Live data from Hacker News

Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

twitter.com

991–1000 of 1001 posts

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#991
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.

iirc the pilot retirement age is at least in part due to radiation exposure.

Citation needed. (I'm a (private) pilot and I've never heard this.)

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#992
post #22

This is wild. It seems super late in the game but okay. I'm super interested to see what will become of his chips act etc. The push he has tried to do to remove dependencies on TSMC is very forward thinking. Hopefully the next candidate takes up the momentum. Edit : Typo in TSMC

> 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…

Try two weeks ;) (last elections in France)

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#993

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…

>No new wars

>Good support for Ukraine

You're looking through a particular narrow lens.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#994

It is surprising how the past three Presidential elections the Democratic party has had the least democratic process during the primaries. In 2016, the Clintons ran a normal primary, but Bernie was creatively railroaded by the establishment and the superdelegates. The superdelegates went for Clinton 78% to Sanders 7%. In 2020, COVID caused a lot of problems and Biden was basically selected without much of a real prim…

Don't forget the 60+ rules they changed to keep RFK from winning the primary. Basically what they accuse Putin of doing to secure his election wins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFjZZjP25jk

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#995

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't just his age, it's his decrepitude, both physical and mental. I know people in their 90s who are able to speak clearly at any hour of the day...

Speaking clearly has nothing to do with mental fortitude. Tons of things can affect the fluency of speech. We really need to move past the days where we judge people's intelligence and competence based on how well the connections of their brain are able to influence the movement of the vocal cords and the tongue the lips and the jaw.

I agree for the average person, but at the same time the front man for one of the strongest economies in the world should be able to speak at least on an average level. Unfortunately I would define his speech at this point as poor - please correct me if I'm wrong. This factor seems like a running joke not only in the US, but the entire world.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#996

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?

It used to be (like, early 1800s) that the VP wasn't elected directly; whoever lost the election became VP. Jefferson and Adams were political adversaries, but when Adams won the election in 1796, Jefferson became VP

Thats sounds awesome. Imagine forcing Trump to work under Kamala.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#997

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

Maybe then there should also be an age limit for voters.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#998

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…

Mid-October? Your stores are behind Sparky, they should put it out in August

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#999

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?

It happens in EU countries, where it's not unusual for a right-leaning President to elect a left-leaning Prime Minister. Worth noting that a Prime Minister in the EU often has more power than the VP in the US.

Re: Joe Biden stands down as Democratic candidate

#1000

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don’t they have an age limit on the president (or any elected office)? Because age is no indication of fitness for any kind of activity or role. It sure would be nice, if persons with high responsibilities would periodically undergo a fitness test. I'd think the founding fathers saw the election process as such fitness test and the electoral college as the judge of fitness of the presidential candidate.

> Because age is no indication of fitness for any kind of activity or role Do we live on different planets. Most young people are able, most people over 80 will have mobility and/or cognition issues.

It still says nothing about an individual. That's why you get to vote.
Post reply on HN