I’ve thought this through for quite some time and I think you’re missing the opportunity for Democrats to seize the narrative.

• “We listened to voters who were unsatisfied with either candidate, a large majority who said age is a real concern for them.”
• “Joe Biden stepped down for the American People to let a younger generation lead.”
• FREE VIRAL MEDIA TIME for months on end about the fresh face of the Democratic party.
• A complete lack of developed right-wing talking-points to disseminate.

With perks like that who needs donors and TV ad time? This isn’t the 80s. Elections aren’t won on television ads.

All we know is what doesn’t work, and what doesn’t work was shown last night. It has been showing in poll after poll after poll despite people burying their heads in the sand: a President with approval ratings in the 30s, and a Presidential candidate who is FAR behind in every data-point compared to where he was in 2020.

I’ve listened to Jon Stewart, Katie Couric, 2 different NYT podcasts, post-PBS analysis, Pod Save America (former Obama/VP Biden staffers) – and they are all echoing the same fucking thing:

It is time to try something different.

Nate Silver is 100% correct.

Really. You want me to show polls for something that hasn’t happened yet? In 2020, what are you talking about? Half these people I mentioned didn’t even run in the 2020 Primaries, forgetting the obvious logical fallacy that “Who does well in the primaries predicts who does better a year from then in the General Election.” In 2020, Joe Biden was 4 years younger and far less senile than he shows now while Trump’s support was lower mostly thanks to a botched handling of covid at the time.

There is not one data-point where Biden isn’t performing worse than he did at this time in 2020.

In the event Biden voluntarily steps down and either an open convention occurs or he endorses, is it really that inconceivable for you to believe overnight polling for such a candidate would skyrocket as both grassroots and establishment and MASSIVE widespread media press inundate such a person with coverage…?

I mean… What?

The data shows the American people (a) vehemently dislike both candidates, (b) perceive age to be a bigger issue with Biden, and © want fresh faces. Any of who I mentioned could’ve done better last night. Biden brings nothing to the table that the others cannot in this pressing moment.

Nobody cares what Republicans say. They think covid is a hoax, vaccines are bad, nuking hurricanes is a good idea, and that 2020 was stolen. If you think CNN has problems, look in a fucking mirror.

Are you asking that because you believe nobody is lining up wanting to be President, or that there is no candidate who fits that bill? Because I can think of half a dozen who both fit the bill and have obvious political ambitions:

• Whitmer
• Newsom
• Buttigieg
• Booker
• Abrams
• Warnock.

All far more youthful; all far more charismatic. All who have enough national name recognition and would trounce Trump in debates and contrast of age alone.

The question to me isn’t, “who else,” it’s, “Will Biden voluntarily step down and endorse such a person at the convention?”

The polls prove this could work:nobody likes either candidate, people want new faces, and age is a problem. Just give them another choice on the Democratic ticket and it’s game-over for the convicted felon. If I could I’d be money this gives better odds than sticking it out with Biden.

If facts mattered, Trump wouldn’t be leading in the polls, let’s be honest. Nothing CNN said to fact check would matter for those who need to hear it because they’ve already been indoctrinated to believe CNN won’t be truthful anyway.

This entire debate was about optics: can Trump keep himself together, and can Biden ward off criticism of his senility? To Trump’s credit, he outperformed. Biden did not. And since Biden volunteered this debate, this is on him.

I disagree. I actually think you’d see a boost.

• Acknowledging age concerns of the electorate = good.

• Running someone fresh that appeals to this American Idol-esque popularity contest = good.

• Running someone Republicans don’t have their talking-points fleshed out on = good.

I am right now drafting a message to send to the White House contact form advocating for just this. Will do nothing most likely, but it’s my drop in the ocean.

These are all fair points and points I’m sure to raise in the months ahead should Biden remain the nominee, but the way I see it is that polls haven’t budged; aggregate approval rating for Biden continues to decline. We can argue how much this debate hurt Biden, but we can all agree it certainly did not help. And if it didn’t help, what else can be done and said that hasn’t already been done and said over the past years? Polling isn’t just hard to budge positively, but it’s actively trending opposite to what we need, relative to Biden’s position in 2020. If the case of saying, “look it’s between the old guy, and the fascist twice-impeached convicted felon with 3 more trials to go and who tried to overturn a free and fair election” hasn’t worked yet, what makes anyone think it’s going to work in the coming months? Hel this desperation is what led the Biden campaign to accept this debate in the first place – a risk gambit that simply did not pay off. A tough sell.

So what do we do?

Well, in my view Democrats restore some trust by Biden publicly and voluntarily acknowledging the situation head-on, stepping down, and opening up the convention. Democrats nominate someone half-ways young and charismatic – Whitmer, Booker, Newsom, Buttigieg – I don’t particularly care – and I think the freshness of a face and the addressing of youth will be enough to sway swing voters.

You’ve raise fair points, thanks. I think the reality of Bernie’s position is that he wishes he was 20 years younger. In his view, neither himself nor anyone else could really say with certainty at the time last year that they would be better. After all, the economy was ticking up, abortion could be used, and Bernie got a lot of compromises and influence within the Biden administration since then. Ultimately, the Biden presidency did a lot of good work in the eyes of Bernie and a united front against Trump combined with incumbent advantages did seem to be a “safe bet” going into 2024. But we’ve seen quite an erosion of Biden’s faculties just in the last 2 years let alone 4.

Having been one of the earlier supporters of Bernie in 2015 I do remember my frustrations with the DNC oftentimes shunning Bernie and not getting the attention he deserved. I do agree there is some favoritism seniority games at play in the DNC.

