Biden at the Democratic convention was unrecognisable from his disastrous debate
theguardian.com
Biden’s voice was strong and clear, and the crowd was far warmer to him as an outgoing president
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Biden’s voice was strong and clear, and the crowd was far warmer to him as an outgoing president
It's one event with a month of prep time and a teleprompter. Biden hasn't lost all faculties, but he can't be this "on" every day for the next 3 months while also being president. This is carefully curated to his strengths, making him look good, which is great, but it's no sign he could be president in 4 years.
And it's not like he delivered flawlessly, he still has at least one part where he seemed to get lost, and the crowd covered for him.
Did have real mixed feelings about the "Thank You Joe" chant. It was kind of wholesome in a way, but I imagine it feels bad to have been pushed out like he was.
I hope he recognizes that he needed to do it. Even in 2020, "making" him run (I put making in quotes because you can't make a person run for office) felt like elder abuse. That is even more true now.
They needed him to run to stop a Bernie nomination. So... he kind of was "made to", in that he also agreed that Bernie shouldn't get the nomination.
And I'm in agreement with Biden, I think. I love Bernie and think he would have made a great president, but with how close 2020 was for Biden, I doubt he would have won the election. In fact I think part of why Kamala's doing well is for the same reason that Biden did well in 2020: Trump wanted to run against Bernie in 2020, and he wanted to run against Biden in 2024. Trump struggles when things don't go the way he expects them to, and I remember in 2020 a lot of trump's arguments were about how Biden was too far left, almost like he wanted to be making those arguments about Bernie instead
Polls showed Bernie had the largest lead in a head to head against Trump in 2016 and 2020 iirc. He's the most popular politician in the US.
That's boilerplate conservative talking points. He would've said that regardless of who he was running against.
Sanders is older than Biden. So if running Biden was elder abuse...
I think it'd be hard to look at the current state of things and think he made a mistake. At least he seems willing enough to get along.
I've no shortage of criticism for the man and his actions, but this one I can applaud.
Part of me might think maybe he is a little bit relieved. It's tiring on even a younger man. Now he can just focus on the rest of the year and he gets a much needed vacation and family time
I'm sure it feels bad but he shouldn't have been running again in the first place. The dead horse has been beaten to powder but he is way too old to be running a country - especially 4 years from now.
Sure.
Though something no one is mentioning is if he felt like he had to stay on to do the right thing, and made a very difficult decision to step down, part of this energy may be a relief we've all felt at one point or another.
I just can't shake the feeling that Biden never really wanted the job. He took it because he was convinced he was needed to oust Trump.
He first ran in the 1970s, he's definitely wanted to be a president for a long time. I do wonder, though, if Trump was what really pushed him to go.
And then doesn't try again until 2020? And only after witnessing a lineup that he thought couldn't win against Trump? Don't think that lines up.
He ran in 88 and 2008, ran as a vice president 2008 and 2012, skipped 2016 and ran again 2020 and 2024. I'd say it lines up, Biden always wanted to be president, and his only regret seems to be that he was persuaded not to run in 2016.
Well he isn't running to be president anymore, now is he?
This was a beautiful way to accentuate that transition, handing over the baton to a younger generation and having faith in that difficult decision.