[Crabcakes]

Also, despite the dire nature of potentially the fate of the world, I did laugh at one guy on Twitter whose take was (can’t find it now, so I’m paraphrasing)

“Of course I’m voting Biden. I’m not crazy. I just wish it wasn’t a competition between the world’s stupidest Hitler and a gently alive corpse.”

[RedSparrows]

Power does funny things to the head especially if you’re old and fading.

I’m not even sure ‘fading’ is fair - Biden seems pretty on it most of the time. But yeah, it could be he sees being the incumbent as an asset that outweighs the narrative that - bewilderingly - even the friendly media seem to be determined to push that 81 fit and competent bad, 78 unhealthy and batshit insane fine.

One of the curious puzzles of the Anglosphere (and maybe elsewhere, but no parles forrin, mate): why the lunatic moron candidate is held to standards far lower than the sane but not ideal one. It's like there's a baked in 'well some people like the loon, and we can't insult them by holding their godhead to actual standards; as for the rest, well, they should pay the price for having standards'.

?!?

[Crabcakes]

I suspect too many people believe the myriad films that show leaders (in particular the US President) as basically charismatic action heroes. Whereas what you actually want is someone who is not going to go with their gut or try and out-quip their way through a crisis. But when it comes to voting time that’s the image they have and so the characteristics they look for.

See also: 99.9% of archaeologists probably aren’t much like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft.

[satnav]

The way I see it is that if Trump does win the election he will spend the first two years in office dealing with all the shit that is in the pipeline, like on-going court cases. By the time he has dealt with that American's will have been reminded of what a lazy dick he is and hopefully the Republicans will lose the midterms meaning that Trump's final two years in office will see his policies thwarted by Congress and Senate.

[Crabcakes]

The way I see it is that if Trump does win the election he will spend the first two years in office dealing with all the shit that is in the pipeline, like on-going court cases. By the time he has dealt with that American's will have been reminded of what a lazy dick he is and hopefully the Republicans will lose the midterms meaning that Trump's final two years in office will see his policies thwarted by Congress and Senate.

Thing is, it’s not Trump I’m primarily worried about. It’s the people he will put in place, the institutions he will shut down and the obligations he will renege on that will make it incredibly hard to remove either him or whoever follows him, and in the meantime cause horrendous and potentially irreversible damage on a global scale. He might be gone in 4 years. Heck, he might be dead in 2 years. But if in 6 months in office he bombs Gaza and pulls US support for Taiwan, S. Korea and Ukraine, then it’s game over. NATO can’t fight 3 protective wars at once, and Putin, Kim and Xi know that.

All his handlers have to do is throw him the bone of friendly rallies and prosecution of a few enemies, and he’ll be happy as larry and sign whatever they pop in front of him.

[Watchman]

I just don’t get where the Democrats are with Biden, and them going into some degree of panic. It was clear 4 years ago that come the end of his term he would be struggling, and then should have been planning for that. Not saying they would find another Obama or JFK, but any semi charismatic choice would make Trump look the total cretin that he is

[Youngian]

Out of the traps to defend Sleepy Joe in a stateswomanly speech was Governor Gretchen Whitmer
https://x.com/gretchenwhitmer/status/18 ... 17599?s=46

And Gavin Newson, on hand to roll up his sleeves and get behind Biden
https://x.com/bidenswins/status/1806673 ... 26309?s=46

Most unedifying was Jill Biden’s screechy defence of her husband while Joe stood there still looking very confused.

[Crabcakes]

I don’t even think he’s struggling as in he’s not a sick, doddery, senile old man - yes, he’s old, but his record and achievements are great and he’s done more in 1 term than many presidents manage in 2.

He is, however, cursed by 3 things:

1. a terrible run of luck - his son’s issues, getting a cold on debate night, Ruth BG dying just before he took over so he couldn’t replace her, Cannon being appointed to Trump’s case etc and kicking the can waaaay down the road
2. His stutter meaning he does sometimes glitch and pause, but he gets zero leeway
3. American media, who have to have their story and their contest. To the point that the story of last night is an under the weather candidate who gave slightly mumbled answers is now 100% unelectable, whereas the other candidate - a sociopathic convicted rapist who is literally out on bail at the moment for fraud, who is all of 3 years younger, who demonstrates multiple signs of dementia, and who gave answers that were wholly untrue but said forcefully - seemingly gets a free pass.

The issue here is not really Biden and never has been. The issue here is US media and politics is in a terrible, terrible state. And ironically, much of it started with Reagan - a man who at the end of his term looked way older than Biden (and was the same age as Trump is now) and also had the onset of Alzheimer’s, as confirmed by his son.

[Oboogie]

The way I see it is that if Trump does win the election he will spend the first two years in office dealing with all the shit that is in the pipeline, like on-going court cases.

If Trump wins there won't be any court cases as Trump's first action will be to award himself immunity, the Presidency is his get out of jail free card.

[Youngian]

American media, who have to have their story and their contest. To the point that the story of last night is an under the weather candidate who gave slightly mumbled answers is now 100% unelectable, whereas the other candidate - a sociopathic convicted rapist who is literally out on bail at the moment for fraud, who is all of 3 years younger, who demonstrates multiple signs of dementia, and who gave answers that were wholly untrue but said forcefully - seemingly gets a free pass.

