Presidential Debate Thread

[Benjamin Grimm]

My sense is that they'd be better off with a fresh face, and I don't think Harris really meets that criteria.

[Fman99]

A big part of it, as I understand it, is that there is something like $240 million that is specifically in a Biden-Harris fund, that she would have fairly easy access to, and that no other candidate would.

She's also 30 years younger and, gaffes aside, seems so far to be disinclined towards violently overthrowing the government.

[whippoorwill]

I know one thing; I’m tired of unsolicited texts about it

[ashie62]

And just like that Biden commits to staying per Katrine Pierre

[ashie62]

I know one thing; I’m tired of unsolicited texts about it

They are embedded in my You Tube music feed

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Certainly lots of complications. Hard to accuse the other side of being a threat to democracy when pushing out a candidate who won the primaries in favor of someone picked in a smoke-filled room and presented at a convention. At that point its fair to ask when did party leaders become aware that Biden's condition had deteriorated to this extent, and why they waited until this point to start sounding alarms.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Hard to accuse the other side of being a threat to democracy .....

Why is that? Because the January 6 premeditated attack on the Capitol was what? Three hours of love and peace (to paraphrase Woodstock)?

[Edgy MD]

If the president chooses to halt his campaign, he wasn't pushed, democratically or undemocratically.

If the voted-on electors elect an alternative, then the new person wasn't selected in a "smoke-filled room," real or metaphorical, but at the official convention through the official process.

[MFS62]

From FOX news (consider the source, and their glee when they wrote this)

California Democratic delegate Areva Martin told media personality Stephen A. Smith that passing over Vice President Kamala Harris as President Biden's replacement should he withdraw from the race would destroy the party.
"If you pick a White man over Kamala Harris, Black women, I can tell you this, we are going to walk away," Martin said Tuesday. "We are going to blow the party up."

But, if the Democrats jump over her as a Biden replacement, I could see something like that happening, maybe not going for Donnie Little Hands, but a third party candidate.

Later

[metirish]

FOX and Stephen A. Smith? What a combo

I really don't know much about Harris , she's been largely invisible, but I'll vote for her

[Frayed Knot]

"If you pick a White man over Kamala Harris, Black women, I can tell you this, we are going to walk away," Martin said Tuesday. "We are going to blow the party up."

Do you want to win the election or check boxes?
I mean it's great if you can do both. But if Kamala ins't your best candidate then it would be stupid to name her as a replacement.
And if you want to "blow the party up" over that then you can borrow my Zippo to light the fuse.

[Edgy MD]

Well, I wouldn't expect Stephen A. Smith working for FOX to be finding the most representative or reasonable takes among the populace.

[kcmets]

Smith is a Disney/ESPN/ABC etc. employee.

[Edgy MD]

So I had understood, but I was reading (or misreading) otherwise above.

[kcmets]

Wasn't correcting anyone, just clarifying...

[Edgy MD]

I really don't know much about Harris , she's been largely invisible, but I'll vote for her

Sure, but the issue is whether Janine from Youngstown will vote for her, and Vice President Harris has compiled perhaps the worst approval ratings of any vice president since they started measuring that sort of thing.

I really don't know what the best answer is.

[metirish]

Biden Tells Governors He Needs to Sleep More and Work Less at Night


The president’s opening remark to a group of key Democratic leaders — that he was in the race to stay — chilled any talk of his withdrawal, participants said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/us/p ... roid-share

[nymr83]

Biden Tells Governors He Needs to Sleep More and Work Less at Night

Yeah, it's really more of a 9-5, that's the ticket...

[Edgy MD]

Most presidents work 16-hour days. They understand that from tradition it comes with the job. Kennedy tried to push himself to 20, but he had age on his side, and Johnson pulled back from that, reasonably feeling that Kennedy was less effective on less sleep, and he naturally lacked JFK's youth and vigor.

Reagan, recognizing the limitations of his years, was more likely to work 12-hour days. Shorter, in his later years. Maybe, probably, it allowed some of his lieutenants to pursue their own agenda, which probably wasn't ideal.

So yeah, be like Johnson, President Biden, and dial it back if it helps keep you fresh for public appearances. You ain't President Obama.

Based on all I've read, I imagine a typical workday for President Trump was about 75 minutes.

[Edgy MD]

Why wait until the finish line to begin your victory lap?

[ashie62]

I'm getting the feeling that Kamala is getting the gig any time now

[kcmets]

A Harris/Jeffries ticket would totally kick Trumps ass. Totally.

[kcmets]

The best way to do it would be for Biden to just resign with dignity and
make Harris Prez now. Then they can baby step into a VP in the next
month or so.

They can't pass over or side step Kamala. It would just look terrible on
so many levels there would be enough fingers to point at what would be
pointed at if that were to happen.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Biden's bad week just got worse after he said he was the 'first Black woman to serve with a Black president'

Joe Biden said in an interview he was "proud" to be the "first Black woman to serve with a Black president."

https://www.aol.com/news/bidens-bad-wee ... 06514.html


_____


Just awful. Aging might just be the slipperiest slope of all. When it comes, it comes on like a steamroller. Biden's already at the age where he's one doctor's visit away from learning that he will die soon. Everybody dies. But it's extremely likelier to happen to somebody who's Biden's age. And the mental and physical decline is just as terrible. He might be shitting in his pants without even knowing it a month from now.

There are multiple reports that Biden's been like this for quite a while now, but that his handlers have been able to conceal it until the debate. I believe those reports. They sound credible and are consistent with what the public is now seeing.

[TransMonk]

This needs to end soon. The press has definitely turned on him and I would guess the non-WH party leaders will be next. Both groups feel betrayed and gaslit by the campaign.

Biden is in Madison today, I went down to the event, but even the entry was chaotic and unorganized. With rain threatening, I did not stay. I'm pretty uncomfortable with him right now.