stevenkesslar

Okay. I'll play. You obviously have vast expertise, and I am obviously making a fool of myself. One, are you saying there is a vast conspiracy to cover up a diagnosis Biden has been given? Because if he has been diagnosed with dementia, or Parkinsons, or any other cognitive impairment, it would take a vast conspiracy to cover that up. Recall that Trump was impeached, twice, for things as simple as sentences he uttered during phone calls. Or what he did over the course of a few hours when he was in The White House. So if Biden is hiding a diagnosis, Republicans would be very likely to figure it out somehow. Two, are you saying Biden is directly lying to Americans on a simple "yes or no" question of vast political importance? He has said repeatedly lately that he has been given "significant and intense neurological exams" three times as President, as recently as this February, and "no" such diagnosis has been given. During his BET interview, he said if a doctor did tell him he a health condition that impaired his ability to serve, he would the consider resigning, but "no" such diagnosis has been given. Granted, we know Biden wiggles around the truth. Like he definitely wiggled around the truth about how much he knew about his son's business. But this is a very consequential issue and he has taken a very black and white position. So are you saying Biden is straight out lying to the American people about a diagnosis he has been given? Three, are you qualified to diagnose Biden with dementia, or any other cognitive impairment? Since you are a doctor, and I am not, please tell me your diagnosis. I think everyone wants to know. Does Biden have dementia?

You're a doctor, not a political professional. Nor are you a lawyer. So I'm really not sure why you want to litigate this point. First, I assume that is a typo. My point was about the 2024 primaries, not 2020. Second, my point is that I, like tens of millions, voted for Kamala in BOTH the 2020 general election and 2024 Democratic primary. If you want to litigate whether the name "Kamala Harris" was in small print on the ballot, go ahead. But you've once again focused on some legalistic detail and missed the whole point. I think there is only one choice not named Joe Biden available to the Democratic Party. And that is Kamala Harris. I think we mostly agree the dam has broken on Biden. I'm not sure why you want to litigate this. Other than you would rather have Michelle Obama run. Give her a call and see if you can talk her into it. 😉 I think if Biden had been diagnosed with dementia or Parkinsons, we would know. Don't you? I think he actually did an excellent job in the BET interview doing two things: 1) Establishing that while he is old, and looks weak, he is not demented. And 2) Establishing the right criteria for why, hypothetically, he should resign either now or into a second term. He said the reason he would do it is if he is diagnosed with some medical condition that makes him incapable of serving. He's right. Republicans will of course argue he was demented in 2012. Or he was demented in 2020. Or he was born demented. Or whatever. Unless Trump, who can't speak coherently, can tell us what the hidden diagnosis is, it is total political bullshit. What is not total political bullshit is that Kamala Harris will make Trump look very old, and very creepy, by comparison. Just like the raping lying felon he is. I think this is very important. When Biden announces he is no longer the nominee, he will be crucified by Republicans calling on him to resign. There will be this whole bullshit ritual of "When did you know he was demented, and what did you do?" So this is a key point. Is there proof that Donald Trump is a crook? YES. We have proof. Is there proof that Donald Trump is a rapist? YES. We have proof. Is there proof that Joe Biden is demented? NO. There is zero proof. Biden can be both a good President from 2020 to 2024 and the wrong Presidential candidate for 2025 to 2028. It has nothing to do with dementia. And at this point I'm not even sure what the word "choice" means, realistically. Biden has been so fatally damaged by his own party leaders that this is now impossible to reverse. And even if Biden's dwindling base of supporters says, "Those elitist horrible pigs! Barack Obama! Pig! Nancy Pelosi! Pig! Chuck Schumer! Pig! Hakeem Jeffries! Pig! Disgusting elitist pigs - every one!" there's still a problem. A poll says 2 in 3 DEMOCRATS want Biden to resign. More than one poll. And, let's not forget, 57 % of Americans want Donald Trump to resign, too. So who is going to listen to the people? I think Trump's MAGA supporters are fucked, and fucked, and fucked. They will say this is a coup. Right. Tell us about coups, Donald Trump. Tells us about cops, and hanging Mike Pence, and breaking the bones of the cops you adore. Liar. Thug. Crook. Harris was the #2 chosen by a collective 95 million voters. 81 million in 2020, and 14 million in 2024. Polls say most Democrats, most Independents, and almost all Republicans think Biden is too old, and they want him gone. He can choose, and almost certainly will choose, to step aside. Polls also say most Americans want Donald Trump gone, too. Because he is a crook, a liar, and a rapist with no integrity. Will Trump listen to American voters and step aside? We'll see how Susie Wiles deals with that little problem. Democratic consensus solidifies around Harris, should Biden step aside I laughed when I read that statement. Because I think it is one of the most honest statements I have read. As fucked up as everything is right now, for Democrats, I actually do see this as a blessing in disguise. Both for Democrats, and America. If 2 in 3 Democrats say Biden should step aside, that's a lot of people. Biden is a massive drag on the young voters Democrats desperately need to win, in particular. Harris will fire them up. And it's absolutely predictable that old rich white donors would say (name a White male) should be the candidate instead. And they may not be wrong. Who knows? I can see how Andy Beshear or Roy Cooper or Joel Shapiro or Mark Kelly might be great, moderate candidates. Or not. Either way, donors don't get to choose. The interesting bet now is which one of those White moderate guys will be Kamala's running mate? Or maybe Kamala will double down and go for Gretchen. I bet we will be there soon. That statement about exhaustion is very true. The smartest people in the room (to name a few, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and Jim Clyburn) probably knew right away that any road around Joe Biden had to go straight to Kamala Harris. But they have sat back while the MSM entertained this set of amusing ideas. Like maybe Taylor Swift should host a primary. Or whatever. But at some point, sooner and sooner, Biden will get tired of fighting. And the donors will just STFU and give their money and want to get on with it. And hopefully we have not nailed our coffin shut by dumping Biden, as Lichtman is very wisely warning us. The good news I take out of his Keys is that every serious Democrat saying anything on TV or social media is using the word UNITY. (If you are interested, here's Jim Clyburn today preaching the gospel of unity. Having resurrected Biden from the dead in 2020, his job now seems to be to make 100 % sure there is no road around Biden that does not lead to Harris.) I do have one request. When you ask Michelle to be the Democratic nominee, and she says no (I'm just guessing), I have a Plan B. Could you ask her to be the one to nominate Kamala, and make the speech about why we need Kamala now? I can not think of a better person to summon the nation to unity and integrity than Michelle Obama!

