How bad was he at the debate. When I opened the Guardian and saw the lead story about democrats calling on Joe to step aside, I knew it was bad. But I did not expect it from NY Times opinion page.
I couldn’t watch much of it. It was embarrassing. I worry that accurately describing the extent to which Biden seemed ill will come off as an exaggeration. Normally they give him something to perk him up and let him speak with his chest for an hour. He just couldn’t get it done last night.
he genuinely looked and sounded lost for most of the debate
It was bad. He looked like a mummy and his voice was hoarse and weak. He couldn't finish a sentence without mumbling and losing his train of thought. Made Trump look coherent by comparison.
Hasan got out of his seat, walked to the back of the room, faced the wall and put his hands on top of his head.....and that was the first 20 mins
Wow. That dude watches unhinged content for a living and even he had to back away lmao
Some columnist said he looked like a hospice patient that got lost on the way to the bathroom lol
most of it was biden going [unintelligible] and staring into the camera like
Libs are like the Tesla autopilot, leading the vehicle right up to a crash, and disengaging at the last second as to not be considered responsible for the crash.
That's exactly what liberals are going to do if Biden gets couped by the DNC. They are going to pin everything on him.
Ole genocide joe did a genocide, but not us! We quitely resisted, untill we had to take such drastic actions after all else failed--we're heros really. Oh, you think [bad policy] is bad? Well that was all Biden actually. We wash our blood-soaked hands clean with the Great Man theory rag.
Joe Biden rolls worst joint ever, asked to leave Presidential Race.
I'm not sure if the Zoomers around here know who Friedman is, but imagine if you spent 50 years distilling pure neolib lanyard essence, and then found the most incorrect man in the world and replaced his cerebral-spinal fluid with it.
He is the most Biden voter it is possible to be and he is abandoning him.
Don't you dare call Thomas "I ask my Uber driver" Friedman the most wrong man in the world. He's a true spokesperson for all Uber drivers in NYC
I love how Friedman mentions two kinds of people. Drivers and billionaires. And both groups always agree with him and give him insights. I'm shocked Friedman hasn't done an important interview with Elon as he drives around in a Cybertruck making him Friedman's first billionaire and driver.
The headline made me laugh. I imagined Friedman up on stage at an open mic night. After he said the first sentence he took a very looooooong pause before the second.
Biden is a friend of mine
He resembles frankenstein
When he does the irish jig
He resembles porky pig
I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances — nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st century.
The Biden family and political team must gather quickly and have the hardest of conversations with the president, a conversation of love and clarity and resolve. To give America the greatest shot possible of deterring the Trump threat in November, the president has to come forward and declare that he will not be running for re-election and is releasing all of his delegates for the Democratic National Convention.
The Republican Party, if its leaders had an ounce of integrity, would demand the same, but it won’t, because they don’t. That makes it all the more important that Democrats put the country’s interests first and announce that a public process will begin for different Democratic candidates to compete for the nomination — town halls, debates, meetings with donors, you name it. Yes, it could be chaotic and messy when the Democratic convention starts on Aug. 19 in Chicago, but I think the Trump threat is sufficiently grave that delegates could quickly rally around and nominate a consensus candidate.
If Vice President Kamala Harris wants to compete, she should. But voters deserve an open process in search of a Democratic presidential nominee who can unite not only the party but also the country, by offering something neither man on that Atlanta stage did on Thursday night: a compelling description of where the world is right now and a compelling vision for what America can and must do to keep leading it — morally, economically and diplomatically.
Because this is no ordinary hinge of history we are at. We are at the start of the biggest technological disruptions and the biggest climate disruption in human history. We are at the dawn of an artificial intelligence revolution that is going to change EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE — how we work, how we learn, how we teach, how we trade, how we invent, how we collaborate, how we fight wars, how we commit crimes and how we fight crimes. Maybe I missed it, but I did not hear the phrase “artificial intelligence” mentioned by either man at the debate.
If there was ever a time that the world needed an America at its best, led by its best, it is now — for great dangers and opportunities are now upon us. A younger Biden could have been that leader, but time has finally caught up with him. And that was painfully and inescapably obvious on Thursday.
Biden has been a friend of mine since we traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan together after Sept. 11, 2001, when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I say all of the above with great sadness.
But if he caps his presidency now, by acknowledging that because of age he is not up to a second term, his first and only term will be remembered as among the better presidencies in our history. He saved us from a second Trump term, and for that alone he deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but he also enacted important legislation crucial to confronting the climate and technology revolutions now upon us.
I had been ready to give Biden the benefit of the doubt up to now, because during the times I engaged with him one on one, I found him up to the job. He clearly is not any longer. His family and his staff had to have known that. They have been holed up at Camp David preparing for this momentous debate for days now. If that is the best performance they could summon from him, it’s time for him to keep the dignity he deserves and leave the stage at the end of this term.
If he does, everyday Americans will hail Joe Biden for doing what Donald Trump would never do: put the country before himself.
If he insists on running and he loses to Trump, Biden and his family — and his staff and party members who enabled him — will not be able to show their faces.
They deserve better. America needs better. The world needs better.
The Republican Party, if its leaders had an ounce of integrity, would demand the same, but it won’t, because they don’t. That makes it all the more important that Democrats put the country’s interests first
😤
Thomas Friedman... you are bad at writing, and nobody likes you
