Why is it ridiculous? Like, I don't want to get brigaded here, but I don't think it would be insane to have someone else run instead of Biden. I don't know if there's really any historical precedent where an incumbent has opted to not run for a second term, but he's also the oldest president ever and I don't think it's deniable at all that we've witnessed several missteps as a result of his age. Do we really need to see a Mitch McConnell style freeze before we admit it? I feel like I'm alone in crazy town here. To be honest I personally don't think anyone over the age of 70 should even be allowed to run for office but perhaps that's just ageist. It's just so common for mental faculties to decline in those years that I don't understand why it's even an allowable risk.
The only reason it's ridiculous is that it's too late to do it. Like, for a practical example, they've already raised so much money for the "Biden-Harris Campaign" that is in DNC coffers. To use that money on a "Harris-Inslee" or whatever campaign would require a legal fight. They'd probably win that fight, but still—it's an example of how chaotic it would be to switch now.
What isn't ridiculous is to say someone else should've been chosen to run 2 years ago. Biden said many times he would be a "bridge president" and it has been clear for a long time that he's slowing down. By October/November last year as the genocide began in Gaza at the latest it should've been clear that he was a political liability. But the Dems all stood behind him instead.
I mean the guy who beat Trump once and has incumbency advantage is indeed going to run to the end.
Incumbency advantages are, from a statistical standpoint, kind of overrated. I mean, there's been a limited number of presidential elections, so the sample is pretty small. And no data points in that sample involve an 81yo incumbent.
Yes, they posted stories about it being released...and then crickets. Given the contents of the documents and how Trump is in them having a single blurb and then dropping it down the memory hole in favor of endless frontpage articles and OpEds about Biden. Where are the dozens of OpEds demanding he step down for raping a young girl in those documents?
As for headlines about Trump - there's a whole debate to not only fact check but to question *Trump's* mental acuity. I really think Democrats need to stop framing him as a liar and instead talk about how mentally weak and degraded he is. How he can't stand up to powerful foreign foes or keep his thoughts straight and just repeats the last thing he sees. Play the right's game and start questioning if Trump has dementia, and that's why he's just talking about nonsense endlessly. Everyone has just accepted that he's a liar and there's nothing that can be done, change the narrative to it's not his lying getting worse it's his mental state.
Again—none of that does anything. Newspapers posted dozens of opeds in 2015 and 16 about how the latest thing Trump did/said meant he had to step down. Or during the term about how the latest act he'd taken or the latest piece of sexual assault news meant it was imperative he be impeached and removed. None of that does anything! He is uniquely immune to attack. The media overall spent 2015-2020 at DEFCON 1 about how bad the things Trump was doing and saying were and acknowledging he needed to be stopped because he was a threat to democracy. That did absolutely nothing to peel Trump repubs and hold-your-nose repubs away from his voting block. And those attacks weren't what motivated the politically disengaged to come out for Biden—it was that Biden promised infrastructure improvements and to stop so many people from being killed by covid.
Look, obviously I don't think it would be inaccurate for the media to highlight Trump's insanity more. But in the past they have already gone as far as wondering if he has syphilitic dementia and pointing out how out of shape he is and how nonsensical his speech is. They covered the dementia tests thoroughly! It doesn't do anything to try and make the distinction between lying mental weakness, it doesn't matter to people. It's a known quantity and a played-out course of strategy.
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Along with an NYMag piece that goes into detail on Trump's relationship with Epstein in wake of the new documents.
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