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee dies at age 74 So while I am the worst poster in the world at keeping a thread narrowly on topic, or being terse, I thought I would start a thread to focus on Biden's medical condition. I don't see how Biden can survive as the Democratic nominee. But he will probably survive as President. That's if the reporters who are behind the endless leaks now know what they are talking about. What should people think about that, if he wants to remain as POTUS until January? Is he mentally fit to be President for six more months? Two points about Jackson Lee. First, she was a widely respected leader who deserves to be honored. Second, she is a great example of both how quickly and how clearly things can change. Part of the problem with Biden's health issues is precisely that: nothing is happening quickly, or clearly. He has not been diagnosed with cancer, or dementia, or anything that impacts his ability to lead. I mentioned in another thread that I got my Mom diagnosed with dementia - twice - in order to activate my parents' long term care policy for her. My Mom did not want to think she was demented. I know for a fact that there is a reluctance, even among mental health professionals, to make a judgment like that. One of my family members, stupidly, felt my Mom should be forcibly placed in an institution. No one, especially my Dad, agreed. But I was a good little bureaucrat and checked it out, mostly to undercut the argument. Mental health professionals told me it is very hard to force someone out of their home against their will. Let alone a helpless old woman. That killed that debate quickly, thank God. I've had two run ins with pancreatic cancer, both of which involved denial. One of my brothers died of pancreatic cancer years ago. While he did not deny his condition, he was mostly in denial about how long he would live. I spent many days with him during a one year illness, after he was finally diagnosed correctly. We'd watch "Flip or Flop" and he'd talk about how we should flip homes together once he get better. It was sweet. Even though I knew it had nothing to do with reality. His wife told me later she felt like she had to be the one to accept and manage the grim prognosis. Which she did. While I was spending last Thanksgiving with my deceased brother's family a sister-in-law called me to tell me her brother, who I also knew well, had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She wanted my advice. So I told her he would probably die soon. And that this is a good time for you to create lots of lasting positive memories with a brother you love, like I did. She did, and he died two months later. A few weeks after that first conversation this sister-in-law called me and said both her brother and his wife were in denial. And she wanted to know if I would call him to tell him he was going to die, basically. I politely said I'd pass. And honestly it was probably better for him to just be in denial until he dies. So Biden seems both totally different and exactly the same. The part that feels exactly the same is that Biden is denying what almost everyone else sees. I don't think this could not have happened before the debate. Because I think millions of people needed to see it and hear it themselves. Jake Tapper has even speculated that Biden might have been set up at that debate by his own team. As in, they knew he would flounder. But it somehow needed to be made clear that what was being rumored is actually true. More likely, I think Biden's own team and family is in denial. Something has changed. You can play the speeches from 2020 and 2022 on YouTube. Biden sounds and looks different now. But there does seem to be this deep fog of denial. I have to interject here that Trump - and Republicans - are doing the same thing. Trump is a convicted felon who raped lots of women. No Republican wants to talk about that. Trump will lose because whatever is happening with Biden doesn't change the fact that Trump lies and rapes and has no integrity. Which a majority of Americans also see clearly, in poll after poll after poll. What is completely different about Biden is he has no diagnosis - yet. I'm hopeful this will end well for Democrats. Because what is happening is obvious, I think. Republicans are in complete denial about what's wrong with their candidate. And they are operating as if he is somehow America's messiah. Not the lying raping felon he actually is. Which, again, a majority of Americans see clearly, based on polls. I hope Democrats are seen as the adults in the room dealing with an ugly problem. But it is one without a diagnosis - yet. So it makes sense that Biden is denying a medical diagnosis he has not been given. Other than the fatal political diagnosis. As much as replacing Biden at the DNC is messy, people are saying - correctly - that the French and Brits somehow manage to have national elections in far less time than we do. Maybe this could be a good lesson in having shorter elections in the future. Especially since the vast majority of voters are already locked into one side. The messy part to me is Biden will want to stay on as POTUS until January. And Republicans will scream he has to resign. Because he is a national security threat. This is the party that just nominated a POTUS and Veep who want to appease Putin, and defund Ukraine. Which would have my Reagan Republican Dad rolling in his grave. National security? I think when it comes to Biden being POTUS today, and through January 2025, the most compelling fact is that Biden has no medical diagnosis that prevents him from leading. Republicans will howl and use it as a political point to undermine Harris and all Democrats. But what have they got? They deny Trump is a felon. They deny Trump is a rapist. They deny he brought a 30 % murder spike to America. They deny they want to give Ukraine a death sentence, and let Putin take over big chunks of it. So these are the people we're supposed to trust to diagnose Joe Biden? What do they know about denial? Give me a break! I already posted this on another thread, but here it is again: Reagan had years, not months, to go as POTUS at the time. If that is a standard for judging the medical status of an aging President in his final term, Biden is fine. Republicans have no argument. It was about 15 years until Reagan was diagnosed. And his doctors said this was not a condition that would have impaired him 15 years earlier. However this ends for Biden, and apart from the ugliness of this specific moment, I'm confident that history will judge him well. And Democrats will be able to look back on him as their wise old leader.

My mother had long term care insurance, and vascular dementia. So I can only comment on that. First, if I am comparing Joe Biden to my mother at that point, there is no comparison. Biden is the sanest man in the world. There are things that happened around that time I now associate with dementia, but did not at the time. The last time I flew her out to visit me in California for a week, my mother shit her pants in a shopping mall. She told me one night she wanted canned spaghetti for dinner, so I stopped and bought a can. Then I cooked the chicken I had prepared for both of us and ate alone. The next day she flew into a rage about how I made her eat food out of a can. You get the picture. I do know you're a doctor, and I am not one. I regret in retrospect that I did not have a clearer picture of what was happening. Regardless, my non-demented Dad was very old (90's) and slowing down, and my brother who was my Mom and Dad's health POA was very busy. So I asked him to let me handle my Mom's dementia diagnosis for purposes of activating her long term care, which I did. I had to get medical professionals, including her own doctor, involved. I got two different mental health diagnoses. I am good at being a bureaucrat. And I did what I needed to do to get my parents' long term care based on a dementia diagnosis activated. Biden is in much better shape than either my 90ish Mom, who was demented, or my 90ish Dad, who was still mentally sharp as a tack. Even though my Dad exhibited many of the characteristics of old age Biden does. I'd be curious to see poll results of whether people think Biden should resign immediately. As opposed to step aside as nominee. My guess is the answer would be most Democrats and probably most Independents would not see any need for Biden to resign. There is no medical diagnosis. I think the main issue, at least among most people I talk to, is that they don't think he can be POTUS in 2028 - not 2024. There is one useful historical precedent here. Somehow we survived Reagan. And there is no evidence Biden won't read short position papers or only wants to watch movies at his residence.