The issue here is not really Biden and never has been.

Biden is the issue, he gave a performance worse than Trump and ‘I’ve got a cold, miss’ doesn’t cut it. Biden knew how to handle the media four years ago when he was the wise elderly one term transitional president. Not wandering off in the wrong direction at international events. It’s sad to watch this deterioration.

[Philip Marlow]

Also, despite the dire nature of potentially the fate of the world, I did laugh at one guy on Twitter whose take was (can’t find it now, so I’m paraphrasing)

“Of course I’m voting Biden. I’m not crazy. I just wish it wasn’t a competition between the world’s stupidest Hitler and a gently alive corpse.”

I saw that one too.

Honestly, in media landscape terms, it’s less significant what the left, whose lack of keenness for Biden precedes his presidency, or the Trump-lovin’ right are saying about last night. What matters is the reaction of the liberals.

https://jacobin.com/2024/06/democrats-b ... ebate-2024

By the end of the night, the New York Times opinion page had three separate op-eds from prominent liberal columnists calling on Biden to step aside, including liberal darling Nicholas Kristof as well as Tom Friedman, one of Biden’s favorite columnists and one he’s known personally for decades. As of this morning, there’s another, and still another is coming. Identical calls appeared in the Atlantic and from the Financial Times’ Edward Luce, who had earlier called on Democrats to “end their self-imposed censorship on Biden and fix this.”

Maybe most damning for Biden is that this morning, he also officially lost Morning Joe. Scarborough — whose show, an oasis of fawning praise for the president that he reportedly religiously watches, and who just three months ago assured his viewers he knew firsthand that “this version of Biden . . . is the best Biden ever” — joined the calls for the president to step aside. “If he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?” he said this morning.

‘Between the idea/And the reality…Falls the Shadow’, and having been told for months that Biden is absolutely fine - mind like a steel trap, cock like a caber etc. - only to be confronted with…that there’s the worry that the floating or disinterested voter is unlikely to be forgiving. Trump being a lying liar hawking weird conspiracy theories about Joe becoming a Palestinian or doctors performing post-birth abortions matters a hell of a lot less than the President of the United States doing a plausible impersonation of a man who might get lost in his own bathroom.

Television debates can be awfully brutal in this regard. I’m reminded of the following excerpt from Hunter S. Thompson’s Nixon obituary.

Nixon's meteoric rise from the unemployment line to the vice presidency in six quick years would never have happened if TV had come along 10 years earlier. He got away with his sleazy "my dog Checkers" speech in 1952 because most voters heard it on the radio or read about it in the headlines of their local, Republican newspapers. When Nixon finally had to face the TV cameras for real in the 1960 presidential campaign debates, he got whipped like a red-headed mule. Even die-hard Republican voters were shocked by his cruel and incompetent persona. Interestingly, most people who heard those debates on the radio thought Nixon had won. But the mushrooming TV audience saw him as a truthless used-car salesman, and they voted accordingly. It was the first time in 14 years that Nixon lost an election.

[The Weeping Angel]

I'd take Jacobin more seriously if they hadn't suggested Bernie Sanders take over as the nominee.

[The Weeping Angel]

Also if you think the New York Times is pro-Biden then I have a bridge to sell you.

[The Weeping Angel]

Gotta laugh at all those American leftists who said Trump would run to Biden's left on Israel/Palestine like this idiot



Anyway Trump claimed Biden was a bad Palestinian and here he is claiming that Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian

[Crabcakes]

So since the debate:
* the first post-debate poll has put Biden in the lead, ahead of Trump (previously a draw)
* Biden’s campaign outraised Trump’s pretty much 2 to 1
* multiple focus groups gave Biden the win because they didn’t like Trump’s open lying
* a lot of black and Latino groups that were undecided have swung to Biden, with Trump’s “black jobs” line being repeatedly quoted

Yeah it wasn’t a great debate performance, but it looks like a lot has been missed in the desperation to tell one specific story and one only.

[RedSparrows]

Twas ever thus. From the outside it feels/seems like a very (in the American sense) 'white liberal handwringing' thing.

Biden is NOT the most compelling prospect, and ideally would NOT be running, one feels. Dismissing its impact would be foolish, but to condense everything down to this moment is both enormously privileged and enormously myopic, and, again, woefully reinforces this insane double-standard the US seems determined to foist on itself.

[Crabcakes]

3 out of 4 post-debate polls show Biden gains. The one that doesn’t is considered a low quality pollster. Plus record-breaking fundraising.

Meanwhile the media seem furious their narrative hasn’t stuck.

Strange times.

[satnav]

They make a big thing about the presidential debates but in reality once a president is elected he basically never has to debate again. In this country the prime minister has to debate with the opposition leader at least once a week but this simply doesn't happen in America. American presidents get more scrutiny from the media than they do from the opposition.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think Biden has to stand down. The clips are going to be played again and again, and will hurt over time.

Whitmer-Harris would probably be the best. I don't think the Governor of California is going to get past the widespread view that his state is a disaster zone (it's worse than it needs to be, but that's more down to city governments).

[The Weeping Angel]

Thing is if Biden does stand down then his replacement would be Harris bypassing her is a huge mistake as that would antagonise a key segment of the Democrats coalition namely black women.