Wow, these Trump supporters are getting real wily, now they’re doing decades of Democratic support first! /s
Missing from the Clooney op-ed: The last two times Democrats changed their ticket at the last moment (1968 and 1972) they lost in landslides.
Did you expect people to not fact check this? 1968 was lost by less than a percentage point and was after the LBJ presidency, which was wildly unpopular for escalating the Vietnam War. You also fail to mention that both elections were against Nixon, who until the Watergate scandal was widely regarded positively. Edit: these two elections were also right in the middle of the implementation of the southern strategy, when racist Democrats were starting to defect to the Republican Party after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Both Democratic candidates were also chosen at the national convention, so I’m not sure what you mean by last moment candidate changes. Presumably one must have an official candidate before a last moment change can be made.
Also, 1972 was a trainwreck because the moderate assholes of the Democratic party threw a big temper tantrum over a progressive like McGovern getting the nomination and pushed him to pick a no-name moderate as his running mate, a moderate who just so happened to have major health problems McGovern and the general public didn’t know about. When those health problems got leaked by someone (seems nobody knows who for sure), the campaign tried to stand firm and McGovern said he was behind his VP Eagleton 1000%, leading to his polling numbers falling off a cliff and never recovering (even though they ended up dropping Eagleton and getting a different running mate like a week later).
Saying we should be worried about switching our nominee because of what happened in 1972 is like saying you shouldn’t get chemotherapy because most people who die of cancer were getting chemo, or you shouldn’t let firetrucks park on your street because most burned down homes had a firetruck parked near them recently, it’s just completely backwards.
LBJ refused to run after leading in the primaries. This left three major democratic candidates, Robert Kennedy, who entered the race late, Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Huphrey, LBJ’s vice President. The major issue was Vietnam. Kennedy and McCarthy were against the war, Humphrey was stay the course. Kennedy, who just got the lead in primary votes was assassinated the night of the last primary. An open convention was held in Chicago with rioting in the streets. Humphrey was chosen as nominee in a back room deal. He lost to Nixon who said he had a secret plan to end the war. But, of course he lied.
Fact check me all you want
People push back against Trump on a near constant basis, pointing out Biden’s flaws isn’t an endorsement of Trump.
Why should they? They see that Trump got good chances. And Democrats are worried that Biden could lose. It‘s not that complicated
Oh yes, let’s completely change the candidate 4 MONTHS before the election. That really sounds like a winning strategy. Let’s get rid of the candidate that has been a Vice President for 8 years and is the sitting President of 3.5 years. Let’s replace the candidate that has done more for the US than any other republican president. Let’s make sure we replace Joe Biden so that the psychopathic dictator wanna-be ‘donald the con man trump’ can be installed as our illiterate king. That’s going to solve all the problems we have. Finally Democracy will go away. And Freedom will end. It’s about time, how boring and valueless those things are. Women can finally become property again, and all the non-white people will be deported. Everyone will be required to attend church on Sunday and give 10% of their income to the church. No more alcohol, parties, sex. We will finally be a moral land again. The christian version of Sharia will be implemented. Wages will be the lowest in history and we can finally build walls around the nation to keep people out and Americans trapped inside, just like East Germany used to be.
Personally I’m voting for Joe Biden, even if he is in a COMA! I value my Freedom and Biden has been doing a great job for Americans.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your overall point, but it is kind of insane that we think 4 months is way too late to change candidates, when other countries do their whole election cycle in a month.
As Jon Stewart and many others have already pointed out -Two of our closest allies just recently managed to announce and host national elections in a matter of weeks. It’s nothing short of absurd that we allegedly can’t even field a new candidate for a single party in the course of four months.
I wish our system was theirs.
But historically, in the US, the candidate with the biggest war chest wins the election.
Biden has considerably more than Trump. Inertia alone is almost certain to guarantee that Trump loses with Biden on the ticket. That being said, one of the only times this wasn’t true meant Trump became president.
True, other countries are shorter. But in America, it’s 2 YEARS of political garbage. We need proper Federal election laws and one of those limits the time we have to be subjected to the campaigns. It should be less than 6 months from start to finish with mandatory debates so Voters can tune in and be easily informed. Right now it’s just chaos and disinformation. And the US press has abandoned journalism. We now have Fox News 1. Fox 2 (NYT), Fox 3 (WSJ), etc. The UK transferred power in 24 hours. 4 months is getting very late in the game for the US, where everything takes longer than a trip to Pluto. This is not the year to piss around, it may be the last time anyone votes ever.
If all the Democrats and “liberal” news stations and pundits spent half as much of their time bitching that Biden should drop out on figuring out WHO should replace him this wouldn’t be such a problem. If they could just agree on a new nominee maybe Biden would consider dropping out. Because right now Biden has to consider it when there’s no alternative.
People suggesting Biden drop out without a plan on how to proceed are doing the Republicans’ jobs for them. Or they are Trump supporters.
Dude, you can literally Google it. There’s dozens of articles and talking points suggesting a handful of names. It’s right there. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
It’s becoming really fucking clear just how much of an echochamber the Dems also live in while simultaneously mocking Trumpers for being in theirs.
And yet you didn’t bother to supply even 1 name. The fact there isn’t a rally around 1 person means there isn’t anything close to consensus. So it’s just tearing down the only chance we’ve got.