Again, is the problem her smile? Or you don't like effective Black women who throw lying rapist felons like Trump in ail?

Typical. You can't respond with facts. So you argue facts are fake. You can't and won't talk about how Trump killed factory jobs with his inept policies and useless tax cuts to billionaires, that did not create factory jobs but did grow a huge deficit Shame on the MAGA bullshit and MAGA lies. You want to talk about rape and murder. But you can't talk about how Trump led a 30 % murder spike in one year, or how Biden reduced murder and violent crime. You can't admit that Harris threw lying rapist felons like Trump in jail. So you lie. You make up lies and fantasies which most Independents and most Americans don't buy. Good luck with that. Trump has peaked. It is all downhill from here. His lies, his rape, his contempt for free and fair elections, his criminal behavior, and his lack of integrity will simply not work for America. It doesn't surprise me that you don't see the current polls - Trump is +3 - as a problem for Trump, not Biden. You see only what you want to see, with MAGA-colored glasses. What I take heart in is that we are living through a month that nobody would believe if it were in some novel. One party's leader is almost killed, and he is treated like Jesus. Even though most Americans and Independents say in polls that he is a felon who should step aside. Another party's leader is being humiliated on a daily basis, by his own close friends and party leaders, and will continue to be until he is forced to resign. Susie Wiles could not have hoped for more. Other than she's hope this was happening in October, not July. Which is exactly the problem you can't see. If Trump can only get to +3 when everything is going his way in a way that seems almost unimaginable, what happens when the Democrats unify around somehow who is not Joe Biden? Every other Democrat in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada is kicking their Republican opponent's ass. I have it on good word that Susie Wiles is worried about that. Why aren't you?

That's correct. Here's the reality check that matters, if you want to base your argument on reality. There are many other campaign issues that are vital. Since what this is about is not Biden's incapacity to be POTUS tomorrow. It is about Biden's inability to win based on voters' concern about his incapacity to lead an effective campaign and serve for four more years. That concern is shared by 2 in 3 Democrats, including me. And I assume you. Jen O'Malley Dillon was on Morning Joe Friday talking about the thousands of door knockers who went out and did voter ID and persuasion the past weekend. You need a campaign team, a massive GOTV operation, ads, money, everything. So the strategy of the Biden campaign is clear: "Stop worrying, start working." They are arguing that any candidate other than Biden at the top of the ticket just slows the machine down. Which is true. The machine is now sputtering. But their message is clearly failing. I think the right analogy is that most Americans have decided that the battery in the machine simply needs to be replaced. Again, 2 in 3 Democrats have. And if we are talking about campaign law, campaign management, campaign infrastructure, or campaign message, the best replacement battery is Kamala Harris. At least, that is what almost everyone good at campaign mechanics is saying. And you are saying you just don't know enough. So I would suggest you Google it and listen to what they are all saying. I think it is fascinating. You should read what I am actually posting, and have been for quite a while. I agree with Allan Lichtman. Ideally, Biden should step aside as nominee, and resign as POTUS. Not based on a dementia diagnosis, but based on his party's political diagnosis. But he won't resign, it sounds like. I think that's just reality, at least as of today. But you may disagree. I think Team Pelosi is forcing him to step aside as nominee. It is ugly to watch. But they will apply just as much pressure as they need to to force him to step aside as the Democratic nominee, reluctantly. Again, it is ugly and painful. But I think we both agree what she is doing is wise, correct? We obviously disagree about Kamala Harris. I'm a huge fan of Michelle Obama. If I smoked a lot of pot, it could be fun to get high and imagine what another Obama campaign and Presidency could look like. Or I could just watch porn and jack off. Either way, it has nothing to do with reality. You will not agree with this. But I think the political reality is that from 2020 on there has been a political marriage between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the leadership and base of the Democratic Party. I don't think they can remove both Joe and Kamala, for political reasons. And I think Team Pelosi, which is the center of organization of what is happening, knows this. Part of the reason why is that everyone who voted for Joe in Fall 2020 knew they were voting for Kamala. That's 81 million people. Part of the reason why is that everyone who voted for Joe in the 2024 primary (which you and I both agree was lame) knew they were voting for Kamala. Part of the reason is Nancy's #2, Jim Clyburn, who helped birth the Biden/Harris ticket in 2020, has made it absolutely clear he will go nuts if they try to move Kamala out of the way. I could go on with many other reasons, which I think you don't know about or perhaps don't care about. Anyway, my own political judgment is that the only alternative to Biden in the real world is Kamala Harris. If you disagree, great. Who do you think would be better, and what is their path to winning the nomination? I'm not saying that in some alternative America Kamala Harris would be my first choice. My own spoiled grapes argument is I wanted Warren in 2020. Had she been the nominee, I think (Lichtman would agree) she would have won. Her health is fine. And we would not be having this problem. But if I have to blame it on anyone right now, I blame it 100 % on Joe Biden. It's a tragedy. But he doesn't know when it's time to step out of the way. Since you like to talk about things you say you don't know much about, I'll share another hard story about political leadership and resigning. I recall a meeting very early in my own career with Senator Proxmire (D, WI) and my boss Gale Cincotta, mother of the anti-redlining movement. Prox was the populist Chair of the US Senate Banking Committee, and absolutely critical to everything we did: the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, the passage of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, a $1 billion Community Home Buyers Program with Fannie Mae and GE Capital that was my pet project at the time. That helped lay the groundwork for Bill Clinton's very effective homeownership push in the 1990's, which did a great job building wealth among working class White, Black, and Hispanic homeowners. Prox was like God to us. So he tells us in a private meeting in his office he is going to soon announce his resignation. He talked about how he saw colleagues of his being wheeled into the Senate chamber, who had no clue what they were voting for. DiFi is of course a recent example. I suspect every member of Congress has seen this, and fears it. So Gale was shocked, and it was in her nature to say he really shouldn't resign. And Gale was right that we never ever ever had a hero like that again. This is probably unrealistic on my part. But I believe if someone who took no money from the bank lobby and who had the integrity of Prox had been around 15 years later, he could have actually stooped the subprime predators who the Republicans unleashed from 2003 to 2008. Maybe a horrible American tragedy could have been stopped. Anyway, that's part of my life story. I respect what Nancy Pelosi is doing. Biden should have been like Prox. Now he is being forced out, painfully. He certainly had every opportunity to do what Bill Proxmore and most political leaders do. Which is know when it is time to leave.

