kalm wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 7:22 am
GannonFan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2024 7:02 am
Interesting development today with Biden's published letter to Democrats in Congress. Basically going scorched earth at this point, says any outcome that doesn't have him as the nominee is undemocratic. Certainly going to make it harder to toss him aside since he's showing no signs of wanting to leave. Interesting to do this in a letter - the taped interview on ABC last Friday night didn't help his case. Doing it in letter form means you don't see the old person supposedly behind the letter. I don't know what the Democrats do if they can't get him to step aside, and if he can't be convinced I don't know how they could get him off the ticket. He's making it more and more likely he'll be on the ticket in November no matter what Democratic leadership wants. As he says in the letter, they're 42 days away from the convention and 119 days away from the election - how many letters can he write in that span versus speaking live?
The issue for Dems is far less his ability to make decisions (he has all the help he needs) and more about his electability.
It seems like Jill and his closest advisors are in the way.
Someone is going to have to tell him. And I think they will.
Well, as for making decisions, I would argue that's an important thing. We have a President for a reason - we're not electing an unknown group of advisors to run things. There does need to be someone who has the final say on things like policy and issues and who also interacts with and negotiates with other heads of state. Sure, there are always committees and advisors behind that, but the person we elect is the person we want to be there making the tie-breaking decisions on what we do as a country.
And that does lead into the electability - Biden's becoming less and less electable because if he's not the one making the decisions why even have him there in the first place? If he can't even functionally do the job, then why have him at all? The Dems can make the case that at least the White House would stay in Democratic control, and the benefits that come along with that, but the Presidency, at least in modern times (although I'd argue it has been for almost all the time) has been about the person running for the office. If the person isn't electable, then it doesn't matter what party they represent. It's odd, because Trump, as a person, is completely unelectable to a wide swath of the country, but clearly there is also a wide swath of the country that does like him. If Biden continues, as it seems he, or his closest advisors are saying, then he risks a November blowout because his own base of support is split on whether he should even run.
I don't know, I would've thought after the disastrous debate, after the unreassuring interview on Friday, and after a terrible weekend of people calling for him to stepdown that he would step down early this week. But that letter that just came out is like a shot across a bow by the power brokers that control Biden - they don't appear to be in any hurry to leave and they're not going to let him step out of the race anytime soon.