Can or will? The latest poll numbers put it as undecided, so yes he can, but so can Trump. Will he? Nobody knows at this stage.
Right now it's not a toss up. Trump is ahead due to the nature of the electoral college system.
It's not enough for Biden to continue as is (because his 'as is' at the moment is bleeding more voters every time he opens his mouth).
He needs to actually start improving and pulling ahead of Trump. Does anyone really believe there is any chance of that?
I’ll step down when God Almighty tells me to step down”.
For me that's a good thing for him to have said as it gives him an out preserving his dignity which he deserves. He can say he's prayed for guidance and god has spoken to him and told him that in the best interests of his country he should withdraw.
I like that avdave2 and surely they'll lap that up over there.
Gretchen Whitmer's name keeps getting put there out there as a replacement.
'I'll step down when God almighty tells me to step down'
We just need to work out who he really meant..
Yeah unfortunately with third parties – that exist, like RFK Jr – he still only has a 1% lead over Trump. That’s not good enough.
There have been occasions when the popular vote winner has lost in the Electoral College (EC) vote process that determines the president. Al Gore (2000) and Hillary Clinton (2016) were the most recent candidates to win the vote from the people, but lose in the EC
Hopefully the fact that Reps have benefitted from this on every occasion isn't an omen 🙂
bear in mind also that there's no way the Trump supporters are not going to accept Trump losing anyway. Biden might scrape it, but if he wins on anything other than a massive margin the Republicans will likely escalate to violence (again)
He can't announce a shock exit without a plan B. The implications of chaos in the Democratic Party would be too disturbing to the campaign.
Behind the scenes the Democrats will already have a plan B in case he dies, let alone decides to step aside. He is cloning onto being cohesive now, but imagine another 4 years of decline like the last 4, let alone the prospect of an acceleration in his decline which is more likely. The thought of removing a sitting president is far worse for the party than removing a candidate.
The decision to remove him will have already been made behind closed doors. They just need to wait for an orderly and planned handover, and the wheels of that will be in motion behind the scenes right now, to take effect pretty quickly given that there is still enough time to win this if they sort themselves out now.
LOL at the idea that the Illuminati have already worked everything out in the background somehow.
Biden is the only chance the Dems have of beating trump.
Possible replacements would be Harris, Newsom, Whitmore or Landrieu.
If Biden wins he should then stand down and bow out while he still has something going for him.
None of the possible replacements have the organisation/structure/team, backers, donors or money.
If trump wins that will allow both Thomas and Alito to stand down from the Supreme Court and be replaced by much younger versions of themselves which will embed right wing bias for decades to come.
A further consideration - if trump wins, it's likely the senate will flip.
An authoritarian, vindictive, egotistical bully as president with both houses and the Supreme Court behind him - that's what american voters should be focussed on and very scared of.
He has been an incredibly competent and successful politician, statesman and vice president (and obviously now president) for decades. Sadly now too old.
Biden is the only chance the Dems have of beating trump.
He currently has no chance. He is level in the polls (at best). Thanks to the electoral college he needs to be ahead.
If he doesn't improve his numbers it's over.
What exactly can he do to improve his numbers? All he can do is not have any more gaffes in the next 4 months (unlikely) and that just means he loses by a slightly tighter margin than if he continues having gaffes every time he opens his mouth.
What can he do to win votes?
None of the possible replacements have the organisation/structure/team, backers, donors or money.
The donors are on strike because they feel misled about Biden's condition and are disappointed at his underperformance (sez The Rest Is Politics US).
Where is Obama?
Obama gave the green light for Clooney's hit piece on Buden (some source).
Behind the scenes the Democrats will already have a plan B...The decision to remove him will have already been made behind closed doors. They just need to wait for an orderly and planned handover
I'm not getting "diligent, calm and organised" vibes from the Democratic Party at the moment (admittedly, those vibes are filtered through media outlets chosen according to my prejudices).
frankconway
Full MemberBiden is the only chance the Dems have of beating trump.
Possible replacements would be Harris, Newsom, Whitmore or Landrieu.
If Biden wins he should then stand down and bow out while he still has something going for him.
None of the possible replacements have the organisation/structure/team, backers, donors or money.
Yep, this. It reminds me in a lot of ways of when Labour spent so long trying to bring down Corbyn, got their VONC through and then went "right now who will we replace him with"? And it turned out they didn't have anyone, nobody wanted him in charge but nobody else wanted the job. Maybe it's going better behind the scenes and there's a clever democrat engine getting it done but all the noise seems to be "get Biden to step down..." and very little of it seems to be "...and replace him with X, who has a better chance." There's a possible path to victory, is there a likely one? So much of it seems to be just indulgent, unproductive griping. "How dare the guy we put in charge get old? It's HIS FAULT, bring him down" Like, no senior democrat or significant funder can really be saying "oh this caught us completely by surprise because we didn't know that time passes and that being president is hard"
TBF I doubt Biden would be running at all if they had a strong heir lined up and a dependable gameplan, but equally I think there's very little chance of him stepping down unless there's a really viable, good alternative ready to go. And he's probably right about that. I think he'd consider it a betrayal to step down and leave a vaccuum and I surely don't think anyone can trust the democrat org to do all the right things. Bottom line is if they're going to lose anyway it's almost certainly better to lose with Biden and make a clean break after. Alternative candidates are certainly weighing up whether they want to run and lose rather than waiting to run next time without that history, especially since it's likely to be so divisive.