Yup. Lies. Murder. Rape. Lies. Murder. Rape. Rinse and repeat. "Turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower." Sure, that is what Joe Biden is doing. Donald Trump, weak and failed raping loser, is one of the few Presidents in US history that presided over a LOSS of manufacturing jobs. Donald Trump is a weak job losing liar. Under Biden, manufacturing jobs went from 12.1 million in January 2021 to just under 13 million now. Almost 1 million new manufacturing jobs. Why would America hire a loser like Trump who killed factory jobs, instead of someone who created almost 1 million factory jobs? Lies. Murder. Rape. That's what Trump is. "Stop the migrant crime epidemic." What crime epidemic? Do we mean the 30 % spike in murder under Donald Trump? Or the 13 % decline in murder last year under Biden and Harris? Lies. Rape. Murder. Why would America hire a loser like Trump who brought an epidemic of murder and guns to America, instead of someone who brought murder and crime rates down? If Kamala is the nominee, why hire a rapist who lost and lies, as opposed to a crime fighter who threw rapists in jail? Trump is about lies, murder, and rape. That is the real thing MAGA offers. They want to bring back the lies, and the murder, and the guns, and the rape. They want to put a lying rapist loser in front of us, let him lie to us, and then call that unity. This is exactly why you lost in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. Nice try. But you are going to lose again.

Actually, that's a good idea. Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff is promoting an $8M Gaza fundraising campaign Now imagine that. Jared, son of the last POTUS, goes off and makes a $2 billion dollar deal with the people who slice and dice journalists. Kamala and Doug's daughter goes off and does something to help innocent children who are the victims of Bibi's bloodbath. Israel and what they are doing to Gaza is a horrific mess. But I'd be proud to have Doug and Kamala's daughter representing my nation, and some sliver of hope. Naturally, the right-wing Post quotes some right-wing Republican saying these efforts to help innocent children who are being slaughtered are "abhorrent". They didn't talk about how Jared's efforts to get rich off his public service are abhorrent, though. Wonder why?

I hope they bring this up. First, how many women has Trump raped? Why don't Republicans hold this gross old man with gross grabby hands responsible for raping women? He is a felon! There is no question that Trump is a rapist. Who the fuck is a raping lying old rapist to talk about rape? Let's repeat that, so it is clear: Donald Trump is a raping lying felon. That is a fact! Donald Trump presided over a massive 30 % murder spike in America. Donald Trump brought guns and death and murder to America. Donald Trump is who you want if you want more murder. That is a fact. FBI: 2020 homicides up nearly 30%, largest 1-year jump ever Murder. Murder. Murder. Death. Death. Death. Guns. Guns. Guns. That is the factual legacy of Donald Trump, failed President who lost. Republicans won't even do anything about the specific types of assault weapons that almost killed Trump. Despite the fact that an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Americans wants an assault weapons ban. The Republicans are weak and useless when it comes to doing things that STOP MURDER. Including of their own President! What weak, useless, hypocritical assholes. They run a rapist for President, a felon, a loser, and then want to talk about how they win will with a rapist and criminal who only lies when his lips are moving. You don't give a shit about one of those individuals murdered. You are using their names to support the candidacy of a lying, raping felon. Homicides See Historic Decline In 2023 Early 2024 Data Show Promising Signs of Another Historic Decline in Gun Violence U.S. gun homicides are declining dramatically, down 13.1 percent since 2023 and 16.4 percent since 2021. If you gave a shit about murder, you would start by admitting that Biden and Harris have done a great job reversing the spike in murder and violent crime that Trump was absolutely weak and ineffective and useless in doing anything about. You'd want to have a serious discussion about why Trump's policies (flood America with guns) failed and why Biden and Harris have had way more successful policies. But you don't give a shit about actual murder and rape. Nor do you care about immigration policy. Like Trump, you would rather see bipartisan efforts fail so Trump can lie and you can elect your raping felon. Your idea of "unity" is to put a lying raping felon who lost in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 on stage for 90 minutes so he can lie, and lie, and lie. The only thing we can agree about is that the Joe Biden of 2020 and 2022 - when the red wave disappeared - is AWOL, and sick. So the Democrats have a temporary and tragic problem with one guy, who happens to be POTUS. It is being fixed. Other than that, you ain't got shit. Well, you do have some things. Lies. Lies. Lies. Murder. Murder. Murder. Guns. Guns. Guns. Rape. Rape. Rape. And a lying rapist felon who loses every time. I can't wait for Kamala to get on a stage with him and call out his lies, his rape, and his horrific track record on murder and violent crime and rape! And please, make sure Trump makes a point to demean and degrade the accomplishments of a Black woman who was very effective at throwing rapists like Trump, and murderers, into prison! Get used to her smile, and her hope.