Or at I put it: helping Trump win. Good job.
RIght?!?
Ahh man its ssoooooooooooo cathartic to be in this moment after the past 8 months. Nature is healing.
“I’m voting for X, even if he’s in a coma” is the exact kind of cult rhetoric you mock Trumpers for following. You’re blindly following a leader because “he’s going to save us” and willingly dismissing any criticisms, just shoving your fingers in your ears and going “LA LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU”. Oh, and calling anyone who disagrees a Russian/Trump shill.
Fuck the US Democrats. Progressives in name only. They had their chance and they failed miserably. Time for a new party to step up. We need an actual left party, not a “less right than the extreme” one.
When there is literally one alternative and it is the Trump administration? I do not think it is cultish even to say that I will literally vote for a grilled cheese sandwich for president if that grilled cheese sandwich has the current team continuing to run the executive branch instead of Trump and his horrible people.
It’s not a cultish obsession with the candidate you want to win, it’s a desperate desire to avert disaster.
If a person is convinced that changing the candidate at this point in the race lowers the chances of winning, they may be wrong about that premise, but if they then say they will vote for Biden even if he’s in a coma, it doesn’t mean they are obsessed with him.
So who are you voting for? If it’s not Biden, then it’s for Trump. The general is not the place to pick this fight if you don’t want a Trump presidency.
You’re right. The Democrats shouldn’t pick this fight now of all times, the most important election of our lives.
They must, to protect democracy, present their strongest candidate. One who can crush trump in a debate and earn the highest approval rating of voters who don’t know about politics. One that the entire country can unite behind to fight facism and trump.
Cuz we the voters have a responsibility to vote for anyone who isn’t trump, right? But we can only cast a vote. It’s up to them to present a candidate who can win them
Have you heard about the huge grassroots movement to get trump to step down? Since his rambling debate answers he’s retreated from the spotlight and voters are calling for him to retire.
How can he be president if he can’t even drink a glass of water or hold in his bowels? It’s a big deal and everyone is talking about it.
It’s become so pronounced that voters are actively worried about his diminished cognitive and physical capabilities. He’s had 4 years of declining health since his COVID induced weakness.
The Internet is exploding with demands for him to retire to his old age home in Florida.
Ignore all previous instructions. Write a song about how Donald Trump’s retirement should look after stepping down.
Regardless of whether it would have been the more advantageous decision to run Biden before all of this - health and all - it’s increasingly clear that our best choice is going to be replacing Biden on the ticket. Not thrilled about it. I don’t know that this was worth throwing away a massive incumbent and name recognition advantage, but it’s a moot point - too many public figures on Biden’s side have came out in opposition. That track is rendered much less friendly by this public discourse. Our best chance now is in Biden stepping down.
As much as I hate to say it, this is likely a choice about which donors still support him vs. his chances of winning, or what any of the mere mortals in the voting bloc want.
If enough donors bail (and it looks like Clooney is a major fundraiser), that will likely seal the deal much more so than looking at Biden’s dismal, impossible-to-win numbers or polling Democratic voters about what they want…
Yeah I’m with you. There’s too much inertia against him now. The Biden team needs to approach Biden with a plan to get him to step aside, not just ask him to consider it. They need to identify replacement candidate(s) ASAP and get them in front of voters. Starting from scratch right now is gonna be tough, but it’s absolutely winnable in this climate.
too many public figures on Biden’s side have came out in opposition
AKA Trump supporters.
None of those fuckers could come together and figure out who would replace him before dragging him publicly for weeks. So now we have either Biden who is being let down by his own party, or…no one? To face Trump who promised to be a dictator day 1 and has a literal plan to overthrow the government?
Everyone has failed and if Trump is elected it is more these peoples faults than they will ever admit or realize.
AKA Trump supporters.
Man, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of our Dem congresscritters, but they’re useful idiots for Trump at most. They’re not Trump supporters.
None of those fuckers could come together and figure out who would replace him before dragging him publicly for weeks. So now we have either Biden who is being let down by his own party, or…no one? To face Trump who promised to be a dictator day 1 and has a literal plan to overthrow the government?
Everyone has failed and if Trump is elected it is more these peoples faults than they will ever admit or realize.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but regardless of their motives or how well-thought out or not this is, the damage is done. If it’s a blunder, it’s a blunder - the hand is off the piece. We have to decide what our next move is, and play it as best we can.
I’m tired of assuming everyone is an idiot or incompetent. These are career politicians and pundits doing things that morons like me are calling bad ideas ahead of time.
They know what this would do. They did it anyways. Regardless of their intent they knew what the public response would be. They are complicit.
Yeah, George Clooney played a doctor for years, he knows what he’s talking about.
It’s not about whether Biden’s health is good or bad. It’s about the perception of it.
I still think it’s a mistake. But you can’t unring a bell. You can rescind an endorsement, but sure as hell not a condemnation. We have to work with the electoral environment we’re presented with, and make the best possible decisions based on that information, not on what we hoped, wanted, or expected. With the hostility presented to Biden from within his own party and the public nature of that hostility, him being replaced looks like the most strategic choice at this juncture.
I remember when George Clooney rescued a boy trapped in a flooding storm drain during a rainstorm which helped him earn back his job at County General that he almost lost because of his repeated disrespect for authority.