The other thing is that polling at this point doesn't really seem to support the "debate doomed biden" chat, especially in some of the critical states. In fact the polls are surprisingly stable, with a few wildcards. Now that's not exactly good news, because it still puts Biden behind, and holding fairly steady right now is not what's needed. But it does seem weirdly at odds with the wider discussion.
Randomly, the Project 2025 stuff does seem to be landing blows on Trump and his team certainly are worrying about it and trying to get ahead of it (I have no idea why, when nothing else has ever stuck) and some of the fencesitting media do seem to be finally taking a position, it's easy to forget how far out they still are and how much can change. The whole "clash of two shit candidates" makes everything less predictable than it seems, and frankly there's a good chance of either one of them being completely unfit (for clarity I think both are currently unfit but I mean properly, fully incapable of even sitting in the seat) before the election.
It's horrible but the best chance is for trump to have that massive coronary or
So much of it seems to be just indulgent, unproductive griping.
Hold on, hold on - it's not indulgent or unproductive to point out that the guy regularly can't remember what he's saying in the middle of big events, that stubbornness and reality denial are not going to help him respond to emerging challenges, and that he's failed at succession planning!
Of course it is when you provide no alternative, no solution. I mean in another year it might be productive but when the alternative is Trump who also can't keep track of what he's saying and denies reality through choice.
(also, succession planning isn't really the president's job, it's the DNC's responsibility)
Well this'll put the cat among the pigeons
Oh dear 🙁
Guessing it will help Trump more than hinder him
Of course it is when you provide no alternative, no solution.
The solution would have been for Biden to quit and the convention to pick a new candidate for the Democratic Party, just as it has in many previous elections. Just because there is not perfect condensus on the perfect candidate, it doesn't mean there is no alternative to Biden. He's not the only one that can win - esp when it's not clear that he can win again at all.
RustyNissanPrairie Full Member
Keep Biden
Assassinate Trump
(don’t worry I’m only in charge of the stationary cupboard)
Posted 1 day ago
You almost got for you wished for on this and the other thread. ?
^the power of STW!
Watching the footage, an inch or two difference of the bullets trajectory would have been enough to save thousands of Ukrainian's lives.
Guessing it will help Trump more than hinder him
I'm honestly much less sure than some of the posters on the DT thread. I can envisage a situation where the MAGA crowd end up behaving in a way that motivates everyone else in unexpected ways. I'm obviously not saying 'that is' going to happen, the only thing ive learned with any confidence about US politics is that to me, it doesn't do what I think it logically should do.
Replacing Biden is the Dems only hope now. He can’t compete with the raised fist (oh the irony) and the cry of ‘Fight!’
Trump will win regardless so maybe let Biden bash on, do the time, and hope to find a decent democratic candidate for 2028?
Trump will win regardless so maybe let Biden bash on, do the time, and hope to find a decent democratic candidate for 2028?
Or . . . . Trump would definitely win against Biden, but a different Democratic candidate might beat him, so thank goodness he’s finally done the decent thing.
Obama as VP hopefully.
Surely the dems can find a candidate that isn't damaged goods? I'm not holding my breath though.
Never a dull day in US politics these days
I think as long as they don’t have a shoe in for Harris they have some good potentials to choose from .
A new candidate could be seen as a “change” candidate and cast Trump as the “”doddery old man”. Let’s hope so.
ha ha trump just rushed for the loo
Gone...
hes endorsed Harris
I really feel for the guy but do feel like he's done the right thing.
A crap situation all round, he deserved a 2nd term, he was a decent man and a solid president, but age just caught up with him at precisely the wrong moment.
He just put his country before himself , and that should be what he's remembered for.
Good move. Feels too late. Hopefully not.
The elections not until November so plenty of time. Lets see if they can pick a decent candidate. I am not sure about Harris but the VP is very much a non job so its hard to be sure.
Newsome is th eotyher I have seen mentioned but he seems a bit smarmy but I do not know enough really to tell
I just wonder what his family were thinking.
I wouldn't want any of my family running for anything that stressful beyond retirement, let alone being statistically incredibly close to death
Well thank **** for that, I think the final nail in the coffin was the endorsement by the Clintons.
Newsome is the other I have seen mentioned
The awkward thing is that with Harris presumably on the ticket that means that both of them with be from California, which would be almost unthinkable.
does his endorsement of Harris mean anything? She does not seem popular from anything ive read but I am seeing suggestions that there is an issue with using the campaign money for the Biden/Harris 2024 campaign being used on anyone else if it isn't Harris?XXXX
The elections not until November so plenty of time.
107 days.
Depends how long they spend deciding on the new candidate and how damaging the campaign is. If they are going into the battle with Trump with only 50 days to go bleeding from open wounds, I'd say they are stuffed.
It'll be fascinating to see what the process turns out to be to choose who ever it is and how much has already been decided behind the scenes before this announcement.
I think an awful lot less of Biden for making this announcement over X. This should have been done as a live video announcement unless he is literally on his death bed.
Newsomes problem is that California is being presented as a bit of a basket case to the rest of the US in the mainstream media, and that image does look like it is sticking.
IMO California is suffering because of the federal governments nationwide policies causing homelessness, mental illness, crime and drug dependence, California is hardest hit because of "Dick Whittingham" syndrome, people flock to California, and especially LA and SF because of the myth that they can be rich and famous.
But they are never going to admit the reality of the failure of the american dream, so they will paint California and Newsome as self made failures.
but I am seeing suggestions that there is an issue with using the campaign money for the Biden/Harris 2024 campaign being used on anyone else if it isn’t Harris?
The money had already dried up, the usual backers were so unimpressed with Biden.