Until a few days ago, I was not even aware Mark Halperin was still around. I loved Game Change and all the political reporting Halperin and John Heilemann did together. Until Halperin got whacked, appropriately, by Me Too. Anyway, Halperin sure seems to have kept all his political contacts. So he has both podcast and YouTube group chats posted off his X account that are fascinating inside looks as this tragedy plays out. Most of what he's putting out there is being confirmed by other sources, like CNN and MSNBC. Although some of it is speculative. And some of it is probably being fed to Halperin, as well as others, to try to force Biden's hands. Jon Meacham quickly rebutted the idea that he is helping Biden write a speech dropping out. So based off his YouTube tonight, if Halperin is right, two things are clear. One, Biden will not resign, because he does not want to slink away. That makes sense for personal reasons, of course. But if he feels that way, it also helps end the fight and patch things up, I'd guess. Presumably, he wants to do what you said: take credit for all his accomplishments, building back from Trump's wreckage. Which no Democrat disputes. And he wants to be the outgoing President who looks on as his Democratic successor, Kamala Harris, is sworn in in January. If that is where he is, or is getting to, in his mind it gives everyone a reason to have to figure out how to end this and create a path out of hell. Two, there is a consensus that Kamala Harris has to be the nominee. But even her own people get that it does not make sense to coronate her. If that is true, it's likely they don't even have a clue what that means - yet. But it's logical that anyone who understands how campaigns work and money works, and how the base of the party works, would reach this conclusion pretty quickly. Halperin is already saying that Newsom and Shapiro and Whitmer will not challenge Kamala. Which also makes sense, since no one wants to get in the way of an organically unified "Trump must not win" steamroller. It makes sense that if Biden says he is not the nominee, Biden/Harris delegates who are pledged to that ticket would naturally tend to vote for Kamala. So it may be like the Democratic primary: not technically a coronation, but not a real fight. Halperin made lots of other interesting comments based on saying he has known Harris for over a decade. First, he thinks it would not necessarily be good for her to have to get up to speed both as a new POTUS, and as a new nominee, at the same time. That has never happened before, to my knowledge. Ford and LBJ and Truman, to name the last three, had at least a year, not months, to get used to being POTUS first. He also said she's going to have to be a better Kamala than the one she has been to win, but he sees her capable of doing that. Not sure what that means, either. But I took it as mostly a positive from a very hard assed political observer. A final point he made about Kamala is that she needs to come up with a few new policy proposals that distinguish her from Biden. Makes sense. Abortion will be one of her main rallying cries, for sure. But there are other issues I have heard her speak passionately about. Crime could actually be one of them. She has spent the majority of her political career as a successful and respected crime fighter. That may now be a plus, unlike in 2020 when BLM was rocking. Biden would also want to be the elder statesman and outgoing leader who stopped Trump once and who will now help stop him again. Who keeps the nation focused on everything he says (now somewhat incoherently, if we are being honest) about preserving democracy. But that's a plus to me. It is a good message for him, even if it is garbled these days. And he will of course want Harris, not Trump, to win. Even if he goes to the grave hating Obama and Pelosi and Schumer and knowing it should have been him instead. Denial is a powerful thing. 😉 I know nothing about Jill Biden. And maybe it is sexist to blame Joe's problems on his wife. But if I accept the plausible idea that Joe can't see his own weaknesses and decline, Jill could have helped it getting this far out in public. And if it keeps going further, it adds to the Republican argument that Biden has to resign now. Moulton said in an editorial today that his buddy Joe Biden didn't even recognize him recently. If every POTUS had to quit because he failed to recognize someone, we'd never have a POTUS. And Trump of course is not held accountable by his party for anything. But I'm guessing right now Hunter Biden is just being bat shit crazy and Jill Biden, who could be guiding Joe out of his own worst instincts, is instead probably reinforcing them. One final interesting point about what Halperin said: Mark Kelley. That's the name Halperin said is being thrown around a lot as a running mate, especially by Republicans. I assume he means Never Trump Republicans. Or maybe he means pro-Trump Republicans who are just willing to be honest about their objective read on what Democrats should do if they want to win. But it obviously would have a lot of upside in terms of balancing a ticket and also keeping Arizona in play. And Kelley would be a huge plus talking about what we need to do on immigration. Although I'd put Shapiro and Whitmer and The Rust Belt first, probably. That's a problem for down the line. Lots of ifs, and way too early to tell. But it looks like Team Pelosi may have once again shown she can pull a political rabbit out of a hat. Ironically, Nancy Pelosi is three years older than Biden. But she is out-organizing the hell out of him!

And there you have it. You are against a Black woman because she smiles? Or is it that even today, when the Democratic Party is in a big crisis and Biden is politically dead, the polls show Harris and Shapiro as a ticket will beat Trump? That is how much America rejects the lying felon who wants to unleash Putin power. And that is right after three weeks that were horrific for Democrats and great for Republicans. You do realize this is probably as good as it gets, right? Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win And his campaign is all but praying Joe Biden doesn’t drop out. I think that article is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how Trump could win, and why he will probably lose. The full article Tim Alberta wrote is in The Atlantic, behind a paywall. That tells you enough to get the broad idea of what Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita were well on their way to doing. They need to be taken as seriously as a heart attack, since Wiles did do it to Democrats in Florida (and to Ron DeSantis, for Trump). And LaCivita did it to John Kerry in 2004. You can argue right now Democrats are doing Trump's job for him. Or you can argue that Wiles and LaCivita are a bit too smart and way too cynical for their own good. So the campaign they hoped to win through disillusionment and dirt is now completely going to backfire on them. They want Trump to be the strong alpha male running against a Biden that is old, weak, and feeble. Instead, they are going to have to defend an old crook and liar against a prosecutor who is particularly gifted at throwing narcissistic lying rapists in prison. Game on! I'm going to quote from this extensive interview Ezra Klein did with Tim Alberta, about the core of the Trump 2024 strategy. It's quite easy to see how Biden loses if 2024 is a referendum on Biden's age, as a symbol for all these other things wrong with Democrats - like weakness. In fact, it's impossible to NOT see how Biden loses if 2024 is a referendum on his age. He has lost. His campaign is all but over. Now that all the leaders of the Democratic Party have spent weeks making the Trump campaign's case, there is no way Biden can continue. He has to know that, even if he can't say it publicly yet. The main thing Wiles and LaCivita were smart about is building a campaign around something that is obviously true: Biden is old. Biden helped them along simply by making it painfully obvious, first in a debate and then in every time he has appeared in public since. The fact that I keep coming back to is that every Democrat in every swing state is doing well, apart from Biden. Every Democratic Senate candidate, in particular, is ahead of their Republican opponent. And, with the exception of Nevada, which elected a Republican Governor, these are all states - Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, (and Georgia when it comes to Senate races at least) - where Democrats keep winning statewide races. Republicans obviously think, or at least pretend they think, that if Biden is gone they can just use the same playbook on anyone else. But, as Alberta argues, they can't. And they know they can't. They can and will go after Harris hard on immigration. But the main argument they make about immigrants is that they will murder, rape, and eat you. Which is factually incorrect, since undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes, including violent crimes. Since they want nothing to do with cops But forget about facts. Who is the bad ass that actually prosecuted lots of murderers and rapists? Kamala Harris, or Donald Trump? Why won't Republicans admit that murder and violent crime spiked 30 % under Trump? Why won't Republicans admit that murder and violent crime dropped over 10 % under Biden and Harris last year? Why won't Republicans admit their refusal to do anything about assault weapons came within an inch of killing their own candidate for President? If Republicans want to talk about murder and rape in America, that's a great debate for a Black female prosecutor to engage in. But she will demand that a felon and rapist and liar like Trump has to at least try to tell the truth once in a while! Wiles and LaCivita may have turned out to be too cynical for their own good. They are now the ones who are going to have the tired old lying crook, who is weak on crime and weak on rape and weak on telling the truth and weak on upholding the rule of law, as their weak candidate. Even right now, at their best moment, the polls show a ticket led by Harris and Shapiro or Whitmer will beat them.

