1055 points
*

People. We, the French, pulled a left-wing coalition out of our asses in less than a week and managed to “win” an election. You have months. Hope is permitted.

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760 points

I don’t understand you people in this thread.

Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race and give the place to someone else.

Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they’re doing? Are you for real? They’re doing EXACTLY what people have been asking for. They’re doing EXACTLY what needs to be done if they want to win.

Fucking hell you guys, make up your fucking mind.

Sincerely,

A Canadian with severe anxiety over your next presidential election.

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275 points

Well, to be fair, he should have stepped down a year ago, or at least 3 months ago. I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.

Anyway, I respect Biden. I honestly think he was a better president than Obama, Bush, Trump and Clinton. Perhaps the best since Carter or JFK.

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118 points

I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.

You’re correct, he did. Everyone forgot that for some reason. Note that this article is from 2019:

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/biden-single-term-082129

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25 points

I vaguely remember him saying he was going to be a 1 term candidate in 2020.

He specifically denied that when asked. To be fair he did say he was a “bridge to a new generation” or something, that’s where I think a lot of people are getting this one term commitment thing from.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/joe-biden-denies-mulling-term-pledge-elected-president/story?id=67662497

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7 points
*

All the sane countries can do their elections in less than a year, possibly because the stagecoach is no longer the best transportation or communication option. If you guys didn’t run it like American Fucking Idol, maybe it wouldn’t be this difficult.

Now I’ll go sit in the corner and hope for the best for you guys while waiting to see if my country shits the bed in a year.

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2 points

Biden definitely learned something from watching the Republicans screw Obama again and again.

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1 point

I agree.

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136 points

Those are not necessarily the same people.

But there is no good option here. The good option would have been to run a good candidate over a year ago. That time has obviously long since passed.

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60 points

Many of the people involved in such agitation are not arguing in good faith. They simply want to attack the ‘libs’ at every opportunity, and reality be damned.

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43 points

One thing I appreciate about Canadian elections is how quickly they happen. An election is called, campaigning is like a month or two and then we find out the new government just hours after casting our votes.

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43 points
*

This was an astroturfing campaign covering our media and also via bots on social media.

I watched the debate and while he was slower, and mixed up words he actually was aware of US goals and challenges (despite what media tried to imply), trump was more energetic but he was constantly spewing nonsense, and while part of it was lying as usual, part of it was clear that he was actually getting lost.

I even wrote that in certain that if Biden steps down the same bots will start campaign how Democrats were cheated to discourage them from voting (like it was worth Bernie).

I’m definitively voting for Kamala now no matter what ridiculous bullshit they will come up on her on September-October (you can be sure there will be some scandal that will turnout to be nothing burger after election). I got fooled (like a lot of people) in 2016 to vote 3rd party and we got trump.

Republicans are actually a minority they can only win if they discourage enough people from voting. That’s why they are against laws that that make voting easier.

I actually was hoping Biden would run as he has great experience with foreign leaders as well as very successful reaching compromises and passing bills that otherwise wouldn’t fly.

As I say though I will 100% vote for Kamala (or whomever will be the democratic candidate), definitively not the fascist party and in fact anyone on Democrats side looks good.

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30 points

I’m excited AF… maybe the people you’re reading are republican plants that are just trying to make it feel like chaos.

The fact that this happened the weekend after the RNC makes me feel it was very well planned.

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27 points

Not speaking for the rest of the thread, but…

  1. Biden should have said he wasn’t up for reelección since day 1
  2. The Democratic Party hasn’t known what to do since the 2016 election… at least.
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24 points

It’s been chaos in the comments for a while now this is just catharsis for a lot of people and reaffirming for some of the naysayers.
You are gonna see a lot of takes from a lot of terminally online types.

Now just comes the actual work and it’s gonna look chaotic for a while. I hope we get it together.

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23 points

Lemmy posters are not a monolith.

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19 points

Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down

Yes, some.

Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they’re doing

Yes, others.

Different people speak up on different days. This is especially true in social media where often people won’t speak up if they know they’re going to get jumped on.

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18 points

You’re seeing the people who either didn’t agree he should step down or agreed but didn’t think they’d actually do it.

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17 points

Ever since the debate, people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race and give the place to someone else. … Now I read the comments and everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they’re doing?

Lol, you thought those people were arguing in good faith.

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16 points

I mean many here openly support Putin too, what can you do

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15 points

They’re not the same people.

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13 points

All of this should have been done a couple years ago for presidential hopefuls to gather resources and prepare for the elections. The assumption that Biden was seeking a second term stalled a lot of minor steps needed to build a campaign. Biden stepping down a month before the DNC is gonna be a shit show. Who’s gonna run for becoming a candidate? How are they gonna fundraise quickly enough to get the word out? This is a clusterfuck of poorly timed decisions and I only hope the new candidate can gather enough support to win the presidential election. Given the Democratic party’s penchant of favoring people from their inner circle, I doubt they’ll be well received by the general public to begin with.

