If it had been an open primary where Biden debated challengers, and if voters had an actual say in what names were on the primary ballot, I would agree with you that voters would be disenfranchised.
But that’s not what happened. It was an uncontested primary, with the only other choice being a write-in “Other” as a protest vote. Biden didn’t debate, so voters had no chance to judge his fitness during the primary.
Given all that, and the fact that Harris was by extension also on that ballot if not literally, and that the only viable alternative is Biden endorsing Harris if he steps down, I think it’s a weak argument that primary voters would be disenfranchised if this happened. They voted for Biden, and this would be Biden’s decision on both stepping down and endorsing Harris. I don’t think there’s a way to actually force him out.
When the herd instinct goes wrong, it can go very very wrong. Tulips, house financing, on and on.
Reporting here is there exists a definite herd instinct in the Democratic leadership against Biden. My concern rests in that there exists zero, as in the number 0, good paths forward.
And that is a known-known as we might say. In my count there are two ways forward.
A wide open brokered convention. Historically that option has always imploded Democratic chances. There is no way that does not happen again, sorry. The Democratic party is a big tent party. The cats will not be herded.
Biden turning over his delegates to Kamala Harris. @becca656 has the issues here already covered.
It is not just about Biden. It is about who is the alternative. How will that be made to work without a real mess.
Finally, even more worrisome, are our Democratic leaders really saying that they can not figure out a way to beat a rapist, felon, and would-be autocrat? That they are going for the Hail Mary because they are out of ideas?
Eventually someone wakes up and throws the switch. Apparently it has to be done manually for each MM now, and it’s the new normal since the recent software downgrade.
Their instincts tell them they can impose chaos on the Democratic voters and still expect to win. They are busy proclaiming that the very same polls which predicted the Red Wave are now to be viewed as Gospel. It is disgusting.
That those making the appeals to Biden to quit couched their appeals to his presumed vanity tells you all you need to know about the character of those making the appeals.
With me, it shows 0 comments well after comments have started coming in. In fact, I just opened TPM in another window, and my MM is still showing 0 comments.
This is more like a preemptive attempt to escape evaluating the consequences of our own behavior. Sure there is and will be a firing squad, but it will be form people who can point to their data point as proof that if we’d just done what they say it blah, blah blah.
Face it, we (collectively and all sides) are team unicorn.
Just one conclusion from this closely reasoned and reported article: Biden won the debate on substance, according to focus groups, while Trump got higher marks on style.
Yup and I shudder to think what’s going to happen if we don’t defeat this menace. Democrats need to get their collective shit together and work to prevent this.
That’s what my parents, who lived in occupied Holland in the 30’s and 40’s, said about the ugliness preceding the Iraq war under Bush the Lesser. They well remembered the creeping exclusion and vilification of out groups, even though they were children at the time. They would be horrified by Trumpism.
Vanity may be part of it, another angle I heard mentioned on Maddow’s roundtable was that Biden throughout his career has seen himself as being undervalued; the perpetual underdog who manages to win regardless of what people think.
On that same show, a reporter in contact with the Congressional Black Caucus said there would be a riot if there is some kind of snap mini primary or a brokered convention that kicks Harris off the ticket, but they are 100% behind Harris if she’s the nominee after Biden steps down.
I saw a quote from son Eric last night to the effect that TCF got a nick at the top of his ear; it bled a lot but no stitches required. Also that TCF complained of a headache afterward.
