Biden resists allies’ calls to exit race after debate performance: ‘I know I’m not a young man’

ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone to politics @lemmy.world – 185 points –
Biden resists allies’ calls to exit race after debate performance: ‘I know I’m not a young man’
latimes.com
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I pessimistically expected that.

If he bowed out and the Dems nominated a halfway decent candidate (which they likely wouldn't do, but that's a different subject), they'd demolish Trump. He'd lose so badly he couldn't even pretend it was fraudulent (though of course he'd claim that anyway, since he has the emotional maturity of a spoiled five-year-old). The race would instantly go from a terrifying risk to a complete rout.

But between Biden's ego and the DNC's determination to stick with a wholly-owned establishment neoliberal hack at all costs - even if it means losing - I expected that they wouldn't take this golden opportunity.

On the stream of the debate I was watching, when they took a break they showed clips from previous debates and the difference was kind of mind-blowing.

I honestly kind of think that even a mid-level candidate who didn't make it like Romney or Kerry probably could have mopped the floor with either one of them.

Also as a side note, how lucky is Donald Trump? Just a whole life of being handed infinite money no matter how many times he fucked up a business, a bewildering assortment of crimes with essentially no hard consequences, and two presidential runs against pretty much the only two people he has any chance of beating in a debate.

He's had a life of almost non-stop softballs. It's kind of wild really.

But between Biden's ego and the DNC's determination to stick with a wholly-owned establishment neoliberal hack at all costs - even if it means losing - I expected that they wouldn't take this golden opportunity.

Biden has objectively been the most progressive president since LBJ, and the most effective progressive president since FDR. And he did it with about the slimmest possible congressional margins, a situation which would have made it very easy for an actual "establishment neoliberal hack" to say "my hands are tied" and accomplish nothing of substance. Instead we got the biggest climate reform package ever, the biggest infrastructure package since the Interstate Highway system, a child tax credit that massively reduced child poverty, the most significant industrial policy in decades (CHIPS and Science), a veritable bulldog FTC chair with an aggressive anti-monopoly stance, and that's just for starters.

That's all well and good... And it will be for nothing. Biden's legacy will be that of RBG - your hubris handed the future to the opposition. These are dark days.

Who exactly? I think you underestimate the power of being an incumbent.

You're not wrong. Some truths are inconvenient and unpopular, but they're not wrong.