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13 points

The fact the the DNC didn’t have a contingency plan while running the oldest candidate ever is just insane.

The DNC has been fumbling for years and years now. Anyone else remember 2016?

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13 points

Personally the best news I’ve heard in a while. I think there is a little bit of a knee jerk reaction happening because a lot is on the line and people are scared because it’s such an unknown right now. When things settle more and the smoke clears I think everything will be more positive.

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9 points

Americans aren’t a monolith.

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9 points
*

I personally just said last week that I believed only Biden was capable of beating Trump, so I’m feeling pretty sick right now. God, I hope I’m wrong.

We haaaaaavvvvvve to see this example and set a damn age limit for people to hold such high positions in our country. Old dude may have very well just sent us down an irreversible and utterly destructive path by seeking the office in the first place.

I know Bernie Sanders is old too, but damn I wish he had won the nomination. We wouldn’t be in this crisis right now. Still though, it’s a gamble electing people who are already waist deep in their grave.

Man

What a strange and historic month this has been. We’re all living in a very big moment in history right now, just, all the way around.

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7 points

people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down

everyone is criticizing and accusing the Democrats of not knowing what they’re doing

You say ‘people’ and ‘everyone’ where you may really mean to say ‘republicans’ and ‘russians’.

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7 points

It’s just an anecdote, but I’ve experienced a lot of people saying “I’d vote for a dead dog over Trump”, who for some reason still wouldn’t back a democrat that didn’t look like and sound like a mummy.

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7 points

It’s not people wanting a fair process. It’s maga. They want a king.

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6 points

Yes some of us been paying attention to who is backing him and who wasn’t. Some of us had noticed that all the leftists in the party were still behind Joe Biden while all the neoliberals weren’t. Some of us have noticed that the president who has protected worker rights and expanded consumer protection and wants to tax the wealthy is getting pushed out by the corporate Democrats.

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6 points
*

I think part of the reason it feels like “wtf are you doing?!?” is because we were really saying “Joe needs to step the fuck up or step aside” and then in the last week he’s thrown some absolute hard hits at Trump making it look like “holy shit, we got old Joe back!”. Then suddenly after appearing to wake up, he goes “nah, I’m good.”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s stepping aside. But it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster and not a very consistent message. They kept telling us to shut up and follow Biden and anyone who doesn’t is supporting facism and then suddenly, “nah, not Biden, it’s cool”? You can’t pump a rhetoric machine up and then expect the brakes to stop it instantly.

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6 points

I don’t think it’s the same people wanting him to drop out vs sad that he did drop out. Or they did want him to drop out because he’s aging but they are sad that he did because he was a good president.

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6 points

Not everyone is posting in good faith. Some are shit stirrers. Some may be paid trolls.

Also, the people who were saying he should step down might not be the same people today saying it’s a bad idea.

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5 points

I think you’re remembering it wrong and comparing different groups of people.

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5 points

The comments you saw aren’t by the same people or are they?

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5 points

Lemmy, as opposed to reddit, has seemed to be very much on the Keep Biden train for some reason.

I for one will be happy with any candidate that can do two to three campaign appearances per day for the next four months and doesn’t have the Genocide Joe baggage. Everything else is gravy.

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5 points

There’s multiple people on here with multiple opinions, and those opinions are subject to change as new information arises.

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5 points

I’m ecstatic of Biden dropping. It’s no longer a sure loss for the D’s…there’s a glimmer of hope for us after all.

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4 points

Yeah, I actually feel good about these news. I don’t get all the criticism.

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4 points

They’re doing EXACTLY what needs to be done if they want to win.

How would this help them win exactly? I’m not really well tuned with politics

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4 points

I don’t understand you people in this thread.

Goes to show how many of these people were disingenuous and never actually wanted the party to win regardless. Some of those people operate on the far right. Some of them were just Trumpers in disguise, foreign operators, bots, etc. It’s a lot of bullshit. I’m looking forward to supporting Kamala though.

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4 points

Lemmy isn’t a monolith, including the ones in this thread. I’ve seen as many people calling for him to drop out as those saying he should say. End of the day, none of us have anything valuable to say you should be relying on for insight.

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4 points

I think people are angry about the timing. It feels like too little, too late. If he had made the decision at the beginning of the year, then sure. But now it’ll be rushed, and people won’t be able to agree on a single candidate. And people are worried that, due to the resulting lack of agreement, a split vote will hand the win to Trump.

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3 points

I am cautiously hopeful for harris. I 100% thi k she can win.

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3 points
*

I didn’t say any of that. With only four months until the election, I think this is kind of dumb.

