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Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

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Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#211

Post by ianburrell »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #139
ahartmetz wrote: post #41

Oof. This guy has been the biggest positive surprise of the US presidents in my lifetime. Expectations were low, but he actually turned out to be a good president (from a European perspective). No new wars, no more talk about shifting defense focus to Asia, generally nothing unreasonable. Good support for Ukraine, no doubts about NATO - rather the opposite. Basically, the rich uncle on the other side of the pond has…

> I presume that his attitudes and staff selection carried the day, and maybe could have done so for another term. But his mental capacity was clearly declining, and he is in fact expected to handle some things personally. Biden's presidency makes me wonder if we really need a head of state these days. Is it really necessary to have such a single powerful figure in the executive branch? The biggest exception (IMO) wo…

The problem isn't the head of state but the head of government. The solution to that is reduce the powers of the President.

I have been having thought that the office of President should be split. With separate head of state and head of government that runs the executive branch. Another option would be to have triumvirate with command in chief that commands the military. Maybe the President has power to dismiss the others, or there is system than one person can't take over, like the CnC can never be executive.

You could do that with current structure by giving all the executive power to the Vice President, and then President would be left with head of state role. They would run as slate, with the visible, charismatic President, and the unknown, competent VP. If the President dies, the VP loses all his power.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#212

Post by jjtheblunt »

does anyone know the psychology of sharing photos with Harris and Biden tilted like pi/8 radians counterclockwise?

I see it repeatedly since this story broke, but not earlier.

It likely relates to how outlets looking to promote a person (athlete, candidate, whatever) tend to show them from below, as if they're larger than normal, but that's just a guess.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#213

Post by SonOfKyuss »

kuschkufan wrote: post #161
SonOfKyuss wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Literally asking people to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears I mean, it seems to be a winning strategy for the other party.

Not a convincing argument, but a testament to low standards. Also, Whataboutism.

There’s no argument meant to be made. Just a statement of the (sad) fact that blatant gaslighting is pretty common and often very effective.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#214

Post by nxm »

BadHumans wrote: post #115
tobias3 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The history as a prosecutor might be a significant advantage in a general election. The anti-police senitment has waned and she can position herself right at the center w.r.t. rule of law.

Anti-police sentiment has not waned among minorities and that is a demographic she would need to capture to win.

Most Black folks want safety in their neighborhoods, period, and that is not possible without police and hence most support it. You don't hear "Defund the Police" anymore because we know how well it worked out.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#215

Post by voxl »

caminante wrote: post #35
black_knight wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He can do president duties, while the candidate they choose go around collecting votes.

That's the thing. If he's unfit to serve 6 months from now, then how is he fit to serve now? He didn't endorse Kamala in his letter. We'll see what comes out of the spin cycle this week. e: looks like Biden endorsed Kamala according to other publications

See you don't understand, he IS fit to serve, but he doesn't believe he'll win the election.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#216

Post by jjtheblunt »

gumby wrote: post #32

One of the most effective presidents since Johnson or Truman. But he did campaign on a single term. Let’s hope the Dem’s circular firing squad puts down its guns so they can quickly concentrate on winning the election with someone … probably Harris is the simplest answer.

how do you measure who is effective?

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#217

Post by layer8 »

caminante wrote: post #35
black_knight wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He can do president duties, while the candidate they choose go around collecting votes.

That's the thing. If he's unfit to serve 6 months from now, then how is he fit to serve now? He didn't endorse Kamala in his letter. We'll see what comes out of the spin cycle this week. e: looks like Biden endorsed Kamala according to other publications

The important consideration is that he’s unfit to serve for four and a half more years, and also that he’s unfit to win the election. In contrast, he’s probably not considerably more unfit for the next six months than for the past six.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#218

Post by arp242 »

sparky_z wrote: post #126
majewsky wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems super late in the game but okay. Why does the US in specific have such drawn-out campaigns? Earlier this week, I saw a pundit commenting that 4 months before the election is too short notice to pick a new candidate. But there's countries in Europe that announce elections, pick candidates, do the campaigns, go to the pools, do the counts, and have the electees take office, all in less than 4 months (see e.g…

Because elections here aren't "announced". They're on a fixed 4-year schedule. Everyone knows they're coming, and if they start just a little sooner than the other guy this time, that may give them an advantage. Over time, it creeps earlier and earlier. Like retail stores putting out Christmas stuff in mid-october. Obviously, in great Britain's recent election, nobody knew there was going to be an election until it w…

Plenty of countries have elections on a fixed cycle and an election date known years in advance, and they don't have these extremely long drawn-out campaigns. Also, in most countries candidates also don't spend a fucktillion dollars on campaigning – another thing that has gotten rather out of hand in the US.

And the mid-terms make it even worse. De-facto the US runs on a two-year election cycle. I suspect this is part of the reason why things are so screwed in the first place.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#220

Post by occz »

sparky_z wrote: post #126
majewsky wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems super late in the game but okay. Why does the US in specific have such drawn-out campaigns? Earlier this week, I saw a pundit commenting that 4 months before the election is too short notice to pick a new candidate. But there's countries in Europe that announce elections, pick candidates, do the campaigns, go to the pools, do the counts, and have the electees take office, all in less than 4 months (see e.g…

Because elections here aren't "announced". They're on a fixed 4-year schedule. Everyone knows they're coming, and if they start just a little sooner than the other guy this time, that may give them an advantage. Over time, it creeps earlier and earlier. Like retail stores putting out Christmas stuff in mid-october. Obviously, in great Britain's recent election, nobody knew there was going to be an election until it w…

As a counterpoint, Sweden has elections on a fixed schedule as well, and electioneering is still essentially contained to a month before the election proper.
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