Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?

Obviously because he's a weak candidate (and has been from the very beginning) in what might well be the highest stakes presidential race in US history.

The debate didn't suddenly create some notion of his weakness as a candidate - long before the debate, his prospects were already shaky at best, and the Dem establishment had already had to resort to basically trying to guilt trip people into voting for him.

All the debate did as far as any of that goes is drive home the point that people have been trying to make from the beginning - that he is and always has been a weak and uninspiring candidate at best.

And I'd say that rather obviously, if anyone's repeating the mistakes of 2016, it's the Dem establishment.

And on a bit of a side note - in response to the author's smugly self-congratulatory view that the voters are mindless automatons who just blindly do as the media tells them, I would just like to offer up a hearty, "fuck you."

All the debate did as far as any of that goes is drive home the point that people have been trying to make from the beginning - that he is and always has been a weak and uninspiring candidate at best
And Biden knew it too, it's why the man who wouldn't shut up for decades suddenly disappeared from the public eye.
He did less than a tenth of the press conferences as the last two presidents in their first term.
If they wouldn't have been hiding him, Dem voters would have seen how bad he's gotten.
- Mans was sleepy! 4 years of jet lag.
I should also add that his ABC interview on Friday only intensified my concerns. To me, all it really communicated is that he actually IS so wrapped up in his own ego and hubris that he doesn’t actually get that this is an existential election, and that the consequences for failure are well and truly catastrophic. Like, there’s a good chance we won’t have functional democratic processes anymore if he looses. But he thinks that’s fine because “he will have given it his all”, ignoring the fact that “his all” is shuffling around, trying to compromise with fascists, and bringing a deck of cards to the gunfight that American politics have devolved into these days.
Really, it’s an evolution of the concerns I had in the 2020 elections, which have kind of proven out to be completely true: that despite some clear domestic policy successes, he’s more or less out of touch with the fact that he’s playing with an absurdly outdated rule book, and does not seem to understand that the rules have fundamentally changed. He doesn’t get that a lot of his old bipartisan negotiating tactics are straight up self-defeating these days.
I am genuinely and deeply worried at this point that his refusal to see past his own personal situation in all of this is going to lead to the conclusion of the American experiment in its current incarnation, and replace it with something far, far darker.
Edit: if you’re downvoting this, I am actually genuinely curious as to which parts of this you disagree with, or think are wrongheaded.
- I'm glad you mentioned his interview increased your concern. I thought it was just me. I'll vote for whoever is the Democrat on the ballot - but I'm not the person the campaign should be worried about. They have to put someone on the ballot who can win (which, as damning as it is to America broadly, is probably a good-looking, smooth-talking white guy who will look better on stage than Trump).
- Really, it’s an evolution of the concerns I had in the 2020 elections, which have kind of proven out to be completely true: that despite some clear domestic policy successes, he’s more or less out of touch with the fact that he’s playing with an absurdly outdated rule book, and does not seem to understand that the rules have fundamentally changed.
  He and the DNC and the Democrat establishment as a whole.
  The voters made it clear in 2020 that they didn't really want him all that much, and arguably the only reason he got the nomination is because the Democrat establishment transparently engineered it by getting all the candidates other than Sanders to all drop out and endorse Biden essentially simultaneously. That gave the establishment the opportunity to push through Biden's nomination in spite of his glaring weakness as a candidate. They could've had a populist to rival Trump, and one that's notably sane rather than a delusional narcissist and compulsive liar with the emotional maturity of a spoiled five-year-old, but instead they doggedly stuck to the same playbook that in the past brought us such drab losers as Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry, and brought us another drab loser who only barely managed to not lose.
  And now here we are, four years down the line, with a drab loser incumbent up against the greatest threat American democracy has ever faced.
  The rules clearly changed in 2016. The RNC and the Republican establishment changed to accomodate them (or at least to provide a colorable appearance of doing so). The DNC and the Democrat establishment did not. And now we're reaping what they sowed.
golf clap.... Well said.
