Biden had a horrible night Thursday. But the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.
"But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.”
“In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.”
I've yet to hear a good criticism of Biden that isn't also true of Trump. Yet the media rarely writes a headline like "Trump should drop out/resign/kill himself"
Because he obviously won't. He will pursue your freedoms, wealth and sanity until his dying breath.
This is not fair description of his debate performance. He didn't stutter, he crashed like an old computer trying to keep 50 chrome tabs running and then barely dragged himself out of it with incoherent nonsense like "we beat Medicare."
It doesn't disqualify him, it just lowers the bar for Trump.
It doesn’t disqualify him, it just lowers the bar for Trump
This is the real takeaway. We've reached a point where we're not even sure either one can stay awake during important meetings.
See? Shoulda went with Bernie Sanders. He may be just as old, but he's too angry to rest. He sees the injustices of the world, and he's been barking about them since the 60s. Getting arrested for his causes.
I'm not saying Biden isn't sincere, but Sanders is so sincere that he's passionately angry at the system. The only thing that disqualifies him in my eyes is his age.......but fuck, if these are our only other two options, it's not much of a disqualification, is it? Biden gets confused halfway through his thought process that he moves over to another thought process midsentence. And Trump doesn't even start the sentence with a coherent thought process.
I only watched 30 minutes of the debate, but what I saw was not as bad as that. He got a couple zingers off, had some good points, rattled off some stats, seemed annoyed at Trump lying over and over and did stutter, and looked like he had a headache.
I'll bet you that if he was on his A game, everyone would have been yelling performance enhancement drugs!
So yeah, calling for him to resign because he struggled to deal with a bunch of shitty js websites, full of ads, and several mining crypto in the background, while leaking memory... Seems like caving into republican talking points way too easily...
Yeah I also watched a 30 minute highlight video because since Trump has been involved I've found watching the whole thing to be intolerable. I am totally open to anybody showing me "high points" for Biden that maybe CNN skipped over in their condensed version.
He got a couple zingers off
Lol please share. "Morals of an alleycat"? (or whatever the exact quote is)
As for the rest, I agree that obviously for general factual content Biden even on his deathbed will beat Trump. However it was undermined by the errors, e.g. getting the price of insulin wrong and millions/billions mixed up more than once. That is the problem.
I'll bet you that if he was on his A game, everyone would have been yelling performance enhancement drugs!
Almost certainly. But he wasn't so it's not really the point here.
Seems like caving into republican talking points way too easily...
You know what they say about stopped clocks. They will always have this shit to say about Biden, absolutely. So why have I (and many others, NYT included) all of a sudden "caved into" republican talking points after ignoring or arguing against them until now?
Honestly to me the more interesting "talking points" at the minute are from some democrats, who after (assumedly) reacting in horror with the rest of us after the debate, have latched onto the "He had a cold" excuse that they came out with and tried to pass the whole thing off as a "stutter" issue.
I think people can see the difference between a stutter and whatever the hell happened at the debate. He wasn't stuttering, he was freezing up and getting sentences jumbled up. He was not capable of having a coherent debate, and the only saving grace is that Trump isn't either (different reasons, but still).
So I find it a little strange how people are talking about his performance, now. We all know what we watched, and that is why everybody freaked the fuck out straight afterwards. Trying to gaslight everyone is not a productive or helpful strategy. (Not you necessarily, by the way, just "the discourse" in general. I would like to see any examples you have of what you're saying)
He has even said he is slowing down and can't debate as well as used to. This doesn't technically disqualify him, but it should be a huge red flag that he isn't and wasn't the best candidate. That's the real problem.
Unfortunately the question isn't whether to fire him, but if he can win an election appearing as a sickly confused old man.
He spit in the face of an energized lefty base, so he is gambling the future of the country on low information Pennsylvanian voters in a popularity contest.
If you can't stay on topic in a stressful situation then yeah, there might be a fucking problem. A Stutter is fine. Switching topics completely is not a stutter.
you mean when he kept responding to Trump's tirade of lies? THAT was all over the place, so it makes sense that Biden would have to cover a lot of ground.
Exactly! If you say that Biden should drop out for the good of the country, a bunch of people nod their heads, but if you say trump should, everyone just laughs.
I'm for sure on team "Not Trump, and not a Republican." I think the debate really may have weakened Biden's chances, but I can't think of anyone who I'm confident could do better in the election. And I really mean "in the election" - there are certainly some who I think could do better as president, but they either don't have the name recognition or wouldn't pull in the moderates.
I'd love to see a true progressive, but there are an awful lot of people who simply won't vote for one. So I'm sticking with Biden and hoping for the best.
It's because dropping out is 100% not in Trump's character. He's in the race for himself, everyone - even his supporters - knows that, and asking him to drop out is like asking a zebra to try all-black.
Biden, OTOH, is a public servant and presents himself as trying to do the best things possible for the country. He ran in 2020 to 'save us from Trump,' and he's running again with that premise. You can disagree with Biden on what is best for the country, and maybe convince him that someone else might be better able to beat Trump in 2024. I'm not really all that engaged, so I have no idea who the next-best Democrat would be, but Biden stepping aside is at least within the realm of conceivable possibilities.
No one is talking about trump doing the selfless thing, because it's not going to happen.
But Biden is supposed to be better than trump.
And unlike trump, Biden isn't facing prison if he doesn't personally win. He's just trying to stop trump, but so are lots of other people. So shouldn't we let the person with the best chances go?
Like, if you had a game winning free throw, and any player can take it, are you putting Shaq up there or Michael Jordan?
Like, Rudy is a great movie, and America loves to root for the underdog. But you don't put him in on the last play of the Super Bowl.
You put your best players in. And Biden and his team in the DNC are obviously not our best people. They can step aside now, or after they lose and let trump back in the White House.