No. But I do need a phone number. 😉

Well, it's not like the media has been reluctant to air Trump's dirty laundry. Sounds hard to believe, but some conservatives believe the MSM is actually really tough on Trump? Who's a thunk. One nice thing about the Biden mutiny is it does show the MSM is more than happy to eat their own. Of course, Biden is not the property of the MSM. But if the "liberal media" takes Biden down, it makes it hard for Fox News types to argue there is a vast left-wing conspiracy. I think Allan Lichtman argues this the best. He attacks the media for aiding and abetting Trump. But he always adds the magic words: ratings. It's a but like saying any capitalist would be happy to sell a socialist the rope they will use to hang them. The media loves Trump for the ratings, even if it helps elect Trump and he then goes after the media. There is every reason to think the way Trump attacked the MSM in first term will be child's play in Project 2025 America.

That's a no brainer. Darkly comic pun intended. Much better to beat the felon and liar at the ballot box, not with an assassin's bullet. Yes, I've read the books about the dark history of the CIA. Here's a fun thing. My crazy Mom was once at the house of Isabel Allende for dinner, who knows a bit about the CIA and assassinations. My Mom had no idea about the author, or her assassinated uncle. Regardless, America 2024 is not Putin's America. We don't kill our political opponents.

I guess it makes sense that you cling to facts that seem unlikely. It is a fact that someone tried to kill Donald Trump. It is not a fact that Jesus Christ saved Donald Trump so he could have his way with America. But many MAGA radicals who will overlook Trump's criminal behavior and lies and rape believe Jesus saved Trump so that Trump can have his way with America. Whatever! As I just cited above, a new poll that shows Trump beating Harris by 3 points says young people (voters under 30) favor her by 25 points over Trump. The same young voters (under 30) prefer Biden by 20 points over Trump. So if Democrats want voters under 30, Biden is good, and Harris is better. Meanwhile, older voters (over 65) overwhelmingly prefer Trump over either Harris or Biden. The numbers I just cited are very much in line with what actually happened in the 2020 election. So who knows? But it seems unlikely that the results of the 2020 election have now flipped completely, and young voters under 26 overwhelmingly prefer Trump. I know you hate facts, @EmmetK. So I assume you have not tried to download the dataset, right? Pew wants me to register to actually look at the data, and that's not something I generally register with websites to do. Since you like to jump at any fact or lie that you think supports your argument, you're not much help here. What I could find that was a little more specific was a Newsweek article that said the actual shift in the NPORS data was from +1 Democrat in 2023 to +2 Republican in 2024. Given Biden's unpopularity, if that is what the 3 point shift measures, that makes sense. Like, a year ago Biden and Trump were tied. Now Trump is up +3. So that would explain the shift, I guess. What we don't have a clue about is why polls say Casey will slay his Republican opponent in Pennsylvania, Slotkin will slay her Republican opponent in Michigan, and yet Biden is losing to Trump in both states. This seems to be less about Democrats, in general, and more about Biden. As far as the R+30 thing among voters under 26, the Newsweek article says the following: 1. It is actually R+26 when "non-responses to gender" are accounted for, whatever that means. 2. It is actually R+7, according to someone else. 3. It is actually sample noise, according to some smart guy. 4. It is actually a huge generational shift, according to the same smart guy, who you desperately want to believe. 5. It is actually polling selection bias that is throwing off polls, according to the same smart guy, who you desperately don't want to believe. Whatever. If you ask me, young voters kicked Trump's ass in 2020 and they seem prepared to do it again. Biden is absolutely turning young voters off. Which is why I am sorry to see Joe go, but I think he needs to. Meanwhile, Democrats have been kicking ass in about every other election in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. I'll add this. I absolutely believe that there are 19 year old Zoomers who did not vote in 2020, who did not pay any attention to Trump when they were going through puberty, who spend a lot of time on Tik Tok, who are mostly disaffected, and whose view of politics is based on short ranting videos saying Biden sucks because he is for inflation and war. And Trump kicked the shit out of a bullet no less! Biden is a pussy! Trump is a badass! I'm in! If that is your strategy to win, good luck. I know you want to believe Jesus saved Trump so he could have his way with America. I simply believe Trump survived, which is a good thing. The fact that I don't want the gross old lying felon to have his way with America is simply my opinion. Like Trump, you do not understand the difference, clearly.