I get so frustrated, and I'm sure others too, that I've been saying this for the entirety of the Biden presidency. Now that it's 10 minutes to midnight everyone decides to talk about it. My voice has been ignored, I've been shutdown and basically forced out of any discussion when I brought this shit up.
The problem isn't that the media changed. The problem isn't that the DNC changed. The problem isn't progressives changed. The problem is the voting public decided just now to actually show up. Democracy is dying not because the Republicans are political juggernauts it's because Americans can't get it up unless it's fucking a giant production.
So you mother fuckers better do everything you fucking can to keep Trump out because I cant fucking even with you guys anymore.
Biden only appears weak to those not paying attention. He has a strong record of achievements, some you may have missed., not to mention bringing chip manufacturing back to the U.S.. He has skillfully navigated the impending recession to a soft landing and his policies are preferred by both Democrats and Republicans by a wide margin. Many didn't see him as a great president but his results may prove them wrong. He will go down in history as under appreciated president. Biden is a successful president. Will that matter?
- Biden's weak because he's got a low approval rating, a high disapproval rating, he's losing badly in every poll, and 80% of voters think he's too old to be President. Being a strong candidate isn't about how qualified or accomplished you are, it's about how strong your electoral support is. To those who've been paying attention, Biden's weakness has been apparent for years, and we've been raising alarms since he said he would seek reelection.
- And none of that carefully manicured astroturf makes the slightest bit of difference.
  The Democrat rank and file have been clearly telling the DNC and the rest of the establishment for eight years now that we want a real leftist - somebody who actually represents our values who we can and will rally behind rather than just another establishment hack who's sort of maybe somewhere to the leftish side of the extremely narrow establishment hack spectrum.
  And for the same eight years, the DNC and the rest of the establishment has been alternately ignoring us and telling us that we're too stupid to understand what's best for us (just as you're doing now).
  They fucking cost us the election already in 2016, and damned near did again in 2020. And now they're set to try to do it in 2024.
  This election is unlike any other in US history. With overt fascists riding Trump's coattails, already with a roadmap to destroying democracy and instituting their dictatorship, this isn't just a choice between potential presidents, but a choice between destroying or saving the US.
  So it really doesn't matter in the slightest what sort of policy achievements a Democrat candidate might or might not have. The ONLY thing that matters is whether or not the candidate will inspire enough voters to win.
  That's it - this time around, winning literally is everything. NOTHING else matters.
  And all the DNC and the Democrat establishment has to do to effectively guarantee a win is get the fuck out of the way and let the people choose the candidate they want - the candidate that they're going to rally behind. That's what the voters have wanted for eight years now, and it's long past time for the power brokers and their mouthpieces to back the fuck off and let them.
  Now that said, I don't think the situation is as dire as all that. Trump and his fascist cohorts are such an obvious threat that I think that come November, if the DNC and the rest of the Democrat establishment have gone ahead and decided to gamble the fate of the country on clinging to a weak establishment candidate in spite of eight years of clearly communicated disillusionment from the base, just being "not-Trump" will be enough to likely win anyway, as it was in 2020.
  But it's not a sure thing. A candidate that the people chose and the people rallied behind would be a sure thing, while an establishment hack is just someone who might manage to eke out a win because enough people will hold their noses and vote for them anyway, solely on the "strength" of them being not-Trump.
- Breaking out his checklist doesn't mean anything, even average/working class people are struggling. If he was doing well as folks make him out to be, people would be singing his praises and be ready to stand beside him. He has gained a ton of apathy over 4 years.
- Don’t forget he beat Medicare and has golf handicap of 6.

The ~~media~~ DNC is once again repeating the mistakes of 2016

Pokemon go to the polls? No. This time we need you to walk tuah polling place and vote on that thang.
- Fucking hell I love the “walk tuah poll.” Damn, I wish I was running my own campaign to use that on right now. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
- How high are you right now?
Two different groups can be fucking things up in depressingly familiar fashion at once
- The DNC and corporate media walk hand in hand... They're both bought and paid for by the same oligarchy
~~2016~~ 1968

Just the pundit class? 🤨

Welcome to the pundit class

Because they probably watched the same disaster of a debate that I did.

