2024 Elections Thread

[Ruralguy]

Presidential elections only hinge on platform to the extent that it can bring in certain   
needed base groups, or in certain regions, possibly swing groups. Even if a majority believe in Pre-Dobbs rights, its probably not enough to win in the current environment, and maybe wasnt before. Of course, you still try to sell your platform, but each side has a lot of baggage in addition to written platforms that seem logical.

[Parasaurolophus]

Presidential elections only hinge on platform to the extent that it can bring in certain   
needed base groups, or in certain regions, possibly swing groups. Even if a majority believe in Pre-Dobbs rights, its probably not enough to win in the current environment, and maybe wasnt before. Of course, you still try to sell your platform, but each side has a lot of baggage in addition to written platforms that seem logical.

Which is moot anyway, because the Biden team has yet to release a policy platform. Sigh.

[jimbogumbo]

If he drops out, the money issue is important (duh):
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4753737-biden-drop-out-rumors-campaign-funding/

[Langue_doc]

Biden Tells Governors He Needs More Sleep and Less Work at Night
The president's opening remark to a group of key Democratic leaders — that he was in the race to stay — chilled any talk of his withdrawal, participants said.

The first few paragraphs:

President Biden told a gathering of Democratic governors that he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8 p.m., according to two people who participated in the meeting and several others briefed on his comments.

The remarks on Wednesday were a stark acknowledgment of fatigue from the 81-year-old president during a meeting intended to reassure more than two dozen of his most important supporters that he is still in command of his job and capable of mounting a robust campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Biden's comments about needing more rest came shortly after The New York Times reported that current and former officials have noticed that the president's lapses over the past few months have become more frequent and more pronounced.

But Mr. Biden told the governors, some of whom were at the White House others who participated virtually, according to the White House, that he was staying in the race.

He described his extensive foreign travel in the weeks before the debate, something that the White House and his allies have in recent days cited as the reason for his halting performance during the debate. Initially, Mr. Biden's campaign blamed a cold, putting out word about midway through the debate amid a series of social media posts questioning why Mr. Biden was struggling.

Mr. Biden said that he told his staff he needed to get more sleep, multiple people familiar with what took place in the meeting said. He repeatedly referenced pushing too hard and not listening to his team about his schedule, and said he needed to work fewer hours and avoid events after 8 p.m., according to one of the people familiar with what took place at the meeting.

Biden's mental decline has been apparent as early as last October when Robert Hur described Biden as having "diminished faculties in advancing age" and called him a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

[ciao_yall]

Just learned a few tidbits which suggest we will have a new Nominee before next week.

Ohio requires the candidates be named by August 7. Gotta get this done now.

P and VP can't be from the same state so a Harris/Newsom or Newsom/Harris ticket is off the table.

NYT op-eds already floating alternatives. I'm suspecting Harris/Shapiro or Harrris/Moore.

[Parasaurolophus]

Biden Tells Governors He Needs More Sleep and Less Work at Night
The president's opening remark to a group of key Democratic leaders — that he was in the race to stay — chilled any talk of his withdrawal, participants said.

The first few paragraphs:

President Biden told a gathering of Democratic governors that he needs to get more sleep and work fewer hours, including curtailing events after 8 p.m., according to two people who participated in the meeting and several others briefed on his comments.

The remarks on Wednesday were a stark acknowledgment of fatigue from the 81-year-old president during a meeting intended to reassure more than two dozen of his most important supporters that he is still in command of his job and capable of mounting a robust campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Biden's comments about needing more rest came shortly after The New York Times reported that current and former officials have noticed that the president's lapses over the past few months have become more frequent and more pronounced.

But Mr. Biden told the governors, some of whom were at the White House others who participated virtually, according to the White House, that he was staying in the race.

He described his extensive foreign travel in the weeks before the debate, something that the White House and his allies have in recent days cited as the reason for his halting performance during the debate. Initially, Mr. Biden's campaign blamed a cold, putting out word about midway through the debate amid a series of social media posts questioning why Mr. Biden was struggling.

Mr. Biden said that he told his staff he needed to get more sleep, multiple people familiar with what took place in the meeting said. He repeatedly referenced pushing too hard and not listening to his team about his schedule, and said he needed to work fewer hours and avoid events after 8 p.m., according to one of the people familiar with what took place at the meeting.

Biden's mental decline has been apparent as early as last October when Robert Hur described Biden as having "diminished faculties in advancing age" and called him a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

So... Don't schedule hugely important political events past your bedtime, I guess? Who could have known?

It's almost as if they don't take their own rhetoric about the Trump threat seriously.