You know, unlike @EmmetK, you are actually good at facts. So you should know that right now I am hardly in "Nobody but Biden" camp. I hope he resigns, Kamala steps up as POTUS, and she wins in November. The polls, like the one I just cited above, said that is eminently doable. The Gen Z. thing is interesting. I don't think we will know for sure until election day. (Note to Russians: US elections are real, and we actually do NOT know the outcome of elections before they happen.) So there's this idea that Zoomers are turning to Republicans, because they are reacting against Biden. And there's this separate but related idea that in democracies all over the world, young women are turning left while young men are turning right. South Korea is a great example, and there are lots of articles about the gender war there. So maybe it is age. Or maybe it is a gender gap. Or maybe it is some of both. So I'll cite a YouGov poll that shows Trump beating Biden by 5 and Harris by 3 as a few granular examples. When asked how much they are thinking about the Presidential race, 76 % of voters over 65 years old say a lot. Only 48 % of voters under 30 do. And I think the RNC spoke for itself. If you put some video on Tik Tok that lasts 60 seconds or so with Trump and White guys with muscles doing guy shit, and then have Hulk Hogan rip his shirt off and it is all very cool, and it is awesome, and like wow that guy is fucking tough, and like this is badass fucking testosterone, well I don't know maybe that is how young guys say, "Fuck! Trump survived a bullet! I'm in!" Sadly, these guys are missing out on all the fun stuff. If they lived in Russia, they could be super lucky and super badass and be sent to Ukraine by Genocide Man to be processed into fertilizer. So I guess they don't really even know what they are missing, since they maybe see the world through Tik Tok and wrestling. 91 % of voters over 65 say they definitely will vote. Only 65 % of voters under 30 say they will definitely vote. I'm pretty sure Black college students who are passionate about Biden/Harris will vote. I'm pretty sure it's the guys who like Tik Tok and Hulk Hogan and think Trump is badass who are a lot less likely to vote. Meanwhile, among voters aged over 65, Trump beats Biden 58/41. Among voters under 30, Biden beats Trump 60/38. That huge age gap is comparable to 2020, if these polls are right. The polls that show a much closer race among Zoomers, including ones that show Trump and Biden are roughly tied among Zoomers, tend to come from certain polling outfits, like a Harris poll done by Mark Penn. I have no clue why. It has to have something to do with polling methodology. He tends to have the most pro-Trump polls. And I think it may have to do with counting these marginal young voters who are actually the least likely to vote. I don't know. But we will all learn when people actually do go vote who got it right and who was way off. We do know in 2020 that the age gap was huge, and young voters overwhelmingly sided with Biden and Harris. In the same poll, voters under 30 say they would vote for Harris over Trump by a 62/37 margin (25 points, compared to +20 points for Biden among voters under 30). So that suggests that having a younger and more exciting candidate might help Democrats even more with young voters. But mostly voters under 30 clearly want a Democrat over Trump, if these polls are right. There's a few other things I will mention that seem to explain what is going on here, but that I don't think anyone knows for sure. I have cited polls before that show that that the Zoomers who are most pro-Trump are the ones who are the least likely to vote, and most likely to say politics doesn't even matter. The Zoomers who are most likely to vote are overwhelmingly for Biden/Harris. So it is a big gamble that these young people who don't vote regularly and think politics sucks and are disaffected will go vote for Trump because he is badass or takes a bullet and survives, or whatever. Inflation sucks! That's probably how they feel, it seems, if I just watch Tik Tok and what they like. Meanwhile, the Trump campaigns speaks for itself, and its deep cynicism. It hopes to gain power just by selling the idea that, "Yeah, you are disillusioned and things suck and inflation sucks so vote for Trump and JD!!!!!!" That's a very small part of an interview between Ezra Klein and Tim Alberta of The Atlantic, who followed Trump's campaign masterminds and just wrote about their very well thought out plan, based on what Susie Wiles has proven can work in Florida. That said, it is all built on cynicism, not cement. They are not saying, "Here is what Republicans and Trump and JD Vance will do for you." It is all built on just creating disillusionment and cynicism, including about democracy itself. "Vote for Trump, because voting sucks! We won't do shit for you. But the Democrats will give you inflation and war!" That's not what they are saying, of course. But it's the basic idea. Just make people feel Democrats are the problem. The best specific example of what Wiles did in Florida is turning Latino immigrants into Republicans. They started a frenzy about how Biden wants to bring the very socialism you escaped in Venezuela or whatever to Florida. Biden is a socialist! Harris is a socialist! It worked great among recent Latino immigrants, who hate socialism. Now if instead they are working Moms and somebody said Biden was the guy who got you that child tax credit that helped pay for groceries and Republicans took it away, that would be a whole different thing. So I don't think they are building a foundation on cement. But as long as the bullshit keeps coming and there is no serious pushback, it works. Trump is hoping cynicism wins among young low information voters. That is his whole strategy. It's more than a little risky. I don't think Kamala Harris is good news for Trump, especially among young voters. If Democrats want Zoomers, I think Kamala is maybe the best choice. She is a Black Asian American woman who can passionately tell you how she will FIGHT for you. The poll I cited above says she'd beat Trump by 25 points among young voters, compared to 20 points for Biden. Beyond the polls, she is passionate about the idea that if you are a woman and if you are a minority and if you are vulnerable, what politicians decide absolutely matters. Whether they will let you get an abortion or help you with your child after she is born absolutely matters. I will FIGHT for you and that absolutely matters. How badass is that? Harris would be an antidote to the foundational strategy of the Trump 2024 campaign, which is cynicism and disillusionment.

I know facts are difficult for you to accept, @EmmetK. I did manage to watch all 90+ minutes of Trump's demented sounding ramble of a speech. So I guess I get it. Facts are bad, aren't they? It's a fact that MURDER spiked 30 % in 2020 under Trump and he left office as the Murder President. It's a fact that murder and violent crime fell over 10 % in 2023 under Biden, and seems to be headed down more under Biden. But the MAGA cult can not talk about this fact. It is a fact that JD Vance is viciously anti-union, and unions detest him. And yet somehow Republicans won't talk about all the things JD Vance has done to undercut unionized workers. Let's not even talk about how Trump 1.0 was all about cutting taxes for billionaires and corporations. So, yes. You really don't like facts. You like felons, and liars. So you wanted some Harris polling? What is it about facts that you hate so much? Is it that you fear losing? That would make sense. Under Trump, radical MAGA voters lost in 2018, and 2020, and 2022, and 2023. So, yeah. Odds are you will lose in 2024, now that JD Vance was chosen to double down on the radical MAGA message of tax cuts for billionaires and attack democratic elections and support Putin's genocide. What is it about facts you hate, @EmmetK? I mean, do you want Trump back so murder rates can spike 30 % again? What part of Biden reducing violent crime and murder do you not like? How is this radical bullshit good for America. I'm pretty sure those poll numbers above underestimate where this is going. The Democratic Party is in chaos right now. The Republicans just had a great convention, thanks 100 % to Susie Wiles and 0 % to off message Donald Trump, who is old and off message and is the guy who gave us a 30 % spike in murder. What is it about blood you guys like? Is it a testosterone thing? Meanwhile, the same PPP poll shows Casey winning by 11 points, and Slotkin winning by 8 points. So it's pretty clear that people in Pennsylvania and Michigan are for democracy, and plenty willing to vote for Democrats. So the chaos is worth is it gets voters a candidate they actually WANT to vote for. What is it about facts that you hate, @EmmetK? Why would you want to bring back a felon who lies and gave America a 30 % spike in murder?

Actually, I'm not sure of that at all. I think if the election were held today, yes. Then it would be bad news for Democrats. There's a glaringly obvious fact. Way over half of Americans do not want Joe Biden running. And way over half of Americans do not want Donald Trump running. Majorities of Independents want BOTH old men to step aside. In both cases, old age is a major issue. But in Trump's case, it has more to do with the fact that he is a felon and a liar. So what America just saw is a coronation of Trump, who rambled on for 90 minutes like an old demented man who has no ability to regulate his own behavior. Hopefully Gen Z misses that and just sees some cool video on Tik Tok about how he pumped his first after someone almost killed him. Welcome to politics, Zoomer edition! For everyone else, Democrats are being the adults in the room. You can argue that we should have gotten our shit together sooner. But especially if the issue is whether to take Grandpa's car keys away, that is always difficult. I posted Biden's 2022 Philly address on MAGA as a threat to democracy, and NO ONE - not even Fox - was saying the guy making that speech sounded demented. After the 2022 elections, everyone was actually saying, "Wow! Biden got it right." That matters, because that more than anything is what killed the talk about how Biden should not run in 2024. In retrospect, that WSJ article several months ago has more credibility than it seemed to at the time. But there's a reason I ignored it. The only people they quoted were Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy, Biden's political opponents. So bottom line is if Democrats manage to replace an old man America doesn't want with someone else like Kamala Harris they actually voted for - once in a general election and once in a primary - I don't think that makes Democrats look bad. I think it makes it look like we listened to voters about something that is sad, but has become obvious.