It is very clear that the people who oppose Trump fall into one of two camps right now:

Those who watched the debate and his ABC interview, and those who did not.

If you watched, you're alarmed.

If not, you are feeling like this alarm is better worth ignored. And you should go watch the debate and interview.

Smerconish's piece on it was exactly it. https://youtu.be/CgZRz2vdnp8

Watched every minute and I'm alarmed. Still not calling for Biden to drop out.

Because it drives ratings and all the dumbasses who pick it up and run with it are the same ones who followed "this is how Bernie can still win." I've already seen multiple people say "we could have AOC!" as if that is at all realistic. And although she is the most "out there" fan fic pick there are still plenty of others who would immediately be torn apart.

Choosing a different horse at this point leads to a Mondale style wipeout.

Funny how everyone latches onto "generic democrat polls better" polls that would IMMEDIATELY shift as soon Biden drops and they come in.

It would:

signal Democrats have no idea what they're doing
Put out the feeling they're terrified
Open up a new candidate to attacks "they're too left, they're too soft on crime, they're ...."
Give up the incumbency advantage and it IS an advantage.

Why anyone is still on this "drop out Biden" crap is beyond me. His interview was fine (notice how no one is bringing that up in comparison to one bad debate). Trump has MULTIPLE times looked confused and out of it on this campaign trail let alone all the years before (notice how no one brings that up.) Project 2025 should scare the living daylights out of anyone- Republican, Democrat, or independent and especially in light of the relatively progressive and largely relaxed time of Biden's admin..

To me this is nothing but a Republican plan come to fruition by latching on whatever they could and a bunch of dummies running with it. And by dummies I mean people who don't like Biden and see this as their perfect chance to drop him, even if their preferred younger candidate gets absolutely stomped in the election. They'd rather have "their way" even if it means giving up the presidency.

Hold the line- Biden will be fine.

For me it was seeing a news article montage showing literally the exact same headlines from 2016 about Hillary Clinton. It’s just the same play from a tired playbook.
- And you know what? It's working. Because the media is a big bag of chucklefucks who will all be looking around like "we're all looking for the guy that did this" when Project 2025 comes for them.
- How did Hillary do in the outcome of 2016 election btw?
To me this is nothing but a Republican plan come to fruition by latching on whatever they could and a bunch of dummies running with it.
That's a pretty good summary of most of the anti-Biden rhetoric this go around. It seems like the GOFascists know that trump is going to struggle and they're latching on to anything to keep bad Biden news on everyone's mind and not Trump's dementia riddled asinine word vomit.
Sad to see how many "leftists" are doing their best to get republicans elected. Be it bad faith discussions or just accelerationist ideology, it sounds the same on the outside.

Look who pays their bills.

It's clearly because the evil media is out to get Perfect Young Biden. There can be no other possible explanation.

Wow, this is written by one truly oblivious journalist

Because Biden is a distasteful choice for president. That being said, there are no other strong options right now so we’re stuck with it.

there are no other strong options right now
How so? The Rest is Politics identified a few candidates who are more than capable, Gavin Newsom among them.
- Sadly, I suspect the average voter isn’t really aware of who Newsom is. People are really disconnected from anything but the biggest headlines.
My naive theory is that Biden plans to drop out as late as possible so that he can take a media beating from the Republicunts and protect the real DNC nominee.
- Yeah, I can't see that helping. You want someone to have as much coverage as possible.
- Holy fuck I hope so. I'm voting for whoever is most likely to beat Trump but I really don't want to vote for this ticket.
- That would be funny as shit, but like basically everything Dark Brandon adjacent I fear it is more of a cope than reality.
- Can he do that after arresting supreme court judges? After all, he's got presidential immunity.

