dhork
I hope Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse comes out publically in favor of Biden backing out of the race, just so we have the “White House spars with Whitehouse” headline.
The real reason why no one polls better is that everyone else is a hypothetical right now Even if you phrase the poll as “If Biden backs out, and is replaced by $NAME, will you support $NAME?”, people still have their own preferences and that will make it into the poll. They may be secretly hoping for AOC or Michelle Obama or Beyoncé, and say “No” because of that.
But after Biden leaves, if the question is “Now that the candidate is $NAME, will you support $NAME”, I think you will find a lot of support rallying behind that person. Because there’s no choice at that point.
The biggest farce is calling this a “primary”. That implies that there is a chance the outcome may change. It wouldn’t be a Primary, it would be a Telethon. I mean, they admit as much: they focus on the fundraising aspect of all of it more than anything else and they plan to have celebrity hosts just like Jerry Lewis used to have on Labor Day.
I agree but there is another path: if Democrats win both houses of Congress and the President, and Senate Democrats agree to blow up the filibuster, they can pack the court whenever they want.
I am of the opinion they should slam the Court up to 11 right away, then 13 in time for the 2026 court term. Then go to Republicans and say “You can let us put four 40-ish Liberals on the Court for lifetime appointments, and gamble on getting your own trifecta to re-pack it, or you can work with us on an amendment to reform the court, put in term limits, and limit its partisanship”.
Trump is not showing his age in quite the same way as Biden. He is performing the way his base expects him to. His base expects him to lie constantly, because they believe those lies. All the things that you, as an outside observer, view as disqualifying are things Republicans are actively seeking out in candidates.
On the other hand, Democratic voters in this country were told all year long that these concerns over Biden’s age were overblown, then it all came crashing down in 90 minutes. Democrats expected more. That’s why there’s this consternation on one side only.
Obama was seen as severely lacking in foreign policy credentials, he was only in his first Senate term and didn’t have any other national political experience before running in 2008. That was part of the reason he picked Biden for VP in the first place, it offered some reassurance for voters who thought Obama was weak on foreign policy.
Even so, when Putin invaded Crimea in 2014 Obama kind of just yawned and let him. The UN passed a few resolutions, but that was that. I don’t think Biden would have rolled over if he were President at the time. I think if you asked Biden about any major disagreements he had with Obama, that might be at the top of the list.
I also think McCain would have handled it differently, too. He would have made a good President, even if I would have disagreed with him more. He was better than the absolute trash the GOP puts up these days.
That’s how it always works. Those delegates were chosen by the campaign that won the right to name them in the Primary, so over 99% of them were chosen by the Biden campaign, and are pledged to vote for him on the first ballot if he is still in the race by the time the roll call vote happens (which will take place before the actual convention this year.)
If he backs out, they are free from their pledge. But who thinks that a bunch of hand-picked Biden delegates will vote for anyone other than who he endorses? And who thinks he will endorse anyone other than his own hand-picked understudy?
They are floating this “blitz primary” idea simply as away to make the process sound more democratic than it really is. It’s not really a “primary” at all. The only voters needing to be “influenced” are the delegates. And in the unlikely event the delegates don’t fall in line on the first vote, DNC Superdelegates can vote starting with the second vote and make sure the proper candidate wins.
