It’s silly to talk about a “pundit class”. It’s not like they’re a group with any coherent ideas, much less any sort of persistent group loyalty. They’re just people with opinions and a platform.
This article tries to make it sound like he’s a really popular candidate and there’s some shady group of kingmakers trying to block him.
The main reason that people are pushing for him to step aside is that they don’t believe he can beat Trump. It’s not that people were grumpy about a raspy voice. There was already a lot of suspicion that he’s going senile. He got the benefit of the doubt and the debate was his chance to prove the doubters wrong. Instead he confirmed their deepest fears. Since then, he’s provided a steady stream of examples of his diminishing mental capacity.
A formal cognitive assessment might lay those fears to rest but, at this point, it’s unlikely. For many people, the conclusion is clear; the evidence is in and he forgets what he’s talking about mid-sentence. Many people look at the polling numbers around that just want someone who has a chance of beating Trump.
Don’t disagree, but also curious why the same pundits aren’t ripping apart Trump’s senility? 30 seconds of watching a Daily Show weekly roundup will provide COUNTLESS examples of Trump rambling endlessly and forgetting what he was even talking about. Just because it wasn’t as stark at the debate doesn’t’ mean it isn’t happening. I’d also imagine that Trump was probably coked out of his mind at the debate after he spent weeks leading up to it claiming Biden would be on drugs. He has a well-documented history of projecting whatever he’s doing wrong on his opposition.
Those articles are out there.
The key differences are Trump is the popular candidate. He is who the GOP electorate wants and who the GOP runs on.
Biden is not a popular candidate and not who the Democratic party electorate necessarily wants: instead his whole candidacy and presidency has solely been not being Trump. This condition is fully transferrable to any candidate with support of the party.
So the ramifications and implications are wildly different.
Biden is not a popular candidate and not who the Democratic party electorate necessarily wants: instead his whole candidacy and presidency has solely been not being Trump. This condition is fully transferrable to any candidate with support of the party.
Biden may not be a popular candidate on Lemmy, but he absolutely was prior to that debate showing with the general public. It turns out moderates and independents make up a large portion of the voting block and they aren’t all drooling at the prospects of Bernie Sanders. They WANT a boring president.
he absolutely was prior to that debate showing with the general public
Only 25% of Democrats wanted him to run, he is not a popular candidate
Because they are spineless cowards and various GOP operatives who have been doing this shit since Clinton and have become absolutely fuckin experts at it, came up to them in the locker room
“Hey so I pretty much everyone thinks Biden is a loser now,” they said.
“Really?” Said the media.
“Oh my God, do you even have to ask that?” asked the GOP derisively. “Did you see him at the debate?”
“I guess he did look pretty old…” said the media, thinking silently about when Trump said a wave of immigrants was coming in and killing our citizens at a level we’ve never seen.
“Media, he looked like a fucking ZOMBIE. He looked like an old, old man who didn’t know what year it was. I hope they find someone new after this. They’re pretty much going to have to. There’s no way they’re going to stick with that guy. He looks like someone’s great grandfather. He’s finished,” said the GOP forcefully. And then, after a carefully timed pause, they turned. “Wait, you don’t think he did GOOD, do you?”
And so on
And then the GOP operative got paid almost two hundred thousand dollars a year, and the media went out and wrote the story it was goddamned well supposed to write.
Because they are spineless cowards and various GOP operatives
You can’t possibly think that Democrat mainstays like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic are all being manipulated by GOP operatives.
Corporate news, like the other wealthy folks, love their big tax breaks.
So, you think the New York Times secretly wants the Republicans to win, and none of the dozen or so experienced journalists who comprise their editorial board has said anything about it.
Cool. I look forward to watching liberals tear down their own side because they can’t face reality.
Obviously because he’s a weak candidate (and has been from the very beginning) in what might well be the highest stakes presidential race in US history.
The debate didn’t suddenly create some notion of his weakness as a candidate - long before the debate, his prospects were already shaky at best, and the Dem establishment had already had to resort to basically trying to guilt trip people into voting for him.
All the debate did as far as any of that goes is drive home the point that people have been trying to make from the beginning - that he is and always has been a weak and uninspiring candidate at best.
And I’d say that rather obviously, if anyone’s repeating the mistakes of 2016, it’s the Dem establishment.
And on a bit of a side note - in response to the author’s smugly self-congratulatory view that the voters are mindless automatons who just blindly do as the media tells them, I would just like to offer up a hearty, “fuck you.”
All the debate did as far as any of that goes is drive home the point that people have been trying to make from the beginning - that he is and always has been a weak and uninspiring candidate at best
And Biden knew it too, it’s why the man who wouldn’t shut up for decades suddenly disappeared from the public eye.
He did less than a tenth of the press conferences as the last two presidents in their first term.
If they wouldn’t have been hiding him, Dem voters would have seen how bad he’s gotten.
It is very clear that the people who oppose Trump fall into one of two camps right now:
Those who watched the debate and his ABC interview, and those who did not.
If you watched, you’re alarmed.
If not, you are feeling like this alarm is better worth ignored. And you should go watch the debate and interview.
Smerconish’s piece on it was exactly it. https://youtu.be/CgZRz2vdnp8
The
mediaDNC is once again repeating the mistakes of 2016Because he’s a horrible candidate and I think there’s a good chance he loses to trump. It’s terrifying. If he loses fuck all of you.
You can do it Joe! Don’t give up! You got more votes than Obama!