Because they are spineless cowards and various GOP operatives who have been doing this shit since Clinton and have become absolutely fuckin experts at it, came up to them in the locker room

“Hey so I pretty much everyone thinks Biden is a loser now,” they said.

“Really?” Said the media.

“Oh my God, do you even have to ask that?” asked the GOP derisively. “Did you see him at the debate?”

“I guess he did look pretty old…” said the media, thinking silently about when Trump said a wave of immigrants was coming in and killing our citizens at a level we’ve never seen.

“Media, he looked like a fucking ZOMBIE. He looked like an old, old man who didn’t know what year it was. I hope they find someone new after this. They’re pretty much going to have to. There’s no way they’re going to stick with that guy. He looks like someone’s great grandfather. He’s finished,” said the GOP forcefully. And then, after a carefully timed pause, they turned. “Wait, you don’t think he did GOOD, do you?”

And so on

And then the GOP operative got paid almost two hundred thousand dollars a year, and the media went out and wrote the story it was goddamned well supposed to write.

Dude. The Democrats leaked like a sieve to the media after that debate. It wasn't the GOP holding the knife.
- Some Democrats "leaked" because they are SPINELESS but Joe Biden already has the keys to a 2024 win.
Because they are spineless cowards and various GOP operatives
You can’t possibly think The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic are all being manipulated by GOP operatives.
- "Democrat" as an adjective is notable, as is viewing the New York Times as a "Democrat mainstay"
  Before the 2016 election, yeah mostly. Definitely in comparison to most US media. But as mostly a Democrat looking at the NYT's coverage in the modern era, I am mostly horrified by it
- Corporate news, like the other wealthy folks, love their big tax breaks.
- Wait, you think corpo media are democratic mainstays?
  How fucking naive are you?
They're incentivized to push the agenda since Trump wants to put in more protection för big money
- It's not that. Anti-Trump media makes a buttload of money wringing their hands and saying how bad he is. He drives ratings.
  People stopped listening to him after he screwed up COVID. Plus everyone was tired of his antics after 4 years.
  Fuck the media. This is your future here. Don't vote for Biden. Vote for better Supreme Court Justices, better laws, better executive orders, and less corruption.

It's not quite the same as 2016 because then, we had no incumbent President running. It was a blank slate on both sides.

Because it worked so well for Humphrey in his 1968 win.

Or they're Republicans and dirty pool is okay by them.

It's silly to talk about a "pundit class". It's not like they're a group with any coherent ideas, much less any sort of persistent group loyalty. They're just people with opinions and a platform.

This article tries to make it sound like he's a really popular candidate and there's some shady group of kingmakers trying to block him.

The main reason that people are pushing for him to step aside is that they don't believe he can beat Trump. It's not that people were grumpy about a raspy voice. There was already a lot of suspicion that he's going senile. He got the benefit of the doubt and the debate was his chance to prove the doubters wrong. Instead he confirmed their deepest fears. Since then, he's provided a steady stream of examples of his diminishing mental capacity.

A formal cognitive assessment might lay those fears to rest but, at this point, it's unlikely. For many people, the conclusion is clear; the evidence is in and he forgets what he's talking about mid-sentence. Many people look at the polling numbers around that just want someone who has a chance of beating Trump.

