I find it interesting that since Kennedy/Nixon time television performance in a debate forum and appearance on camera matter so very much. The actual duties of the president don't include debating a competitor on a stage. We still expect a president to handle questions and issues coherently, and on point, rather than wander or mumble or ignore the questions and say whatever they want in the time available. And we expect some conformance to reality and facts which should be checkable. Blatant exaggerations and superlatives without substantiation are, sadly, still effective with a portion of the voters.
And what you will find, in a few weeks as more polling comes out, and fundraising numbers are released, that MANY people feel as you do. Biden had a terrible night, but we normal people living on Earth 1 will not abandon him. Keep the faith, Joanne.
I agree with everything you said. And you’ve probably read HCR by now and she is of the same view. This is no time to simply react to optics because we assume the “regular” American voter is stupid and unwilling to think beyond optics. This is the time to focus on the horror of the other candidate who basically just gave his stump speech in a loud voice, no truth, no accuracy, baseless accusations and no response to actual questions. And surrounded by garbage people who he doesn’t listen to anyway unless they have schemes to enrich him or increase his power. Biden, regardless of one nights optics, still has policies, accomplishments and a strong team of people who known how to get stuff done surrounding him as compelling reasons to vote for him.
I made a point today of NOT watching/listening. I was up until 1 am last night listening to get a view from "the insiders" but it all run hollow to me. "We" political junkies are NOT the regular voters. We don't think like them. We know things differently.
I did spend a little time on Twitter today, and saw comments along the lines of "I'd vote for Biden if he were in a coma before I vote for Trump, and I'd crawl over broken glass to get to the polls." ANYONE can have a bad night.
Biden continues to reinforce he is not capable of being President. Let's stop kidding ourselves, if he runs for President, then a liar, cheater, and convicted felon will get elected. The Democratic party needs to be revamped now and they better have a charismatic leader with no skeletons in her or his closet waiting in the wings ready to instill some confidence in the populous. Can Newsome be the one? IMHO the other two contenders, if they run, would be handing the office over to Trump and his band of no gooders.
No, Newsom cannot be the candidate. Do you know what the process is to replace President Biden, even if he willingly withdrew? (And he won't). It's called a brokered convention. All the delegates have already been elected in the primaries. They are pledged, and therefore, their votes would need to be reallocated if no candidate passed the threshold in the first round of voting. It's not like "someone" could just be the new candidate. There is process, and a brokered convention would be ugly. If your guy was chosen, as a white liberal from a blue state, there would be a huge uprising of voters nationwide because a black woman who was next in line was skipped. Trump wouldn't win in a close election, he'd easily pull 58% (or more) of the vote, making it a Republican blow out. Further, a lot of those people would stay home, costing us the House (which we have a real chance of getting back) and the 50/50 Senate we're looking at now. Meaning that for the next 40 years, SCOTUS would be even more right-wing Evangelical Christian than it is now. Biden is our SOLE chance of winning in November.
I ask you, Joanne -- who are YOU voting for in November?
Imagine Biden performs like that or even worse in September, than Trump will definitely go back in the Oval Office. Substance is important, but not that important, if performance is horrifying. And the onus is now on Kamala, who, as you wrote, does not have better ratings. Biden MUST step down, not changing him is risk too high to be taken by Dems
Trump won't show in September. And there are huge downsides to him stepping down. Not just the process question, nor the replacement question, but as relates to foreign policy - things he MUST get done, and needs to work on from a position of strength and not as a "quitter".
Also -- let's give it a few days to see what shakes out. As in "Biden had a bad night, so now I'm going to vote for a convicted felon." Regular voters, Tom, are not the same as you and me.
I had the same thoughts you did about the replacement issue, Jessica. Kamala would drive Black turnout, but can’t get us over the finish line with everyone else. I also agree that we ALL need to make sure folks know that every word out of Trump’s mouth was a lie (as usual). The only good thing, I think, is that he took responsibility for the overturning of Roe. There are some low-information voters who blame Biden because it happened during Biden’s administration.
Stacy -- it will be up to US to get out there and talk to people. It's how we win elections (as you know so well :-) ). And on a completely different topic, several years ago you gifted me a corkboard -- I use it EVERY DAY Monday-Friday and think of you, and am grateful.
How right you are, Jessica! I’ve been phone banking. On cooler days, I’ll be canvassing as well.
I learned a new term from Heather Cox Richardson today: “Gish gallop,” that stream-of-lies technique Trump uses. It takes longer to rebut each lie than it takes to say them.
I’m so glad to know that the corkboard remains useful. I love it when we can give things that are sitting around gathering dust in homes to new owners who have a use for them. I’ve got to get back to cleaning out closets!
YAY!!! I've been canvassing my neighborhood -- found 2 people who had been dropped from the rolls, even though they voted in 2022. Got those fixed. Found a new person who will work for the county on election day....and found some voters by finding out which issues mattered to THEM and am working with them.
I'm on vacation next week and plan to see how many closets I can clean out!!!
