US Politics, July 2024 - "Will you just drop out, man?"

The idea Republicans don't get blamed for the economy doesn't have much merit IMO - under Trump everyone was white knuckling it waiting for the next crash until COVID when suddenly people got free money and extended unemployment and it turns out people like those things a lot.

map's right to be infuriated by a country increasingly uninterested in the plight of the working poor, and the post-COVID inflation's hit them particularly hard while I know asshole who are like, "Santorini was gorgeous last week, but, ugh, did you see how high gas is here?" The system is execrable and stupid.

I mean yeah it's true people blamed GWB for a lot of that shit but it did not change people's opinions that Republicans = economic strength even as that's been proved wrong over and over and over again

he only looked like was around 140 years old just now with the new brit PM. his arms are so stiff.

must be nap time. he was talking so slow.

"what he should do, but is now incapable of doing, is communicate trump’s negative qualities"

Harris is doing it though. And she's good at it! posting this again here. its only a month ago but feels like its 10 years old. but she has gotten way better at communicating. she just seems so sane!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne3-KA8ja6g

she can prosecute trump like nobody's business. she's got the facts at her fingertips. that's what you need. quickness. its in short supply.

An advantage of Harris vs. Trump is that they would absolutely attack her for lots of things, but they won't be able to resist especially attacking her for being a Black woman. There was already that NY Post thing calling her "the first DEI president," and there would be a lot more of that — but racist/sexist attacks are a much more double-edged weapon politically than saying "he's too old/out of it," they risk turning off a lot more people. And non-MAGA people overall already get turned off by Trump being insulting, that was one thing in that Luntz focus group on the debate, Trump's low marks came not so much from nonstop lying as when he turned particularly mean. Trump insulting another old white guy is one thing, but it would carry more potential cost against a younger nonwhite woman.

And again, she has an advantage just by not being old as fuck. Biden’s biggest liability with voters wiped out.

And Harris provides a narrative of change that I suspect a huge amount of the electorate would fucking love. Is that change real? No, but it at least provides the veneer of change plus a charismatic leader who is well spoken and is well poised to bring abortion to the forefront of the conversation.

she was a pretty brutal prosecutor in San Francisco, so it'll be tough to peg her as soft on crime

Of the many things I find maddening about this debacle, it's seeing Biden's most ardent supporters, on this thread and elsewhere, complain about the elite media and rigged polls. Up is down, in is out, etc.

So tired of seeing "They're just doing this for ratings" and "why don't they ever write about Trump." Literally had to screenshot the front pages of the NYT and WaPo from the day after Trump's guilty verdict to send to a friend to counter the latter point. The story hasn't ended because the story hasn't ended, there's some amount of new news on it every day. That's how big news stories work.

stop eating that crab meat and listen!

Check out the look on Jake Tapper's face after he's told that the Biden campaign is suggesting that Joe Biden has more stamina than George Clooney because Clooney left a fundraiser before Biden did. pic.twitter.com/0WlUooT2xl

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 10, 2024

agreed that this is bad, and not good!

Jake’s all “whatever, cool story, bro”

Staying in and being a dick to the donors seems like a smart move.

Sleepy George couldn't stick around, figures

Clooney says in his piece that debate Biden acted the same way at the fundraiser Clooney co-hosted. I can see why he’d made an early exit.

lol the White House dissing Clooney, trashing Brian Stelter, this is the strategy. Just pretending there’s no problem at all and insulting anyone who says otherwise. And these are also the people with the great plan to win the election. Sure.

okay, I'm all-in on The Rock

Time to start that 50 state write-in campaign

Harris-Johnson 2024 , he could resign after six months, or become the best VP and 2-term President that we've ever had, who cares

Seems like a reasonable timeline:
1-the campaign to remove Biden was donor-led and ham-fisted
2-Biden was easily able to characterize it as from know-nothing elites
3-Dem electeds figured they couldn't dislodge him
4-Then they got really bad polling data in the last 24 hours

— David Dayen (@ddayen) July 10, 2024

Josh Barro, Brian Stelter (ugh), Jake Tapper and the many MANY NYT and WP reporters and quisling reps that I now have on my Arya Stark enemies list, and George Clooney and Michael Bennett (who ran against Biden in 2020 and came in dead last) etc etc etc...