Don't disagree, but also curious why the same pundits aren't ripping apart Trump's senility? 30 seconds of watching a Daily Show weekly roundup will provide COUNTLESS examples of Trump rambling endlessly and forgetting what he was even talking about. Just because it wasn't as stark at the debate doesn't' mean it isn't happening. I'd also imagine that Trump was probably coked out of his mind at the debate after he spent weeks leading up to it claiming Biden would be on drugs. He has a well-documented history of projecting whatever he's doing wrong on his opposition.
- Don’t disagree, but also curious why the same pundits aren’t ripping apart Trump’s senility
  Republicans are held to a lower standard.
- Those articles are out there.
  The key differences are Trump is the popular candidate. He is who the GOP electorate wants and who the GOP runs on.
  Biden is not a popular candidate and not who the Democratic party electorate necessarily wants: instead his whole candidacy and presidency has solely been not being Trump. This condition is fully transferrable to any candidate with support of the party.
  So the ramifications and implications are wildly different.
- It's because we're talking about two entirely different groups of people.
  More and more Democrats are calling for Biden to withdraw because they don't believe he can beat Trump.
  Republicans are happy to stick with Trump because they're fairly sure he can trounce Biden.
- Because Trump's senility doesn't matter; Republicans are going to vote for him regardless
the fact we should even need a cognitive test is Ludacris. age limits for presidential and high court positions. past retirement age? gtfo
- past retirement age? gtfo
  That has the unintended consequence of encouraging them to raise the retirement age.
  Better plan: base it on lifespan, cap it at some percentage of the average age of death. They want to stay in office longer? Gonna have to raise the average lifespan. Public healthcare would probably get them the biggest bang for their buck

This is the best summary I could come up with:

They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic.

Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment.

It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, AKA most of these pundits.

The extremist US supreme court justices he selected during his last presidential term themselves staged a coup this very Monday, overthrowing the US constitution itself and the principle that no one is above the law to make presidents into kings, just after legalizing bribery of officials, and dismantling the regulatory state by throwing out the Chevron deference.

I get that writing about the monstrosity that is Trump faces the problem that it’s not news; he’s been a monster spouting lurid nonsense all his life (but his political crimes are recent, and his free-associating public soliloquies on sharks, batteries, toilets, water flow and Hannibal Lector, among other topics, are genuinely demented).

But the shocking supreme court decisions this summer and the looming threat of authoritarianism have gotten little ink and air, compared to the hue and cry about Biden’s competence.

The original article contains 1,298 words, the summary contains 260 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

The bots/trolls and the right want him to drop out because they know come November, the rapist with 34 felonies is going to take a bigger beating than he took last time. They're desperate. Do not fall for the bullshit and misinformation, VOTE. If you can, volunteer, give people rides, whatever it takes.

Interesting title. I had the impression that so many pundits sought to prop him up.

Because he’s a horrible candidate and I think there’s a good chance he loses to trump. It’s terrifying. If he loses fuck all of you.

Trump's camp has tried to make the age and competency of candidates a focal point, and they've also tried to highlight that the left is too left. What would happen if they got a younger candidate with a more centered running mate? Suddenly spin it all back and dump it on Trump and snag up all the undecided voters impacted by all the supreme court decision in the past couple years who would otherwise lean towards Trump

They'll say they're too young and too left. Or throw 5 other things at the wall and see what gets traction. Conservative attacks have never attempted to be consistent.
Politics isn't a left-right line where you win by being the closest to the center. A more center candidate than Biden, if such a thing even exists, would then further depress base turn out, which is already in a big flashing danger area. And the undecideds aren't centrists, seeking maximum center, they're some mixture of uninterested in politics and a grab bag of policy preferences that don't fit neatly into either side.

The natural ramifications of priming the electorate to a binary decision where anyone not supporting Biden has to be jeered as a secret a republican-fascist-russian-chinese-communist .

I don't even really get the criticism. The complaints are not on whether he's a liar or not, or whether his or Trump's policies are what you'd prefer. The complaints are about him not being able to express any of that in a comprehensible way on the day he was most prepared to do so on the national stage, on account of him being a fossil. Trump is a liar with a horrendous ideology, but he's very much still able to sell those lies and ideas to a very receptive crowd, because he's obviously cognitively much sharper than Biden is. He's still able to sell the tough guy persona while Biden is unable to sell anything to anyone at the moment. And it'll just get worse if he remains in the race.
- Speaking loudly and forcefully whilst spewing word salad does not indicate cognitive ability. And that's what Trump does.

Even liberals that want the Democrats to win are Pundits now. Get in line no criticism allowed.

You can do it Joe! Don’t give up! You got more votes than Obama!