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3 points

They’re doomers

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3 points

Holy shit you think you’re anxious? Some of us are stuck living here. It’s not actually that easy to emigrate to Canada (bet you guys did that for a reason…).

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The internet isn’t a place to draw an understanding of politics. The internet isn’t even a place to draw an understanding of the internet.

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1 point

people have been calling for Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race

Pretty sure that was a DNC campaign to coup biden. Sure people had opinions both ways but what you are talking about was a psyop to turn public opinion.

Across all socials and teevee, it was laddered and in sync.

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1 point

There’s going to be people pushing on both sides pushing either way, some with honest intentions/beliefs, some just bots/bad actors trying to amp up the chaos. It’s impossible to tell how this plays out at the point though, but it does have the potential to be a really good thing for the Democratic campaign. Unfortunately, Democrats have a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so I’m not overly optimistic of our chances. I hope they get somebody smart, younger, and charismatic who just completely blows the Right out of the water this election and completely changes the trajectory of this country… but I’m not going to hold my breath. I’ll vote for whomever is not Trump, to try to prevent the takeover of literal fascists.

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1 point

I think this is a side effect of sharing and discussion these events online, especially in a link aggregator like Lemmy. You can you see inconsistent views presented in multiple threads yet they feel as if you’re interacting with the same group of people.

Some people are happy about this turn of events while others are not. I expect that you’re seeing differing major opinions from separate groups of people.

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1 point
*

People are scared. Most of the ones calling for Biden to drop out were just parroting popular opinion, with the rest uncertain where him actually dropping will take us. I think your feelings are valid here, though to give people some credit: At least we made the right choice. Immediately after the debate I wasn’t sure if Joe dropping out was a good idea. After the Miss Heard Around the World I strongly felt he had no choice.

Time for Part whatever on this several part series, I guess. BOOTSTRAPS IT IS.

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0 points

WOW IT’S ALMOST AS IF ANY LARGE GROUPING OF PEOPLE WILL HAVE MEMBERS THAT DON’T COMPLETELY ALIGN WITH ALL THE GROUP’S VALUES AND GOALS!

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-1 points

I just worry about who they select as replacement…. Unfortunately Kamala doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell since she’s a non-white female, one of those features is maybe surmountable but both eliminates so many so called “centrists” from casting a blue vote to do their misogyny and bigotry.

If the democrats nominate Kamala it’s just handing Trump the win since so many of my countrymen are racist or misogynistic

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-4 points

It’s because progressives were tripping over themselves to agree with AOC yesterday. Now that it’s been shown how out of touch she is, they are backpedaling to argue Biden should not have dropped out.

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423 points

I’ll say just one thing:

Every single one of you assholes who wouldn’t shut up about him stepping down since the dude missed the toilet bowl fifty years ago after a particularly wild night out better sure as fuck step up now that Old Joe has stepped down.

A sitting god damned President of the United States has stepped aside less than half a year before reelection. Make no mistake: The man swallowed his pride and ego HARD to make this decision. Let’s honor that by creating a wall of votes so god. damned. thick. Riley Reid would gasp.

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281 points
*

I know people will say this is bad, a new campaign will be rushed, etc. But I think we all know Biden was an excuse for many not to vote, or worse, to vote for Trump. Withdrawing will be his legacy when we win, not his failing.

Thank you President Biden. You are a hero.

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139 points

Biden absolutely did the right thing and, perhaps, the most courageous thing.

Democrats would have coalesced around him if decided to keep going but we’ve been begging him to step aside. This is a key difference between Trump “fans” and Biden voters. We’re not drawn to him as a personality.

Once a candidate is selected, I don’t care who it is, we must support them because not doing so is voting for an end to democracy.

The fact that we’re here is a travesty.

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53 points

People have done more with less campaign time and he will go down as having listened and done what was requested of the people and party I honestly think this says a lot of good stuff about the democratic party and Biden once we get the spin right.

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32 points
*

It won’t be hard. Kamala is going to be able to put a bullseye on Trump and republican politics like Biden simply wasn’t ever able to do. She’s going to be able to hyper focus on the deeply unpopular beliefs of the base and it will be hard for Trump or others to really deny it without losing their core supporters.

Further, because she’s relatively unknown there’s really not the same baggage as there was with Hillary. Most people don’t know who she is and I think that really plays to her favor.

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12 points

Let’s be honest here, Trump will never lose his core supporters. He could literally turn out to be the devil incarnate, and his supporters will say it’s their god’s will. He’s a 34-count convicted felon and they see that as something to boast about.

The issue in this country is that the less educated are following those with a playbook of getting the less educated to vote, to vote for them, and in areas that games the electoral college system.

We were a hair’s breadth from another Trump term in 2020 by 11,000 votes in GA. Not to mention his coup attempt.