They may all succeed in derailing Biden and they are convinced that he won't be able to turn the page (I think they're wrong), and they have convinced themselves that he is too infirm (I think wrong again)

...but they have no better sense of what the outcome will be than those of us wanting to stay the course. And from what I've seen, his most loyal base ~really~ wants to stay the course

We all want to win the presidency and save democracy and it is more important to us now than ever, we are in agreement on that - but the callous attacks on Biden here have been disheartening to me, it just reminds me of 2016

Yeah, can we just go back to calling him Genocide Joe

maybe that was meant ironically, I'm never sure here

this past few weeks' events have really profoundly changed my feelings about news media and social media

People getting mad at George Clooney, it's like, what on earth does anyone think Clooney gets from this. This is a guy who saw things up close and he is telling you what he saw. Do you know how many conversations with how many people must have preceded writing that column? How many different stories he heard from different people, confirming his own? This isn't something a guy who just raised millions of dollars for somebody does lightly. Clooney's not out to knife the president, he's speaking up because he knows things most people don't and he's worried.

Meanwhile I hope some contingency lawyers somewhere are getting ready for ballot fights.

i'm with both of you above. i have raised MANY an eyebrow at all news media since this thing started AND i think joe is going down some sort of dark tunnel.

so many eyebrows.

CNN is off the hookin' chain. it has been nonstop for i don't even remember how long. since the day i was born feels like.

any non-biden-related person who makes the mistake of going on cnn is just asked if biden should step down. over and over again.

...but they have no better sense of what the outcome will be than those of us wanting to stay the course.

Can the outcome be worse than Biden losing and torpedoing downballot races? That’s your course heading now.

the callous attacks on Biden here have been disheartening to me

those who are in attack mode in this thread have been in that mode for a very long time. as a rule they are profoundly angry with every part of national (USA) politics and every figure associated with those politics is a target for their disdain. it helps them to vent. it's OK. but don't expect them to stop.

xps

It's total media overload, but it's just what happens with a big story. There's so much drama and melodrama and psychodrama in it, the stakes are so high, every day there's new details or some new person calling for something and endless anonymous quotes with tantalizing details. There's a lot more to it too, I think a lot of media outlets seriously believe that there are things people need to know about all of this, but the biggest thing honestly is just that it's a hell of a story. Greek, Shakespearean, it's just epic.

"Meanwhile, Democrats say the defections are likely to increase in coming days, with lawmakers and donors privately signaling that, by the end of the week, they may publicly call for Biden to drop out. They argue they do not want to embarrass Biden during the ongoing NATO summit in Washington while also giving him time to decide on his own to exit the race."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/10/biden-evidence-defeat-trump-drop-out/

Schumer feels the vibes, time for him to see how much he can shake down out of this for Senate campaigns.

🚨 SCOOP: Chuck Schumer is privately signaling to donors that he's open to a Democratic presidential ticket that isn't led by Biden.

He has been listening to donors' ideas and suggestions about the best way forward for the party.https://t.co/IEF8ixyXhJ

— Axios (@axios) July 10, 2024

Again, Axios, I mean fuck them!

Can the outcome be worse than Biden losing and torpedoing downballot races? That’s your course heading now.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, July 10, 2024

No, but how are you sure Harris losing wouldn't also do that?

I'm not mad at George Clooney, but I'm also not sure I trust that his statement doesn't have some bias, whatever it is.

I would be ok if Biden stepped down and I would enthusiastically support Harris. I'm just not as convinced as you that it is the right step

The voters will not believe us about January 6 if we don’t tell the truth about June 27.

— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) July 10, 2024

i guess he thinks some of the freestyles were pre-written

a few days ago I emailed one of my two senators (Wyden) and asked him to convey my deepest thanks and respect to Biden for his decades of service to his nation, etc. etc, but he has one further service of the greatest value yet to perform, which is to step aside from his campaign, and so on.

I sugar-coated it because Joe's going to need a lot of sugar on this pill to get him to swallow it. I figure Wyden would be a good messenger because he's 75 years old and has been in the Senate for three decades. iow, Biden's kind of guy.

How did he respond?

Tim Ryan should go away forever

No, but how are you sure Harris losing wouldn't also do that?

… no, that’s the point. She can’t do worse than Biden but can do better.

The argument for Biden rests on either unskewing the polls or reversing aging.

I sympathize with you posters watching CNN or MSNBC.

I'm not mad at George Clooney, but I'm also not sure I trust that his statement doesn't have some bias, whatever it is.

Bias toward what or who? He just hosted a fundraiser for Biden!

Again, Axios, I mean fuck them!

I don't want to gang up on you Dan, but you are literally cursing the messenger. Serious question, are there any news sources left you consider reputable?

From Clooney’s op-ed:

As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.

Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.

I didn't ask for a response. It would have been predictably canned, noncommittal and hand waving. The point was to throw a chip on the pile and try to make it grow.

xp tipsy, certainly not Axios, a news aggregation site that is completely inane and just spews clickbait bullshit aligned towards the republicans.

Now that you mention it though, there aren't really any news sources left that I consider reputable any more. Which explains the deep depression I'm in. I can't align with any media, or even with ilx these days.

And before you say it, I don't really think it's a me problem