Thank you GabeSter
Ok Joe. Now legalize it.
I wonder if Harris is still pro-legalization.
Only after it got too far into his own party having to show to him that he had no real support path to victory.
Don’t praise people too much when they EVENTUALLY do the right thing. It’s good he finally did, but this is the guy who ran in 2020 suggesting he’d be a one-term president in the first place.
The power got to him like it does everyone.
Good for you, you eventually did the right thing. Would have been better if you had done so a hell of a lot sooner.
I’ll say only that temptation is ever present. He took action and passed the torch. I don’t want to take any credit away from the people that convinced him that was the correct course of action, but it ultimately came down to him actually doing it, something I can’t say I believe anyone on the right (and a hell of a lot of people on the left) would have done.
I don’t think he wanted another term. I really think he felt like he was the only one that could beat Trump.
Maybe he knows some shit we don’t know about?
I’m not so sure bowing out earlier would have been better. Dragging it out as long as he did let Trump lean more heavily into the age issue than he otherwise would have, which is now coming back to bite him.
Of course, I don’t think that was a tactical decision, I think you’re right on the money when it comes to Biden’s motivations, but I do think the last minute about-face may have actually helped the Democrats here
I don’t judge him negatively for that. He has a lot of programs that are helping people, and he wanted to do a lot more of that.
I judge him negatively for supporting Israel.
I’m in 100% agreement, to the point where I was preparing for a Toupee victory until Biden stepped aside. But with how hilariously Vance is shitting himself in the foot (typo intentional), I have to at least briefly wonder if Biden waited to step aside until after the Toupee Party picked their VP. It’s blindingly obvious that the Republicans were only planning on campaigning against Biden. If he had stepped aside before Vance was picked, the Toupee might have picked a less unlikable VP candidate.
IIRC he stepped aside immediately after the republican convention that had had been aimed entirely at him leaving them scrambling, and endorsed Harris who was immediately read to run. The timing was impeccable!
Yeah, I don’t think his original decision to stay in was to make this tactical choice, but I absolutely think they figured out long ago he wasn’t going to win (or maybe even to have the stamina to keep campaigning) and they had him stay in until the worst possible moment for R’s.
Attaboy Joe
American Cincinnatus!
Thanks for your comment. I looked up the story of Cincinnatus and was not disappointed!
I guess it wasn’t coerced but “voluntarily” is quite the stretch, call this shi reed richards
I guess it wasn’t coerced
It was coerced in the sense that the biggest party donors had refused to put any more money into his campaign. Biden fundraising after the debate absolutely tanked. That’s one reason why Harris got crazy post-dropout fundraising numbers. She caught a windfall of money that had been earmarked for Biden.
Did anyone have a gun to his head? Probably not. But they might as well have. You can’t run a national campaign full of high dollar media markets without billions in donor dollars.
Never should have run in the first place
Hopefully Harris will win over the American people. A second Trump term is probably the biggest threat to world peace that we could have.
We can stop jerking this guy off now, he’s no longer the candidate. I think he was a shit candidate from the beginning, despite being worlds better than Trump.
What could have been if we had Bernie…
He did a commendable thing his opponent could never do. That is deserving of a meme. Stop being a stick in the mud lol
Fuck genocide Joe. Dudes selfish as fuck and only backed out when he realized he was gonna lose.
Stop living in fantasy. He was forced out, under threat of the 25th amendment. This wasn’t some selfless act…he lost his faculties and had to be booted by his own party under threat.
Clueless comment. He was not forced by anyone, maybe encouraged. Very clear what happened if you were paying attention; he made a public statement that he might not continue running if he fell ill, then promptly contracted covid and dropped out. Mike Johnson is too new to his seat to consider approving any action based on a25, Kamala would have to be the initiator of the process, and the only mentions I saw of it were well after the step-down.
While I don’t think I’ll ever like or fully respect Biden, I seriously respect the fact he stepped down. While I get that he was being pressured to do so, he is still the leader of the Democratic party and could have just said “fuck you”
There might be something I am missing because I am not American, but isn’t the leader of leader of Democratic Party the chairperson? Isn’t it Chuck Schumer?