I just took issue specifically with the claim that DNC did not allow anyone to run. It’s a little bit of DNC inertia, sure, but it’s also quite a lot of, “well, no good Obama-esque candidate tried” either. Now I have half a dozen names I WISH would’ve run, but alas… Now nothing has really changed ever. Candidates have always needed 1-part name-recognition, 1-part viral grassroots momentum leading to greater media coverage, and 1-part establishment backing. Some lean into one of these more so than others; some magically have all three - such as Obama.

Alas I don’t know, man. I’m at a loss. I am fundamentally disappointed at our prospects going forward and will advocate for an open convention or some alternative because this just isn’t working. If it comes down to it and Biden is indeed the nominee I’ll vote for him as well to avoid the other guy of course.

I just feel like Democrats are in a very awkward spot right now in terms of the quality of candidates they have to run; we’re between generations where one set – the Warrens, Bidens, Bernies – are too old – while the up-and-comers are just a shade too young yet – such as AOC, Katie Porter, etc. I suppose Whitmer would probably be the best bet.

Agreed. The cold thing doesn’t cause one to jump from abortion to immigration mid-sentence, either. Blaming the cold makes Biden look weaker, considering Trump had covid during the 2020 debate and still did comparatively better.

Ahh what a time of absurdity…

With all due respect I appreciate the attempt at spin-doctoring what happened and giving an outlet for Biden, but I cannot conceive of how a cold warrants that performance for anyone who suffered through watching that. Even Trump did better while actively having COVID on stage back in the 2020 debates.

Many of us have been sounding the alarm of events like this that were matter-of-factly non-existent during, say, then-VP Biden’s debates with the likes of Paul Ryan. I get why there’s incumbent inertia behind Biden, but now is very little data that portends a good end to this election for Biden, relative to his standings in 2020.

In order to viably attain the “undecided” swing-voters, we need to meet them half-way and give them an outlet that doesn’t place them into a dichotomous situation of voting for two people they clearly do not like.

Listening to more of the analysis and clips from the debate, Biden’s performance reminded me of high school and college presentations where students over-prepared by following a very rigid, memorized script but derail because they forget a single key word or trigger. This isn’t a very robust presentation strategy that can easily fail even with younger minds, let alone someone in their 80s.

Biden sucked last night and I have serious concerns about his physical and cognitive faculties to run the country.

But I’m still voting for him for reasons you mentioned.

That won’t stop me from advocating for him to step down and put someone else up for the election, but if it comes down to it, I will still vote for Biden.

• Why do you think 3 previous Presidents kicked the can of withdrawal down the road? Because it was always going to be a cluster-fuck and politically-backfiring. .
• Let me know when you have the magic solution that would achieve zero deaths, zero equipment loss, and a stable government.
• Let me know when it dawns on you that the number of troops lossed annually by remaining in Afghanistan equates to more than the withdrawal – and yet you don’t seem to care about this. I wonder why.
• Remember that the vast majority of equipment “left behind” in Afghanistan was equipment we had already given to the Afghan government and the Afghan National Army. That they turned around and immediately surrendered is more on them than Biden.

Ultimately, the Taliban were well-equipped and well-armed enough to push around the Afghan Government and US Govt. I hardly think a blackhawk and some hummers is going to make a difference, but people like you sure do love the negative optics for some reason.

I appreciate Biden doing what the other Presidents couldn’t. He saved American lives in the long-run

Forget the fact that this deflects the ultimate point: Biden actually got us out of a war; All Trump did was:

• Back out of the major diplomatic Iran Nuclear Deal
• Launch missiles at Syria
• Do nothing when Russia attacked Ukraine during the Kerch Strait Incident
• Cozied up to dictators.

First link is inapplicable to DNC; blame conservative Supreme Court.

Second link is somewhat fair, but ultimately neither candidate adhered to local NC election policy; nor was either actually going to win the election there by the polling – but I’ll credit you this.

Tell me what you want me to take away from the 3rd link that supports your argument.

The fourth link is substantive and my stance is somewhat shifted. Some shady state-level shit, or at the very least inconsistency and incompetence.

But I have to step back and ask the following: Did these change the outcome in any conceivable way? Let’s be abundantly-clear, here: Nobody who actually voluntarily threw their hat in the ring were achieving any modicum of momentum in public polling that would suggest they’d be a viable challenger. IF, there was someone who could win opening primary states and who had some semblance of national polling that competed with Biden at any level, then I’d be more inclined to agree. But there simply was no Obama waiting in the wings.

So to repeat: Nobody “forced” anyone to not run against Biden; they simply lost and could not make up either the numbers or longstanding state-level requirements to compete. That being said, was there an obvious top-down messaging campaign to rally behind the incumbent President? Absolutely. Do I agree? Not particularly.

And I’m sorry but it’s a fact right-wing operatives routinely utilize this rhetoric to drive a wedge. Plenty of reporting on the Russian IRA Troll farms; are you unfamiliar? For fuck sake my man, you’re the one who pointed out foreign interference with Israel dumping money and utilizing their own misinformation troll farm online.

Let’s not presume upon what Bernie did; fall-in-line are your words based purely on speculation when they could’ve simply been “Bernie understood the dilemma and agreed with the top-down strategy at the time, and that no other candidate who voluntarily threw their hat in the ring had a better chance.”

Ok, cool? I simply gave context showing your factoid contributes nothing meaningful to the conversation.

Wholly agree. I will push back against anyone who suggests that. But personally, I am going to advocate we change our nominee while we have time. And if that doesn’t happen, well sure, I’ll fall in line and vote for Biden or anyone so long as it isnt Trump.