Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?
Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?
Yes, Biden had a bad debate – but so did Trump. The media is once again repeating the mistakes of 2016
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."
Because they probably watched the same disaster of a debate that I did.
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
Because it drives ratings and all the dumbasses who pick it up and run with it are the same ones who followed "this is how Bernie can still win." I've already seen multiple people say "we could have AOC!" as if that is at all realistic. And although she is the most "out there" fan fic pick there are still plenty of others who would immediately be torn apart.
Choosing a different horse at this point leads to a Mondale style wipeout.
Funny how everyone latches onto "generic democrat polls better" polls that would IMMEDIATELY shift as soon Biden drops and they come in.
It would:
- signal Democrats have no idea what they're doing
- Put out the feeling they're terrified
- Open up a new candidate to attacks "they're too left, they're too soft on crime, they're ...."
- Give up the incumbency advantage and it IS an advantage.
Why anyone is still on this "drop out Biden" crap is beyond me. His interview was fine (notice how no one is bringing that up in comparison to one bad debate). Trump has MULTIPLE times looked confused and out of it on this campaign trail let alone all the years before (notice how no one brings that up.) Project 2025 should scare the living daylights out of anyone- Republican, Democrat, or independent and especially in light of the relatively progressive and largely relaxed time of Biden's admin..
To me this is nothing but a Republican plan come to fruition by latching on whatever they could and a bunch of dummies running with it. And by dummies I mean people who don't like Biden and see this as their perfect chance to drop him, even if their preferred younger candidate gets absolutely stomped in the election. They'd rather have "their way" even if it means giving up the presidency.
Hold the line- Biden will be fine.
Look who pays their bills.
It's clearly because the evil media is out to get Perfect Young Biden. There can be no other possible explanation.
Wow, this is written by one truly oblivious journalist
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.
It's not quite the same as 2016 because then, we had no incumbent President running. It was a blank slate on both sides.
Because it worked so well for Humphrey in his 1968 win.
Or they're Republicans and dirty pool is okay by them.
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.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic.
Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment.
It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, AKA most of these pundits.
The extremist US supreme court justices he selected during his last presidential term themselves staged a coup this very Monday, overthrowing the US constitution itself and the principle that no one is above the law to make presidents into kings, just after legalizing bribery of officials, and dismantling the regulatory state by throwing out the Chevron deference.
I get that writing about the monstrosity that is Trump faces the problem that it’s not news; he’s been a monster spouting lurid nonsense all his life (but his political crimes are recent, and his free-associating public soliloquies on sharks, batteries, toilets, water flow and Hannibal Lector, among other topics, are genuinely demented).
But the shocking supreme court decisions this summer and the looming threat of authoritarianism have gotten little ink and air, compared to the hue and cry about Biden’s competence.
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The bots/trolls and the right want him to drop out because they know come November, the rapist with 34 felonies is going to take a bigger beating than he took last time. They're desperate. Do not fall for the bullshit and misinformation, VOTE. If you can, volunteer, give people rides, whatever it takes.
Interesting title. I had the impression that so many pundits sought to prop him up.
Because 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.
Trump's camp has tried to make the age and competency of candidates a focal point, and they've also tried to highlight that the left is too left. What would happen if they got a younger candidate with a more centered running mate? Suddenly spin it all back and dump it on Trump and snag up all the undecided voters impacted by all the supreme court decision in the past couple years who would otherwise lean towards Trump
Even liberals that want the Democrats to win are Pundits now. Get in line no criticism allowed.
You can do it Joe! Don’t give up! You got more votes than Obama!
I don't know or care what the pundit class is. From my perspective biden is nearly as bad as trump. Not quite as bad which is why he will get my vote. Like trump he is old and moribund. He cares nothing for the problems faced by me or anyone I know. He has done things for the environment. If it wasn't such a obvious vote grab the thing with the student loans would be a good thing.
He began his administration in the wake of the George Floyd murder. At a bare minimum he could have ordered the creation of a law enforcement personnel database. Where a service record of every law enforcement employee in the country could be accessed. Give access to the insurance companies for these police dept and watch the high risk cops become unemployable. Such a simple thing but our VP is pro cop. Instead he did nothing.
So he has my vote over trump but if Romney was running he would have my vote. He is the only republican I seen lately with any spine. Not that he isn't a ancient POS as well.
This November we will elect a King.
Anyone who still believes we are electing a president like usual is not paying attention.
Biden was a mediocre status quo manager, tweaks around the edges president who inspired no one. No one voted for Biden with love or with enthusiasm. As president Biden was just barely passable, more about damage mitigation ("I am not Trump!") than about a positive, affirmative, forward looking VISION for America.
But we aren't electing a president anymore.
We are electing a King.
As a prospective King, Biden is absolute trash. Biden can use his newly granted Kingly powers to immediately official act assassinate all 6 servative SCOTUS judges! Ruthless and efficient response is what befits a King. Biden is a goddamn sleepy and moist slug who can't even protect himself from salt. Biden is weak, slow, lacks insight into the moment.
Biden had 4 years to deal with the structural wealth inequality issue in America. He's ignored the issue because his billionaire donors paid him to ignore it. In other words, Biden does not think big, and cannot escape the big money influence. He's a far cry from FDR. That's Biden as president.
But as King? The requirements for a King are totally different. Biden needs to be removed immediately, and a ruthlessly hard left individual needs to be installed immediately. Nothing less will thwart the GOP while creating a path to the future we actually want to believe in and want to live in.