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Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

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Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#711

Putting politics aside … Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? E.g., you must be younger than the average life expectancy (currently men: 73yo / female: 79) - while in office. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

Because old people vote.

They even remember the time when western media mocked the "Kremlin gerontocracy".

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#712

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…

This is a weird way to formulate the question of how you could better constitute the US federal government.

(because if you were gonna make a change as fundamental as not having a primary leader of the executive branch, you probably wouldn't try to limit your changes to that)

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#713

Not going to happen, but I wonder how a mixed party ticket would do. Kamala (or whoever) + Mitt Romney as VP ? Has it ever been done? Would it work to attract the center/swing vote, or more likely to be a negative?

The VP used to be the runner up [1]. E.g. the current administration would be Biden and Trump. I couldn’t imagine that working today, as divided as the parties have become (especially in the last 20 years). [1] https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/s...

Didn’t even work well then, which is why the 12th Amendment passed quickly

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Air traffic controller here: we have a mandatory requirement age of 56.

And you can't even get hired -- by law -- if you're over 30 years old. It's absurd . The FAA is complaining that they don't have enough ATCs, but have done absolutely nothing to broaden the hiring pool. "We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!"

The 30 year maximum age for hiring is there to make sure controllers have enough time working to earn pension benefits before mandatory retirement.

Hiring someone older would be setting them up for a very bad time later in life.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#715
As a registered Republican who voted IND in 2016 and then for Trump in 2020 (which probably puts me in about a 0.1% minority on a site like this), I feel upset that the democratic process for choosing a nominee for the Democratic Party is about to just get bypassed. Are other folks feeling this? I’d be even more riled up if this were my party telling me, “Oh, that guy you voted for in the primaries? We thought he couldn’t win so we will harass him until he quits, then we are going to replace him with someone better (since we know better than the voters).”

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He got us out of Afghanistan too... this was a huge win and was very risky. Doesn't get enough credit for this one. Agreed on NATO + Ukraine too but I wish they would allow us to strike Russia directly even with NATO equipment.

Not a huge win for women in Afghanistan though.

The US invasion and attempted puppet government in Afghanistan made life much worse for women in Afghanistan because it drove regular people to support the extremist Taliban, who themselves became more extreme as the war went on.

Just because the US could take control and pretend to make progress doesn't mean it actually changed people's minds. In fact it actively poisoned the concept of women's rights in that region for decades

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#718

As a registered Republican who voted IND in 2016 and then for Trump in 2020 (which probably puts me in about a 0.1% minority on a site like this), I feel upset that the democratic process for choosing a nominee for the Democratic Party is about to just get bypassed. Are other folks feeling this? I’d be even more riled up if this were my party telling me, “Oh, that guy you voted for in the primaries? We thought he cou…

Voting for the candidate at the convention actually is the process. It always has been. It’s just been a while since the outcome of the vote was unknown until we got to the convention itself.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#719
post #619
post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airline pilots have a legally mandated retirement age of 65. Running the country seems like it's at least as mission-critical as flying a plane.

The president has a large support staff to keep the lights on most of the time. Unless the nation is physically under attack, the president's day-to-day job is probably physically less demanding than that of pilots. They have plenty of time for golf.

Airplane can fly and land themselves for the most part it’s only in case of a emergency does a pilot really need to have quick judgment

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#720

Not going to happen, but I wonder how a mixed party ticket would do. Kamala (or whoever) + Mitt Romney as VP ? Has it ever been done? Would it work to attract the center/swing vote, or more likely to be a negative?

This is an interesting thought experiment. What would the US be like with a completely impossible ticket? Would we flourish under a Lenny Bruce-Knuckles the Echidna ticket? What if Misty and Brock were the respective RNC and DNC chairs? These are the sorts of questions the status quo politicians don’t want us to be asking

I'm still waiting for the Al Franken-Jill Stein dream team to take the stage.
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