I don't know or care what the pundit class is. From my perspective biden is nearly as bad as trump. Not quite as bad which is why he will get my vote. Like trump he is old and moribund. He cares nothing for the problems faced by me or anyone I know. He has done things for the environment. If it wasn't such a obvious vote grab the thing with the student loans would be a good thing.

He began his administration in the wake of the George Floyd murder. At a bare minimum he could have ordered the creation of a law enforcement personnel database. Where a service record of every law enforcement employee in the country could be accessed. Give access to the insurance companies for these police dept and watch the high risk cops become unemployable. Such a simple thing but our VP is pro cop. Instead he did nothing.

So he has my vote over trump but if Romney was running he would have my vote. He is the only republican I seen lately with any spine. Not that he isn't a ancient POS as well.

This November we will elect a King.

Anyone who still believes we are electing a president like usual is not paying attention.

Biden was a mediocre status quo manager, tweaks around the edges president who inspired no one. No one voted for Biden with love or with enthusiasm. As president Biden was just barely passable, more about damage mitigation ("I am not Trump!") than about a positive, affirmative, forward looking VISION for America.

But we aren't electing a president anymore.

We are electing a King.

As a prospective King, Biden is absolute trash. Biden can use his newly granted Kingly powers to immediately official act assassinate all 6 servative SCOTUS judges! Ruthless and efficient response is what befits a King. Biden is a goddamn sleepy and moist slug who can't even protect himself from salt. Biden is weak, slow, lacks insight into the moment.

Biden had 4 years to deal with the structural wealth inequality issue in America. He's ignored the issue because his billionaire donors paid him to ignore it. In other words, Biden does not think big, and cannot escape the big money influence. He's a far cry from FDR. That's Biden as president.

But as King? The requirements for a King are totally different. Biden needs to be removed immediately, and a ruthlessly hard left individual needs to be installed immediately. Nothing less will thwart the GOP while creating a path to the future we actually want to believe in and want to live in.

I am pleased to see all the downvotes, and have not the energy for any extensive debunking, but Biden raised corporate taxes in fairly massive fashion, and oversaw the first reduction in income inequality and growth in wages (beating even historic inflation) for the working class in quite some time.
Why don’t you know that? Along with 98% or so of the American electorate?
Why are the media companies which are largely operated by the wealthy, who see all of that as an extremely bad thing, trying so hard now to bend things around to say he’s trash and we need someone else instead?
Are these two things related?
(As Hunter Thompson said, to ask the question is to answer the question.)
- Wealth inequality is the issue, not income.
  Wealth. As in wealth accumulations. Wealth holdings. Assets.
So you're just all-in on autocratic rule then? Fight fire with fire, even though the forest is a mostly-dead tinderbox?
Yes, Biden will not assassinate Supreme Court justices. That's a strength. If the Supreme Court intends to give a president king-like power, then I'm sure as hell going to vote for a president that I don't believe will exercise that power.
As soon as we have a president that exercises the power of a king, left or right, there will be no going back. That power will corrupt left politicians just as surely as right, institutions will begin to act corruptly causing people to lower their expectations of the rule of law, freeing institutions to be corrupted further, in an endless cycle. Mexico is far down that spiral, despite nominal "left" politics. And if we even seen another "president" in our lifetime they will only slip further down the slope. The only way you can win this game is by not letting it begin.
- How do you not let it begin? That supreme court ruling isn't going anywhere. Even if Biden wins this time, what about the next election, or the one after that? Right wing politicians have said they want to kill their enemies and the loaded gun is staying on the table for a very long time.
- I despise autocracies but if my foe forces me into an autocratic ruleset, I will be ruthless and lightning quick. Don't like it? Don't even think about establishing an autocratic ruleset. Meanwhile while an autocratic ruleset is still in effect I will use it to end it in a spectacularly bloody manner. Once the autocratic ruleset is over and all the relevant individuals thirsty for autocracy have been properly dealt with, I will return to being an institutionalist.