever vote for a Democrat. Calling them reachable voters is so hilariously out of touch that it makes me wonder where you’ve been the last 8 years.
I know quite a number of them. My company is overall pretty conservative, with lots of ex military. Many folks are lifelong Republicans but have adamantly said they won’t vote for Trump.
I hope you’re right about that but I’ll be legitimately shocked if that turns out to be true to any significant degree.
There aren’t many, but I can name at least a few like Tim Miller, Adam Kitzinger, Geoff Duncan, and Sarah Longwell.
Enough to make a big swing politically? Maybe not. But they are out there.