It cannot be that close again. It must be decisive. I hope Harris, if she is the nominee, can achieve that.

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3 points

Kamala is going to be able to put a bullseye on Trump

I agree with you but this is an interesting choice of words given other recent events lol.

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4 points

If we win in November, it’ll be because Biden made this selfless decision. He’ll deserve medals and statues.

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-8 points

Lol the Speaker of the House publicly called for him to step down. He was practically forced out.

Some hero.

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32 points

It’ll be great to have a woman talking about abortion and making this election a referendum on national abortion access.

Americans love to vote for something rather than against something.

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26 points
*

Nobody who would consider voting for Trump is going to vote for whoever replaces Biden. Nobody. This is about getting apathetic voters off their butt. Which I hope works, but every part of my being is telling me they’re going to pick someone who apathetic voters wouldn’t vote for anyway.

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-6 points

Kamala 🙄

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16 points

I’m so thankful I live in a country where 4 months is (still) believed to be a ridiculously long amount of time to campaign.

Good luck America! Please show the rest of the world you’re still capable of making sane choices.

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12 points

Except for the bank of those who are just Russian agents who will undoubtedly find some new “excuse” why the Democrat candidate is not fit to run.

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11 points

Expect lots of “cop” comments in regards to Harris from Russians totally real leftists.

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15 points

She was a cop. She called herself the “top cop”. I fucking hate the police and she’s got my vote over a literal pedophile felonious fascist.

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4 points

Fwiw, I am harshly critical of most elected dems but I have never considered not voting. I think I and many people hold our allies (for lack of better term) to higher standards and get angrier when they fuck up. So I think a lot of these posts are just that. Harsh criticism of a candidate =/= not voting for them. People are strategic about voting pragmatically, they’re just also very frustrated with the dem establishment’s behavior.

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3 points

Giving up power is way more respectable than trying to hold onto power. Something Biden’s opponent, now Harris’s opponent isn’t good at.

There’s a lot of people that are old and don’t follow politics all that closely. Biden’s story of having to accept that he’s gotten too old to do the things he wants to do is a story they can relate to. The guy they can relate to most is endorsing Harris. It’s not like he’s gone. He can still make speeches about how the GOP wants to cut Social Security and his friend Kamala won’t do that.

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-16 points

But, when democrats lose due to this move… ???

I would have preferred him to stay on course. While I don’t care what sex they are or color or whatever, a fuckload of garbage twats in this country sure as fuck do. Biden was also likeable in public appearances. I have fuck all idea what Harris is like, and 5y of time vs like 4 months to win public opinion, oof it will be an absolute blitz. And I consider myself rather knowledgeable and up-to-date on US politics. I have friends that have no idea what’s going on at any given time, or why.

I need to research her now and become familiar, but I see this as a big negative for chances, not positive. Anxiety spiked hard about what’s to come.

Anyone in Canada looking for a roommate…?

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9 points
*

While I don’t care what sex they are or color or whatever, a fuckload of garbage twats in this country sure as fuck do

This is my least favorite argument I keep seeing for why Biden shouldn’t drop out. The racist shit-heels you’re referring to were always going to vote for Trump regardless of who the Democratic candidate is. There is no reason for Democrats to try and appeal to racists, and even if there were it would be immoral to do so. Sacrificing your values to win is no true victory.

You’re losing your nerve, and while that’s understandable, it’s self-sabotage.

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0 points

I wouldn’t say I’m ‘sacrificing values’, more like “woman bad, no vote for” is strong here still. Yeah yeah ‘we will see how it goes’ but that’s exactly what fucking scares me, we don’t get a “best 2 out of 3” save, and we need fucking EVERYONE on board to avert catastrophe.

I’m in a swing state and it’s like a sea of Trumpers and I’m just like “yeah, we are fucked”.

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6 points

If*

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1 point

Sure. Still doesn’t invalidate the concern.

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243 points

The biggest hot-topic issue this election should have been abortion (and by extension, SCOTUS). But the discussion got side-tracked by all this talk of old age. The debate just reinforced the narrative and concern with Biden. They would have hammered him over and over, with Trump bragging about how quickly he recovered from an injury.

Now, we have:

  • A sittingVP with actual Whitehouse experience, who can take credit for all the economic policies under Biden. Also, a former Senator.
  • A prosecutor and former Attorney General vs a convicted felon.
  • The age issue disappears (in fact, it now becomes a liability against Trump).
  • A woman vs the guy who bragged about killing Roe v. Wade.
  • Future of SCOTUS.

If she just keeps talking about those topics non-stop, she’ll do fine.

The only thing better would have been if Biden had resigned to let people see her in the actual role, but this works. She picks a mid-westerner as VP who can stand up to Vance and it’s a whole new ballgame.

I’m actually stoked about this race again.

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