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I don’t believe that he relinquished his campaign out of utter beneficence. I skimmed the transcript but never managed to find it, does he touch on what in particular compelled him to pass the torch?
It’s hard to believe that he’d just wake up one morning after six months of campaigning and say “yeah, it’s about time I hang up my suit.” Especially with only a few months remaining for Harris to campaign. There had to have been a coming to Jesus moment for the spontaneity of this about face.
The people spoke loudly about what they wanted. I’m glad he listened
They’ve been saying the same thing for 3 years. This doesn’t make sense without some sort of realization or external pressure.
Disapproval is very different from potential voters wanting someone else (a specific other candidate, not a generic candidate). He thought he could convince voters that he was still the best option.
He realized he was wrong. Maybe if State of the Union Biden showed up to the debate things would be different. But we'll never know.
Maype he watched a recording of the debate and realized everyone on stage was too old to be running for president?
Maybe? Selfishly, I still wish he’d offered complete candor to sate my curiosity. Maybe in his memoirs.
He did offer complete candor.
I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy, and that includes personal ambition.
He still thinks he's perfectly capable of being an excellent president. But the voters disagree, and he's stepping down to give us the best chance of stopping Trump.
I'm sure you don't like his answer, but that's his answer.
Even if he had, you still wouldn't know if he had.
Yeah, he won't openly say how his entire inner circle kept yelling at him "FOR FUCKS SAKE JOE STEP DOWN WE'RE FUCKING LOSING THIS!" before the election.
The story behind it is that he was finally shown how terrible his numbers really were in swing states. Apparently, they looked very bad and were trending even further down.
The story also goes that the reality of the situation had largely been hidden from him by his closest confidants up to that point. Add in all the party and public pressure, and it really doesn’t seem too far fetched that he was finally forced to face up to the bleak outlook of his chances going forward.
...you haven't felt anything change in the past month? They absolutely haven't been saying these things for 3 years.
If by “they” you mean the news, then I’ve noticed a change. Insofar as actual human people and their opinions in my city, they’ve been static. Progressives sighing and regressives screeching. How have the human people in your city changed their opinions?
The people with money decided they didn't like him. That's what changed.
I don’t know how people don’t get this. It’s utterly transparent, they didn’t make any secret of it. Their megadonors pulled donations, pelosi went and had a secret chat that was probably along the lines of “i have spoken to the oligarchs that fund us, if you insist on running your war chest will be paltry and the rest of the party will suffer in kind. Congressional races, local elections, etc will all be vastly underfunded because you decided to stay in the race. They are holding the bag and they want you out.” and then a few days later he announces he’s out after they coordinate things. Maybe he had a day or two where he had a pipe dream moment thinking he could grassroots fund it like Bernie and someone shot him back down to earth
The specifics of their conversation are secret so that’s conjecture of course but the fact that the dnc’s large donors pulled their donations until he dropped out and that pelosi spoke to him about that fact are not. And then she gets spun as some “boss dealmaker” when really she’s just the mouthpiece of the elite ruling class, sending a message that their money dries up if they don’t get their way. Some deal making that is
I agree.
Note: I think it's worth it if it ends up stopping the actual fascists from seizing power.
But I very much expect Biden's plan to increase taxes on the 1% to be either heavily neutered or quietly scrapped when Harris gets in office. And that sucks.
From the reporting I've read, there have been a lot of meetings between him and leading Democrats urging him to step down; starting with his debate performance and continuing from there.
He's probably been considering it for a while. However, in his position, as soon as you acknowledge that you are considering withdrawing from the race your campaign is over, so he needed to look committed until he was ready to pull the trigger and drop out.
I mean, he said that he might do it for health reasons and then it was announced a day or two later that he had tested positive for covid again.
It's probably just a fig leaf for him to bow to pressure from the party without losing too much face, but it's also possible that he's honestly realizing that staying in a job that keeps exposing you to covid and any other epi/pandemic that comes along isn't a good idea at his age..
You know, in recent weeks it’s become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy, and that includes personal ambition.
So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life, but there’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now.
He’s given the description of something with fins and teeth, but that could be any number of animals. Typically, a gargantuan decision like this isn’t made unless there’s a similarly massive realization. Did advisors say his polls were unfavorable? Were donors pulling out? Did he come to terms with his age? Was his party begging for his retirement?
I’m not looking for souls lore and feelings in abstract, I’m asking for events.
He didn't. They are gaslighting you now trying to make it seem like this was the plan all along. People hate Trump and they unite behind that and end up voting blue no matter who. They'll end up in this mess time and time again though until people make Democrats change else stop voting for them. You don't help someone addicted to drugs by giving them money everytime they ask.
but not voting or voting red means actively Supporting fascism. on one side you had an old guy who was visibly getting older and on the other side you have a almost comically evil group of persons who want nothing more than to make life more miserable for all people on earth but themselves
the choice should be obvious
but not voting [...] means actively Supporting fascism
- Not donating means actively funding fascism
- Not canvassing means actively canvassing for fascism
- Not committing acts of terror in support of democrats means actively committing acts of terror in support of republicans
Ridiculous attempt at false equivalence
I'd honestly be interested to see a cohorent argument as to why the first two aren't true if not voting is. I can't think of one.
The last one I threw in there for fun.
Is this you 13 days ago?
So many people here who have spent months bitching about Biden being the candidate can't take five minutes to enjoy him stepping down from the election.
You got what you wanted.
And I support Harris?
"Not voting is voting for the other side" is completely ineffectual as a slogan, since the type of person likely to not vote is going to immediately file it away in their brain as the obvious hyperbole-bordering-on-lie it is.
What's your point?
I told you my point: take a minute and be happy you got what you wanted before moving on to being miserable about the next, related, thing.
But I'm not miserable about Harris? I just told you that.
Or are you trying to say that making any comments that don't end with a string of 🎉 emojis is off the table for the next 3 to 5 working days ?
I get that maybe you misinterpreted my comment as anti-harris, since I didn't bother to make my specific stance clear and kind of threw it out there, but I've now clarified.
Why are you doubling down now? Just to try and retroactively justify some unnecessary receipt pulling?
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
You're not, you're miserable about something else instead. Specifically, people suggesting that voter apathy helps Trump. Or at least you acted in a pretty miserable way.
Okay so the emoji thing. Not allowed to criticise anything? What a strange and unique lens to view the world through.
"Voter apathy helps Trump" has a lot of baked in context that makes it kind-of-true when "You not voting helps Trump" just objectively isn't.
I must say though, I wasn't miserable when i made that comment, and now that you have received the initial thing you were looking for (or confirmation that you had it all along), I expect to see nothing but positivity from you for the next week.