Regular voter will see short videos about Biden stuttering and forgetting his thoughts. The optics of last night are awful for Biden and regular voters won't read fact checking or look for the substance - they will only see Grandpa lost in the mall
I find it interesting that since Kennedy/Nixon time television performance in a debate forum and appearance on camera matter so very much. The actual duties of the president don't include debating a competitor on a stage. We still expect a president to handle questions and issues coherently, and on point, rather than wander or mumble or ignore the questions and say whatever they want in the time available. And we expect some conformance to reality and facts which should be checkable. Blatant exaggerations and superlatives without substantiation are, sadly, still effective with a portion of the voters.
I think you are ABSOLUTELY correct. In addition, a president is NEVER in the position of having 2 minutes to answer a question!
There is but one man I would vote for today: Biden. For me there is no other choice.
And what you will find, in a few weeks as more polling comes out, and fundraising numbers are released, that MANY people feel as you do. Biden had a terrible night, but we normal people living on Earth 1 will not abandon him. Keep the faith, Joanne.
I agree with everything you said. And you’ve probably read HCR by now and she is of the same view. This is no time to simply react to optics because we assume the “regular” American voter is stupid and unwilling to think beyond optics. This is the time to focus on the horror of the other candidate who basically just gave his stump speech in a loud voice, no truth, no accuracy, baseless accusations and no response to actual questions. And surrounded by garbage people who he doesn’t listen to anyway unless they have schemes to enrich him or increase his power. Biden, regardless of one nights optics, still has policies, accomplishments and a strong team of people who known how to get stuff done surrounding him as compelling reasons to vote for him.
I made a point today of NOT watching/listening. I was up until 1 am last night listening to get a view from "the insiders" but it all run hollow to me. "We" political junkies are NOT the regular voters. We don't think like them. We know things differently.
I did spend a little time on Twitter today, and saw comments along the lines of "I'd vote for Biden if he were in a coma before I vote for Trump, and I'd crawl over broken glass to get to the polls." ANYONE can have a bad night.
Biden continues to reinforce he is not capable of being President. Let's stop kidding ourselves, if he runs for President, then a liar, cheater, and convicted felon will get elected. The Democratic party needs to be revamped now and they better have a charismatic leader with no skeletons in her or his closet waiting in the wings ready to instill some confidence in the populous. Can Newsome be the one? IMHO the other two contenders, if they run, would be handing the office over to Trump and his band of no gooders.
No, Newsom cannot be the candidate. Do you know what the process is to replace President Biden, even if he willingly withdrew? (And he won't). It's called a brokered convention. All the delegates have already been elected in the primaries. They are pledged, and therefore, their votes would need to be reallocated if no candidate passed the threshold in the first round of voting. It's not like "someone" could just be the new candidate. There is process, and a brokered convention would be ugly. If your guy was chosen, as a white liberal from a blue state, there would be a huge uprising of voters nationwide because a black woman who was next in line was skipped. Trump wouldn't win in a close election, he'd easily pull 58% (or more) of the vote, making it a Republican blow out. Further, a lot of those people would stay home, costing us the House (which we have a real chance of getting back) and the 50/50 Senate we're looking at now. Meaning that for the next 40 years, SCOTUS would be even more right-wing Evangelical Christian than it is now. Biden is our SOLE chance of winning in November.
I ask you, Joanne -- who are YOU voting for in November?
Imagine Biden performs like that or even worse in September, than Trump will definitely go back in the Oval Office. Substance is important, but not that important, if performance is horrifying. And the onus is now on Kamala, who, as you wrote, does not have better ratings. Biden MUST step down, not changing him is risk too high to be taken by Dems
Trump won't show in September. And there are huge downsides to him stepping down. Not just the process question, nor the replacement question, but as relates to foreign policy - things he MUST get done, and needs to work on from a position of strength and not as a "quitter".
Also -- let's give it a few days to see what shakes out. As in "Biden had a bad night, so now I'm going to vote for a convicted felon." Regular voters, Tom, are not the same as you and me.
I had the same thoughts you did about the replacement issue, Jessica. Kamala would drive Black turnout, but can’t get us over the finish line with everyone else. I also agree that we ALL need to make sure folks know that every word out of Trump’s mouth was a lie (as usual). The only good thing, I think, is that he took responsibility for the overturning of Roe. There are some low-information voters who blame Biden because it happened during Biden’s administration.
Stacy -- it will be up to US to get out there and talk to people. It's how we win elections (as you know so well :-) ). And on a completely different topic, several years ago you gifted me a corkboard -- I use it EVERY DAY Monday-Friday and think of you, and am grateful.
How right you are, Jessica! I’ve been phone banking. On cooler days, I’ll be canvassing as well.
I learned a new term from Heather Cox Richardson today: “Gish gallop,” that stream-of-lies technique Trump uses. It takes longer to rebut each lie than it takes to say them.
I’m so glad to know that the corkboard remains useful. I love it when we can give things that are sitting around gathering dust in homes to new owners who have a use for them. I’ve got to get back to cleaning out closets!
YAY!!! I've been canvassing my neighborhood -- found 2 people who had been dropped from the rolls, even though they voted in 2022. Got those fixed. Found a new person who will work for the county on election day....and found some voters by finding out which issues mattered to THEM and am working with them.
I'm on vacation next week and plan to see how many closets I can clean out!!!
Regular voter will see short videos about Biden stuttering and forgetting his thoughts. The optics of last night are awful for Biden and regular voters won't read fact checking or look for the substance - they will only see Grandpa lost in the mall
Tom -- Time will tell.