There are many leaders in each American political party, the leader of their representatives in the house, the leader of their senators, the leader of the party committee, the leader of the governor’s association, etc. But when a party controls the White House, the president is generally considered the head honcho. Part of that is respect for the office, part of it is practicality (the president has the biggest ability of any one person to message a party’s platform), and part of it is mechanics (every four years at the national convention, the party adopts the platform of their presidential candidate, essentially signing up to work for that person if and when they become president to support enacting that platform. Chuck Schumer is the Majority leader of the Democratic Senate caucus, which makes him very high ranking in the party, but Biden would still “outrank” him, so to speak. Jaime Harrison is the DNC chair, which is largely a fundraising and campaign strategy position vs. a position of power.
If the party holds the Presidency, the President leads the party in every way that matters.
“Leader” is only a title. Money rules and they told him “no more, now GTFO.” He was forced out. With no support he really had no choice.
Money rules is a shallow and incomplete view of power, and I’m saying that as an anarchocommunist
He would have stuck it out stubbornly had he not been pressured. No cookies for Biden.
Let the man have cookies! We are all not as self-aware as Orbituary :-/
So you’re saying that a politician listened to members of his party and the voters, sidelining his own ambitions. And you have a problem with that?
I have no doubt that he was presented the near certain possibility of being humiliated (some more) and handing over the remains of American democracy to a group of literal Nazis, just to safeguard his own ego.
I would have voted for his administration no matter what (I was relatively pleased with it), but I have no fantasies about who Joe is and why he really stepped down. Once Obama started campaigning for him stepping down, it was all over.
He quit to save his own ego and his “legacy”.
You type this and get up voted. I say the same thing more succinctly and get hammered.
I would have voted for him, but my vote double doesn’t count. I’m in a hard Blue state, Washington. You could support genocide and Washington would still vote Dem. Oh… Wait.
Wait, in the US, it’s not common to hate all your politicians? Coming from France, that’s like… a second nature
Only a few are respected, but for the most part I personally hate them all. Bernie Sanders is one with integrity. So is Jimmy Carter.
The thing is the nomination was his and there was nothing anyone could do about it. He could have stayed in the race. An argument can be made that it looks worse to step down halfway through the campaign instead of fighting till the end. An egocentric guy like Trump would never have stepped down. He would try to turn the base against the RNC and set the party on fire before giving up. That’s the contrast being shown here.
It’s not just a matter of if, but also when.
Biden waited until damn near the last possible minute, and probably wouldn’t have stepped down if it wasn’t for the Trump shooting.
I dunno - the timing was right after the RNC and Vance being locked in. Vance didn’t broaden the ticket appeal because they thought Trump had the election in the bag. The timing might not have been strategic but it worked out pretty damn well!
The timing was clearly strategic. He didn’t want to do it, but there’s a reason why Kamala’s campaign literally started calling Democratic representatives within hours.
Waiting until the last second absolutely fucked the GOP though. They were only prepared to run against Biden and now they don’t have the time needed to spin up an effective campaign against Harris.
I don’t know if the timing was strategic or just a tough decision, both seem possible. But the end result is that we’re now in a better position to stop Trump in November.
It was not strategic. It was hubris and bad advice bordering on elderly abuse. I have no doubt Jill Biden was a big part of the choice to stick it out, based on some of the insider leaks on this topic.
I don’t understand the title.
Tbh I often felt as if the guy was still going because he felt he had to. This somewhat reflects his indecision and even final statements before stepping down. I sincerely believe he felt he was doing the right thing. People who believe they are doing the right thing are often stubborn in their belief and I’m glad he found the strength to step aside. That can’t have been easy.
I agree with your assessment. Politicians also live a life where somewhere around half of all people think they are making the wrong decision at all times, so unless they have conviction they flop around way too much to succeed.