[Ruralguy]

There will not be a nominee without the surname Biden or Harris.

If Biden does not bow out in July, then its Biden for sure.

Money and ballot issues matter. Magical thinking might help, but it wont get

you over the finish line.

[dismalist]

Presidential elections only hinge on platform to the extent that it can bring in certain   
needed base groups, or in certain regions, possibly swing groups. Even if a majority believe in Pre-Dobbs rights, its probably not enough to win in the current environment, and maybe wasnt before. Of course, you still try to sell your platform, but each side has a lot of baggage in addition to written platforms that seem logical.

Which is moot anyway, because the Biden team has yet to release a policy platform. Sigh.

The Democratic Party has had a policy platform since 2016. It is Donald Trump!

This is perfectly rational. Democratic voters, not to say the Democratic party, are a diverse bunch, harboring conflicting interests. A detailed platform would merely invite a food fight.

And this is nothing new, though perhaps more pronounced in recent years. As Will Rogers said: I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

[Langue_doc]

So... Don't schedule hugely important political events past your bedtime, I guess? Who could have known?

It's almost as if they don't take their own rhetoric about the Trump threat seriously.

Hope the memo was sent to everyone: Folks, no emergencies, no natural or man-made disasters, and no outbreaks of war after 8 PM EST.

Another NYT article:

There's a Name for the Trap Biden Faces

After his shockingly poor performance in last week's debate, President Biden is facing mounting pressure to drop out of the 2024 election. Influential voices in his own party have called for him to step aside. Polls indicate that many voters hope he will. Yet so far he is staying the course.

There's a formal name for this trap: escalation of commitment to a losing course of action. In the face of impending failure, extensive evidence shows that instead of rethinking our plans, we often double down on our decisions. It feels better to be a fighter than a quitter.

One of the tragedies of the human condition is that we use our big brains not to make rational decisions, but rather to rationalize the decisions we've already made. We stick around too long in dead-end jobs. We stay in unhappy marriages even after friends have counseled us to leave. We stand by candidates even after they violate our principles.

Some of the worst leadership decisions of our time can be traced to escalation of commitment. Many people lost their lives because American presidents pursued a futile war in Vietnam — and continued searching for weapons of mass destruction that weren't in Iraq. As George Ball warned in a 1965 letter to President Lyndon Johnson: "Once we suffer large casualties, we will have started a well-nigh irreversible process. Our involvement will be so great that we cannot — without national humiliation — stop short of achieving our complete objectives. Of the two possibilities I think humiliation will be more likely."

Escalation of commitment helps to explain why leaders are often so reluctant to loosen their grip on power. Losing a high-status position can make them feel as if they're losing their place in the world. It leaves them with bruised egos and wounded pride.

Do read the comments. The latest one notes:

The suggestion that Biden step down has, at this point, been described in every way imaginable. There is solace in reading these comments by NYT readers, now if only Biden and his family/advisors would heed the writing on the wall. Time's a'wasting, folks!

[Ruralguy]

If it doesnt happen in three weeks, and maybe even three days, then it isnt happening at all. I put it at about 30 percent chance of happening, and almost zero that a replacement would be non Harris.

[Parasaurolophus]

So... Yesterday Biden called himself the first Black woman serving under a Black president. And later called Trump "one of four colleagues," whatever that means.

It's pretty obvious he can't remember words and is speaking around them. It's classic, and he's been doing it for years. But so soon after the debate, that's... Not going to help.

Tellingly, Harris almost called him the vice president.

[Parasaurolophus]

To be fair, it's clear he doesn't believe that. He merely started one sentence, didn't finish it, started a second, didn't finish it, then returned to the first. Totally normal. =/

[Sun_Worshiper]

If it doesnt happen in three weeks, and maybe even three days, then it isnt happening at all. I put it at about 30 percent chance of happening, and almost zero that a replacement would be non Harris.

I agree. Its now or never. And it is Harris or Biden (hopefully Harris imo).

[Parasaurolophus]

I'll just add: I see that tonight's Stephanopoulos interview is scheduled for... *checks time*... 20h00.

So much for not scheduling anything past his bedtime. WTF?!

[dismalist]

I'll just add: I see that tonight's Stephanopoulos interview is scheduled for... *checks time*... 20h00.

So much for not scheduling anything past his bedtime. WTF?!

Stephanopoulos is expected to talk to President Biden earlier in the day Friday from the campaign trail in Wisconsin. The first clip of the interview will air on Friday's broadcast of "World News Tonight" as planned, then in a primetime special at 8 p.m. eastern ... .
--Variety

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