I don't disagree with anything you said, as far as it goes. I don't think you understood either of my points about a reality check. First, tens of millions did vote for Kamala Harris as Vice President. They did not vote for Mike Johnson, or Nancy Pelosi, or Porky Pig. They voted for Kamala Harris. They voted for her in the 2020 election. They voted for her in the 2024 primary. If Biden died of a heart attack yesterday, Kamala would be POTUS today. That is the Constitutional order of things. Everybody knows that. Clever Republicans who want Biden as Trump's opponent are already showing off both their cynicism and fear by saying Democrats are plotting a "coup attempt" against Biden. Talk about coups! These anti-democratic cynics should know. But they do have a point that if we have a Democratic primary and then somehow Gavin Newsom is the nominee, how was that actually democracy? So there is this basic idea that the Veep takes the place of the POTUS if he can't serve. That is why we have a Veep. It does give the process democratic legitimacy. It is more democratic than, say, Gerald Ford, who was never actually elected as either Veep or POTUS. A lot of Republicans are saying that if Biden steps aside as nominee, it also means he is not qualified to be POTUS for six more months. That's debatable. I think the real concern is whether he can serve four more years. But mostly based on Lichtman's ideas, which are all over the internet, if the goal is to beat Trump, and Biden is going to step aside as nominee, I think Kamala would have a better shot if she ran as POTUS, not Veep. Lichtman is saying, correctly I think, that having Kamala run as non-incumbent - especially if it requires a party fight to even get her nominated - is setting up 2016 all over again. He says Biden should resign and let Kamala take his place, and she'd then be a relative shoo-in as nominee. I think Lichtman is right. Nobody thinks a "coronation" is a good idea. But if Biden resigned and Kamala became POTUS and they vote on it as the DNC, it is likely that Harris would win overwhelmingly. That would show a united party, much like the Trump/MAGA party is united. Second reality check I think you missed, which is also a major talking point of anyone actually running national elections. There would be massive legal and financial problems for any person not named Joe Biden running for POTUS, unless that person is named Kamala Harris. That is mostly because of money and infrastructure that belongs to the Biden/Harris campaign. But, in theory, if Gavin Newsom were the nominee, Republicans could challenge even getting his name on state ballots. They are already threatening to do the same if Harris takes Biden's place. But they don't have a strong legal case to do so if the name is Harris. For both reasons, the reality check is that if Democrats want to beat Trump, and the whole things is about beating Trump, and in fact what actually matters most is beating Trump, there would be so many political, legal, and financial problems picking anyone other than Harris that it would probably just be better to let Biden limp to the finish line and lose. As far as your ability to diagnose dementia, I'm honestly a bit skeptical. That has been addressed before by someone else on the board with medical credentials, which i don't have. But I agree with your non-professional point, which is that the public overwhelmingly thinks Biden - AND TRUMP - are too old. And majorities of Americans want BOTH old men to step aside.

Jesus ordered Jan. 6th to save democracy. Jesus saved Trump from an assassin's bullet to make America great again. If you don't understand that, Sis, you just ain't American. Thankfully, you're not Merrick Garland or some communist Biden appointee. So you don't have to worry about Jesus throwing your ass in jail come January. But I'm sure Jesus would have a good reason to do so, anyway.

Well, I think we did learn something this week. Trump looks best when he keeps his mouth shut and raises his fist after being shot. When he talks for an hour and a half, not so much. Truth, of course, never stood a chance for a single minute. But I give Trump credit. He did unity for something like a full 20 minutes, before he wandered off into his typical hate and lies.

Well, we know she has a thing for Jewish guys, anyway. Doug isn't even First Gentleman yet, and he is already a class act.

I like Klo. She filled Paul Wellstone's seat. And he was my political mentor. So she always has a warm spot in my heart. A Bidenesque story, meaning an old war story that makes me sound old. At the time Wellstone won his US Senate seat, in 1990, Minnesota was seen as a solid red state, with two Republican Senators who had served for over a decade. A top Reagan White House political operative who was a lobbyist for GE Capital who I was working with on a $1 billion Community Home Buyers Program at the time told me this: "Your friend (Paul) has no chance. (Incumbent Senator) Boschwitz has great constituent services. No one can touch him." Professor Paul, and my best best friend from college who ran his campaign, touched Rudy. They beat him with the kind of fiery populist working class campaign that helped turn the tide of Reaganomics and helped make Minnesota a blue state. It worked in 1990. That is what Democrats need to do in 2024. And it is eminently doable. Speaking of which, from today's news: That's rich coming from Team MAGA. At least they know what they are talking about when they talk about coups! But on the topic of coups, we will have to have a reality check about how you toss Biden away, after he won the Democratic primary overwhelmingly. The thing Kamala Harris has going for her is that people voted for her as the one who would take Biden's place if needed - twice. Once in 2020, in the general election, and again in the 2024 primary. That's a philosophical point. If we didn't elect Kamala to take Biden's place, why did we vote for her? The much more pragmatic point is there are only two people who can legally run the vast financial and human infrastructure called the Biden/Harris campaign: Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. Harris does not have a campaign team around her, so she would start at a deficit. But Klo, or anyone else, would start at a massively bigger deficit when we talk about what it takes to win a campaign - money, and a huge GOTV infrastructure.

Of course we can. (Well, not @EmmetK, of course.) And we can also agree defeating Trump has to be based on reality. Michelle Obama has said repeatedly for years she has absolutely no interest in running for POTUS. The other reality, as a pollster I cited on another thread wrote, is that these polls that test a horse race between Trump and anyone other than Biden are going to underestimate (name someone else who is much less well known until they actually are well known). Polls about Trump versus Humpy Dumpty, Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Goldilocks, and Mary Poppins aren't really based in reality. Granted, Harris, Newsom, Whitmer, Beshear, and Pritzker are real people, not fairy tales. But I'm pretty sure Humpty Dumpty has far better name recognition than the Governor of Kentucky. I'm also pretty sure that poll you cited tests name recognition more than anything else. I'm genuinely curious how many voters who know "Biden" do not know "Harris". I would bet money there are a lot of Americans who know who Michelle Obama is, but have no idea who Kamala Harris is. When you get down to Beshear or Pritzker, that's just a given. The more interesting question that is worthy of debate is, "Can't we all agree that at this moment, in July 2024, a month before the DNC, the only person who can defeat Trump, other than Joe Biden, is Kamala Harris?"