Also, for all people who are getting old, it’s their first time, and they have no idea what they might seem like to anybody else. It’s like you have been getting back up after being knocked down your whole life and suddenly you can’t get back up again.
We do bash on older people in politics, and they shouldn’t be there past a point. Though like…they remember when things were better. Distanced as they are, the good ones likely see the differences, though from a different perspective to us. How they care is different from what we need and some politicians are becoming aware of that, AOC the modern example.
Stepping aside for Harris was scary for us and probably terrifying for Biden. He stepped up because of Trump, DNC bs aside, it was still his choice. So of course he would struggle to step down. Could you imagine giving a treasonous moron the boot and for the entirety of your time in any big chair you’re just watching them gain a larger and larger following, all the while half of the people you’re supposed to work with are backing that person blindly? Man, I’d be so fucking anxious and frustrated. Like it or not, that’s Biden imho.
I don’t think the man ever wanted the job. Despite the naysayers, rabble-rousers, and people whose entire argument centers on hiding behind and screaming about one specific thing over and over, Biden HAS been a good President. Possibly even great in so many ways. I’m not a particular fan of him, the only leader that ever got my full attention has been Bernie, Biden though? He’s done good.
Right now though? We need someone strong and clever enough to push past bipartismanship and play hardball. We also need unity. I’m not sure Harris has the natural charisma to pull the Nation together. However, she seems smart and willing to build a powerful team. There is leadership in that wisdom.
Sounds like gaslighting to me. He was very reluctant.
Everybody in his shoes would be at least reluctant. Specially in Biden’s case who is known to overthink big decisions. What matters is that he made the right decision in the end.
What matters is that he made the right decision in the end.
“I may have been [late], but I’m not wrong”
btw I’m kidding, I’m on the fence about how to feel - you make a good point
Perfect and good? Sworn enemies I always say
Oh dear… I don’t like the implications that Trump is perfect…
;-)
Trump? Wtf.
Perfect in this case obviously was if Biden dropped out at the exact right moment, good being he dropped out in time for a recovery which he did
I just meant, since Trump isn’t good, does that imply he’s perfect? Them being sworn enemies and all, according to the commenter.
Worrying, that…
Do you not understand sarcasm? That is a saying that I was repurposing for sarcasm. “Don’t make perfect the enemy of good”
Oh no, I had no idea of sarcasm! Is that a thing people do on the internet?! It was completely invisible to me in your comment, and mine certainly would never contain a shred of complimentary sarcasm.
/s
;-)
Okay, just to clear things up. I don’t think Trump is perfect, not at all, I was just playing with words in ‘logical’ sequence from your comment. Apologies for the confusion.
What’s the gaslight? What purpose would it serve to manipulate the populace into believing the narrative that he had good “feefees”?
You’re just spewing your favourite little reddit word. You’d get a gold star if you use it right! Too bad you’re too much of a froggie to do that. Sad. Womp.
I’m a bigger fan of him now than I ever was before. Selfishness is easy. Giving up a shot at power is hard. I don’t agree with all his choices, but I respect him for this one.
I’m a bigger fan of him now
I’m a very big fan.
I don’t know that Biden even really wanted the job when he ran in 2020. The impression that I got was that he was done seeking the presidency after 2016, it seemed like maybe the party convinced him he was the best chance to be at Trump.
I could be wrong, but it’s hard for me to believe he wanted to do anything besides retire and enjoy his remaining time with his remaining family.
Once it became clear that he was NOT the best option to beat Trump, he dropped out. It might be as simple as that.
Still major kudos for dropping out either way.
I honestly think the same. Dudes old as shit, has money and a family. He doesn’t need the stress and obligations that come with the presidency. Maybe he gets a kick out of being in power, but from everything I saw about him I’d wager he would much rather just retire and live the easy life.
I’m curious what makes you a fan of someone who supported a genocide where 40k people died so far?
I don’t agree with all his choices
With how much everybody’s expressing their love for Biden, I’m half expecting him to reenter the race and be praised for it.
(Joke. Just a joke.)
